This dissertation approaches literary animals in Asian diasporic novels through the concept of drawing close. I am interested in how literary animals can communicate an endeavour to draw animals close, and how literary representations of this closeness imagine normative human-animal relationships otherwise. I argue that even the most subtle literary animal can be read as a practice and expression of drawing animals close, and this closeness reveals itself most directly through each chapter in relation to belonging, family, and inheritance. This project centers around the question: what can stories offer animals? I argue that the fields of literary animal studies, postcolonial studies, and Asian diasporic studies need to come together in order to attend not only to the multiple ways that animals inhabit Asian diasporic novels, but also to the particular relationships between postcolonial subjects and animals. I chose novels that navigate relationships to animals often informed by Hindu and Buddhist epistemologies as an intervention in the predominantly Western-focused field of animal studies that has prioritized Western religious traditions, philosophies, and literature. Each chapter of this dissertation examines the diverse ways that authors listen to and represent literary animals, at times acting as a reflection of the desire and efforts to fortify the human-animal boundary, and at other times significantly challenging human exceptionalism by advocating for compassion and interdependence between humans and animals. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This project looks at animals in Asian North American novels. Whether they are symbolic, mythical, historical, or everyday companions, I argue that paying close attention to animals in stories that are otherwise about humans reveals how they shape our ideas about belonging, family, and inheritance. I focus specifically on three novels: Monique Truong’s The Book of Salt, Madeleine Thien’s Dogs at the Perimeter, and Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being. Each novel represents animals in complex ways that are informed by various ways of knowing the world, such as religious (Hindu and Buddhist), scientific, or cultural knowledges. One central question that directs this dissertation is: what can literary animals teach us when we learn to pay attention to them?

[pt] A presente pesquisa doutoral se propõe a desenvolver um quadro interpretativo para grandes projetos de infraestrutura logística internacional que não se subscreva aos roteiros analíticos conhecidos e extensamente explorados, sob rubrica do desenvolvimento, da modernização e tampouco se circunscreva aos limites conceituais e analíticos de abordagens derivadas de paradigmas da inclusãoexclusão ou, ainda, da expulsão que, a seu turno, seguem informando métodos e óticas dos estudos sociológicos e políticos voltados às políticas internacionais de infraestrutura portuária industrial. Em obras recentes voltadas ao estudo crítico dos processos do fenômeno designado como globalização a alguns fóruns de economia política internacional no Brasil, há uma ampla percepção de inadequação dos repertórios e léxicos críticos há muito estabelecidos para responder ao quadro político. Nesse cenário, esta tese se articula sobre as linhas do que designamos como uma (leitura) política subterrânea, que, efetivamente visa à elaboração da equação política que subjaz a processos históricos de desumanização, deslocamento e desapropriação dos mesmos grupos racializados, de modo a minar suas infraestruturas culturais, sociais, política. Em vias subterrâneas, o trabalho objetiva refazer os termos segundo os quais fazemos sentidos de dinâmicas que se concretizam, no terreno, como guerras comerciais e territoriais, conforme empreendidas no quadro desses projetos. Conceitos centrais a esses dinâmicas, como terra, infraestrutura e logística são, assim, retrabalhados à luz da produção dos estudos africano-diaspóricos, especialmente os de linhagem fanoniana, conforme mapeamento conceitual realizado na tese. A perspectiva de base que anima todo o esforço analítico é a de que a tão almejada renovação do repertório analítico, repetidamente expressa em estudos internacionais e fóruns locais recentes, seja em política internacional, sociologia política, seja em geografia humana e em economia política internacional, especialmente aqueles que focalizem os projetos de infraestrutura logística desta monta, depende de um engajamento efetivo com as redes dos estudos africano-diaspóricos, bem como com leituras (pós- )coloniais históricas, constituídas em modo dialógico no eixo transatlântico. Nesse espírito, a pesquisa desenvolve uma analítica da qual se propõe o conceito de desterro. É, precisamente, a partir desse conceito que o trabalho se volta ao exame da literatura crítica sobre logística e projetos de infraestrutura, com o objetivo de desvelar as relações entre as dinâmicas passadas e presentes do desterro em relação com as práticas logísticas contemporâneas. Em seguida, o estudo dirige esse enfoque e léxico crítico, historicamente informado, ao caso do Complexo Logístico Industrial de Porto do Açu, com especial atenção para constituição do Distrito Industrial do Porto do Açu, momento da pesquisa em que o conceito é posto em operação. O trabalho pretende contribuir para os estudos em política internacional por meio da aposta no potencial dos estudos africano-diaspórica em interpretar e abrir caminhos de disputa política sobre essas complexas dinâmicas políticoeconômicas transnacionais contemporâneas. / [en] This doctoral research aims to develop an interpretive framework with which to examine large international logistics infrastructure projects in ways that do not reiterate the already-known and extensively explored analytical scripts advanced under the banner of development, modernization, a framework which does not remain circumscribed to the conceptual and analytical limits of approaches structured by the paradigm of inclusion-exclusion or inclusion-expulsion. This paradigm continues to inform methods and approaches in political sociology and international politics applied to the investigation of the international politics of industrial port infrastructure. Nevertheless, from recent critical work delving into processes of so-called globalization to international political economy forums in Brazil, there is a perceived sense of inadequacy of long-established critical repertoires and lexicons in responding to the political scenario. In this context, the dissertation is articulated along the lines of what we designate as politics of the underground, which effectively seeks to elaborate the political equation that allows for the continued processes of dehumanization, displacement and dispossession of the same racialized groups, and for their permanently undermined cultural, social, political infrastructure. Moving underneath the soil, the research aims to remake the terms according to which we make sense of dynamics that materialize as commercial and territorial wars within the context of these industrial port infrastructure projects. Concepts central to these dynamics, such as land, infrastructure and logistics, are thus rearticulated in the light of the Africandiasporic studies, especially those sharing a common Fanonian lineage, according to the conceptual and genealogical mapping carried out in the research. The fundamental perspective that animates the entire analytical endeavor is that the long-awaited renewal of the analytical repertoire, as expressed in various studies in international politics, political sociology, as well as in human geography and in international political economy, which critically assess these sorts of infrastructure projects, hinges on, as its condition of possibility, an effective engagement with the networks of African-diasporic studies, as well as with (post)colonial historical approaches, forged in dialogical fashion along the trans-Atlantic axis. In this spirit, the research puts forth an analytics from which the concept of desterro emerges. It is precisely by mobilizing the concept of desterro that the work undertakes a critical examination of the most recent critical literature on logistics and infrastructure projects, while seeking to unveil the relationships between dynamics of desterro, past and present, in connection with contemporary logistic practices. The study then directs its critical, historically-informed lenses to the case of the Port of Açu Industrial Logistic Complex, particularly focusing on the constitution of the Port of Açu Industrial District, a moment in which the concept is put into operation. This dissertation intends to contribute to the studies in international politics by shedding light on the critical potential of African-diaspora studies namely in interpreting and opening paths for political disputes over complex transnational political-economic dynamics.

