<p> The emergence of South-South relations in politics and economics refracts strangely through the literature produced in these postcolonial regions. Two primary worldviews emerge in these texts. The first focuses on the continued presence of imperial powers in the South and their culpability in eruptions of violence. The second shifts to modes of domination emerging within South-South interactions. Salman Rushdie's canonical <i>Midnight's Children</i> examines the Bangladeshi genocide through a variety of literary strategies, especially hyperbole, to produce a crisis of history to indict the Cold War arms trade on equal terms with a war criminal. Similarly, Boubicar Boris Diop's novel <i>Murambi, The Book of Bones</i> helps contextualize the Rwandan genocide within the circuits of international attention&mdash;weapons supplies, political support and humanitarian aid&mdash;that put the lie to the world's supposed "indifference." On the contrary, <i> Murambi's</i> fragmented and polyvocal form evinces the multiple and contradictory investments Rwandans suffered through. East Africa is also home to a South Asian diaspora that arrived before the European powers and now advance India's exponential trade relations with Africa. M.G Vassanji's <i> The In-Between World of Vikram Lall</i> caricatures one of these "Asian Shylocks" to critique the diaspora's class politics and, simultaneously, the racism and xenophobia that led to their 1969 mass deportation from Uganda by Idi Amin. Vassanji's focalizer weaponizes capital accumulation to claim that it protects against such racism, even if it confirms racist caricatures. This argument is not unlike that made by emergent economies from the postcolonial South, which have turned to neoliberal developmental policies to guarantee their independence. Despite the unsustainability of such policies, both Vassanji's novel and Aravind Adiga's <i>The White Tiger</i> take seriously capitalism's ability to nullify old hierarchies even while building new ones. Adiga's focalizer breaks free of his place in the caste system on the strength of capitalism's ability to profane this scared hierarchy. Such anti-caste politics challenge the category of 'radical politics' as espoused by anti-capitalists and adherents of Gandhi, who fought feverishly for the preservation of caste. Taken together, these two novels represent emergent Southern businessmen who fight local antagonisms through international capital, producing a complicated situation that helps us understand the allure of accumulation in emergent economies and its impact on South-South relationships.</p>

The Hermeneutics of Birdsong is an examination of the tensions, boundaries, and interplay between creative and critical writing. Composed principally of free-verse lyric poems grouped by theme into four chapters, the collection also includes a parallel text consisting of critical commentary, quotes from theorists, and at times, more poems. The parallel text, in its discussion of the nature of language, intentionality, intertextuality, authorship, anxiety of influence, imagination, and the creative process, attempts to make explicit the hidden theoretical assumptions which are the invisible "center" of any mode of discourse, including a poetry collection. / The primary and parallel texts function simultaneously as a collage or ideogram, in which the individual poems and critical commentaries coalesce to create a unified, though seemingly fragmented, whole. In keeping with this blending of the creative and the critical, quotes from other sources are used in both a traditional and non-traditional manner. At times, the outside critical commentary is formatted typographically as poetry or as an epigraph for a primary-text poem. The goal for this non-traditional use of source material is to explore and explode the traditional conception of the antithetical positions of the "creative" and the "critical" by challenging the reader's expectations. / Indeed, by forcing the reader to experience criticism as poetry, or poetry as criticism, the primary and parallel texts seek to demonstrate the arbitrary generic distinctions often used to label or judge writing, and thus offer the reader new positions from which to experience and assess the nature and interaction of critical and creative writing. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-03, Section: A, page: 1132. / Major Professor: Wendy Bishop. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1996.

