According to postcolonial theory, postcolonial literature tends to depict non-Westerners – the native Other – as a homogenous mass, portrayed as carrying all the dark human traits. The Other is often represented as, for instance, being exotic, violent, hostile and mysterious, and either stands in opposition to, or is portrayed as being completely different from the Westerner. With postcolonial theory as a background, this study is a close-reading analysis and comparison of Albert Camus’ The Stranger (1942), which takes place in a colonial Algeria, and J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999), which is set in postcolonial South Africa. The novels have been analysed in terms of representation of the Other, as well as the power relations and hierarchy between Westerners and natives, in order to see if these aspects are portrayed differently due to the fact that one novel is written pre-independence and the other post-independence. The results show that the representation of the Other is in accordance with postcolonial theory, in both novels. The natives are exoticised, portrayed as violent and mysterious in a hostile manner, and the plot is viewed from the perspective of the Western, white male protagonist. However, the power relations differ; in The Stranger, the Westerners are definitely superior, whereas in Disgrace, some of the characters still consider themselves to be superior, but their power has declined – the natives strike back, leaving the white population with a choice: to comply to the new order, or to find themselves in a state of disgrace.

Contemporary postcolonial critique poses questions about the impact of colonization on the construction of the political. Beginning with David Scott’s account of the limits and even hopeless condition of anticolonial resistance and postcolonial theory, this thesis explores one way in which the political might be reconstructed under postcolonial conditions. The analysis is primarily theoretical in character. I work through texts by Immanuel Kant, Mary Douglas and Partha Chatterjee to recount the narrative of modern politics and its affect upon postcolonial societies. On this basis, I recognize the sovereign state as the key point of contention in accounts of the continuing reproduction of social exclusions. I then identify the imposition of colonial Enlightenment to have refigured authentic modes of self-representation for the colonized; colonial Enlightenment I suggest, conflated cultural difference with the value of right, and has thereby largely depoliticized practices of exclusion. Shifting to consider how postcolonial political space might be reconstructed, I draw on Warren Magnusson’s understanding of urban politics. By challenging the ontological positioning of the sovereign state, the city may be understood as a dynamic political actor that does not erase cultural difference. Then by examining practices of scavenging in Brazil and Argentina, I compare one case in which the sovereign state has effectively perpetuated conditions of social exclusion with a case in which a municipality has been able to address these conditions. I conclude that the contemporary condition of postcolonial critique can indeed be taken in more optimistic directions through challenges to the ontological primacy of the sovereign state so that the value of difference can be recognized and emancipation rethought. / Graduate / 0615 / kerstin@uvic.ca

The purpose of this paper has been to examine various ethnic stereotypes in two Swedish film adaptations of Astrid Lindgren’s character Pippi Longstocking. I have used a semiotic content analysis and postcolonial theory to investigate: 1) how the ethnic groups are represented in the different materials, 2) if there is a hegemonic relationship between the foreign group and one’s own group, 3) whether there has been a "decolonization" during the twenty years that separate the two films. This study has shown that, in the 1949 adaptation, primarily Africans were produced in a negative light and as biologically inferior in relation to the whites. Furthermore, other ethnic groups, such as Indians, Egyptians, Brazilians, and Danes, were portrayed as scared, alien or different. However, the TV series of 1969 permeates with a greater sense of racial tolerance than its predecessor and, despite remnants of racial stereotyping, the overall tone of the later adaptation feels more progressive.

