The central theme of my work is systematic violence on the micro-level of everyday life, our understanding and relation to “evil”, and the conditions behind it. I wish to address the relation between these micro-levels of experience and individual action with larger questions regarding the history of modernity – the power structure and social order of the modern state and its regime of identity and identification, set against the backdrop of a haunting colonial past and post-colonial present-day reality.   I understand film – the moving image – as a medium of sensory experience that appeals in a direct way to the human mind. It enables us to experience well-known or completely strange states of mind and reflect on them, thus creating new awareness of our own position and behaviours, which enable new forms of self-knowledge. Film speaks to all that is ‘unconscious’, and it makes it possible to observe human behaviour in new ways, to understand the driving forces behind individual action and the self. Fiction is for me a way to enter into these realms of reality, to bring to the foreground those aspects that are normally inaccessible, or consciously or unconsciously hidden or repressed in the name of social order or common sense – in order to then return in the form of structural violence.

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem testemunhado o surgimento de uma produção literária com características muito próprias do nosso tempo: seus autores são periféricos (favelados), sua forma e conteúdo derivam do momento de extrema violência que assola grande parte da população. Exemplar desta produção, o livro de Ferréz, Capão Pecado é primeiramente publicado em 2000. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance, compreendendo-o dentro de um escopo maior, que abarca outros setores, da arte e da política. Para isso, a teoria pós-colonial, assim como um estreito diálogo com uma parte da tradição crítico-literária brasileira são utilizadas. / In the last few years, Brazil has witnessed the appearance of one type of literary production whose characteristics are typical or our times: its authors are from the suburbs (the slums), its form and content derive from the extreme violence imposed to a great part of the population. An example of this literary production, Ferrézs book, Capão Pecado is first published in 2000. This dissertation aims at analyzing the novel, understanding that it belongs to a greater scope, that comprehends other spheres of the arts and politics. In order to do so, the post-colonial theory will be used, as well as a great deal of the Brazilian literary theory tradition.

在後殖民主義的觀點下，一部「描寫異域」的文學作品，已不再被視為是對殖民地的「寫真」或忠實表現，而是被「解碼」成一種殖民暴力的再現和想像。本論文採取「對位閱讀」(contrapuntal reading)策略，探討《黑暗之心》這部小說對歐洲文明的批判。本論文的基本觀點是：通過一種「暴力再現」，對他者的論述將導致一種「自我認識」和「自我彰顯」的行動，這種自我理解的行動，是通過以「對他者的暴力否定」為工具而獲得表現的。在西方本體論與形上論的約制架構下，「異文化」的形塑是根據歐洲定做的真理和本質來拼湊的，而不是根據歷史的真實。 《黑暗之心》是一部以非洲剛果為目的地的探險故事，但其內容卻並未觸及非洲的文化與社會。做為一部探險文學，《黑暗之心》是一部「歐洲觀點」的探險，一種固著於種族和帝國的殖民想像。對故事中的主角馬羅和克茲而言，「非洲」不是一個導致歐洲文明崩解的強硬體系，而是一種歐洲與非洲之間「權力滿載」的約定，使得「歐洲式的縱欲」成為現實。 本文第一章討論馬羅「邊界論述」的曖昧性：對非洲的負面呈現夾雜著對帝國主義的軟弱批判。馬羅對殖民主義的雙重態度，正是《黑暗之心》的立足點：在揭發帝國主義意識形態卑鄙野心的同時，又通過澄清和辯証帝國主義理想模式，鞏固了帝國主義的典型。第二、三章從「後殖民理論」探討「他者再現」的文本權力觀：通過將第三世界化約成西方道德形上學的範疇，西方得以塑造和管制異己的世界，進而再次議定和確認西方世界的優越性。第三章則分析表現在馬羅「猶豫敘事」的風格下，一個「異族」歷史和語言所遭到的凐沒。第四章以自種女性和克茲的非洲女僕為對照，討論《黑暗之心》的女性角色。 本文的結論是，非洲只是一面鏡子，它折射出歐洲人最原始的感官。對他者的塑造就是對自我的確證，異域的前往是一種中心的回返。對歐洲文明的曖昧批判和對他者的「暴力再現」，構成了《黑暗之心》對一個消逝中的歐洲主體的最後眷念。 / From the perspective of Post-colonial theory, a literary work depicting alien territories is no longer considered as truthful portrayals but is decoded as a violence of representation in Western imagination. This thesis employs a “contrapuntal reading”to explore Marlow's vacillations in his critique of European civilization. In Marlow's vacillations between corrupted and ideal imperialism, a concrete world of the other hemisphere is rendered silent and invisible in Marlow's narrative. The Africa and Africans are invisible in that they are transformed into a negative and abstract category which contributes to Marlow's moral and metaphysical meditations. Through a negative representation of the Africa as an alien other which holds the wicked power the Europe does not possess, Marlow achieves his self-revelation and maintains his European identity. Africa is relegated to a category opposite to the West and is deprived of any concrete reality of history and language. Africans are reduced to function as a negative mirror which reflects the primitive psyche of the European self. The first chapter explicates the ambiguities of Marlow's narrative which is located in a border terrain, a tension between his disclosure of a ferocious imperialism and his ineffectiveness to criticize. Marlow takes an ambiguous stance to imperialism; he offers contradictory versions of imperialism: one a harsh denunciation of imperialist exploitation, the other a reluctant endorsement of imperialist civilization. The effect of his vacillations is his appeal to cultural and racial solidarity. The second and the third chapters examine the fiction from the viewpoints of post-colonial theories as formulated by Edward Said. The purpose of these two chapters is to unveil extreme subjugation of history and language in the racial Other deployed among Marlow's reflective narration of vacillations and hesitations. Chapter four discusses the function of female characters as a negative trope in the fiction. Both white women (the Intended and Marlow's aunt) and the native women (Kurtz's African mistress) occupy marginal yet essential parts in Marlow's narrative. The conclusion is that Heart of Darkness participates in the very ideology the fiction attempts to expose and destroy. Despite Marlow's effort to step outside the circle of imperialistic premises and to expose their fallacy, ther are still blind spots to the most acute and sardonic critic's perception.