Arriving as indentured laborers during the latter half of the 19th century, the East Indian diaspora in the French Caribbean occupies a marginal space in literary and critical writings emerging from this region. This diaspora, the majority of whom were recruited from Indian settlements under French possession at the time, constituted a cheap source of labor replacement for the plantation owners during the post-slavery epoch. Contracted to work for a minimum period of five years, these laborers, unlike African slaves, had the right to repatriate at the end of their service. For those who decided to stay in the already socio-economically and racially hierarchized French Caribbean society, it meant that they were then positioned de facto at the lowest echelon of the pyramid. The Indo-French Caribbeans’ historical and social marginalization coupled with their ethnic minority status – to date persons of East Indian descent account for approximately 15% and 3% of the Guadeloupean and Martinican populations respectively – bled into their non-recognition in literary and critical writings. Admittedly, canonical cultural identity paradigms shaping French Caribbean discourse – such as Négritude and Antillanité, which focus predominantly on the African diaspora or even Créolité, which, though paying more attention to “minority” cultures, subsumes cultural difference into a homogenous creole identity – results in the sidelining of the Indo-French-Caribbeans’ cultural and physical presence. In my dissertation, Locating Indianité: Representations of the East Indian diaspora in selected novels by Moutoussamy, Condé, Confiant, and Minatchy-Bogat, I analyze literary depictions of Indo-French-Caribbeans in five novels by both well known (Maryse Condé and Raphaël Confiant) and lesser-known (Ernest Moutoussamy and Arlette Minatchy-Bogat) authors. I specifically examine the writers’ treatment of the East Indian diaspora’s exilic experience, its cultural identity formation and interaction with the surrounding cultural diversity characteristic of the French Caribbean to call into question and revise existing cultural identity models. I, therefore, examine the following questions in my dissertation: How does the East Indian diaspora in the French Caribbean add to or destabilize prevailing identity paradigms and processes such as Créolité and créolisation? How do authors imagine the East Indian diasporic identity in the French Caribbean novel? What role does space play in constructing and/or situating the East Indian identity in the French Caribbean novel? How do authors of non-East Indian origin represent this community in their fiction? How do their representations remodel cultural identity paradigms to render them inclusive of Indianness? Where do their representations position the East Indian identity in the broader cultural identity framework of Créolité and créolisation at work in the French Caribbean? How do characters of mixed East Indian descent, specifically mixed race female characters, figure in this literature? How does the mixed race identity challenge exclusivist identity constructs based on race and color? The theoretical framework for this dissertation draws on Francophone and postcolonial scholarship and pays particular attention to studies on identity construction, exile, diaspora as well as hybridity. The dissertation will, additionally, consider race theory, spatial theory, feminist theory, and affect theory in order to place East Indian identity in relation to the already existing body of literary and critical works on identity construction in the French Caribbean. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / July 18, 2017. / East Indian diaspora, French Caribbean literature, Indianité, kala pani narratives, postcolonial studies / Includes bibliographical references. / Martin Munro, Professor Directing Dissertation; Pat W. Williams, University Representative; Aimée M. Boutin, Committee Member; Jeannine Murray-Román, Committee Member; Corbin McKenzie Treacy, Committee Member.

Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1990. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-148).

Diss.--Eberhard-Karls-Universität, 1972. / Vita. Bibliography: pp. 172-177.

<p>From the time of Goethe's writing of Iphigenie auf Tauris, a play based on Euripides' drama Iphigenia in Tauris, critics have been occupied with comparisons of the German 18th century and the ancient Greek works. Schiller, Goethe's contemporary, in a letter to Körner, has called Goethe's version "ungriechisch" and "erstaunlich modern". Since that time critics have taken varying viewpoints concerning the relationship between the two versions. This thesis takes a fresh view of this fascinating relationship by working very closely with the two texts. Certainly Goethe's play, like any great work, is a creation of his own epoch, and as such is modern. However, the author of this thesis demonstrates that many of the changes Goethe has made do not actually depart from the Greek work, but rather represent a development of the ideas already present in the Greek drama. Euripides, a late contributor to 5th century tragedy, was an innovator and Goethe capitalized on some of his innovations. The direction the two plays take does vary, particularly with the decision Goethe's heroine makes to tell Thoas the truth, but in spite of this difference, there is much common ground in the characterization of the figures. This investigation comprises two parts. In the first part the plight of the human will be explored: Orestes' escape from the Furies, his recognition of Iphigenia, the curse on the house of Tantalus and Iphigenia's dilemma. In the second part the author deals with aspects which are considered to lie outside the human sphere: the goddess Diana, the heroic element, Apollo's oracle and the divine. The element of "Greek Renaissance" found in Goethe's early classicism is evident in his exploration of the relationship between humanity and divinity. By tracing the origins of the myth surrounding Iphigenia, the author shows that Goethe's Iphigenie auf Tauris is part of a European literary tradition that finds its roots in the Euripidean drama.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1974. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.