In my thesis, I argue "against the grain," asserting that the war over authenticity among first-wave and second-wave-Asian-American writers is in fact a red-herring argument. The diversity within Asian American literature--be it nationalist, multiculturalist, or globalist--is initiated by a subversive kernel borne out of Asian American writers' frustration at the manner in which Asians had, up until now, been portrayed in popular culture. This thesis will pay particular attention to how Chinese American writers, namely Frank Chin and David Henry Hwang, contest the emasculated stereotype of Asian American identity by reclaiming historical agency, demanding representational authenticity, and urging for political equality in their literature. Following a discussion of Charles Taylor's location of the originality of identity in dis/re-covery, this thesis will commence with a Freudian and Benjimanian analysis of history in Chin's Donald Duk (1991) and Hwang's Golden Child (1996). This thesis then examines the role of Chinese literature in the composition of Chinese American literature, especially in Donald Duk, Gunga Din Highway (1995), FOB (1983), and Dance and the Railroad (1983). I ascertain that the similarities/differences yielded between the "ur-myth" of Guan Gong, a general warlord who served under Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms era, and the Asian American depictions of Guan symbolically indicate Chin and Hwang's political beliefs on how Asian American literature should be interpreted in a post-civil-rights-movement era. To continue exploring the matrix of Asian American identity in a multicultural context, I contend that post-hyphenated identity is a conscientious performance of self by drawing on Chin's The Chickencoop Chinaman (1972) and Hwang's Yellow Face (2009) as examples.

As a hauntological artist, I deconstruct my silenced First Nation Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) ancestry as I look towards the intergenerational narratives of my grandmother, mother, and I. As I employ the methodology of a/r/tography, the intersection of autobiography and art-making, I utilize diverse art forms to find that g(hosts) reside amongst spaces of liminality. Supported by the methodology of a/r/tography, as I draw on works which blur the boundary between past and present, self and other, I deconstruct the silencing of my First Nation lineage by creating three art(works). These art(works) are placed within an exhibition catalogue and inquire into 1) the specters that loom between the evocative objects of our narratives, 2) how script-writing and the script’s performance can reveal g(hosts) in spaces of liminality, and 3) how sculptures facilitate spectral movement. Each individual art(work) plays a role in breaking the silence. A(wake), specters arise.