This study focuses on the way in which the conceptual artists Berni Searle and Jan van der Merwe portray their respective memories of the influence of hegemony on their identity formation. Two conceptual installations of each artist, namely Looking back (1999) and Not quite white (2000) of Searle and Wag (2000) and Ontwortel (2009) of Van der Merwe, are interpreted comparatively according to the portrayal of hegemony, identity (including the artists‟ different sexual and race identities) and their memories of the historic and cultural effects of domination. The reading and interpretation of the installations are guided by the key concepts hegemony, identity and memory and are grounded theoretically from a critical post colonial perspective. Searle and Van der Merwe‟s memories of the influence of power relations and ideology on their conception of art and identity formation are addressed by contextualizing the artists within the South African context. Van der Merwe, as a white Afrikaans speaking man, initially formed collectively part of the Western patriarchate identity norm because of his historic background. His identity is in contrast with Searle‟s brown and female identity which is traditionally viewed and portrayed as different and inferior. Van der Merwe‟s memorial art is therefore mainly that of the unjustified benefiting of the white and male agents of power in contrast with Searle‟s memorial art of colonial and patriarchate domination. / Thesis (MA (History of Art))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This study focuses on the way in which the conceptual artists Berni Searle and Jan van der Merwe portray their respective memories of the influence of hegemony on their identity formation. Two conceptual installations of each artist, namely Looking back (1999) and Not quite white (2000) of Searle and Wag (2000) and Ontwortel (2009) of Van der Merwe, are interpreted comparatively according to the portrayal of hegemony, identity (including the artists‟ different sexual and race identities) and their memories of the historic and cultural effects of domination. The reading and interpretation of the installations are guided by the key concepts hegemony, identity and memory and are grounded theoretically from a critical post colonial perspective. Searle and Van der Merwe‟s memories of the influence of power relations and ideology on their conception of art and identity formation are addressed by contextualizing the artists within the South African context. Van der Merwe, as a white Afrikaans speaking man, initially formed collectively part of the Western patriarchate identity norm because of his historic background. His identity is in contrast with Searle‟s brown and female identity which is traditionally viewed and portrayed as different and inferior. Van der Merwe‟s memorial art is therefore mainly that of the unjustified benefiting of the white and male agents of power in contrast with Searle‟s memorial art of colonial and patriarchate domination. / Thesis (MA (History of Art))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Many scholars have attempted to reframe our understanding of international law in order to re-establish the credibility of international norms in an age of widespread doubt about the power of law. This study seeks to contribute to this project by examining how the relationship between a specific understanding of modernity and the assumption that the modern state is the only proper location of politics enables a discipline built on idealized categories framing active agency in relation to modern politics. The consequence is not only a tightly circumscribed discipline that constantly reproduces particular understandings of the future potential of international law but also limits what we understand meaningful practices of international law to be. The specific example investigated is that of the Sami, the indigenous and transnationally nomadic people of Fennoscandia. Looking not only at how the Sami have made use of supranational avenues to challenge the sovereignty of the Swedish state (especially in the European Court of Human Rights) in the name of individual human rights, this case suggests that human rights are best understood as a political practice among other political practices rather than as a system of idealized, legal abstractions. The analysis works through a reading of international law as one of many modern political tools that may be used in order to engage political problems of modernity, just as, in other circumstances, we may think about political tools in terms of the possibilities of political contestation about the common interests of a society. One of the common assumptions shared by all the texts and writers under examination involves an understanding of modernity as a structured and ordered teleological process towards the realization of man’s enlightened freedom. Considering the limited possibilities exposed by such texts suggest that if we want to re-imagine what we take international law to be then we must begin with engaging alternative understandings of modernity; more precisely, we must acknowledge the heterogeneity of contemporary experiences. My exploration of the joint implications of the work of Marshall Berman and Dipesh Chakrabarty concludes with a call to avoid reductionist accounts of international law and to think about the modern world as a dynamic, ever-changing and always malleable place, a place in which human experiences continuously alter the political orders within which we operate. / Graduate / 0616 / mkoblanck@gmail.com

