This thesis explores cosmopolitan and humanist literary interventions by Palestinian, Israeli, Indian and Pakistani writers to the rise of ‘ethnically’ defined cultural and political narratives of community. It uses a comparative framework to look at contemporary authors such as Amitav Ghosh, Raja Shehadeh, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan and David Grossman, who deconstruct the biologically defined border as a repressive literary, cultural and political metaphor in favour of more open-ended categories of identity and community. I argue that in deconstructing the epistemology of the exclusive boundary through cosmopolitan and humanist philosophies, these international writers demonstrate the impossibility of shedding all borders in their own work. Their ‘borderless’ aesthetic that constantly conjures the border is thus indicative of the interrelated nature of cosmopolitan and sectarian identities in a globalized modernity. Moreover, it is suggestive of the ambivalent relationship between politically-conscious postcolonial texts (which draw political lines) and the emerging field of World literature that is coming to be defined by its ability to appeal to the 'universal'.

This thesis addresses the “foreign talent” situation in Singapore with an ethnographic account of the lived experiences of immigrant PRC students on scholarships, or “PRC scholars.” For some two decades, the Singapore government has annually recruited middle school students from China in their hundreds, selecting them through tests and interviews, granting them full scholarships at either pre-undergraduate or undergraduate level, and, very often, “bonding” them to work subsequently in Singapore for a number of years. Wooed and appropriated in such a way as prized potential human capital, PRC scholars exemplify the Singapore state’s desire for “foreign talent.” In the first decade of the twenty-first century, as the influx of all manners of “foreign talent” into the small city-state gathered pace, local sentiments and discourses of resentment arose. The local-vs-“foreign talent” problem became a serious strain on a city and people proud of their cosmopolitanism. This thesis analyzes the “foreign talent” situation through the ethnographic “macro-trope” of desire. It argues that “foreign talent” is a site of convergence and divergence, collusion and collision, accommodation and contestation, fulfillment and failure of various individual, sociocultural, and political desires and longings. Through the lens of desire, and its psychoanalytic undertones and insights, this thesis looks ethnographically into the PRC scholars’ “foreign talent” journeys in nuanced ways. Based on ethnographic fieldworks carried out in a Chinese middle school and a Singaporean university, the thesis shows how Chinese students are constituted as specific subjects of desire, and how they subsequently develop certain perceptions, attitudes, and stereotypes about the local “other” as well as about themselves after arriving in Singapore as “foreign talent.” Infused with multifarious desires, the PRC scholars’ experiences are often characterized by angst and dissatisfaction; yet it is also argued that generative subjective transformations take place precisely amidst these dynamics and pragmatics of desiring. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to make possible an ethical re-imagination of the “foreign talent” situation in Singapore from the perspective of desire; to provide an account of the so far little-studied Chinese migrant students in the context of Singapore; and to speak more broadly to the cultural and subjective dimensions of human experiences in the context of educational mobility, identity politics, and globalization.

La Pologne, pendant des décennies pays d’émigration, accueille depuis une dizaine d’années de plus en plus d’immigrants et se transforme en pays d’immigration. D’un côté, elle semble avoir besoin de main d’œuvre, de l’autre elle se refuse d’adopter des politiques migratoires régissant le statut des migrants temporaires et des immigrants permanents. Pourtant, afin de répondre aux défis économiques, sociopolitiques et identitaires posés par des flux migratoires stimulés par la mondialisation, les aspirations économiques et les crises humanitaires, la plupart de ses voisins à l’ouest développent des systèmes migratoires. Nous constatons que malgré l’occurrence de problèmes similaires liés aux migrations en Europe de l’Est, à ce jour seule la République tchèque s’est prévalue d’un système migratoire, y compris d’un programme d’intégration des immigrants permanents. Qu’est-ce qui freine la Pologne de se prévaloir de mécanismes permettant de faire face à l’afflux grandissant des immigrants? Pour comprendre la question nous comparons la Pologne à la République tchèque - deux pays similaires dont le résultat en matière des systèmes migratoires diffère. La littérature met de l’avant trois facteurs explicatifs de l’adoption ou pas des systèmes migratoires par les États: les besoins économiques, sociopolitiques et les questions identitaires. Nous analysons ces trois éléments dans les deux cas choisis et posons comme hypothèse que c’est le facteur de l’identité nationale qui ralenti le développement du système migratoire en Pologne. En effet, notre recherche démontre que les facteurs économiques et sociopolitiques sont similaires en République tchèque et en Pologne, alors que le facteur identitaire marque la différence. Bien que la Pologne soit entrée dans l’UE et que son essor économique progresse depuis les vingt dernières années, il semble que l’identité nationale et le projet politique de préserver un État-nation soient des obstacles au développement d’un système migratoire ouvert à l’accueil des immigrants permanents. L’importance du facteur identitaire pour les politiques migratoires est montrée à travers l’analyse de la littérature, des sondages d’opinion publique et des sténogrammes parlementaires, ainsi que de quatre entrevues semi-structurées que nous avons menées avec des représentants du gouvernement polonais et des organismes non gouvernementaux. / As an emigration country for decades, Poland has been receiving more and more immigrants during the past ten years and is transforming into a country of immigration. On the one hand, it seems that the country needs labour migration; on the other hand it refuses to adopt migration policies regulating the status of temporary migrants and permanent immigrants. However, most of its western neighbours have developed migration systems in order to meet the economic, social, political and identity challenges resulting from globalized migration movements, economic aspirations and humanitarian crises. We note that despite the occurrence of similar problems related to migration in Eastern Europe, so far only the Czech Republic has adopted a genuine migration system, including an integration programme for permanent immigrants. What prevents Poland from adopting formal measures to cope with the growing influx of immigrants? To understand this situation we compare Poland to the Czech Republic - two similar countries with different positions towards migration systems. The academic literature puts forward three factors explaining the adoption (or not) of migration systems by States: economic, socio-political and identity. We analyze these three elements in the two selected cases and hypothesize that it is the factor of national identity which slowed the development of a migration system in Poland. Indeed, our research shows that the economic and socio-political factors are similar in both the Czech Republic and Poland, while the identity factor marks the difference. Although Poland has joined the EU and has enjoyed economic progress over the past twenty years, it seems that national identity and the political project of preserving the nation-state are obstacles to the development of an open migration system focused on the reception of permanent immigrants. The importance of the identity factor for migration policies is shown through analysis of the academic literature, surveys of public opinion and parliamentary transcripts, as well as four semi-structured interviews that we conducted with representatives of the Polish government and non-governmental organizations.