Each year, thousands of international students move to the United States to pursue higher education. Over the past few years in particular, the numbers of international students enrolled at U.S.-American universities has been on a constant incline. Two of the biggest changes that international students may experience are the different expectations of classroom etiquette and participation in the U.S.-American classroom setting. Impacted by many years of exposure to West-centric approaches to pedagogical praxis, the U.S.-American classroom has been created as a privileged space in which, more often than not, West-centric epistemologies, approaches to pedagogy, and ways of knowledge production are privileged over others. For international students, the majority of whom do not come from Western cultures, this can be a very tough space to negotiate. In this dissertation, I look at the conceptualizations of voice and silence, in particular, in order to gain a better understanding of how these two concepts are experienced and negotiated by international students within the U.S.-American classroom setting at a medium-sized U.S.-American university located in a small town in the Midwestern region of the country. While many West-centric cultures conceptualize voice and silence as dichotomous, I argue that they form a continuum that is dialogic, communicative, fluid, contextual, and at times paradoxical. Furthermore, I argue that the meanings of silence and voice within the U.S.-American classroom space can have multiple meanings and be understood as different forms of communication and participation. For the purpose of this project, I selected the three meta discourses of postcolonial theory, critical (communication) pedagogy, and international student-centered research to help deconstruct the notion of international students as the “Other,” as well as the misconceptions of silence within the classroom. Postcolonial theory as the main anchor of this research, in particular, allowed me to engage in an in-depth discussion of how we can decolonize West-centric, U.S.-American classrooms and create more dialogic, inclusive, and intercultural spaces in which different epistemologies and ways of knowing and knowledge production can be included. Furthermore, I bring into dialogue the three selected meta discourses in order to create a more nuanced and inclusive conceptualization of voice and silence that moves away from West-centric binaries. I used critical complete-member ethnography (CCME), as developed by Dr. Satoshi Toyosaki (2011), as the main method for critical inquiry. CCME argues for the value that is derived from combining different ethnographic methods in order to create an accurate account of cultural practices, as well as “focus on communicative practices and processes” (p. 66). I incorporated an autoethnographic account that functions to position myself as a researcher as well as autoethnographic narratives and reflections throughout my data analysis. In addition, I extend the notion of membership as it is currently conceptualized within CCME to make the argument for CCME as a method for critical inquiry within intercultural communication, and not just intracultural communication, research. My research findings demonstrate that the West-centric, binaristic conceptualization of voice and silence within the U.S.-American educational system can create unwelcoming learning environments for international students who may feel positioned as the Other who do not fit in, or may feel excluded from dominant discourse by being silenced. The participants’ narratives indicate the meanings of and reasons for international students’ embodiments of silence within classroom settings are as multiple, contextual, and dialogic as the conceptualization of silence itself. The collected data support the argument of the complexity and contextuality of voice and silence, and further call for a reconceptualization of voice and silence as acceptable forms of classroom participation. Furthermore, the international student participants identified several reasons as to why they may choose to perform silence in the classroom. Finally, through the interviews I tried to create a dialogue among international students and instructors in order to address and deconstruct issues pertaining to the struggles of international students caused by U.S.-centric approaches to pedagogy as well as conceptualizations of voice, silence, and classroom participation. My research showed that it is imperative for us to engage in more inclusive, critical, yet compassionate dialogues across our differences in order to create glocalized, intercultural learning communities within U.S.-/Euro-/West-centric educational systems. We must attempt to create intercultural spaces within our classrooms that allow for and cherish diverse narratives, epistemologies, different ways of knowing, and different conceptualizations of voice, silence, and classroom participation within the U.S.-American classroom setting, in particular at a medium-sized U.S.-American university located in a small town in the Midwestern region of the country. This dissertation research privileges such dialogue by centering the narratives of international students, thus, moving them from the periphery to the center and allowing them the agency to address exclusionary pedagogical practices within the U.S.-American educational system that exclude them from dominant discourse.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Kay A. Taylor / Angola began as a Portuguese colony in 1655. All of its social structures and associated sectors, including education, were influenced drastically by this initial Portuguese colonization. This research concerns Angolan education from the years 1930-1980. Two distinct periods are addressed: the colonial period from 1930 to 1975 and the post-colonial period from 1975 to 1980. In both periods, education was provided by the state and by different religious denominations. However, the main argument for this research is that a general comprehensive history of education in Angola has not yet been written, in part due to the character of its colonization and decades of social instability related to its War of Independence, 1961-1975, and the Civil War, 1975-2002. In Angola under the Salazar and Caetano regime, provision for education was made according to the Colonial Act of 1930, the new state, and the rule of the Roman Catholic and Protestant missions. Despite the concourse of these institutions staging events that influenced education and the whole culture, few Angolans were allowed to attend school and participate as citizens in society. The post-colonial period from 1975 to 1980 is characterized by the foundation of a socialist educational system. Most of the existing documents concerning Angolan education were written by the colonizers or by those who regard history from a colonial perspective. Therefore the history of education in Angola, as the convergence of colonialism, religion, and decree, needs to be rewritten.