Hantologie – terme composé, formé par Jacques Derrida – signifie : « ontologie (c'est-à-dire, science de l'être) de ce qui “hante” : les spectres, les fantômes » (Charles Ramond, Le Vocabulaire de Jacques Derrida). Le néologisme derridien est une paronomase, le paronyme d’un mot – ontologie –, dont il n’est pas un synonyme. L’hantologie est une « « catégorie […] irréductible, et d’abord à tout ce qu’elle rend possible, l’ontologie, la théologie, l’onto-théologie positive ou négative », écrit Jacques Derrida (Spectres de Marx). C’est une ontologie, l’ontologie de l’être du non-être et du non-être de l’être, de quelque chose ou quelqu’un qui « n’est pas là », « comme tout fantôme digne de ce nom » (Ibid.). « Il n’y a pas de Dasein du spectre mais il n’y a pas de Dasein sans l’inquiétante étrangeté, sans l’étrange familiarité (Unheimlichkeit) de quelque spectre » (Ibid.) Il n’y a pas d’ontologie, donc, sans hantologie. Appliquée à l’étude des textes, l’hantologie derridienne n’est pas une nouvelle méthodologie de l’analyse littéraire. Elle vise moins à définir un texte qu’à se demander, d’abord, quelle question nous posons lorsque nous demandons : qu’est-ce qu’un texte ? S’agit-il d’une question d’ordre ontologique ? phénoménologique ? En demandant : qu’est-ce qu’un texte ?, nous disons déjà que le texte est quelque chose, quelque chose dont nous sentons bien qu’il n’est pas qu’une chose. Qu’il soit un objet, d’ailleurs, cela n’est pas sûr, et s’il l’est, il reste à savoir pourquoi et comment. Il l’est, si l’on souscrit au discours du structuralisme. Il ne l’est plus, si l’on adopte la définition barthésienne du texte comme productivité. L’hantologie du texte n’est pas un simple catalogue des fantômes de la littérature. Elle consiste surtout à étudier les hantises de l'écriture et de la lecture – les mots fantômes notamment (anagrammes, palindromes, etc.) et les textes fantômes (hypotextes, intertextes). C’est une recherche attentive au procès de signifiance du texte, appropriée aux œuvres de Poe et de Baudelaire, et dont la proposition critique est elle-même déductible de leurs créations. Notre thèse cherche à mettre en évidence les possibilités d'une telle déduction à travers des études comparées de leurs œuvres littéraires, poétiques, traductions de Poe par Baudelaire comprises, en portant une attention toute particulière aux figures et motifs de la revenance, à la problématique de l'image et du langage, laquelle intègre les questions de traduction (copie, fidélité à la lettre ou à l’esprit de la lettre, etc.). / Hauntology – a compound term created by Jacques Derrida – means the “Ontology (that is to say, the science of being) of what “haunts”: specters, ghosts” (Charles Ramond, The Vocabulary of Jacques Derrida). The Derridean neologism is a paronomasia, the paronym of a word – ontology – of which it is not a synonym. The hauntology is a “category […] irreducible, and first of all to everything it makes possible: ontology, theology, positive or negative onto-theology”, Jacques Derrida writes (Specters of Marx, tr. Peggy Kamuf). It is an ontology, the ontology of the being of non-being and the non-being of being, of something which, or someone who “is not there”, “like any ghost worthy of the name ». (Ibid.) “There is no Dasein of the specter, but there is no Dasein without the uncanniness, without the strange familiarity (Unheimlichkeit) of some specter.” There is no ontology, thus, without any hauntology. Applied to the study of text, the Derridean hauntology is not a new methodology of literary analysis. It aims less to define a text than to ask us, first, what is the question we ask when we de-mand: what is a text? Is this a question of ontological order? phenomenological? In asking: what is a text ?, we are already saying that the text is something, something of which we feel that it is not just a thing. That it is an object, moreover, it is not sure, and if it is, it remains to know how and why. It is, if we subscribe to the structuralist discourse. It is not anymore if we adopt the Barthesian definition of text as a productivity. The hauntology of text is not a mere catalog of ghosts in literature. It consists above all in studying the hauntings of writing and reading, such as ghost-words (like anagrams, palindromes, etc.) and ghost-texts (hypotext, intertext). This research is attentive to the process of what Barthes calls the signifiance of text, and quite appropriate to the works of Poe and Baudelaire. Indeed, our critical proposition is itself deductible from them. Our thesis thus aims to highlight the possibilities of such suggestions by and through comparative studies of their literary and poetical works, translations of Poe by Baudelaire included, in paying very particular attention to figures of revenance, and the problematic of image and language, which incorporates many issues of translation (copy, faithfulness to the letter or the spirit, etc.).

This work looks at the 2009 Iranian show-trials through modern discourses of biopolitics, sovereignty, and history. I argue that, understood as a theatrical phenomenon, the show trials are situated within the Foucauldian mode of biopower. The latter entails a shift from a politics of death to the preservation of the bios. The show-trials also perform a particularly modern narrative of state sovereignty and teleological history. To consider them in this way requires a rethinking of Michel Foucault’s theory so as to include juridico-philosophical discourse within a biopolitical framework. I propose that, as a performative act, the confessions transform the very thing they are confessing. Through the work of Jean Baudrillard and Jacque Derrida, I argue that the confessions make possible a reconceptualization of the political space of sovereignty as simulacrum and that of the political time of history as hauntology. / Graduate

