The dissertation seeks to newly conceptualize the situation of the Baltic post-war exile and the way it was reflected in the Lithuanian and Latvian novels through the lens of the postcolonial criticism. Forced emigration after the Second World War is related to cardinal changes, thus the following post-colonial concepts marking the shifts become the analytical instruments: liminality (V. Turner), hybridity and mimicry (H. Bhabha), imagined community (B. Anderson), nostalgia (S. Boym), and trickster (M. Bachtin). The analysis focuses around the Latvian and Lithuanian exile novels of the second half of the 20th century about war and life in exile written by the authors who suffered the same fate. The researcher uses a binary scheme of physical and mental colonization to consider the selected body of works. The chapter “Physical Colonization” analyzes war novels along the male/female gender lines. The “Mental Colonization” chapter explores works that reflect the scale of the survival strategies; the scale ranges from attachment to one‘s own culture to its voluntary renunciation. Three means of interface with the new countries stand out, which help to shed light onto the three stages of identity transformation of an emigrant, namely anti-colonization, hybridization, and self-colonization. The post-colonialism used in the analysis of Baltic novels and its proposed definitions proved to be functional and effective. The conclusion can be drawn that the emigration experience and... [to full text] / Disertacijoje naujai teoriškai konceptualizuojama baltų pokario išeivių bendruomenės situacija bei jos raiška lietuvių ir latvių romanuose. Prievartinė emigracija iš baltų kraštų po II pasaulinio karo susijusi su kardinaliomis permainomis, todėl analizės instrumentais tampa lūžį ir slinktis ženklinantys postkolonializmo konceptai: liminalumas (V. Turner), hibridiškumas ir mimikrija (H. Bhabha), įsivaizduojama bendruomenė (B. Anderson), nostalgija (S. Boym), triksteris (M. Bachtin). Analizės centre – latvių ir lietuvių XX a. II pusės egzodo romanai apie karą, pasitraukimą ir gyvenimą išeivijoje, sukurti rašytojų, kurie patys tą lemtį patyrė. Pasirinktų tekstų korpusui skvarbyti pasitelkiamas dvinaris fizinės ir mentalinės kolonizacijos modelis. „Fizinės kolonizacijos“ skyriuje analizuojami karo romanai pagal vyrų/moterų lyties skirtį. „Mentalinės kolonizacijos“ skyriuje tyrinėjami kūriniai, atspindintys išlikimo strategijas, kurios įvairuoja nuo prisirišimo prie savos kultūros iki savanoriško jos atsižadėjimo. Įžvelgiamos trys išeivio tapatybės transformacijos pakopos: antikolonizacija, hibridizacija, savikolonizacija. Baltų romanų analizei taikyta postkolonializmo metodologija, jos pasiūlytos sąvokos ir tipologizavimo modelis pasirodė funkcionalūs. Konstatuota, kad emigracinė patirtis ir tapatybės virsmai ne tiek pavaldūs etninei prigimčiai, kiek išgyvenami bendražmogiškai.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine dynamics and consequences of geographical return movements in two North-South contexts based on migrants' biographies. The thesis examines the consequences of return migration in terms of social mobility, meanings of return and the shaping of identity-place relationships for the subjects of migration. Categories of return were identified and related to evolving migration processes in the two case studies of long term labour migration and political exile respectively. The concept of 'narrative identity' was used to analyse the shaping of the migration biographies and to examine the ways migrants made sense of their experiences of emigration/exile and return. In a further step the narrative identities were discussed in relation to examples of public narratives in the two contexts. The dissertation's case study of US-Mexican migration showed that geographical return took different shapes at the local level as the migration process evolved between the studied municipality in Mexico and different destinations in the USA. The initial phase of formative return led to the gradual establishment of a migration tradition and development of a remittance economy. Return movements turned in a later phase into an increasingly trapped migratory pattern of differentiated circulation between the municipality in Mexico and different locations in the USA. The 'narrative identities' of returning migrants were related to family situations (family formation, safety of the family, family commitment), perceptions of real life in Mexico and work identities (respected worker, independent businessman), negative experiences of migration (threat, social degradation, trapped migration), and the search and fulfilment of personal experiences. These narrative identities were contrasted with public narratives, showing the partial incorporation of some public narratives and contrasting senses of self of migrants in relation to 'imposed identities' in both the USA and Mexico. The second case study of the dissertation identified categories of return movements in a context of changing conditions in both Chile and Sweden. Examples of categories were 'conditional return' and 'programmed return' and in the phase of desexilio professional circulation, continued exile and everyday life circulation. The narrative identities of retornados were related to family situations (children's future and education, the extended family and the family vote), Sweden as 'parenthesis' (programmed return, duty to return, political return, personal return), work identities (independent businessman, professional circulation) and experiences of exclusion (foreigner, immigrant, prolonged political exile). The narrative identities of migrants were discussed in relation to larger public narratives about retornados in the Chilean media. / digitalisering@umu

