Magister Artium - MA / The literature of the Chinese diaspora in America is marked by a tension between ancestral Chinese traditional culture and the modernity of Western culture. This thesis explores diaspora theory, as elaborated by Stuart Hall, Homi Bhabha, Gabriel Sheffer and others to establish a framework for the analysis of key Chinese American literary works. Maxine Hong Kingston's seminal novel, The Woman Warrior (1975), will be analysed as an exemplary instance of diasporic identity, where the Chinese cultural heritage is reinterpreted and re-imagined from the point of view of an emancipated woman living in the West. A comparative analysis will be undertaken of Jade Snow Wong's The Fifth Chinese Daughter (1950) and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club (1989) to identify links between the writers who have grappled with various forms of diasporic identity in their works. An important part of this analysis is the representation and adaptation of Chinese folklore and traditional tales in Chinese American literary works.

This thesis is titled Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears. It consists of an original play of the same name based upon the life-story of the author’s paternal grandmother and an accompanying essay titled “Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears: Visibility, Invisibility, Roots and Liminality in the African Diaspora.” The play falls under the following theatrical categories: African Diaspora drama, black theatre, western Canadian black theatre, realism, the memory play and to some extent, contemporary existentialism. The essay is a discussion by the author regarding the dramatic, social and political context of the play. The following themes are highlighted: history — pertaining to a collective black history and individual histories and (her)stories, regarding and respecting ones’ elders as a link to history and Africa, and notions of commonality and difference within the African Diaspora with attention paid to myths and narratives about what it means to be ‘dark-skinned’ or ‘light-skinned’ in various black communities around the world. The methods of investigation were: a study of the drama and literature of the African Diaspora, the dramatic literature of other post-colonial societies and marginalized groups, one-on-one interviews with Rose Landers, whose experiences are represented by Carrie, the main character in Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears and field research at JazzArt - a dance-theatre company in Cape Town, South Africa. The view-point the play lends itself to and the conclusions drawn by the essay are: that black people and black communities need agency and healing, that being of mixed race does not have to equal psychological confusion and that mixed communities, families and cultures have been and will continue to be relevant to the universal black experience and the artistic representation of the African Diaspora. The importance of writing as a form of healing, resolution and revolution for members of the African Diaspora and the importance of authorship of ones’ own history is highlighted.

The thesis is an anthropological exploration of the role of religion in Filipino transnational migration and diaspora. The thesis takes the interpretive approach, drawing from a variety of disciplines such as religious studies, sociology, and geography to frame a holistic view of religion as a “lived” experience that connects religious dispositions, symbols and ritual performance to the diaspora’s place-making and home-making. It weaves together anthropology’s conceptual strands of space, place, symbols and ritual to present a view of Filipino migrant sociality and personhood not as constituted by disparate fragmented experiences but as as a tapestry of woven symbols and meanings that shape their diasporic life, even as they themselves continuously shape their own experiences. The thesis’ ethnography is based on participant observation among Filipino migrants between 2007 and 2010 in New Zealand and Singapore. It focuses on the celebration of the Santacruzan and Santo Niño-Sinulog fiesta in New Zealand and Simbang Gabi novena masses in Singapore to examine how Filipino cultural forms of expression connect and mix with notions of homeland, family, home, sacred domain and identity as these have been adapted, recreated, and spatially inscribed in their transnational journeys. 6 The ethnography examines the interplay and connection between Filipino folk religiosity, family and social networks. It looks at how the deeply held folk Christian notions of kapalaran (destiny), swerte (luck), bahala na (whatever God allows will happen /come what may God will take care) and imagery of may awa ang Diyos (a compassionate God) are enmeshed in the migrant exercise of agency, reflexive discourse, risk-taking, resilience and meaningmaking in the diaspora. It demonstrates that among Filipino migrants, material and communication flows are manifestations of religious dispositions that support enduring family commitment and reciprocity. It shows that financial and social capital provided by families and social networks for migrants are supported by prayers for sacred assistance and blessings, indicating that the Filipino migrants’ exercise of agency is familial and sacral rather than individual and secular. As a dominant Philippine lowland tradition, the fiesta is the locus of sacralmaterial linkages constituted by Filipino home symbols, such as sacred icons, costumes, cultural performance, semantic expressions, and food. By examining the fiesta, its organisation and structure of power relations, the thesis explores the metaphoric parallels and symbolic articulations between two homes in migrants’ diasporic consciousness, and the significant role of sacred symbols in aiding and facilitating the maintenance and inscription of ‘Filipino’ identity in a foreign land. Diaspora identity is a socially and spatially inscribed identity. For Filipinos, it is inscribed through sacred icons and fiesta celebrations in sacred sites.

This research explores the ethnic, social, and cultural boundaries in Judaea and the nearby non-Judaean settlements in Palestine from 40 BCE till 70 CE, showing that the boundaries there were no less complex than those in the Diaspora outside the region. A large number of scholarly works have investigated the boundaries and identities of the Diaspora Judaeans outside Palestine, paying attention to their assimilation into — and resistance against — the non-Judaean cultures and social environments. Focusing on the following groups, I argue that Diaspora Judaeans and proselytes still encountered different sorts of boundaries even if they were in or near the predominantly Judaean region: a. local Diaspora Judaeans residing in the Hellenistic cities on the coast and in the Decapolis b. Judaean pilgrims coming from the Diaspora to Judaea c. Judaean immigrants settling in Judaea from the Diaspora d. proselytes making pilgrimages to or settling in Judaea from the Diaspora Certain experiences and identities of the Diaspora Judaeans and proselytes coming from diverse geographical origins in the Mediterranean and Near East were very different from those of the Judaeans in Judaea. These Diaspora Judaeans might have been considered socially and culturally foreign to the local Judaeans when they visited or lived in Judaea. At the same time, some of them were accepted into the local Judaean circle in various levels because of their common identities, lineages, and traditions. The ethnic, social, and cultural boundaries in Palestine were complicated, as they were not only negotiated among different ethnic groups, but also among those belonging to the same ethnic group and sharing certain traditions. The presence of Diaspora Judaeans and proselytes led to certain boundaries that were unique to this region.