The Medium and the Message investigates the incorporation of Afro-Cuban trance techniques in Western theatrical performance. Through art practice and research, I am asking two questions: how do performers, trained in Western theatrical contexts, articulate their experience with Afro-Cuban trance techniques? And how can my research methodologies illuminate the inherent intercultural tensions in ways that are productive for performance practitioners and theorists? To answer these questions, I created four new works of theatrical performance where I developed a method for performers, utilizing Afro-Cuban rituals adapted for non-practitioners. Working toward a phenomenological understanding of what is happening when a performer incorporates a character, I drew on the ritual knowledge of trance possession in Lukumí and Palo Monte in order to examine how ontologies might speak to each other in artistic practice. I also served as advisor for the creation of a fifth work in order to test the method outside of my studio. I constructed a studio practice methodology, called kanga (from the Bantu for tying and untying), using three methods based on aspects of Afro-Cuban ritual, and modified for performance contexts: spell, charm, and trance. This methodology enacts and complicates distinctions between performance and ritual, serving as a contribution to respectful and responsible intercultural performance practices. My research-led practice includes autobiographical writing and auto-ethnography under a phenomenological research methodology that uses three methods for data collection: formal recorded interviews, video footage of the studio work, and regular rehearsal debriefings. The overall methodology, bridging theory and practice, is bricoleur, drawing from ethnography, psychoanalytic theory, and phenomenology. Both research and studio work led to the articulation of a state of consciousness in performance that I call hauntological. This borrows from Derrida (1994: 10) but is redefined to refer to a state of being where reality is co-constituted by the living and the dead, where ancestral spirits are invoked to do the work once reserved for characters. Finally, this led to the construction of a creative artifact called The Ghost Lounge, an art work that evokes a hauntological state of consciousness in the viewer.

GHOST TREE SOCIAL tells a coming out story of sorts. In terms of style, many of the poems are short, imagistic lyrics, though some are extended catalogues. Specific natural images—lakes, rivers, and snow—are often contrasted with cultural markers. The imagistic poems are thinking through the work of Sylvia Plath. The catalogue poems shift between diaristic, narrative, and critical modes, responding to the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and the essays of Edouard Glissant. Voice-driven fragments disrupt the more traditional lyric poems. The fragments fall between formal lyrics like confetti from a gay club’s rafters; or the fragments hold the lyric poems in bondage. The lyric poem then re-signifies as form through resonances with the other discursive and poetic form of the fragment. Following critical writers such as Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde, the re-signification of lyric form reflects the need for new signs for self and community organized queerly as opposed to more typical binary categories—man or woman, living or dead, rich or poor, white or black—where the first term is privileged and the second term often denigrated.

Despite the rapid development in technology that enables metal music producers today to create “perfect” sound mixes, many bands, artists and producers choose to make their creations sound old or “retro”. A song is created for this study and mixed in two different ways, one with a more“retro” direction and the other with a more “modern” direction. Five respondents were then made to listen to both mixes and were interviewed on what they thought of each respective mix and why they think retro culture is so prevalent today. The data gathered from the interviews show that the respondents describe retro mixes as dirty, saturated and raw while they described modern mixes as clean, hi-fi and overly compressed. The respondents associate old sounding mixes to authenticity, genuinity and honesty but don’t describe modern mixes as fake or dishonest. The respondents comment that the streamlined nature of music production today leads to very uniform sounding mixes and the abundance of similar sounding mixes creates a demand for more honest, authentic and genuine music. The respondents claim that retro culture would not be possible without the aid of modern technology.

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This essay explores the mysterious disappearance of Olle Högbom from an anthropological perspective. It uses theories of hauntology, ruinology, and simulacra to examine how Olle's absence continues to affect society. The study involves a thematic analysis of online forums and qualitative interviews with Olle’s sister, contrasting public speculation with family narratives, and highlights the enduring presence of Olle in collective memory, illustrating how unresolved disappearances influence society, memory, and everyday life. This anthropological investigation into missing persons provides insights into how spectral presences shape cultural and social dynamics. Employing a blend of ethnographic interviews, content analysis, pictures, and autoethnography, this study paints an intimate portrait of relationships with the absent and examines the liminality of Olle’s existence. Autoethnography in combination with multimodality carries the potential to unearth the unknown and paint an intimate understanding of absence. Olle’s absence is depicted in the first chapter and partially in the third chapter, by presenting an autoethnographic account of the experience of forming relationships with the absent.

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