Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-107).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 2002. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-77).

Thesis (doctoral)--Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1997. / Cover title. Errata slip laid in. Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-220) and index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2006. / Thesis directed by Glenn Hendler for the Department of English. "December 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 175-182).

Thesis (M.A.)--Wheaton College Graduate School, Wheaton, IL, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-107).

Thesis (M. Div.)--Emmanuel School of Religion, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-84).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Maryland, College Park, 2007. / Thesis research directed by: Art History and Archaeology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 194-207).

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an exploration of the textuality of the skin, and how we approach and read wounds and scars. My discussion approaches the skin through the frame of surface reading to address three interconnected but seemingly disparate areas; namely American slavery, atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army, and self-mutilation. These areas all share the trope of the wound, and my approach is thus interdisciplinary in nature. I begin my discussion with Toni Morrison’s Beloved, focusing on the manner in which the extreme violence the characters suffer plays an instrumental role in their ability to reconcile themselves with their pasts. I focus specifically on the scars on Sethe’s back that resemble a tree, and how this tree links all of the characters together in their desire to re-member themselves. I then move to the Lord’s Resistance Army and how their mutilations of the civilian population serve a communicative function. I explore how we read images of atrocity, and how many of these images are framed and manipulated in order to garner attention. From there, I move to Kony 2012, the viral ‘documentary’ that drew the world’s attention and criticism for its gross misrepresentation of Africa and its indulgence in the stereotypes that present Africans as passive victims in need of saving. Finally, I discuss the phenomenon of self-mutilation and how the cuts and scars reveal how language is rendered incapable of expressing the inner pain and suffering of cutters. Often, these wounds and scars are misinterpreted as failed suicide attempts, an interpretation which completely ignores the expression of the symptom revealed on the surface. The negative stigma attached to self-mutilation hinders communication between those who cut and those who do not. In order for communication to be successful, all preconceived notions of what self-mutilation is need to be abandoned. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is ʼn verkenning van die tekstualiteit van die vel, en hoe ons wonde en littekens benader en lees. My bespreking benader die vel deur die lens van oppervlak-analise om drie onderling verbonde dog uiteenlopende areas aan te spreek, naamlik, Amerikanse slawerny, gruweldade wat deur die Lord’s Resistance Army gepleeg is, en self-mutilasie. Dié areas deel saam die troop van die wond, en my benadering is dus interdissiplinêr van aard. My bespreking begin met Toni Morrison se Beloved met die fokus op die manier wat die uitermatige geweld waaraan die karakters onderwerp word ʼn integrale rol speel in hul vermoë om vrede te maak met hul verledes. Ek fokus spesifiek op die littekens op Sethe se rug wat soos ʼn boom lyk, en hoe dié boom al die karakters aan mekaar skakel in hul begeerte om hulself te ‘her-versamel’ en her-onthou. Ek beweeg dan aan na die Lord’s Resistance Army en hoe hulle verminking van die burgerbevolking ʼn kommunikatiewe funksie vervul. Ek verken hoe ons beelde van gruwel lees, en hoe baie van dié beelde geraam en gemanipuleer word om aandag te trek. Van daar beweeg ek aan na Kony 2012, die gewilde web-dokumentêr wat die wêreld se aandag en kritiek uitgelok het as gevolg van die totale wanvoorstelling wat dit van Afrika getoon het, asook die onnadenkenheid van die documentêr in terme van Afrikane wat as passiewe slagoffers wat redding benodig gestereotipeer word. Oplaas bespreek ek die fenomeen van self-mutilasie en hoe die snye en littekens ʼn openbaring maak van die ontoereikendhied van taal om innerlike pyn en lyding van snyers uit te druk. Dikwels word die wonde en littekens verkeerd geïnterpreteer as mislukte selfmoordpogings, ʼn interpretasie wat die uitdrukking van die simptome wat op die oppervalk blootgelê word ignoreer. Die negatiewe stigma wat aan self-mutilasie gekoppel word belemmer kommunikasie tussen snyers en nie-snyers. Kommunikasie kan net suksesvol wees as alle vooropgesette idees van wat self-mutilasie is agtergelaat word.

