Although the field of German Romantic Orientalism has been growing in recent years, the prolific writer E.T.A. Hoffmann has largely escaped critical attention. This study of his oeuvre reveals, however, that it was shaped and influenced by both the scholarly and popular orientalist discourses of his time. Furthermore, Hoffmann satirises literary orientalist practices even as he takes part in them, and so his work exposes the ambivalence of the apparent German veneration for the ‘Romantic’ Orient. While Hoffmann responds to the Romantic image of the Orient set up by his predecessors (J.G. Herder, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel), he does so in order to reveal both the uses and the limits of this model for the Romantic artist in the modern world. The Orient serves as an inspiration for Romantic art, and thus Edward Said’s claim that the Romantics appropriated the East merely for the rejuvenation of European literature must be acknowledged. Nevertheless, as an extremely self-aware writer, Hoffmann does not utilise this approach uncritically. My thesis shows how Hoffmann responded to the image of the Orient as it was produced by writers, musicians, and scholars inside the German-speaking lands. The Orient resists successful imitation, as his texts acknowledge when they turn a critical eye towards German cultural production. Furthermore, Hoffmann’s famous criticism of nineteenth-century society is enhanced by comparison of German and oriental characters, with the latter often coming out more favourably. Hoffmann’s tales therefore demand a reassessment of the view that the Romantics constructed the Orient exclusively as a paradisaical land of poetic fulfilment. His (self-) reflective response to the nineteenth-century treatment of the Orient in Germany marks him out as an original – and essential – voice in Romantic Orientalism.

An expanding body of research explores the social, political, cultural and personal challenges presented by the Western emphasis of curricula around the world. The aim of my study is to advance this field of inquiry by gaining insight into perceptions of Western modern science presented by students, teachers and administrators in a given Caribbean setting. Through this study I asked how my research participants described the nature of scientific knowledge, how they related scientific knowledge to other culturally-valued knowledges and the meanings they attached to the geographic origins of science teachers. Situating this work firmly within the practice of Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, I have utilised a conceptual framework defined by the power/knowledge and complicity/resistance themes of post-colonial theory to support my interpretation of participant commentary in an overall quest that is concerned about the ways in which Western modern science might be exerting a colonising influence. Fourteen students, nine teachers (both expatriate and local) and three administrators participated in the study. I combined a semi-structured question and answer interview format with a card sort activity. I used a procedure based on my own adaptation of Stephenson’s Q methodology, where the respondents placed 24 statements hierarchically along a continuum of increasing strength of agreement, presenting their rationalisations, personal stories and illustrations as they sorted. I used an inverse factor analysis, in combination with the interview transcripts, to assist me in the identification of three discourse positions described by my research participants: The truth value of scientific knowledge, The pragmatic use of science to promote progress, and The priority of cultural preservation. The interview transcripts were also analysed for emergent themes, providing an additional layer of data interpretation. The research findings raise concerns regarding the hegemonic potency of certain scientific assumptions and assertions of participants, leading me to emphasise the importance of developing teachers’ knowledge of the historical, philosophical and social background of Western modern science as well as focusing on developing the conceptual and intellectual engagement of students with Western modern science without demanding the kind of belief commitment that would insist that students replace alternative modes of meaning making.

An expanding body of research explores the social, political, cultural and personal challenges presented by the Western emphasis of curricula around the world. The aim of my study is to advance this field of inquiry by gaining insight into perceptions of Western modern science presented by students, teachers and administrators in a given Caribbean setting. Through this study I asked how my research participants described the nature of scientific knowledge, how they related scientific knowledge to other culturally-valued knowledges and the meanings they attached to the geographic origins of science teachers. Situating this work firmly within the practice of Foucauldian critical discourse analysis, I have utilised a conceptual framework defined by the power/knowledge and complicity/resistance themes of post-colonial theory to support my interpretation of participant commentary in an overall quest that is concerned about the ways in which Western modern science might be exerting a colonising influence. Fourteen students, nine teachers (both expatriate and local) and three administrators participated in the study. I combined a semi-structured question and answer interview format with a card sort activity. I used a procedure based on my own adaptation of Stephenson’s Q methodology, where the respondents placed 24 statements hierarchically along a continuum of increasing strength of agreement, presenting their rationalisations, personal stories and illustrations as they sorted. I used an inverse factor analysis, in combination with the interview transcripts, to assist me in the identification of three discourse positions described by my research participants: The truth value of scientific knowledge, The pragmatic use of science to promote progress, and The priority of cultural preservation. The interview transcripts were also analysed for emergent themes, providing an additional layer of data interpretation. The research findings raise concerns regarding the hegemonic potency of certain scientific assumptions and assertions of participants, leading me to emphasise the importance of developing teachers’ knowledge of the historical, philosophical and social background of Western modern science as well as focusing on developing the conceptual and intellectual engagement of students with Western modern science without demanding the kind of belief commitment that would insist that students replace alternative modes of meaning making.

