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White depictions of Aborigines in literature have generally been culturally biased. In this study I explore four depictions of Indigenous Australians by white Australian writers. Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972) depicts a half-caste Aborigine's attempt to enter white society in a racially-antipathetic world that precipitates his ruin. Children's author Colin Thiele develops friendships between white and Aboriginal children in frightening and dangerous landscapes in both Storm Boy (1963) and Fire in the Stone (1973). Nobel laureate Patrick White sets A Fringe of Leaves (1976) in a world in which Ellen Roxburgh's quest for freedom comes only through her captivity by the Aborigines. I use whiteness and masculinity studies as theoretical frameworks in my analysis of these depictions. As invisibility and ordinariness are endemic to white and masculine actions, interrogating these ideological constructions aids in facilitating a better awareness of the racialized stereotypes that exist in Indigenous representations.

Ce travail de thèse s’attache à caractériser les relations nouées entre les minorités anglophones du Québec et la France, de la fin de la Première Guerre mondiale à la fin de la Guerre froide. Depuis les années 1960, l’historiographie a mis l’accent sur l’importance du fait français dans la construction des liens franco-québécois. Un tel récit, développé dans la foulée de la Révolution tranquille, passe sous silence l’existence de nombreux liens noués entre élites anglo-québécoises et élites françaises. Du côté français, des échanges avec les milieux d’affaires anglophones sont encouragés au nom de l’intensification du commerce franco-canadien. Du côté anglo-québécois, la France incarne un modèle civilisationnel dont la connaissance est partie intégrante d’une culture légitime, nettement distinguée de la culture canadienne-française, reléguée au rang de folklore. À partir de l’étude de trajectoires individuelles comme de réseaux d’influence, cette thèse entend nuancer l’historiographie francophone en mettant à jour les liens de la diplomatie officielle comme ceux de la diplomatie parallèle qui unissent la France au Québec anglais. Elle entend également illustrer, à partir d’un cas d’étude concret, sur quels principes et par quelles modalités se fonde l’influence française dans l’espace atlantique, au XXe siècle. / This thesis aims at describing the relations built between the English-speaking minorities of Quebec and France from the end of World War I to the end of the Cold War. Since the 1960s, historiography has emphasized the significance of the “fait français” in the building of Franco-Quebecois ties. Such a narrative, developed during and after the Quiet Revolution, overlooks the existence of numerous connections between Anglo-Quebec and French elites. On the French side, exchanges with the English-speaking business community were encouraged in the name of the intensification of Franco-Canadian trade. On the Anglo-Quebec side, France embodies a civilizational model which knowledge of is an integral part of a legitimate culture – that is clearly distinguished from a folklore-like French-Canadian culture. Based on the study of individual trajectories as well as networks of influence, I intend to qualify French-speaking historiography by bringing to light the official diplomatic and parallel diplomatic ties that unite France and Englishspeaking Quebec. I also aim at showing on which principles and which actions a French influence is built all over an Atlantic space throughout the 20th century.

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Dissertation based on a comparative qualitative study of Franco-Ontarian and Quebec English-speaking postsecondary students. / Kymlicka (2007) identifies three diversity silos in Canada: Indigenous peoples, official bilingualism, and multiculturalism encompassing immigrants and ethnic groups. This dissertation falls within the official bilingualism silo and explores linguistic identity, boundary work and social status amongst Franco-Ontarian and Quebec English-Speaking postsecondary students. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto between January and June 2014 with 36 participants in English and French. First, this dissertation investigates how Franco-Ontarian and Quebec English-Speaking postsecondary students choose to self- identify, define, and enact their linguistic identity. Second, many questions aim to gauge potential symbolic linguistic boundaries, their porosity, and the role of bilingualism. Third, this dissertation delves into participants’ experiences of discrimination based on language or linguicism. Fourth, this inquiry examines if: a) the participants believe that bilingualism is highly esteemed and respected as a social status, b) if they believe that language is a commodity, c) and independently of their belief, if bilingualism results in a cosmopolitan lifestyle. Certain themes permeate all the chapters. Franco-Ontarian postsecondary students experience linguistic insecurity and express concerns for the future of French in their communities. While Quebec English-speaking postsecondary students do not voice fear for the future of the English language, they reveal a deep desire to be recognized as belonging in Quebec society. Some policy implications are discussed in the conclusion. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Francophones outside of Quebec and Quebec Anglophones are official language minorities with rights enshrined in the 1985 revised Official Languages Act. Their postsecondary experiences are less studied than their elementary and high school pathways. This dissertation summarizes the results of a study about the beliefs, attitudes and thoughts of Franco-Ontarian and Quebec English-Speaking postsecondary students about their linguistic identity, culture, their education, and the role of bilingualism in their lives. In order to do so, interviews were completed in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto with CEGEP, college and university students or recent graduates between January and June 2014 with a total of 36 participants. The results indicate that historical linguistic conflicts and the contemporary political context influence the responses of each group. The interviews also reveal that Quebec English-speaking participants want to be fully accepted as Quebecers while Franco-Ontarian participants worry for the future of their communities.

