The following study aims to analyze expressions of postcolonial and gender theoretical conditions of power in Quentin Tarantino’s film Django Unchained. The method of analysis is the one of discourse analysis. The analysis is used as a means to distinguish the expressions of value which will aim to depict the gender theoretical- and postcolonial structures of power the film mediates.  Furthermore, the results given by the analysis will be discussed in relation to creation of prosthetic memory. Considering the prosthetic memory’s impact on the viewers subjectivity, and outlook on both present and future values, the theory will adequately be discussed in relation to the representation this pop-cultural medium mediate. This study does not aim to analyze the historical authenticity of the film but rather to identify which postcolonial and gender theoretical values that are projected through the historical narrative. However, Django’s hero status will be discussed in relation with the mid-19th century American setting. As for the results of the analysis they were both in line with, and contradictive to, what the previous studies has shown. In correlation with the preceding studies the film did not seem to address the psychological issue of the different positions of power a slave could have. However, the position of Django was in fact a subject of problematization. The configuration of gender was less nuanced, which gave rise to a one-sided function and power stature for the depicted women of the film. In contrast to this, the power hieratical position for men were highly fluid and dependent on several factors.

Abstract The mixed messages provided in The Buddha of Suburbia together with its prevalent use of humour are the focal point for this essay. The aim is to defend my thesis statement that humour provides a justifiable forum for the critique and presentation of society, enabling the facilitation of serious, effective and powerful perspectives. As critical standpoints a mixture of Postcolonial and Marxist theories are applied together with Bakhtin’s theory of carnevalesque. By comparing historic facts with the portrayed environment depicted in the novel, a message is delivered that a change of a different worldview is required. This message is displayed with various uses of humour, wit and satire, which provide an allegorical veil for its seriousness. This analysis shows that there are no seeming changes in the lives of the characters, but it highlights that a need for a change of views is important.

While dominant International Relations (IR) theory has constructed the concept of security in such a way that excludes economic sanctions from considerations of violence, the track record of embargo tells a different story, one with a significantly higher death toll. This project challenges the borders of the hegemonic IR discourse to make room for a theoretical and political account of the deadly impacts of sanction regimes. Through a discourse analysis of IR theory, using Laclau and Mouffe’s holistic discourse theory, it looks to the spaces of meaning negotiation emerging from feminist IR theory. The renegotiated concepts of human security and structural violence make visible economic sanctions as acts of violence, and displace the binary oppositions of international/domestic, military/economic, public/private which shield embargo from the sight of its own violence. Having broken embargo out of its conceptually locked box, this project pushes further, and interrogates the connections of embargo and empire. Embargo functions to uphold imperial control and Western interests, while (re)producing racist colonial narratives. While deconstructing and reconstructing three competing understandings of embargo – embargo-as-nonviolent, embargo-as-violence, and embargo-as-imperial – I interrogate the political implications of hegemonic ways of knowing. I argue that, by challenging the hegemony of IR, we can unmask the practice of embargo, and locate its violent role in upholding imperial structures of power. / Graduate

In the last 20 years, international donors have made efforts to increase the participation of minorities into development programmes. Despite these efforts, development actors continues to receive critique from postcolonial theorists for continuing to reinforce neocolonial and Western-centered tendencies onto minorities. Given this background, the purpose of this study is to investigate how indigenous peoples in Latin America and their issues are represented and allowed to participate in and challenge the development agenda. This is done by analysing how ‘indigeneity’ and indigenous peoples’ issues are portrayed in reports by international donors. Through a discourse analysis of two reports from the World Bank and ECLAC, this study finds that indigenous peoples are still not allowed to challenge the standard development agenda. Even though improvements have been made concerning explicit representations of indigenous peoples knowledges and values as inferior, the findings of this study show that indigenous peoples’ issues are often represented to be legitimate only when its moved to Western frameworks. These findings suggest that postcolonial attitudes towards indigenous peoples are still integrated in development programmes. This study however encourages further research of postcolonial attitudes towards indigenous peoples within international donors, and how international donors can improve in these aspects.

