<p> I pursue the double bind of the political institution through one of its symptoms, guilt, and the relationship between the attribution of guilt and the very law which announces and justifies the double bind of the political institution. My dissertation is an interdisciplinary engagement with various contemporary&mdash;explicitly political&mdash;invocations of the notion of guilt. Specifically, I'm interested in the ways in which the attribution of guilt to subjects, to leaders, and to institutions operates in various discourses and disciplines, including politics, literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and law. These various political uses of the concept of guilt &ndash; as criminality (chapters 1 and 2), as femininity (chapter 3), and as homogenized resistance (chapter 4) &ndash; are a kind of shorthand, a cover, for the law. I will be arguing that "guilting" operates dominantly as justification, erecting a screen on which the undecidability of the law is simultaneously displaced and projected as the certainty of guilt. The irony is that guilt always reveals the law only in its failure. By guilting "the sovereign" revolutionary movements inaugurate and certify a new law; similarly, the government (judicial, police, and military bureaucracy) preserves the law through the guilting of its supposed others (criminals, the enemy). This desire for the law that the analysis of guilt reveals is a desire to master contingency and difference: it is a desire for a purified, contained, predictable, and thoroughly utopian space of relationality, a site where difference is rendered docile. In following the nuances of different political iterations of guilt as well as its political uses as justification for violence and force, each chapter reveals guilt as a crisis endemic to the law itself. However, in so far as it is a crisis of identity, each chapter, I hope, provides openings through which our own personal and phenomenological attachments to those very identities can be considered and challenged, perhaps allowing for the possibility of a working through those very attachments and the recognition of the irretrievable heterogeneity of their meanings.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the relationship between the institutions of Roman provincial administration and the economy of the Roman imperial diaspora in the Eastern Mediterranean in the second and first centuries BC. Focusing on the landed estates that many members of the imperial diaspora acquired in the territories of Greek cities, I argue that contestation over the allocation of resources in the provinces among Roman governing classes, the members of the imperial diaspora, and the elites of Greek cities decisively shaped the contours of what we would late recognize as the institutions of provincial administration. </p><p> Setting the Roman Empire within a new comparative framework, Chapter One suggests that ancient cities around the Mediterranean, including Rome, often used their imperial power to help their own citizens infringe upon the exclusionary property regimes of other cities, which insisted that&mdash;unless they decided otherwise&mdash;only their own citizens could acquire this land. Chapter Two combines semantic history with archaeological case-studies to argue that Roman ownership of agricultural resources in the territories of provincial cities was wide-spread and in fact often underpinned the movement of products for which the members of the diaspora are more commonly known. Chapter Three uses epigraphic documentation and Cicero's writings to examine how provincial governors responded to the economic concerns that Romans brought before them, maintaining that law became the most prominent response because it was able to perform a separation between the empire as state and the potentially problematic actions by members of the diaspora, while at the same time not abandoning these Romans' concerns. Chapter Four investigates the contestation over the terms on which members of the diaspora were able to acquire land in Greek cities and vindicates the contributions that Roman jurists and the elites of Greek cities made to the institutional architecture of provincial administration and the political economy it enshrined.</p>

<p> The enslavement and persecution of African and Native peoples has been occurring in the U.S. since the 1600s. There have been justifications, explanations and excuses offered as to why one race feels superior over another. Slavery, according to the Abolition Project, refers to "a condition in which individuals are owned by others, who control where they live and at what they work" (e2bn.org, 2009). Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart researched the concept of historical trauma as it relates to American Indians, whereby she found that trauma due to unresolved grief, disenfranchised grief, and unresolved internalized oppression could continue to manifest itself through many generations. This thesis will examine the intergenerational effects of historical trauma as they are depicted in selected African and Native bildungsromans. These specific works were chosen because they allow me to compare and contrast how subsequent generations of these two cultures were still being directly affected by colonialism, especially as it pertains to the loss of their identities. It also allows me to reflect on how each of the main characters, all on the cusp of adulthood, make choices for their respective futures based on events that occurred long before they were born. </p><p> Chapters One and Two highlight specific works from African American authors Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Walker's novel, <i>The Color Purple, </i> depicts the life of an African American girl in the rural South of the 1930s. In this work I will examine how the loss of the male traditional role of provider and protector has affected the family dynamics and led to the male assuming the role of oppressor. In Morrison's <i>Song of Solomon, </i> I will examine the importance of identity and how one man's flight from slavery has affected the family structure of four subsequent generations. Both of the protagonists, Celie and Milkman, were born free, and yet still feel enslaved, just as their ancestors were, by their lack of choices as well as their quest for purpose and personal justice. </p><p> Chapters Three and Four will discuss literary works by Native American authors Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie, both vocal advocates of educating the lost generations&mdash;those who were forbidden to learn of and practice their language or tribal rituals due to colonialism&mdash;as well as Anglo-Americans on the importance of preserving the culture and heritage of their people. In Erdrich's <i>The Round House,</i> young Joe Coutts' family is tragically ripped apart by a physically violent attack on his mother. In an attempt to discover the truth of what really happened and who harmed her, Joe embarks on a journey in which borders, both literal and figurative, jurisdiction, and justice will be defined. The choices made by Joe, the adolescent, will have a direct impact on the evolution of Joe, the adult. In Alexie's <i> Flight,</i> Zits is a fifteen year old boy who seemingly belongs nowhere and to no one. It is this lack of identity that initially leads him down a path of destruction and on a magical journey of self-discovery where he will learn that he has within himself the ability to overcome his own personal tragedies, define who he is, and find happiness. The final chapter introduces the concept of restorative justice, a legal term that emphasizes repairing the harm done to crime victims through a process of negotiation, mediation, victim empowerment and reparations. I will also briefly discuss how both African and Native people are reclaiming their cultural identities through naming, ceremony, and traditions. I will briefly define a new concept developed by Dr. Joy Deruy Leary, referred to as post traumatic slave syndrome, and will show that like historical response trauma, its symptoms can be traced back generations to the enslavement of African people. I will argue that justice, identity and the lack of choices are major themes identified in each of these works which tie them all together. I will also argue that these themes have a direct correlation to the signs and symptoms of both Historical Response Trauma and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome as defined by Dr. Braveheart and Dr. Leary, and how ultimately each of these protagonists used some means of restorative justice to stop the cycle of trauma and begin the process of healing </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, April 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brown University, 2008. / Vita. Advisor : Mercedes Vaquero.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2004. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 440 -459). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Madeline Sutherland-Meier. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 663-677).

