As an artist working with the female model, this practice-led research examines concepts of alterity and subjectivity while challenging the dominant role of male subjectivity in the western world. It revolves around the relationship between myself and the female subject, a specific woman who within the context of my work epitomises but at the same time transcends womanhood. This undertaking suggests that my representations of her body grow out of a dialectical tension between the feeling that the female other has almost become a metonymic extension of myself, and the awareness that such a feeling is at the same time illusory. The practical component of my investigations takes the form of body-themed box assemblages which are reminiscent of polyptychs, tabernacles and reliquaries. However, the sacred images which form part of these ecclesiastical items are replaced with others showing close-ups of the fragmented bodies of the model and myself. While this kind of profane artefact acts as a receptacle for our bodies which are broken down and enshrined together with other objects, it constitutes part of an ongoing process whereby the relationship between myself and the female figure is metamorphosed, re-shaped, and re-visioned. The significance of these creations is meant to extend beyond their artefactual existence and become mediums through which I re-visit female sexuality and eroticism and assess them within a spiritual context, albeit in the circumscribed framework of a particular woman. The artefact s ultimate objective is to appease my innate desire to access the other via a self-reflexive process which involves both mirroring and distancing at one and the same time. This process also includes an exploration into the spiritual with the aim of exploiting that which is other in the western theological tradition, namely God and the Divine. The gaze is also deeply involved in this exploration of the other. In fact, while our bodies are subjected to a re-visitation and trans-valuation in parts through multiplication and fragmentation, the gaze is in the process broken down into a series of glances which originate from myself, the viewer or the female subject. This process questions and disrupts the dominance of the male gaze, and its associated precepts, in Western visual culture. Finally, by correlating the model s body with the divine, my artefacts seek to give this woman, as an embodiment of the true other, a trans-corporeal identity. Rather than seeking to exert control over the other, they provide a pious space wherein the self and the other are able to encounter each other in a manner that initiates an equitable relationship, unhindered by presumptive knowledge. This is aided by the aesthetics and dynamics underlying the box assemblage which, while expressing gender fluidity and encouraging disengagement from preconceived dogmas a sort of reverse cognition also enhances the experience of its deific symbolism.

America’s ‘long early twentieth century’ (1890-1945) was a period of intense industrialization, urbanization, and immigration which fundamentally altered the character of the nation. Between 1900 and 1924, which saw the curtailing of immigration from southern and eastern Europe via the passage of the Johnson-Reed Immigration Act (successor to 1921’s stop-gap Emergency Quota Act), more than 14 million people flocked to the U.S. in search of economic opportunity, social equality, and freedom from religious and political oppression. Descendants of these ‘new immigrants,’ as they were called, were by the late twentieth century a staple of white American suburbia, but their progenitors were variously considered ‘off-white,’ ‘dark-white,’ or non-white, with attendant connotations of mental, physical, and moral inferiority. This research examines texts, authored by Jewish immigrants such as Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Rose Cohen, and Mary Antin, which were published between 1890 and 1930, when the onset of the Great Depression saw a rise in anti-Semitism that contributed to the decline in popularity of ‘up by the bootstraps’ Americana whose narratives chronicled, ostensibly, social assimilation and cultural integration; it considers the ramifications of writing in English for a native audience, which frequently alienated Jewish immigrants from their peers, and analyzes the manner in which the United States’ shifting social mores coincided with—and facilitated—new immigrants’ reappraisal of religion, education, commerce, and family life in the ‘new world’ of the west. It argues that the ambivalence contained within many of these texts was both a reaction to nativist prejudices and an effort to expose misconceptions present on both sides of the wildly popular Americanization movement, as well as exploring the way that such narratives attempted the redefinition of American philanthropic, educational and civic paradigms—the preponderance of which passionately espoused rhetoric of equality while reinforcing the stratification of the United States’ class system—into modes of interaction that accommodated difference while seeking to establish common ground upon which could be built a more inclusive, multiethnic future. Finally, it addresses the continuing relevance of these works as texts which both predict and presage modern modes of social interaction and discusses their future in an evolving literary canon that has, historically speaking, been an agent of western patriarchal hegemony.