This thesis focuses on the importance of the ballad in constructing national identity in Germany during the 20th century from 1918-1978. It presents a comparative approach using Scotland as a comparator, based on three significant time periods throughout the century: the Weimar Republic, the Nazi era and the German folk revival. In each of these eras the issue of national awareness was most in evidence and national identity was being created or was a particular object of tension. The modern Scottish literary renaissance and the Scottish folk revival will be used for comparative purposes. The comparative approach will also aid a deeper understanding of the concept of national identity itself. The hypothesis is that the ballad has contributed to the development of national identity in specific and differing ways in the two countries. Selected artists; poets, singers and Liedermacher have been chosen as representatives for each particular stage. The ballad in the 20th century has previously received little critical attention, thus this period has been chosen as the time frame of the thesis in an attempt to redress this balance and create new knowledge. The 20th century is also a rewarding area of study because it saw specific developments in the notion of nationalism and evidenced both the devastating results of the abuse of national identity and the positive power of the concept for nation building. The foundation of this thesis is the recognition that national identity is not necessarily natural, inherent and straightforward, but is rather a deliberate construction, created by people or groups within the nation for distinct political, social and cultural ends.

This thesis addresses aspects of Romanian society and cinema, by analyzing post-communist films through the perspective of marginality. The central hypothesis of this study refers to the ways in which films illustrate conditions of post-communist Romanian society, as they consider representations of the periphery through the angle of allegories of marginality. Following a long tradition, especially in literary studies, where it refers to the overt insertion of symbolic meanings, allegory refers in this study to a less noticeable delivery, by using a postmodern interpretation of the concept. This translates to detecting a latent meaning in films, by interpreting them in a broader context pertaining both to the film's circumstances (production, distribution and reception), and to the broader framework of the film's content. What connects post-communist Romanian films is a concern for matters of marginality, as they focus on dissensions in society, intergenerational conflicts, youth and limited opportunities of social movement, and the use of satire as a way of handling the bleak conditions of life. Aiming to provide a realistic representation of post-communist life, new wave Romanian films focus on the mundane reality of everyday life. The films discussed in this thesis expand beyond the scope of the new wave, and present a diversity of aesthetic approaches and relating perspectives on allegory—from distinct to obscure—defined by the contextual conditions of post-communism.