This thesis is titled Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears. It consists of an original play of the same name based upon the life-story of the author’s paternal grandmother and an accompanying essay titled “Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears: Visibility, Invisibility, Roots and Liminality in the African Diaspora.” The play falls under the following theatrical categories: African Diaspora drama, black theatre, western Canadian black theatre, realism, the memory play and to some extent, contemporary existentialism. The essay is a discussion by the author regarding the dramatic, social and political context of the play. The following themes are highlighted: history — pertaining to a collective black history and individual histories and (her)stories, regarding and respecting ones’ elders as a link to history and Africa, and notions of commonality and difference within the African Diaspora with attention paid to myths and narratives about what it means to be ‘dark-skinned’ or ‘light-skinned’ in various black communities around the world. The methods of investigation were: a study of the drama and literature of the African Diaspora, the dramatic literature of other post-colonial societies and marginalized groups, one-on-one interviews with Rose Landers, whose experiences are represented by Carrie, the main character in Lost Lesotho Princess/Landlord Ears and field research at JazzArt - a dance-theatre company in Cape Town, South Africa. The view-point the play lends itself to and the conclusions drawn by the essay are: that black people and black communities need agency and healing, that being of mixed race does not have to equal psychological confusion and that mixed communities, families and cultures have been and will continue to be relevant to the universal black experience and the artistic representation of the African Diaspora. The importance of writing as a form of healing, resolution and revolution for members of the African Diaspora and the importance of authorship of ones’ own history is highlighted.

For years Black women’s subjectivity in the use of their bodies and movements has been overshadowed or completely erased by dominant hegemonic systems that created its own narrative of Black women, their bodies, and their movement. This thesis works to acknowledge and analyze the dialogic relationship among the narratives of Black women, Black women’s performances of their “theories of the flesh” through dance as well as their everyday activities, and the race, gender, and class conditions that inform said “theories of the flesh.” During football season, everyone in the African-American community of Jackson, Mississippi is looking at and talking about the dance company, the Prancing JSettes. There are audience members who critique their movements and costumes and there are those who view the group as a vital part of the community. Either way every audience member is captivated by the J-Settes because their cultural history is depicted by the women’s performance. How does this work? How is the Prancing J-Sette image constructed and by whom, and why and how does it persist? These are the questions I ask to examine the gender, class, and racial relations that are inscribed upon the movements of Black women in the African Diaspora. For a group whose African ancestors viewed dance as very spiritual, with such activities as the ring shout, it is interesting to note the ambivalence that surrounds the public dancing body in Jackson, Mississippi. While some Jacksonians view the female body in the public sphere with a Protestant Christian lens, they also enjoy the Africana aesthetics and aggressive energy of the J-Settes’ performances. Also, while the J-Settes buck their society’s hegemonic system of propriety, they also comply with some of these standards in their performance. I examine this ambivalence through the discourses of critical race theory, Black feminism, the social significance of African Diaspora dance conventions and HBCUs, and the classed, racial, and gendered power relations in the African Diaspora. I argue that the stories about the Prancing J-Settes can be expanded to present a genealogy and present state of contradictory values and issues of visibility affecting all Black women.

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The purpose of this thesis was to posit an explanation of recurrent liminal imagery in Eden Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach by exploring the ways that the text can be read as an expression of diasporic awareness. The Haisla in Monkey Beach experience a form of exile that is atypical because it occurs within the limits of their homeland. This thesis explores the dimensions of this exile by examining the ways that the Haisla community’s connection to its homeland has been altered in the wake of colonial contact. What this study revealed is that although Monkey Beach exposes disruptions in the connections between the Haisla and their homeland, the adaptation of Aboriginal storytelling techniques to the form of the novel represents both a positive continuation of indigenous traditions and an active resistance of cultural erasure.

The purpose of this thesis was to posit an explanation of recurrent liminal imagery in Eden Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach by exploring the ways that the text can be read as an expression of diasporic awareness. The Haisla in Monkey Beach experience a form of exile that is atypical because it occurs within the limits of their homeland. This thesis explores the dimensions of this exile by examining the ways that the Haisla community’s connection to its homeland has been altered in the wake of colonial contact. What this study revealed is that although Monkey Beach exposes disruptions in the connections between the Haisla and their homeland, the adaptation of Aboriginal storytelling techniques to the form of the novel represents both a positive continuation of indigenous traditions and an active resistance of cultural erasure.

In standard, written German, causal clauses introduced by the conjunction weil (because) display subordinate, verb-final word order. In spoken German, however, verb-second (V2) or main clause order has been increasingly found to follow weil. Early discussion of weil explored the possible loss of subordinate word order, the influence of English on German word order, and weil V2 as specific to a region or dialect. The present study addresses these and other arguments using a corpus of over 800 weil clauses. Spontaneous, spoken data from two groups of native German speakers who immigrated to Canada before 1970 and after 1985 were analyzed and coded for word order. The data showed an increase in the use of the conjunction weil, and weil V2 among younger native speakers. Earlier hypotheses regarding speaker origin, the influence of English and the loss of subordinate word order were either confirmed or refuted by the data. / Applied Linguistics