The purpose of this essay is to look into how Jean Rhys describes the complexity of colonialism in the Caribbean and how it affected the colonized people and the European colonizers. Her novel Wide Sargasso Sea is considered to be a re-writing of Jane Eyre, but it also demonstrates social rankings and racial groupings in the colonial society. She does not only describe Mr. Rochester’s first wife, she also depicts the forbidden love story between Antoinette and her “coloured” cousin Sandi. The analysis will have a postcolonial approach by using postcolonial theory and concepts, for example, Said’s concept about the Other, Fanon’s ideas about the psychological effects on the oppressed and Bhabha’s theory about colonial mimicry.

This work revealed what is at the core of a particular group of prospective teachers that underlie their commitment to teach in under-resourced schools and districts. Prospective teachers committed to teaching in under-resourced schools have qualities or attributes of recognition and respect for students and families who come from low-income and culturally different backgrounds and experiences. These prospective teachers were able to recognize complex interactions that students and their families face at the individual, social and institutional level. They also sought ways to address their students' learning needs by drawing from students' experiences to make meaningful connections between home and school. To identify students' and families' lived experiences, cultural practices, and language as resources to draw from, are acts of recognition and respect towards students and their families who are, for many prospective teachers, different from themselves. Recognition and respect for difference are essential attributes that underlie a socially just and humanistic pedagogy which can positively impact the learning outcomes for students who are historically poorly served by our public schools. This work highlights a different view that prospective teachers from majority White European backgrounds have about social others. It also provides a new framework using social otherness as a lens to reveal prospective teachers' understandings and knowledge about students and families from low-income backgrounds.

This dissertation presents an investigation into the notion of the freak in the guise of exotic characters as these appear in the strange creature-figures in Jane Alexander’s (b. 1959) installation artwork African Adventure (1999-2002). The installation artwork reveals issues pertaining to the way in which the exotic nature of the freak is made manifest in its hybrid spatio-temporal nature, with reference also to the understanding that freaks are often presented as strange yet awesome consumer objects. Alexander’s view of art and her oeuvre are contextualised within the South African milieu which is characterised by change, and laced with utopian as well as dystopian sentiments. The interpretation of African Adventure is theoretically entrenched in certain key concepts: the freak, the exotic, and hybridity, as these are made manifest in the reading of the characters, time and place presented in the installation artwork as allegorical reflection of contemporary South African society. The exploration of the work’s spatio-temporal dimensions are guided by establishing a link between, on the one hand, the desire for experiencing the thrill of the unusual (both in terms of a perspective of a colonial safari as well as the contemporary tourist gaze) and, on the other hand, a number of problematic issues in contemporary South African society. I demonstrate that the South African landscape, people and most likely also history are regarded as exotic – with the freakish associations this implies – also because post-apartheid South Africa has the status of a rarity that can be experienced as an adventure landscape. I further demonstrate how the freak’s exotic figuration ironically reverses the experience of empowered looking, with reference here to the notion of spectacle. In a space where contradiction is exposed for contemplation, this ironic reversal in its hybrid embodiment is understood as a space of reconstitution. In this manner, the presumed notion of a stable South African collective is challenged; South African society comprising of so many hybrid identities is rather understood to be the sum of contestible information where the possibility of fragmented experiences of chaos and reconciliation can coexist. As such, cultural reconstitution and renewal are not based on the exoticism of multiculturalism, but on the articulation of a culture’s hybridity. / MA (History of Art), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

This thesis argues that attitudes of inhospitality operate subtly in our politics, in our religious beliefs and practices, and in our understandings of who we are. Consequently, the question of hospitality - what it is and what it signifies - is an urgent one for us to address. In this thesis I examine and outline the hermeneutics-deconstruction debate over the experience of otherness and what it means to respond to others ethically (or hospitably). In the first two chapters I defend the importance of properly understanding the ethics of both Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. Against the concerns of Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney, I maintain that a Levinasian and Derridean insistence on answering to the call of an unconditional hospitality is the best way forward in our attempt to respond with justice to strangers. Next, by engaging Martin Hagglund's objection to an ethical reading of Derridean unconditionality, I give attention to the theme of negotiation in Derrida's later work, a theme which I take to be the central feature of his account of hospitality. I conclude by proposing five theses concerning hospitality. These theses provide an overview of the main themes discussed in this thesis and once more address the various tensions internal to the concept of hospitality.

