This dissertation offers an exploration of the field of normative subjectivity circulated within western fine dining traditions. I use the notion of "normative subjectivity" which derives from the work of Michel Foucault. Foucault's emphasis on the use of disciplinary repetition to mold, circumscribe, and modulate the conduct of subjects informs my own argument that fine dining spaces feature a normative regime of subjectivity centered on the hegemonic governance of a figure which I call "Culinary Man." This phrase follows from Sylvia Wynter's account of "the overrepresentation of Man," which describes the colonial field of subjectivity which revolves around a normatively white, male, and European figure of authority. Drawing from these sources, this dissertation seeks to give a theoretical analysis of the governing relationship between the chef (who embodies Culinary Man) and the fine dining brigade (the organizational unit of labor within commercial kitchens). As I argue, Culinary Man deploys a heterogeneous set of disciplinary discourses and practices which have the effect of consolidating monopolies on epistemic authority and governance. Each position within the brigade's hierarchy is subject to distinct, though related, disciplinary practices. Thus, several chapters seek to identify the specific practices pertinent to each brigade subject, while also illuminating how they fit together as a coherent hegemonic project. Additionally, a genealogy, in the style of Sylvia Wynter, is carried out to illuminate points of variance as well as continuity within the figure of Culinary Man. While the bulk of the dissertation seeks to carry out a discursive analysis of Culinary Man's disciplinary regime, there are also moves toward alternative projects which do not replicate the brigade form. The concluding chapters seek to identify where extant modes of resistance or alternative forms of culinary organization may hold the potential to move beyond the hegemonic overrepresentation of Culinary Man. / Doctor of Philosophy / Within fine dining kitchens, work is generally organized by the hierarchical division of labor known as the "brigade." As the name suggests, this formation is modeled on the military, and the chef sits at the top of the brigade's hierarchy. This dissertation explores the relationship between the governing chef and the subordinate brigade of culinary laborers within western fine dining spaces. While the image of the domineering chef is somewhat ubiquitous in popular culture, this project seeks to understand how the authority of governing chefs is rooted in practices and discourses which encourage consent among the brigade, rather than merely compliance. As I argue, the field of fine dining labor is dominated by a particular set of practices, values, and habits which become solidified as norms through repetition. These norms uphold and legitimate the figure of the brilliant, masterful, and authoritative chef (called "Culinary Man") at the expense of the brigade's subordination. Additionally, there are racialized and gendered implications, as the archetype of Culinary Man is a white, male figure. This dissertation offers an exploration of the collection of practices, norms, and discourses which "shape" members of the brigade and direct the ways in which they conduct themselves. Several of the chapters identify particular positions within the brigade's hierarchy and analyze how distinct practices mold the conduct expected of culinary workers. Additionally, a genealogy of Culinary Man explores several different variations or "genres" of this figure. While much of the dissertation endeavors to identify and theorize Culinary Man's governance over the brigade, the last two chapters feature some discussion of models which might potentially move beyond Culinary Man as a normative archetype.

In this dissertation, I disentangle the Cynical figure – one who is capable of confronting structures of power by speaking truth to power – within a Westernized, Euro-centric discourse that authorizes the Cynic as an exceptionally powerful political subjectivity. Heeding the words of Sylvia Wynter, "…the Jester's role in the pursuit of human knowledge alternates with the Priest's role—transforming heresies into new orthodoxies, the contingent into modes of the Absolute." I recover the Cynic, once sutured to a distinctly Foucauldian discursive tradition to argue Black and Brown women function as contemporary Cynics using largely a Black Feminist theoretical framework. Drawing on biomythographies written by Black and Brown women, I future a Cynical discursive tradition in which the cynic is known by a different name. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this dissertation, I explore the practice of telling the truth as a political discourse that is reserved only for a select group of people. I look at the Ancient Greek philosophical school of Cynicism to understand how someone is given permission speak truth to power and its effects. Throughout this work, I argue that the Cynical practice of speaking truth to power is exclusive and that it is not worth making space for others to speak their truth in this same practice. Using a Black feminist theoretical framework, through the works of Sylvia Wynter, Katherine McKittrick, Christina Sharpe and others, I disrupt the status quo of how the truth must be spoken in order to be heard in the political realm. Moreover, I develop a different practice of speaking truth to power by contextualizing this practice from the family kitchen table. I think about how Black and Brown women, those who are violently elided from the political realm altogether, develop their own practice of speaking truth to power from the family kitchen table space. From this context, I think about how a person develops a critical consciousness in which they are given permission to speak their truth to power. I propose that Black and Brown women embody a radical political consciousness that has the ability to disrupt the status quo, that they are not only seen and heard, but their disruption leads to political change.

This study investigates colonial, independence, and postcolonial moments to identify different modes of self-fashioning in the Jamaican landscape. It also explores the ways collective and individual senses of self, identity and sovereignty are perceived between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. I assert that political processes involved in consolidating official national identities problematically reproduced hierarchies and exclusions reminiscent of the colonial period in politically independent contexts. In this regard, the cultural landscape serves multivalent purposes of proving grounds for visions of Jamaican national identity, counter-hegemonic articulations of those excluded from or marginalized by official notions of Jamaican national identity, and spaces for the invention of non-traditional modes of self-representation. I critique early nationalist projects through an examination of Sylvia Wynter's The Hills of Hebron and discuss the ways unacknowledged or unconsciously retained European cosmological elements undermine the sovereign identity they sought to construct. I also examine Michael Thelwell's The Harder they Come, Sistren's Lionheart Gal and Don Lett's film Dancehall Queen to discuss the marginalization of the working poor that persists within the newly independent relations of political power, and illustrate the ways modes of cultural self-fashioning like the ruud bwoy, or community theater emerge as spaces for negotiating self, identity, survival, and self-determination among the working class. I argue that the independence context is marked by exclusionary politics that provoke the development of more individual modes of self-fashioning, that vary between men and women, and also provide sites for counter-hegemonic discourses in opposition to nationalized discourses. Moving beyond the traditional framework of community based on heteronormative models, I examine Patricia Powell's A Small Gathering of Bones and The Pagoda to consider how queer communities are marginalized in nationalized discourses. I critique self-identity and self-fashioning within non-normative sexual communities in an analysis that traces gender and sexuality as indices of exclusionary patterns that are reproduced within nationalized identities throughout the country's history. This discussion argues that there is an institutionalized complicity between politics, culture, and religion in sustaining colonial power relations far beyond the colonial context.