Thesis advisor: Zine Magubane / Using content analysis of the three largest United States Newsweeklies this thesis explores representations of young women's sexuality during the early 2000's. While popular culture during this period is focused on "Girls Gone Wild" causing widespread feminist concern over the "third wave's" definition of a feminist sexuality, no young women with sexual agency are presented in the magazines. Instead the women presented, who are overwhelmingly white, are either too pure to posses any information regarding sexual activities, engaged in sexual activities that they are coerced or forced into, or are celibate. The combination of these discourses expose a narrative of female empowerment through chastity that mirrors the Victorian-era ideals of white womanhood. Using post-colonial theory the thesis argues that this representation, combined with the erasure of all other alternatives is indicative of a identity crisis within the collective United Sates conscious. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

As an anarchist and a Muslim, I have witnessed troubled times as a result of extreme divisions that exist between these two identities and communities. To minimize these divisions, I argue for an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian Islam, an ‘anarca-Islam’, that disrupts two commonly held beliefs: one, that Islam is necessarily authoritarian and capitalist; two, that anarchism is necessarily anti-religious. From this position I offer ‘anarca-Islam’ which I believe can help open-minded (non-essentialist/non-dogmatic) Muslims and anarchists to better understand each other, and therefore to more effectively collaborate in the context of what Richard JF Day has called the ’newest’ social movements. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-08 12:11:39.996

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The central theme of my work is systematic violence on the micro-level of everyday life, our understanding and relation to “evil”, and the conditions behind it. I wish to address the relation between these micro-levels of experience and individual action with larger questions regarding the history of modernity – the power structure and social order of the modern state and its regime of identity and identification, set against the backdrop of a haunting colonial past and post-colonial present-day reality.   I understand film – the moving image – as a medium of sensory experience that appeals in a direct way to the human mind. It enables us to experience well-known or completely strange states of mind and reflect on them, thus creating new awareness of our own position and behaviours, which enable new forms of self-knowledge. Film speaks to all that is ‘unconscious’, and it makes it possible to observe human behaviour in new ways, to understand the driving forces behind individual action and the self. Fiction is for me a way to enter into these realms of reality, to bring to the foreground those aspects that are normally inaccessible, or consciously or unconsciously hidden or repressed in the name of social order or common sense – in order to then return in the form of structural violence.

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem testemunhado o surgimento de uma produção literária com características muito próprias do nosso tempo: seus autores são periféricos (favelados), sua forma e conteúdo derivam do momento de extrema violência que assola grande parte da população. Exemplar desta produção, o livro de Ferréz, Capão Pecado é primeiramente publicado em 2000. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance, compreendendo-o dentro de um escopo maior, que abarca outros setores, da arte e da política. Para isso, a teoria pós-colonial, assim como um estreito diálogo com uma parte da tradição crítico-literária brasileira são utilizadas. / In the last few years, Brazil has witnessed the appearance of one type of literary production whose characteristics are typical or our times: its authors are from the suburbs (the slums), its form and content derive from the extreme violence imposed to a great part of the population. An example of this literary production, Ferrézs book, Capão Pecado is first published in 2000. This dissertation aims at analyzing the novel, understanding that it belongs to a greater scope, that comprehends other spheres of the arts and politics. In order to do so, the post-colonial theory will be used, as well as a great deal of the Brazilian literary theory tradition.

