This article analyses two literary texts: Barbara Radziwiłłówna z Jaworzna-Szczakowej by the Polish author Michał Witkowski (2007) and Sakharnyi Kreml’ by the Russian author Vladimir Sorokin (2008) in the context of postcolonial studies. I treat the terms coined by post-colonial critique, such as orientalism, orientalization, subversion or mimicry as not only ideological categories, but also as aesthetic and narrative ones. These tools turn out to be useful in the interpretation of both these texts which, despite the differences between them, may be read as examples of post-dependence narration, which articulate issues in connection with identity-related problems of modern Polish and Russian cultures. Both Witkowski and Sorokin subversively employ auto- and heterostereotypes and avail themselves of the strategy of self-orientalization, which enables the play on foreign notions regarding, respectively, Polish and Russian culture and collective identity. The novel by Michał Witkowski ironically, perversely addresses national complexes associated with the systemic transformation of 1989 and takes the floor in the discussion on post-communism. In turn, Sakharnyi Kreml’ by Vladimir Sorokin is an example of a futuristic dystopia, in which criticism of Putin’s Russia commingles with reflections on the non-autonomous and non-independent status of own culture which, in the year 2028, continues to reproduce foreign discourses and finds it difficult to articulate its own position.

This thesis examines the British army and its legacy of counterinsurgency from the 20th century. It analyses the effects of post-colonial counterinsurgency and the army’s ability to learn from previous counterinsurgency conflicts to create new doctrine from earlier examples that could have had lessons for the UK forces in southern Iraq. Doctrine (both official and unofficial) ranges from endorsed army field manuals to theory written by experts while on defence fellowships. The army’s ability to create new doctrine from previous campaigns lessons and how it is diffused across the armed forces is also assessed. The conflicts used as post-colonial counterinsurgencies scrutinise Oman and Northern Ireland. These two case studies provide mixed lessons, that should advance and expand British counterinsurgency theory and models. The previous historical occurrences of counterinsurgency have created a British approach which has established a four-pillar framework which encompasses minimum force, civil-military co-operation, use of intelligence and tactical flexibility. This approach could identify lessons for a modern British army deployed to Iraq. If lessons and previous outcomes are analysed to create new doctrine, strategy and tactics that encompass the four pillars framework, what went wrong in southern Iraq? Could lessons from earlier campaigns have assisted British efforts?

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This thesis examines a group of 114 burials found within the Terre Haute African Cemetery in Midlothian, Virginia, using gender and resistance as frameworks through which to understand the relationships that members of the historically Black Huguenot Spring community had with the American funeral industry as it developed parallel to the cemetery’s use history from roughly 1800 to 1934. The movement for the beautification of death and increasing emphasis on material goods for funerary commemoration beginning in the nineteenth century did not occur in a vacuum; this work explores the ways in which Huguenot Springs community members chose to participate and adapt these practices to their needs and economic context. This thesis is also interested in the legacies of historic African American cemeteries as sites for community memory, vindication, and the enactment of agency, both historically and today.