In this study we seek to understand how ordinary Chinese people perceive Westerners as the Other through examining their intercultural experiences. In contrast to the numerous studies of social elites’ Occidentalism, this study shifts the attention to ordinary people’s perceptions in a fast changing Chinese society. From an interpretive perspective, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 participants living in a coastal city in Mainland China. The key findings suggest that the Chinese public has its own way of perceiving and presenting the Western Other. Also, this Other, being defined in an on-going process of intercultural interaction, connotes a wider meaning – a unity of opposition and complementarity, exclusion and inclusion. Thus this study has deepened our understanding of the Chinese construction of the Western Other. The findings can be used in developing intercultural communication training programs to facilitate deeper contact and better dialogue between the Chinese and Westerners.

<p>Uloga žena u postkolonijalnoj književnosti<br />prilično je složena: svojim delima one dovode u<br />pitanje kako imperijalni tako i patrijarhalni<br />sistem vrednosti i viziju sveta. Kako je iskustvo<br />žena u patrijarhatu umnogome nalik iskustvu<br />kolonizovanog subjekta, i postkolonijalna i<br />feministička teorija bave se sličnim pitanjima,<br />pre svega razobličavanjem mehanizama kojima<br />se žena i kolonizovani konstrui&scaron;u kao inferiorni<br />Drugi. Obe teorije bave se pitanjem<br />reprezentacije kao ključnog fenomena u<br />formiranju identiteta, kao i idejom vraćanja<br />glasa marginalizovanima i ućutkanima. Cilj ove<br />studije je da ukaže na način na koji su<br />književnice poreklom iz biv&scaron;ih kolonija<br />doživele lik žene u književnosti XIX i XX veka,<br />kao i na ulogu književnosti, posebno evropskih<br />klasika, u formiranju ženskog subjektiviteta. Od<br />posebnog značaja je i razmatranje iskustva<br />dvostruke kolonizacije žena koje u<br />postkolonijalnom svetu postaju žrtve kako<br />kolonijalne, tako i rodne represije. Džin Ris,<br />Doris Lesing, Džamejka Kinkejd, Arundati Roj,<br />Ivon Vera i Đampa Lahiri razbijaju mitove o<br />ženskom identitetu i progovaraju o ropskom<br />karakteru nametnutih stereotipa o majčinstvu,<br />ženskom telu i seksualnosti, o polu, rasnoj i<br />klasnoj pripadnosti, kao i o značajnim<br />aspektima dru&scaron;tveno-političke realnosti<br />postkolonijalnog sveta. Razlike u njihovoj<br />nacionalnoj, klasnoj i rasnoj pripadnosti<br />omogućavaju &scaron;iroku analizu dru&scaron;tvenopolitičkog<br />miljea postkolonijalnih dru&scaron;tava i<br />uloge koju ta dru&scaron;tva namenjuju ženi.</p> / <p>Uloga žena u postkolonijalnoj književnosti<br />prilično je složena: svojim delima one dovode u<br />pitanje kako imperijalni tako i patrijarhalni<br />sistem vrednosti i viziju sveta. Kako je iskustvo<br />žena u patrijarhatu umnogome nalik iskustvu<br />kolonizovanog subjekta, i postkolonijalna i<br />feministička teorija bave se sličnim pitanjima,<br />pre svega razobličavanjem mehanizama kojima<br />se žena i kolonizovani konstrui&scaron;u kao inferiorni<br />Drugi. Obe teorije bave se pitanjem<br />reprezentacije kao ključnog fenomena u<br />formiranju identiteta, kao i idejom vraćanja<br />glasa marginalizovanima i ućutkanima. Cilj ove<br />studije je da ukaže na način na koji su<br />književnice poreklom iz biv&scaron;ih kolonija<br />doživele lik žene u književnosti XIX i XX veka,<br />kao i na ulogu književnosti, posebno evropskih<br />klasika, u formiranju ženskog subjektiviteta. Od<br />posebnog značaja je i razmatranje iskustva<br />dvostruke kolonizacije žena koje u<br />postkolonijalnom svetu postaju žrtve kako<br />kolonijalne, tako i rodne represije. Džin Ris,<br />Doris Lesing, Džamejka Kinkejd, Arundati Roj,<br />Ivon Vera i Đampa Lahiri razbijaju mitove o<br />ženskom identitetu i progovaraju o ropskom<br />karakteru nametnutih stereotipa o majčinstvu,<br />ženskom telu i seksualnosti, o polu, rasnoj i<br />klasnoj pripadnosti, kao i o značajnim<br />aspektima dru&scaron;tveno-političke realnosti<br />postkolonijalnog sveta. Razlike u njihovoj<br />nacionalnoj, klasnoj i rasnoj pripadnosti<br />omogućavaju &scaron;iroku analizu dru&scaron;tvenopolitičkog<br />milјea postkolonijalnih dru&scaron;tava i<br />uloge koju ta dru&scaron;tva namenjuju ženi.</p>