在後殖民主義的觀點下，一部「描寫異域」的文學作品，已不再被視為是對殖民地的「寫真」或忠實表現，而是被「解碼」成一種殖民暴力的再現和想像。本論文採取「對位閱讀」(contrapuntal reading)策略，探討《黑暗之心》這部小說對歐洲文明的批判。本論文的基本觀點是：通過一種「暴力再現」，對他者的論述將導致一種「自我認識」和「自我彰顯」的行動，這種自我理解的行動，是通過以「對他者的暴力否定」為工具而獲得表現的。在西方本體論與形上論的約制架構下，「異文化」的形塑是根據歐洲定做的真理和本質來拼湊的，而不是根據歷史的真實。 《黑暗之心》是一部以非洲剛果為目的地的探險故事，但其內容卻並未觸及非洲的文化與社會。做為一部探險文學，《黑暗之心》是一部「歐洲觀點」的探險，一種固著於種族和帝國的殖民想像。對故事中的主角馬羅和克茲而言，「非洲」不是一個導致歐洲文明崩解的強硬體系，而是一種歐洲與非洲之間「權力滿載」的約定，使得「歐洲式的縱欲」成為現實。 本文第一章討論馬羅「邊界論述」的曖昧性：對非洲的負面呈現夾雜著對帝國主義的軟弱批判。馬羅對殖民主義的雙重態度，正是《黑暗之心》的立足點：在揭發帝國主義意識形態卑鄙野心的同時，又通過澄清和辯証帝國主義理想模式，鞏固了帝國主義的典型。第二、三章從「後殖民理論」探討「他者再現」的文本權力觀：通過將第三世界化約成西方道德形上學的範疇，西方得以塑造和管制異己的世界，進而再次議定和確認西方世界的優越性。第三章則分析表現在馬羅「猶豫敘事」的風格下，一個「異族」歷史和語言所遭到的凐沒。第四章以自種女性和克茲的非洲女僕為對照，討論《黑暗之心》的女性角色。 本文的結論是，非洲只是一面鏡子，它折射出歐洲人最原始的感官。對他者的塑造就是對自我的確證，異域的前往是一種中心的回返。對歐洲文明的曖昧批判和對他者的「暴力再現」，構成了《黑暗之心》對一個消逝中的歐洲主體的最後眷念。 / From the perspective of Post-colonial theory, a literary work depicting alien territories is no longer considered as truthful portrayals but is decoded as a violence of representation in Western imagination. This thesis employs a “contrapuntal reading”to explore Marlow's vacillations in his critique of European civilization. In Marlow's vacillations between corrupted and ideal imperialism, a concrete world of the other hemisphere is rendered silent and invisible in Marlow's narrative. The Africa and Africans are invisible in that they are transformed into a negative and abstract category which contributes to Marlow's moral and metaphysical meditations. Through a negative representation of the Africa as an alien other which holds the wicked power the Europe does not possess, Marlow achieves his self-revelation and maintains his European identity. Africa is relegated to a category opposite to the West and is deprived of any concrete reality of history and language. Africans are reduced to function as a negative mirror which reflects the primitive psyche of the European self. The first chapter explicates the ambiguities of Marlow's narrative which is located in a border terrain, a tension between his disclosure of a ferocious imperialism and his ineffectiveness to criticize. Marlow takes an ambiguous stance to imperialism; he offers contradictory versions of imperialism: one a harsh denunciation of imperialist exploitation, the other a reluctant endorsement of imperialist civilization. The effect of his vacillations is his appeal to cultural and racial solidarity. The second and the third chapters examine the fiction from the viewpoints of post-colonial theories as formulated by Edward Said. The purpose of these two chapters is to unveil extreme subjugation of history and language in the racial Other deployed among Marlow's reflective narration of vacillations and hesitations. Chapter four discusses the function of female characters as a negative trope in the fiction. Both white women (the Intended and Marlow's aunt) and the native women (Kurtz's African mistress) occupy marginal yet essential parts in Marlow's narrative. The conclusion is that Heart of Darkness participates in the very ideology the fiction attempts to expose and destroy. Despite Marlow's effort to step outside the circle of imperialistic premises and to expose their fallacy, ther are still blind spots to the most acute and sardonic critic's perception.

This study focuses on the way in which the conceptual artists Berni Searle and Jan van der Merwe portray their respective memories of the influence of hegemony on their identity formation. Two conceptual installations of each artist, namely Looking back (1999) and Not quite white (2000) of Searle and Wag (2000) and Ontwortel (2009) of Van der Merwe, are interpreted comparatively according to the portrayal of hegemony, identity (including the artists‟ different sexual and race identities) and their memories of the historic and cultural effects of domination. The reading and interpretation of the installations are guided by the key concepts hegemony, identity and memory and are grounded theoretically from a critical post colonial perspective. Searle and Van der Merwe‟s memories of the influence of power relations and ideology on their conception of art and identity formation are addressed by contextualizing the artists within the South African context. Van der Merwe, as a white Afrikaans speaking man, initially formed collectively part of the Western patriarchate identity norm because of his historic background. His identity is in contrast with Searle‟s brown and female identity which is traditionally viewed and portrayed as different and inferior. Van der Merwe‟s memorial art is therefore mainly that of the unjustified benefiting of the white and male agents of power in contrast with Searle‟s memorial art of colonial and patriarchate domination. / Thesis (MA (History of Art))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013