Thesis (M.C.S.)--Regent College, 1987. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 111-113).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 9, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1931. Advisers: John Johnson; Portia Maultsby.

No description available.

This dissertation investigates and analyzes the process of subject formation among Turkish immigrants of the second and third generation in the southwestern German region of Swabia (Schwaben). The study shows how Turkish immigrants find salient ways to formulate their subjectivities in deliberate contradistinction to a straightforward Cartesian model. In the ethnographic section of the dissertation four Turkish immigrant narratives are presented. In discussing these cases, it is shown that Turkish immigrant existence in the region of Swabia is characterized by a fascinating diversity and differentiation. This existence is thus a far cry from the homogenizing imaginaries that persist about Turkish immigrants and Turkish-German culture in German mainstream society. Of particular interest here are the skillful and often ingenious ways in which immigrants reconcile their seemingly antagonistic desires for remaining in touch with their Turkish heritage and traditions and a claim to belong to a present or future (German) modernity. There exist manifold ways in which Turkish immigrants in Swabia can, for instance, utilize forms of regional, national, and transnational identification to achieve a reconciliation of modern with traditional ways of life. Analysis of the immigrants' situation in Swabia suggests that forms of regional identification have recently gained significantly in importance. Identification at the regional level apparently offers immigrants the most accessible inroad into mainstream societies of their new homelands. The emphasis lies here on demonstrating the diversity of possible ways available to immigrants to achieve these goals. The analysis of the ethnographic material at hand focuses on the salience of recent models of subjectivity and the substantial critiques these models have furnished of the traditional way Cartesian subjectivity has been conceived. It is argued that many of these critiques offer valuable and indispensable qualifications or modifications to the homogenizing force of the cogito approach that has come to be the hallmark of modernity. This study also shows, however, that the ideal image of the Cartesian subject cannot be simply eliminated from our registers since it serves as a negative counter-point against the backdrop of which more heterogeneous versions of subjectivity can be formulated. For Turkish immigrants in Swabia, this means that their subjectivities are formulated beyond, but in constant (negative) reference to, the demands placed on them by German mainstream society to adopt a homogeneous, cogito -driven form of subjectivity in order to prove their claim for belonging to ‘the right kind of’ modernity. Instead of giving in to these demands, the immigrants complement their modern subject formations with key elements that are located beyond the grasp of modernity—thus subverting German claims that they prove their belonging to the modern world in a particular way. In the final analysis, the study thus suggests that we need to retain the conceptual image of Cartesian subjectivity because it continues to serve as a salient model for many in today's allegedly postmodern world. However, many contemporary subjects—such as the Turkish immigrants of Swabia—refine the model of Cartesian subjectivity in their desire to account for important pre- or postmodern elements in their lives. Descartes' cogito as a main pillar of modern subjectivity is thus in need, today, of important amplifications that pay tribute to the rapid changes in a globalizing world that, not just in the case of Europe, has simultaneously rediscovered the importance of regional identities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

<p> A thematic study grounded in transnational and transatlantic studies of modern and postmodern literatures, this dissertation examines five contemporary Irish poets&mdash;John Montague, Padraic Fiacc, James Liddy, Seamus Heaney, and Eavan Boland&mdash;whose separation from Ireland in the United States has produced a distinct body of work that I call, "the poetics of return." As the biological heirs of the Civil War generation and the intellectual heirs of the Irish high modernists, these poets are some of the leading lights of the renaissance in Irish literary arts after midcentury. </p><p> This dissertation argues that an important aspect of this era has been its reevaluation of narratives of political and artistic exile; those created by nationalists and republicans, on the one hand, and modernists such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, on the other. Drawing on the criticism of Patrick Ward and Seamus Deane, I argue that the atomization of the critical vocabulary of exile has enabled modern poets greater means to consider the cultural anxieties surrounding their separation from Ireland. Accordingly they have become less interested in the meaning of leaving Ireland and more interested in the meaning of return. This project engages a range of scholarly literature devoted to the Irish poets and poetry of the last half century and reevaluates a number of standard readings and assumptions.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Würzburg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [155]-167).

To truly understand Spain, one must have more than just a basic knowledge of the country's physical features or general traditions. If one investigates further into the history of ethnology of the name that is Spain, one discovers an intricate network of individual worlds that somehow revolve around one center, Madrid. Each "patria chica" or "miniature country" is a product of its location within the Peninsula, and each conserves its own institutions, values, and idiosyncracies. Today, the autonomous regions of Spain maintain and cherish their individuality with a certain degree of liberty thanks to the Constitution of 1978. Soon after the Reconquest of Iberia, the Catholic Sovereigns attained the unity of Spain. Consequently, the Castilian dialect of Latin became the official language of Spain and its overseas territories. The central power of Castile began its persecution of the regions. Castile succeeded greatly in homogenizing Spain by suppressing the very source of identity of its ethnic peoples--language. The installation of the Castilian language marked a new era in Spanish history. The linguistic supremacy of Castilian effectively arrested the cultural growth of the "atrias chicas" until very recently. Ample evidence of this is the virtual loss of the Leonese, Aragonese, Asturian, Navarrese, and Andalusian dialects of Latin along with the 400-year-old dialectalization of the Galician, Catalan, and Basque languages. Castilian dominance of Spain greatly degraded the state of education in Catalonia, Euzkadi, and Galicia. Not only did people from these regions lose an enormous part of their heritage, but Galicia, in particular, became the unwilling victim of generations of illiteracy and poverty. The year 1975 has come to represent the renaissance of the ethnic Spanish regions. Today, the historic autonomies of Spain can finally step out of the Castilian shadow and rediscover their pasts. One objective for them is certain--they must place their own languages at the forefront of their efforts to preserve their cultures. Their languages are their past, present, and future. Just how they will use them in this age of increasing global unity may make the future an interesting new era in Spain's history.

Thesis (doctoral) - Universität, Würzburg. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [155]-167).

Thesis (doctoral) - Freie Universität, Berlin, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D. in German)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.