Using interpretive methods of social inquiry, this thesis explores the socio-political significance of body tattoos made of Chinese-like text, which have recently become popular Western phenomena. It theorizes how contemporary Western tattooing complicates bodily and social boundaries, providing context to interrogate ideas of authenticity. Coining the term "Chinesenough" (from “Chinese” and “enough”), I describe how many such tattoos do not reflect in Chinese what many wearers and viewers assume they do. I contrast how Chinesenough tattoos (re)produce whiteness to the multiple and contradictory Chinesenesses that are also (re)produced. Reading Chinesenough flash art on tattoo studio walls as objects constituting social space, I consider the social meaning of their English subtitles and manner of organization. I theorize the body’s absence from Chinesenough flash art while articulating my body’s sense experience of encountering the same. Finally, I produce and theorize five illustrations that carnivalize Chinesenough iconography to disrupt and transform the phenomenon.

Using interpretive methods of social inquiry, this thesis explores the socio-political significance of body tattoos made of Chinese-like text, which have recently become popular Western phenomena. It theorizes how contemporary Western tattooing complicates bodily and social boundaries, providing context to interrogate ideas of authenticity. Coining the term "Chinesenough" (from “Chinese” and “enough”), I describe how many such tattoos do not reflect in Chinese what many wearers and viewers assume they do. I contrast how Chinesenough tattoos (re)produce whiteness to the multiple and contradictory Chinesenesses that are also (re)produced. Reading Chinesenough flash art on tattoo studio walls as objects constituting social space, I consider the social meaning of their English subtitles and manner of organization. I theorize the body’s absence from Chinesenough flash art while articulating my body’s sense experience of encountering the same. Finally, I produce and theorize five illustrations that carnivalize Chinesenough iconography to disrupt and transform the phenomenon.