A presente dissertação apresenta uma leitura de Dom Casmurro voltada à compreensão da abordagem das relações conjugais apresentada no romance, publicado em 1900. Nesse momento, o Brasil dava os primeiros passos na construção do direito de família, principalmente através da publicação do Decreto 181/90 que dispunha, principalmente, a respeito do casamento civil. A história de Bento Santiago e Capitu, narrada por Dom Casmurro, apesar de se passar alguns anos antes desse momento histórico, nitidamente, dá conta do movimento social, do qual faz parte a feição normativa citada. Literatura e Direito, sob essa perspectiva, acabam adquirindo feições muito próximas, eis que estão impregnadas dessa matéria social. A observação da forma como se apresenta o casamento e as relações daí decorrentes, sob a pena do narrador que se propõe, em Dom Casmurro, a contar a sua própria história, servirá como instrumento compreensão do romance e da possível contextualização das noções jurídicas nele colocadas. / This work presents a reading of Dom Casmurro focused on understanding the approach of conjugal relationships presented in the novel , published in 1900 . In that period, Brazil took its first steps in the construction of family law , particularly through the publication of Decree No. 181/90 , which had mainly about civil marriage. The story of Bento Santiago and Capitu, narrated by Dom Casmurro , despite spending a few years before that historic moment , clearly , gives an account of the social movement , which is part of the normative aspect mentioned. Literature and Law, from this perspective , end up getting very close to the features as they develop and are impregnated this social issue. The observation of the way it presents marriage and relationships arising therefrom , under the penalty of the narrator proposes that , in Dom Casmurro , tell their own story , will serve as a tool for understanding the novel and the possible context of legal concepts placed in it.

A presente dissertação apresenta uma leitura de Dom Casmurro voltada à compreensão da abordagem das relações conjugais apresentada no romance, publicado em 1900. Nesse momento, o Brasil dava os primeiros passos na construção do direito de família, principalmente através da publicação do Decreto 181/90 que dispunha, principalmente, a respeito do casamento civil. A história de Bento Santiago e Capitu, narrada por Dom Casmurro, apesar de se passar alguns anos antes desse momento histórico, nitidamente, dá conta do movimento social, do qual faz parte a feição normativa citada. Literatura e Direito, sob essa perspectiva, acabam adquirindo feições muito próximas, eis que estão impregnadas dessa matéria social. A observação da forma como se apresenta o casamento e as relações daí decorrentes, sob a pena do narrador que se propõe, em Dom Casmurro, a contar a sua própria história, servirá como instrumento compreensão do romance e da possível contextualização das noções jurídicas nele colocadas. / This work presents a reading of Dom Casmurro focused on understanding the approach of conjugal relationships presented in the novel , published in 1900 . In that period, Brazil took its first steps in the construction of family law , particularly through the publication of Decree No. 181/90 , which had mainly about civil marriage. The story of Bento Santiago and Capitu, narrated by Dom Casmurro , despite spending a few years before that historic moment , clearly , gives an account of the social movement , which is part of the normative aspect mentioned. Literature and Law, from this perspective , end up getting very close to the features as they develop and are impregnated this social issue. The observation of the way it presents marriage and relationships arising therefrom , under the penalty of the narrator proposes that , in Dom Casmurro , tell their own story , will serve as a tool for understanding the novel and the possible context of legal concepts placed in it.