A boundary is not that at which something stops, but ...is that from which something begins its presencing. (Bhabha 1994:1) For the purpose of this thesis, the above statement will be central, because implicit in it is a particular awareness of what constitutes exile and the exihc experience, both variously defined boundaries within which to view the historicity of the exiled subject. Bhabha's statement prompts one to reflect on the multi-faceted marginalised situation faced by the exiled subject. It can be argued that Lewis Nkosi, a black exiled South African writer, has remained a largely underresearched writer, particularly in South Africa. His works have not been as widely researched possibly as those of his contemporaries, despite his local and international profile and reputation as an astute scholar and writer, for various reasons which this thesis will explore. His writings and extensive commentaries on African and world literature certainly merit research, particularly in respect of his construction of place and identity. He has been influential in South African letters and frequently cited - however, his years outside the country have led to his neglect within South Africa. This thesis hopes to go some way towards recovering Lewis Nkosi as writer and scholar, particularly in terms of his construction of identity, both within South Africa and as exile. This thesis will examine representative texts by this writer, using perspectives of theorists such as Fanon (1986), Bhabha (1994), Said (1983) and Quayson (2002) among other writers who particularly discuss notions of space and place from a post colonial perspective. Reference to Nkosi's own history as well as his non-fictional writing will be seen as relevant in defining what 'home' and 'exile' have meant to Nkosi and how a construction of 'place' enhances the sense of identity. The question to be considered is: how, through his writing - both non-fiction and fiction - does Nkosi construct identity through place, how, in other words, has he pushed back boundaries as an exile writer? Here the impact that place has on our understanding of who we are will be explored. This thesis will investigate then the development, perception and experience of place and identity in the works of this writer. Nkosi's somewhat nomadic lifestyle in exile makes him an interesting case: the exposure to American and European culture he enjoyed as a writer in exile has not been the norm for most black South African writers. Nkosi's concept of place and identity will be analysed as they developed first in his early journalism days of Ilanga lase Natal and Drum, and subsequently in his primary works of critical essays and later fiction. Nkosi's act of writing is also the place where identity and memory meet, and this study will refer to early literary essays contained in his literary works Home and Exile (1965), The Transplanted Heart (1975) and Tasks and Masks (1981). A reading of these works together with his many earlier articles and reviews as well as his latest novels and dramas, will show the ways in which this writer self-consciously participates in the construction of place and identity, how he explores, through his writing, his sense of place and his identity as a South African exile, and how his perceptions may have changed during his long career as writer. As Nkosi affirms: "all of those are strands of memory about place and it automatically gets into your writing, because I think, it is both the terrain of consciousness and the orientation to reality" (Lombardozzi 2003:331). This dissertation will focus then, on the construction of home, identity and exile in Nkosi's discourse, written over nearly five decades of South Africa's turbulent history, a period during which all these terms were contested sites. Theories of place and identity are inevitably made more complex by the condition of exile, as place and identity are immutably concatenated, so that what is said about place must also include the construction of identity. In this regard theorists on exile such as Grant (1979), Gurr (1981), Seidel (1986), Robinson (1994) and Whitehouse (2000) will be examined, and theorists such as Cartey (1969), Fanon (1986), Owomoyela (1996) and Walter (2003) on the issue of identity will be considered. The thesis will therefore position Nkosi in terms of his generation of exile writers, and how this has impacted on his construction of identity, and will to this end, explore interconnected issues surrounding home, identity and exile. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