I den här uppsatsen undersöks hur vampyrer dör i TV-serierna True Blood (2008-2014), Vampire Diaries (2009-2017) och Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). Genom närläsning och jämförelser mellan dessa olika sätt att skildra vampyrers död diskuteras vad detta innebär för den roll vampyren får i respektive serie, och vad det betyder för skildringen av kropp och kroppslighet. Jag använder mig av teorier kring skildringen av (mänsklig) död på film, samt för en diskussion i relation till bland annat Judith Butlers begrepp ”sörjbara kroppar” och Giorgio Agambens ”bare life”. Utifrån detta ställs frågor om hur vampyrer, deras död och skildringen av denna relaterar till de diskurser om mänsklighet som genomsyrar serierna och deras kontext.

L‟objectif de mon mémoire se concentre sur la notion d‟altérité émanant des philosophies d‟Emmanuel Lévinas et de Paul Ricoeur ; je m‟intéresse plus précisément au concept clé d‟éthique et de savoir en quoi enrichit-elle le dialogue judéo-chrétien. Le point initial de ma réflexion est l‟herméneutique biblique, qu‟Emmanuel Lévinas et Paul Ricoeur articulent, d‟après moi, différemment selon leurs héritages religieux respectifs à savoir juif et chrétien. Néanmoins, la signification éthique des Textes Sacrés perdure pour chacun d‟eux comme lieu commun même si la signification leur est différente et propre à leurs traditions religieuses. Ainsi, dans ce mémoire l‟altérité développée par Lévinas, talmudiste reconnu, sera comparée avec la pensée de Ricoeur dont la conception est davantage chrétienne, en référence à son travail exégétique. Quand bien même Lévinas et Ricoeur ont tenu à distinguer leurs philosophies de leurs théologies, l‟hypothèse de départ prend une liberté herméneutique qui oscille souvent entre philosophie et théologie et qui tend à retracer au mieux l‟altérité et son lien intrinsèque avec l‟éthique. Cette lecture comparatiste m‟amènera donc à penser et à intégrer l‟altérité comme une prémisse éthique au dialogue judéo-chrétien. Mon travail en sciences des religions qui prend racine depuis l‟herméneutique même, s‟oriente vers une perspective éthique et dialogique et c‟est cette visée de médiation interreligieuse qui lui confère une appartenance à cette discipline. / The Otherness is the focus of my thesis, a notion that emanates from Emmanuel Levinas’ and Paul Ricoeur’s philosophies; I’m interested more precisely about the concept of ethics and to discover how it improves the reflection upon Jewish and Christian dialogue. The initial point of my reflexion is the biblical hermeneutics that Emmanuel Lévinas and Paul Ricoeur structure, to my point of view, variously depending their religious background: Jewish for Lévinas and Christian for Ricoeur. Nevertheless, the ethical signification of the Bible perpetuates for both of them as a commonplace, even if the signification is different and inherent to their own religious traditions. In my thesis, the Otherness, as elaborated by Lévinas, will be compared with Ricoeur’s thoughts, whom conception is more Christian as his biblical works let us guess. Even if Lévinas and Ricoeur have tried to distinguish their philosophical work from their theological one, claiming a neutrality about theology, my initial hypothesis take an hermeneutical freedom which often oscillates between theology and philosophy and which try to recount the alterity and its intrinsic link to ethics. A comparatist reading will lead me to think that the ethics of the Otherness is the basis of Jewish and Christian dialogue because of Levinas’ and Ricoeur’s works. My work in religious studies is based upon hermeneutics and turns toward an ethical and dialogical perspective; it is this interreligious mediation aim which confers to my thesis a belonging in this discipline.