Les nouvelles coloniales de Kipling et de Maugham mettent en scène, respectivement, la société anglo-indienne à l’époque du Raj et la vie dans les colonies anglaise et hollandaise des îles d’Asie du sud-est durant l’entredeux-guerres. Malgré ces spécificités contextuelles et l’écart temporel entre les époques auxquelles les deux auteurs écrivent leurs nouvelles, ces dernières sont invariablement traversées par le motif d’une colonisation pensée comme crise. Or le genre de la nouvelle porte formellement l’idée de crise. En utilisant le rapprochement opéré par les études postcoloniales entre modernité et colonisation comme paradigme de lecture, cette thèse montre comment la nouvelle peut opérer une prise spécifique sur ce rapport et se révéler lieu de trouble. Dans le cadre de cette réflexion sur la propension de ce genre à déstabiliser la modernité politico-philosophique et les idéologies qu’elle charrie – la promotion de la raison, du savoir, du progrès – il apparaît que les nouvelles de Kipling et de Maugham opèrent selon des modalités différentes. Celles de Kipling interrogent poétiquement le politique et la modernité tels qu’ils apparaissent dans leur spécificité coloniale par le biais d’une écriture qui opère depuis les marges, ce par un double décalage par rapport au roman domestique. Le fait même de prendre pour objet la société coloniale, elle-même située sur les marges de la société métropolitaine anglaise, s’inscrit en effet dans une écriture du décentrement. Les nouvelles de Maugham s’énoncent elles aussi depuis certainesmarges mais s’inscrivent davantage dans un constat général du déclin de la civilisation européenne durant l’entre-deux-guerres et dans une réflexion sur la situation de l’écrivain face à divers centres, sources d’autorité et de savoir. Le trouble que produit la nouvelle est donc certes lié au statut de « voix solitaire » de cette dernière mais surtout à sa position de marginalité / Kipling’s and Maugham’s short stories respectively stage Anglo-Indian society during the Raj and English and Dutch colonial societies in interwar South-East Asia. In spite of contextual differences and the two specific moments when the authors wrote their short stories, the latter invariably deal with a problematic colonisation seen as a crisis while the genre of the short story formally conveys the notion of crisis. By using the relation between modernity and colonisation as it was conceptualised by the Postcolonial studies as a paradigm, this dissertation shows how short stories can operate a specific take on this relation and be considered as a site of disturbance. In this reflection on the propensity of short stories to destabilise political and philosophical modernity and the various ideologies it is associated with – such as the promotion of reason, of knowledge, of progress – Kipling’s and Maugham’s colonial short fictions seem to operate in different ways. Kipling’s short stories poetically question the “political” and modernity as they appear in the colonial paradigm through awriting that operates from a marginal position moving away from the domestic novel. By focusing on colonial society, itself being located on the margins of English metropolitan society, the writers’ works practise a decentering form of writing. Maugham’s short stories partake more of a general feeling about the decline of European civilisation in the interwar period but also reflect on the location of the writer who faces various centres which produce knowledge and cultural authority. The destabilising effect of the short story is certainly linked to its position as a “lonely voice” but above all to its marginal position

Historically, various minority groups have faced multiple forms of prejudice and discrimination. The sources of such attitudes are mainly ignorance about these groups. One such group is Muslims living in western countries. The fear and dread of Muslims and Islam has deep historical roots; however, these attitudes escalated after the September 11 tragedy. After September 11, Muslims became the headlines of news and Americans were exposed to distorted images of Muslims in the media. This misrepresentation of Muslims in the media led to yet another form of xenophobia, which resulted in ‘othering’ Muslims. In schools and universities, the story was not different. In the following study, I discuss the ‘othering’ of 6 international hijabi Muslim women studying at a Midwestern University in light of the Islamophobic tendencies developed after September 11. I create narratives of these experiences to understand how hijabi Muslim women make sense of their experiences in relation to the larger sociopolitical discourse. These narratives contribute to the larger effort of creating an equitable educational experience for students from all backgrounds.

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In this essay Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim (1901) is dealt with from a postcolonial perspective, and the aim is to show how three father figures - Colonel Creighton, Mahbub Ali and the lama - individually influence Kim’s education. Furthermore, how their point of view on education and parenting can be used to understand the larger concepts of postcolonialism and the pedagogy of Empire. This essay will argue that Kipling provides three different approaches to education that each can be considered the most suitable for a white orphan in British India during the late nineteenth century. Colonel Creighton is the personification of the imperial mindset, an authoritarian leader who strongly believes in institutions such as schools. Whereas Mahbub Ali, the wild horse from beyond the border and a servant of the Great Game, advocates freedom and a non-institutionalised form of education. Last but not least, the Buddhist lama from Tibet wishes to make Kim his chela and teach him the Wheel of Life. Reading Kipling’s novel Kim helps us to create an awareness of how the world order has changed during the decades and also gives us the opportunity to look at our present time in different lights.