Abstract not available

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 109-118).

This dissertation proposes a two-part thesis on the South Asian diaspora in the Caribbean within contemporary Indo-Guyanese literature. First, Indo-Guyanese writers such as David Dabydeen, Oonya Kempadoo, and Narmala Shewcharan are using the genre of historical fiction to posit counter narratives that undermine dominant narratives of South Asian culture and gender roles. Second, even as these writers struggle against dominant narratives, their texts reinscribe the colonial discourse and rearticulate racial stereotypes. As argued in this dissertation, the dismal historical realities of ethnic tensions and failed anti-colonial tactics do not sufficiently address the flexible strategies often chosen by the characters and authors to navigate through racial and political convolution. By analyzing works by Indo-Guyanese, I attempt to open a conversation about race, place, and politics, offering some external viewpoints and revealing some important insights into the problems and contradict ions in Guyana. The value of these works is the calling for a connection to history as both a positive example (texts that show gaps in which characters can negotiate social borders) and a negative model (works that amplify racial tension and dismiss the divide and conquer strategy of the colonizer). This twofold thesis develops along three crucial historical periods - the dislocation from India and the heavy burden of indentured labor in British Guiana (1838-1917), ethnic victimization during post-independence (1970), and the subsequent flight to the First World (1980-1990): migration, nationalism, and exodus. / Chapter 1 reveals the challenges of indentured labor through East Indian and African characters that disrupts racial and gender borders in David Dabydeen's The Counting House. Chapter 2 exposes the racial tensions following independence as the newly formed government creates an atmosphere of distrust in Oonya Kempadoo's and Narmala Shewcharan's debut novels. Chap suggests the ramifications of exodus as Guyanese reconfigure their identity in a new location in David Dabydeen's narratives. This body of work by Indo-Guyanese plays upon the complex web of historical, political, and racial constructs that coexist simultaneously as authors acknowledge the limits and potential of their colonized history, of nationalist movements, and the rebuilding that is left in its wake. / by Savena Budhu. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The interlocked social struggles waged by overlapping and diverse Britons of color for racial and social equality and everyday survival is the dynamic corollary of the contradictions engendered by the ruling relations of racial differentiation and racism in Britain. Grassroots struggles against routine racist violence and state violence, conceptualized as politically interlinked, are the critical sites that contribute to the recursive racial domination experienced by Britons of color in contemporary Britain, and forms the key ethnographic research focus of this study. Prior studies have already critiqued the dominant state framework of viewing racist violence as random, de-racialized and nonpolitical events – as individual incidents, neighborhood disputes, inter-personal conflict, and robberies gone wrong. These studies have alternately identified the social dehumanizing functions of racist violence, the possessive local white territorialism that they materially support and their relationship with macro-level socio-economic crises and changing racial exclusion ideologies of the liberal democratic nation. What I add to these studies is the argument that the racial subordination and ruling relations inherent in the social processes of racist violence and, by formal extension, state violence are not only derivative of broader ideological forces or local social relations but are in fact constitutive of white racial state formation in Britain’s postcolonial era. I argue that the processes of racist violence and state violence are productive of the domination and hierarchy that is secured for whites, through unevenly empowered and routinized contestations within the re-configurations of white racial state formation and an emergent neoliberal-multicultural national security state. It is within this framework of analysis that the politics of black mobilization by Britons of color and their allies, in the context of contemporary multiculturalism’s contradictions, and against the many-sided form of racial subordination is made legible -- not as an anachronism -- but as socially meaningful, interlocked and politically urgent. / text

The main research question of this project asks: what role does Indian classical dance play in the identity formation of second generation Canadian women of South Asian origin as they negotiate their identities as Canadians living in a multicultural country? The research question is analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of both citizenship theory, identity theory, and Bourdieu’s notions of ‘habitus’, ‘field’, and cultural capital. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with dancers of 2 main dance styles (“Kathak” and “Bharatnatyam”) and of various ages over 18. Interviews are also conducted with a dance teacher/creative director and a dance company coordinator. Findings indicate that Indian classical dance influences identity formation in 3 main ways: in the way that the participants embody the dance forms of Kathak and/or Bharatnatyam, in the way they form their identities as individuals, and in the way they form their identities as multicultural Canadians.

The main research question of this project asks: what role does Indian classical dance play in the identity formation of second generation Canadian women of South Asian origin as they negotiate their identities as Canadians living in a multicultural country? The research question is analyzed through the theoretical frameworks of both citizenship theory, identity theory, and Bourdieu’s notions of ‘habitus’, ‘field’, and cultural capital. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with dancers of 2 main dance styles (“Kathak” and “Bharatnatyam”) and of various ages over 18. Interviews are also conducted with a dance teacher/creative director and a dance company coordinator. Findings indicate that Indian classical dance influences identity formation in 3 main ways: in the way that the participants embody the dance forms of Kathak and/or Bharatnatyam, in the way they form their identities as individuals, and in the way they form their identities as multicultural Canadians.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, August 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 250-265).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 178 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 163-178).

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Theatre, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 134-135).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 358-389).