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem testemunhado o surgimento de uma produção literária com características muito próprias do nosso tempo: seus autores são periféricos (favelados), sua forma e conteúdo derivam do momento de extrema violência que assola grande parte da população. Exemplar desta produção, o livro de Ferréz, Capão Pecado é primeiramente publicado em 2000. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance, compreendendo-o dentro de um escopo maior, que abarca outros setores, da arte e da política. Para isso, a teoria pós-colonial, assim como um estreito diálogo com uma parte da tradição crítico-literária brasileira são utilizadas. / In the last few years, Brazil has witnessed the appearance of one type of literary production whose characteristics are typical or our times: its authors are from the suburbs (the slums), its form and content derive from the extreme violence imposed to a great part of the population. An example of this literary production, Ferrézs book, Capão Pecado is first published in 2000. This dissertation aims at analyzing the novel, understanding that it belongs to a greater scope, that comprehends other spheres of the arts and politics. In order to do so, the post-colonial theory will be used, as well as a great deal of the Brazilian literary theory tradition.

This thesis aims to describe how Western tourist websites represents India. Although there has been much research on tourism and Western representation of India, no literature is available on how Western tourist websites represents India. This thesis uses three theories, social constructivism, post-colonial theory, and representation theory. Social constructivism is the base for this thesis. Post-colonial theory is used to find out whether the representation of India includes colonial stereotypes or no. Moreover, the representation theory is the center and the main tool to know and explain how Western tourist websites represents India. The design used is a 'case study' as case study design is compatible to explore the representations of India. The method used is a 'qualitative discourse analysis' which helps to provide a critical analysis of the description of India. Main results of this thesis are that Western tourist websites describe Indian economy as a backward economy. It is unclear whether Indian politics is described as undemocratic or democratic. Indian people are described as a mix of traditional, modern, unfree as well as free people. Indian culture is described as ancient and collective.

This thesis examines the Chinese investment programme; the Belt and Road Initiative, through a post-colonial lens, to categorise whether it fits the postcolonial draining of emerging economies. The purpose of this research is to broaden the way we see post-colonial relationships and contribute to the notion that all advanced economies can have a draining relationship with emerging ones. This is done by examining the geographical and economical aspects of the BRI-projects in two states; Kenya and Sri Lanka, to detect draining. The thesis comes to the conclusion that China, through the Belt and Road Initiative, fits the post-colonial description of draining the examined states. The results hopefully mean a humble contribution to the broadening of what is included in the post-colonial theory.

In Shakespeare’s The Tempest and King Lear, the relationship between the father and his children affects the progression and outcome of events. Goneril and Regan oppose Lear after Cordelia’s untimely rebellion and disownment. In The Tempest, Caliban desires to overthrow Prospero for freedom. Similarly, the appropriative offspring also exhibit rebellious “children” challenging authority. In Jane Smiley’s revision of King Lear and Aimé Césaire’s rewriting of The Tempest, defiance renders the children fatherless. In Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Ariel initially disregards her father but ultimately accepts his rule. In Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day, the text itself becomes an orphan as the matriarchy flourishes. Although there appear to be few similarities between these works, the familial dynamic follows a similar formula: the children disobey, but only those who eventually accept the principles of the patriarchy are able to maintain a relationship with their parents; the children who reject the authority become orphans.