<p>This thesis seeks to interrogate how Elie Wiesel’s <em>Night</em> and A. M. Klein’s <em>The Second Scroll</em> illustrate the spiritual journeys of their protagonists and depict dehumanization of the Jewish people. Through their interactions with sacred bodies, as well as profane, religious and sacred objects, both novels map the spiritual quests of the protagonists, revealing very different conclusions. Using Virginia Greene’s “‘Accessories of Holiness’: Defining Jewish Sacred Objects” as an analytic framework, I explore how both novels transform sacred bodies into profane “objects” to illustrate various forms of anti-Semitic subjugation and de-personification. I then interrogate how <em>The Second Scroll</em> “textualizes” these objectified bodies, as well as how Klein’s novel turns Israeli society into a sacred text. This “textualization” offers a space to re-affirm God’s providence in a post-Holocaust imagination—an imagination that strongly differs from the rejection of God in <em>Night</em>. Through this exploration of spirituality and dehumanization, both texts humanize those who have been dehumanized in the camps and re-face the victims whose personhood was stripped from them, inviting them to dwell in both the novels and the readers’ memory.</p> / Master of English

Dans un contexte qualifié d’ « économie du savoir », où la croissance de l’économie mondiale repose de plus en plus sur les activités intensives en connaissance, la thèse s’interroge sur la capacité de deux petits États insulaires en développement – Maurice et Trinidad – à s’adapter pour s'intégrer à cette dynamique. Ces anciennes colonies britanniques, membres du Commonwealth depuis leur accession à l'indépendance dans les années soixante, font état d’indicateurs de développement en constante progression et sont souvent considérées comme des modèles de réussite économique. La thèse étudie la mise en place des institutions dans ces pays et cherche à évaluer dans quelle mesure l’héritage de la période coloniale, à travers la trace qu'ils en conservent dans la période contemporaine, peut faciliter la transition de leurs économies vers les secteurs intensifs en savoir. Pour ce faire, elle retrace leur trajectoire de développement institutionnel et économique des origines jusqu’à nos jours et elle s’intéresse notamment aux mesures prises aujourd’hui pour doter le pays du cadre nécessaire à l’économie de la connaissance, en particulier à travers le rôle de l’enseignement supérieur en tant qu’outil fondamental pour former le capital humain. Tout en reconnaissant que certains des atouts dont disposent les deux pays pour s’engager dans ce processus avec succès peuvent être mis en relation avec leur passé colonial, la thèse approfondit l’hypothèse que leur transformation en économies de la connaissance risque aussi d'être entravée par des caractéristiques héritées de cette période et qui, des décennies après l'accession à l'indépendance, freinent une large diffusion de la connaissance au sein de leur population. / At a time when economic growth is thought to be driven primarily by knowledge, the purpose of this research is to analyse to what extent two Small Island Developing States – Mauritius and Trinidad – are adequately equipped for this new economic context. As former British colonies, they both joined the Commonwealth upon gaining independence in the nineteen-sixties and they have since largely succeeded in overcoming their initially unfavourable conditions. Today, their good political, economic and social development is widely acknowledged. The main focus of this research is to evaluate how far colonial legacy, which is still visible in the contemporary institutions of both these states, can favour the transition they wish to undertake towards knowledge-intensive activities as drivers of economic growth. For this purpose, the research analyses the development trajectory followed by their institutions and their economy spanning the whole period of their colonial and post-independence history; additionally, this research considers the steps which are undertaken nowadays to build the framework required to foster a knowledge economy by studying more specifically the role of higher education as an essential tool for human capital formation. While upholding that some of the assets which could help them achieve their objectives can be linked to their colonial past, the research contends that the transformation of these two countries into knowledge-based economies could be hindered by the legacy of colonisation on some of their current features and which, decades after gaining independence, impedes the widespread diffusion of knowledge amongst their population.

This thesis grapples with questions surrounding representation, mourning, and responsibility in relation to two literary representations of the ZONG massacre of 1781. These texts are M. NourbeSe Philip’s ZONG! and Fred D’Aguiar’s FEEDING THE GHOSTS. The only extant archival document—a record of the insurance dispute which ensued as a consequence of the massacre—does not represent the drowned as victims, nor can it represent the magnitude of the atrocity. As such, this thesis posits that the archival gaps or silences from which the captives’ voices are missing become spaces of possibility for additive representation. This thesis also examines the role voice and sound play in these literary texts and the deconstructive-ethical philosophies of Jean-Luc Nancy and Jacques Derrida. This thesis argues that these texts invoke the sonic materiality of voice in the service of responding to the disremembered dead through mourning and acknowledgment.