Orientador: Lúcia Helena Oliveira Silva / Banca: Wilton Carlos Lima da Silva / Banca: Sandra Rita Molina / Resumo: Este trabalho pretende investigar e explicitar os elementos que compuseram o contexto das relações sociais no período escravista. Partindo da experiência singular da concessão de terras e liberdades para um grupo de escravos de Guarapuava, Paraná, a pesquisa procura demonstrar através das trajetórias de senhores e cativos como se operou a dinâmica de controle inerente ao sistema escravista na região analisada. A concepção sobre a liberdade dos escravos no período do Império é composto das mais variadas formas. Relatos de viajantes estrangeiros, jornais, discursos políticos, literatura e cartas de alforria alimentam o tema com as mais variadas perspectivas. Permite, com isso, uma constante produção historiográfica sobre as disputas, confrontos e negociações envolvendo senhores e escravos. O caso em questão tem como contexto o Paraná do século XIX. Anos antes do fluxo migratório europeu se intensificar na região e em um contexto econômico pautado no uso do trabalho escravo para o desenvolvimento da pecuária, escravos foram libertados após a morte de sua proprietária. A vontade senhorial está registrada no testamento de Balbina Francisca Siqueira, falecida em 1865, sem deixar herdeiros diretos. Procura-se refazer a trajetória dos escravos do momento em que suas liberdades foram concedidas, em 1851, até a morte da proprietária, cotejando outras fontes como registros de casamentos e de batismos e inventários post-mortem de proprietários de terras e escravos da então vila de Guarapuava, na recém emancipada Província do Paraná / Abstract: This works aims to investigate and explicit the elements that composed the social relations context in the slavery period. From the single experience of the concession of land and freedom for a group of slaves of Guarapuava, Paraná, the research seeks to demonstrate, through the trajectories of slave owners and captives, how the dynamic of control inherent to the slavery system was operated in the analysed region. The conception on the freedom of slaves in the Empire period is composed of various forms. Reports of foreign travelers, newspapers, political speeches, literature and manumission letters feed the topic with the several perspectives. This allows, therefore, a constant historiographical production about the disputes, confronts and negotiations involving masters and slaves. The case in question has the nineteenth-century Paraná as context. Years before the European migration flux was intensified in the region and in an economic context based on the use of slave labor for the development of livestock, slaves were freed after the death of their owner. The wish of the master is registered in the will of Balbina Francisca Siqueira, who died in 1865 leaving no direct heirs. This works aims to remake the trajectory of the slaves when their freedoms were granted, in 1851, until the death of the owner, comparing other sources such as wedding and baptism records and postmortem inventories of land owners and slaves of the former town of Guarapuava, in the newly emancipated Province of Paraná / Mestre

This thesis is a social history of disease and mortality in the American Deep South before the Civil War. Yellow fever attacked the region at epidemic levels every two or three years between 1800 and 1860, killing about eight percent of the urban population, and as many as 20 or 30 percent of recent migrants from Europe. With little epidemiological understanding of mosquito-borne viruses-and almost no public health infrastructure to ameliorate disease-the only real protection from this scourge was to "get acclimated": fall sick with, and survive, yellow fever. About half of all people would die in the acclimating process. By placing the Deep South within an Atlantic disease diaspora uncontained by continental boundaries, the project shifts the fault-lines of the Southern past from North-South political conflicts onto similarly formative but overlooked ecological processes in the Greater Caribbean. Yellow fever and mass mortality are largely absent from the recent historiography on the cotton kingdom and "slave racial capitalism." But as well as being a “slave society,” this thesis suggests the Deep South was also a "disease society": Deep Southerners discussed yellow fever obsessively, worked according to its seasonal schedule, and judged others based on their perceived vulnerability to the disease. Yellow fever, and immunity to it, profoundly shaped the asymmetrical hierarchies of Deep Southern society, with acclimated "immunocapitalist" creoles on top, and unacclimated "foreigners" below. Slavers and their allies argued only intellectually-inferior but naturally-resistant black people could perform the arduous labour of sugar and cotton cultivation in the Deep South, as whites too frequently died. This became the region's chief argument for permanent racial slavery. However, almost every slave revolt in Louisiana coincided with a particularly bad epidemic, suggesting slaves found disease politically intriguing and understood that yellow fever left white society chaotic and vulnerable to attack.