Le Québec est présentement aux prises avec un malaise envers les immigrants qui a soulevé une série de débats dans les médias de masse, dans les cercles universitaires et communautaires pour ensuite prendre un caractère politique et public. Cet inconfort a soulevé une crainte des Québécois canadiens français que les immigrants envahissent le Québec en refusant d’adopter pleinement la culture québécoise, les laissant minoritaires et impuissants sur leur propre territoire. Une crainte que la culture, la langue et les valeurs québécoises deviennent aliénées. Celle-ci semble prendre origine dans la période de colonisation britannique du Québec (18e siècle) qui s’est ensuite transformée pour former le mouvement nationaliste contemporain. Face à ce constat, une question se pose: comment l’expérience coloniale du Québec influence-t-elle la manière dont les Québécois vivent avec la diversité culturelle aujourd’hui? Nous argumenterons que la conséquence principale de la colonisation britannique est un réflexe inconscient entretenu par une absence de conscience historique qui teinte les mécanismes de compréhension que les Québécois Canadiens français ont de l’Autre. Comme la compréhension influence grandement les actions, ce biais influence ultimement les interactions et les relations interculturelles. Au travers d’entrevues de Québécois Canadiens français et d’immigrants, nous démontrerons l’influence que cette crainte a sur la compréhension et sur les discours et explorerons comment les immigrants réagissent à ce Québec. / Quebecers are now struggling with the presence of new immigrants in the province which many identified as an « identity crisis ». From 2006 onwards, many debates on the question were widely broadcasted in the media and extensively discussed within academia and NGOs, ultimately affecting the political sphere. Those debates revealed a constant nervousness of the French Canadian population of Quebec that immigrants were invading the province, refusing to adopt Quebec’s unique culture, leaving them as a marginalized alienated community on their own territory. This fear seems to have its origins in the British colonial era of the 18th century, then transformed into the modern nationalist movement that reemerged in the middle of the 20th century. A question then arises : What are the effects of the British colonial era on the way Quebecers understand and interact with immigrants ? We argue that it resulted in an unconscious cultural reflex, maintained by a lack of historical consciousness, to protect itself from potential new invaders influencing the mechanisms of how Quebecers understand the Other. As understanding has great effects on action, this view ultimately affected intercultural relations and interactions. Through interviews with Quebec’s French Canadians and immigrants, we showed the influence of that fear in understanding and discourse and explored how immigrants react to Quebec’s situation.

National Identity as a Corrective of the Absolute Primacy of European Law. The aim of this thesis is to analyse national identity within Article 4(2) TEU and the potential of such article to serve as a legal ground for derogation from obligation imposed by EU law. From a wider perspective, the thesis attempts to assess whether introduction of Article 4(2) TEU redefined the relation between national legal orders and EU law. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter deals with the pivotal principle of EU law primacy. The chapter explains two distinctive approaches adopted by the CJEU (absolute primacy) and the Member States (relative primacy). In the second chapter, the author firstly provides brief history of obligation to respect national identity in the Treaties. Secondly, she examines the content of term "national identity". The author claims that Article 4(2) TEU has a composite (pluralistic) structure, thus, the national courts and the CJEU plays different roles in application of the obligation to respect national identity. The national identity is inherently linked to the constitutional law of Member States, therefore, it must be defined by its constitutional courts. At the same time, the CJEU lacks the competence to interpret national identity as such, however, it is...

This thesis deals with analysis of development of Chinese views on the origins of Chinese culture and statehood in view of archaeological research between the years 1940 and 1980. The analysis is based on information provided by popularizing media, specifically Chinese newspapers and high school textbooks, which are paired with archaeological overview from specialized publications written in English, Czech and Chinese language. Thesis consists of three parts. Firstly, it outlines development in archeology during four decades and the impact of nonacademic influence on scientific work. It serves as theoretical reference frame for the following analysis of Chinese sources. The second chapter deals with reflection of archaeological research in articles of the People's Daily newspapers. How are the archaeological findings valued by society, how does state ideology impacts on their research and it is related to that what are the geographical tendencies. Terminology and biased manner of expression in articles are also included to analysis. The third chapter consists of the study of views on the history of Chinese antiquity in textbooks. In which ways were textological historiography and outcome of archaeological research combined, including factual chronology of historical events and geographical location...

The thesis is focused on construction of Czech national identity in press (MF DNES January - June 2010). It describes this complex problem in the way of discourse analysis. Therefore, there is not used special or particular research method, because the subject of matter is approached and thought by ontological and epistemological assumptions behind it. The objective of the work is find system, which characterizes construction of Czech national identity, Czech patriotism and Czech character. There must be emphasized that it is not providing absolute answers to the specific problem, but enable us to understand the conditions behind it. First of all, there is shown thinking about Czech national identity from the historical point of view. There are described presumptions of Czech identity and character from the times of Karel Čapek and Tomáš G. Masaryk. Secondly, there is shown contemporary discourse through the study of different levels of the media text, the concepts of Teun van Dijk or Jack Lule are involved.

The thesis is of an analytical/interpretative character, focusing on the search for identity in the so-called "Palánek" cycle by Ladislav Ballek. The source texts are Ballek's novel collection Južná pošta (1974) and novels Pomocník (1977) and Agáty (1981). The comparison focuses mainly on the specific approach to national identity. The analytical part aims to grasp the different forms of human identity and to explain their specific nature (national, historic, cultural) with emphasis on the interpretation of specific texts with regard to their broader validity in the context of Slovak literature.