Cette thèse vise à définir l’espace post-apartheid tel qu’il est représenté dans le cinéma sud-africain. Depuis 1994, l’Afrique du Sud démocratique constitue un nouvel espace géographique et socio-économique, profondément marqué par l’héritage de l’apartheid. Notre thèse vise à conjuguer l’analyse stylistique de films sud-africains et une réflexion civilisationniste, influencée par la géographie et la sociologie, sur ce qui fonde l’espace post-apartheid. Nous étudions le cinéma de fiction qui permet la représentation de l’espace tel qu’il est perçu, voire souhaité par le cinéaste, parfois en contradiction avec les enjeux commerciaux. La refondation du cinéma sud-africain après 1994 a-t-elle donné naissance à une nouvelle représentation de l’espace ?L’espace post-apartheid au cinéma se définit d’abord en rapport avec l’ancien espace, en opposition ou dans la continuité. Notre étude se concentre sur l’héritage de l’apartheid dans les années 2000, dans l’industrie du film et dans la mise en image d’un territoire national clivé et de villes divisées. Nous abordons ensuite la représentation récurrente de trajectoires individuelles en butte à cette géographie héritée, focalisation qui contribue à mettre à distance l’espace prescrit par l’ancien régime. Nous établissons enfin que l’espace cinématographique post-apartheid est défini en rapport avec la construction d’une nouvelle identité depuis 1994. Certaines ambiguïtés en découlent, dans la représentation du township et des étrangers africains ou dans la réception des films, et soulignent la redéfinition complexe de l’espace et de l’identité en Afrique du Sud afin que celle-ci puisse être véritablement « nouvelle ». / This study focuses on the representation of post-apartheid space in indigenous South African fiction films. I work towards a definition of cinematic post-apartheid space, putting forth its ambivalent relations to the apartheid past, between heritage and rejection, on the levels of geographical space, socio-economic space and, mostly, represented space. I situate myself at the intersection of South African cultural studies and reflections on post-apartheid space, and of the study of the new South African cinema. I focus on fiction since it gives most room for filmmakers to represent space as they perceive it, or desire it, to be, and on feature films which carry most of the South African industry’s ambitions in terms of international recognition.I first look at the heritage of apartheid in terms of the South African film industry, the divisions of the national territory and the structure of the South African city. I argue that post-apartheid cinematic space is first and foremost defined in relation to apartheid space, whether in opposition or in terms of heritage. However, recurrent representations of individual trajectories clash with that inherited geography and are a means for filmmakers to distance themselves from the previously prescribed relations between characters and space. I also argue that the definition of a new South African identity is crucial to the characterization of post-apartheid space in films. The ambiguous representations of township space or African foreigners in South African films and the emphasis on the nationality of films in film reception put forth how deeply paradoxical the reinvention of space and identity is in post-apartheid South Africa.

The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and perceptions of 12th-grade literature teachers about curriculum, Post-Colonial literature, and students. Theories posed by Piaget (1995), Vygotsky (1995), and Rosenblatt (1995) formed the framework for this micro-ethnographic study. Seven teachers from public and private schools in South Florida participated in this two-phase study; three teachers in Phase I and four in Phase II. All participants completed individual semi-structured interviews and demographic surveys. In addition, four of the teachers were observed teaching. The analysis yielded three themes and two sub-themes: (a) knowledge concerned teachers’ knowledge of British literature content and Post-Colonial authors and their literature; (b) freedom described teachers’ freedom to choose how to teach their content. Included in this theme was dilemmas associated with 12th-grade classrooms which described issues that were pertinent to the 12th-grade teacher and classroom that were revealed by the study; and (c) thoughts about students described teachers’ perceptions about students and how literature might affect the students. Two subthemes of knowledge were as follows:(1) text complexity described teacher responses to a Post-Colonial text’s complexity and (2) student desirability/teachability described teachers’ perception about how desirable Post-Colonial texts would be to students and whether teachers would be willing to teach these texts. The researcher offers recommendations for understanding factors associated with 12th-grade teachers perceptions and implications for enhancing the 12th-grade experience for teachers and curriculum, based on this study: (a) build teacher morale and capacity, (b) treat all students as integral components of the teaching and learning process; teachers in this study thought teaching disenfranchised learners was a form of punishment meted out by the administration, and (c) include more Post-Colonial authors in school curricula in colleges and schools as most teachers in this study did not study this type of literature nor knew how to teach it.