digitalisering@umu

The Old Testament verbal expression of ‘the exile of Judah’ during the Babylonian exile has led to the perception that the land of Judah was emptied of all Judeans. This biblical expression is not necessarily contradictory to historical facts, but theologically and quality-orientated in nature. The exile of the elite from Jerusalem to Babylon, the execution of some of them and the flight of others to Egypt and other neighbouring states disrupted Jerusalem and rendered the city dysfunctional in every national sphere. The royal and religious services, which were based in Jerusalem, the capital city, were discontinued. The emptiness of Judah was signalled by the emptiness as regards the royal and religious authority wrought on Jerusalem by Babylon. Without their royalty, cult, trade, military and judiciary, Judah was indeed emptied and exiled. However, not all Judeans were exiled, for a remnant remained. There is almost no significant record of revelations by God in Judah during the exile, especially after compatriots that opted to flee to Egypt had forcefully taken Jeremiah with them. In addition to its land being emptied during the exile, Judah lost some of its land. The Judean identity in Judah disintegrated due to the influx of foreigners into the land and their subsequent influence on the remaining Judeans. Those that remained in Judah were unable to establish an exclusive Judean community and identity effectively; in any case, not before the Babylonian exiles returned early in the time of the Persian Empire. The paucity of information about the lifestyle in Judah during the exile attests to the veracity and rectitude of the theological concepts of the exile of Judah from 605 to 539 BCE. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The Old Testament verbal expression of ‘the exile of Judah’ during the Babylonian exile has led to the perception that the land of Judah was emptied of all Judeans. This biblical expression is not necessarily contradictory to historical facts, but theologically and quality-orientated in nature. The exile of the elite from Jerusalem to Babylon, the execution of some of them and the flight of others to Egypt and other neighbouring states disrupted Jerusalem and rendered the city dysfunctional in every national sphere. The royal and religious services, which were based in Jerusalem, the capital city, were discontinued. The emptiness of Judah was signalled by the emptiness as regards the royal and religious authority wrought on Jerusalem by Babylon. Without their royalty, cult, trade, military and judiciary, Judah was indeed emptied and exiled. However, not all Judeans were exiled, for a remnant remained. There is almost no significant record of revelations by God in Judah during the exile, especially after compatriots that opted to flee to Egypt had forcefully taken Jeremiah with them. In addition to its land being emptied during the exile, Judah lost some of its land. The Judean identity in Judah disintegrated due to the influx of foreigners into the land and their subsequent influence on the remaining Judeans. Those that remained in Judah were unable to establish an exclusive Judean community and identity effectively; in any case, not before the Babylonian exiles returned early in the time of the Persian Empire. The paucity of information about the lifestyle in Judah during the exile attests to the veracity and rectitude of the theological concepts of the exile of Judah from 605 to 539 BCE. / Thesis (PhD (Old Testament))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Current scholarship recognizes that music is a powerful channel that can manifest individual identity. But such research takes for granted music as a symbol of collective cultural identity, and, therefore, neglects examining how music in general, but musical performance in particular, functions to produce and reproduce a society at large. Indeed, what is missing is a rigorous understanding of not only how the act of performing forms collective identity, but also how it acts as an agency, indeed, perhaps the only agency that enables this process. As Thomas Turino suggests, externalized musical practice can facilitate the creation of emergent cultural identities, and help in forming life in new cultural surroundings. The present thesis examines the dynamics between cultural identity and music from the perspective of the performing musician. By examining musical situations in the context of the Armenian – Canadian diaspora, I will show how performers themselves both evoke feelings of nostalgia for the homeland and maintain the traditions of their culture through the performance event, while simultaneously serving as cultural ambassadors for the Armenian – Canadian community. My thesis outlines four key themes that are crucial in understanding the roles of musicians in Armenian culture. They are tradition bearer, educator, cultural ambassador, and artisan. As boundaries between peoples and nations progressively blur, I conclude that performance proves a vital medium where a search for national identity can occur, frequently resulting in the realization of one’s ethnic identity. Ultimately, without the labors of the performing musician, music would be unable to do the social work that is necessary in forming cultural, social, or even personal identities.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-200) and index.

Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-200) and index.

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