Den här studien avser att undersöka lärares skönlitterära urval i svenskundervisningen. Syftet är att få insikt i den utomeuropeiska litteraturens roll i svenskundervisningen. Forskningsfrågorna som studien utgår från är: Vilka faktorer uppger lärare ligger till grund för deras urval av skönlitteratur? I vilken omfattning säger lärare att de använder utomeuropeisk skönlitteratur i undervisningen, jämfört med den europeiska? och Vad ser lärare för kulturellt värde i att använda utomeuropeisk litteratur?  Teorierna som ligger till grund för studien är Stephen Balls modell för ämneskonstruktion och postkolonial teori. Den metod som används är en enkätstudie av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär. Enkäten gjordes och skickades ut genom Googles enkätprogram. Genom enkätsvaren kan tre teman identifieras, som handlar om vilka faktorer som påverkar urvalet, hur den utomeuropeiska litteraturen används och vilken litteratur som är mest central för ämnet. Deltagarna är verksamma lärare på gymnasienivå.  Utifrån lärarnas enkätsvar framgår det hur de konstruerar undervisningen. Lärarna arbetar oftast elevfokuserat utifrån bestämda temaområden, där skönlitteraturen väljs utifrån det formulerade området. Generellt ser lärare stora möjligheter med att använda utomeuropeisk litteratur i sin undervisning, trots att de i stor utsträckning väljer främst europeisk litteratur. Lärare ser ändå potential i att lyfta frågor om allmänmänsklighet och tolerans, som inte kan belysas lika tydligt annars. Dock resonerar fortfarande flera lärare att stora delar av den europeiska kanonen är viktiga att lyfta i undervisningen. Slutsatsen är därför att lärare har som vana att använda ett eurocentrerat urval trots att de ser stor potential i att använda utomeuropeisk litteratur. / This study wants to investigate teachers’ choice of literature in the Swedish subject. The aim is to gain insight in the foreign literatures’ role in the Swedish teaching. The research questions that the study is based upon are: What factors are, according to the teachers, affecting their choice of literature? To what extent are teachers using foreign literature? and What cultural value do teachers see in using foreign literature? The theoretic basis consists of a model by Stephen Ball about how subjects are constructed and postcolonial theory. The method that the study uses is a survey, measuring both quality and quantity. The survey was made and sent out through Google Survey. The participants are teachers in the Swedish subject who are active in the profession. Three themes are evident through the answers, the factors that affects the choice of literature, how teachers use the foreign literature and what literature that is considered most important.  The teachers work mainly towards the students’ needs, with specific literary themes, where literature is chosen to fit the theme of the teaching. Generally, teachers see potential in using the foreign literature as teaching material, although they mainly use European literature. The teachers consider using foreign literature as a potential of raising topics about universal humanity and tolerance, that would not have been included otherwise. However, they still perceive the European-centered canon as important to include. The conclusion is that teachers tend to use a European based selection of literature, despite seeing a large potential in using foreign literature to develop democratic and humanitarian views on the world.

<p>An experimental piece blending theory, fiction, and academic writing in order to both create and criticize a work in the tradition of science fiction while seeking to undermine the hegemonic ideals that sometimes lie at the heart of works in that tradition.</p>

The forced displacement situations have, for a considerable time, emerged as an important development challenge on the international cooperation agenda. While the policies and practices of international organizations have gained much scrutiny, what they are saying and what discourses they are producing is less visible in academia. With the World Bank in focus, as an actor with a new role within the international refugee protection regime, this study seeks to explore this production and shaping of discourse. Further, the aim also seeks to examine the influence of power and hegemony in relation to discourse on this international level. Through a postcolonial perspective this study employs a Critical Discourse Analysis that presents a mainly conventional discourse of forced displacement in the context of development. The strong influence of Eurocentrism found in the analysis suggest a continued power imbalance, questioning the real benefit for the people and places of concern.

This thesis discusses the extent to which non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in postcolonial countries work with religious institutions to promote social and economic development. Through postcolonial theory, and by using a qualitative approach combined with a critical methodology, this thesis will examine the relationship between particular NGOs and religion in the countries in which they operate. More precisely, this thesis will consider whether it is helpful, or a hindrance to development if NGOs work cooperatively with religious leaders and institutions.

This study scrutinises, from a critical perspective, how Swedish mainstream news media depict children and youths categorised as unaccompanied after the identified discursive shift in the late autumn of 2015, where a more hostile and negative reporting on refugees became even more prominent. In addition, it explores what different power structures that are made visible in the news reporting. This is made possible by scrutinising 40 articles from the major national newspapers in Sweden that have daily releases, the so called mainstream media. The critical discourse analysis is used as a method and theory in order to find a focus that is critical and questioning towards existing power structures. Additionally, it contains a focus on how borders and differences are created between certain groups of people by using theoretical perspectives on otherness and postcolonial theory. The study shows an ambivalent media picture and clearly makes unequal and hierarchical power structures visible through the use of different assumptions, accepted truths and journalistic techniques.

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