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Being an integral part of cultural modernity, literary modernity is an on-going, self-negating, and self-rejuvenating process. It has always been engaged in a dialectical relationship with tradition and is inseparable from the quest for reality based on artistic autonomy and communicative intersubjectivity. In the first half of my thesis, I attempt to show how and why literary tradition has played a decisive role in the process of literary modernity, how and why the Chinese literary tradition is different from its Western counterpart; how and why Chinese literary modernity is influenced by, but different from Western literary modernity; and what is the specific path that Chinese writers have been taking to achieve literary modernity, as is distinct from the route that has been followed in the West, i. e., from romanticism to realism to modernism and to postmodernism. The second half of my thesis comprises a detailed study of two of China's foremost writers, Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, by way of illustrating my arguments. The first two chapters investigate some core concepts in the Western and Chinese literary traditions and the formative roles that they have played respectively in. shaping the process of literary modernity in the West and China. In our study of Chinese literary modernity and modern Chinese writers, we should pay special attention to the important role of the Chinese literary tradition, while taking into consideration the impact of Western literature and China's historical contingency. The interactions between these three factors constitute the special character of China's literary modernity. The third and the fourth chapters deal with respectively the fiction of Lu Xun and Shen Congwen, as well as their conceptions of literature. Through a close investigation of a few selected stories by these two writers, I wish to demonstrate how their works embody the general ideas of literary modernity, and at the same time reveal the peculiar features of China's own literary modernity. In conclusion, I suggest that modernity and tradition have always been intertwined in a complex, dynamic, and dialectic relationship, which has proved to be not only the motive force, but also the unfailing source for the achievements of modern literature, both Chinese and Western; and subjective reflection should be integrated with the lifeworld, and combined with inter subjective communication. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

This project was to establish a non-profit center for Native Americans in San Bernardino. A center was developed to enhance the educational opportunities and community cohesiveness in San Bernardino.

The past is the prologue. We must understand where we have been before we can understand where we are going. To understand the Blackfoot Nation and how we have come to where we are today, this thesis examines our history through Indian eyes from time immemorial to the present, using traditional narratives, writings of early European explorers and personal experience. The oral tradition of the First Nations people was a multi-media means of communication. Similarly, this thesis uses the media of the written word and a series of paintings to convey the story of the Blackfoot people. This thesis provides background and support, from the artist’s perspective, for the paintings that tell the story of the Blackfoot people and the events that contributed to the downfall of the once-powerful Nation. With the knowledge of where we have been, we can learn how to move forward. / x, 153 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm

There is no full-length investigation of postcoloniality in Bangladeshi Bengali literature. This is partly because Bangladesh had no separate identity under colonial rule, being just another part of greater India. Then, at partition, it became one section of the unnatural union that was Pakistan. These two identities have kept Bangladesh as a relatively unknown domain, at least to the Western academy. The other reason in the context of literary postcolonial studies is that these have concentrated on writing in English, whereas Bangladeshi literature is almost completely in the national language. This study offers a discussion of the postcoloniality of contemporary Bangladeshi theatre via analysis of selected playtexts.

There is no full-length investigation of postcoloniality in Bangladeshi Bengali literature. This is partly because Bangladesh had no separate identity under colonial rule, being just another part of greater India. Then, at partition, it became one section of the unnatural union that was Pakistan. These two identities have kept Bangladesh as a relatively unknown domain, at least to the Western academy. The other reason in the context of literary postcolonial studies is that these have concentrated on writing in English, whereas Bangladeshi literature is almost completely in the national language. This study offers a discussion of the postcoloniality of contemporary Bangladeshi theatre via analysis of selected playtexts.

Trajan conquered Dacia in 106 CE and encouraged one of the largest colonization efforts in the history of the Roman Empire. The new province was rich in natural resources. Immigrants from Dalmatia, Moesia, Noricum, Pannonia, Greece, Syria, Bithynia, Italy, indigenous Dacians, and soldiers from Legio XIII Gemina participated in the extraction of gold from the Apuseni Mountains. The inhabitants of mining settlements around Alburnus Maior and the administrative center Ampelum coexisted under Roman governance but continued to mark their identities in multicultural communities. At Alburnus Maior the presence of wage laborers with access to outside materials and ideas created the opportunity for miners to communicate identity through mediums that have survived. A series of wax tablet legal contracts, altars, and funerary monuments can be combined with recent archaeological data from settlements, burials, and the mines themselves to formulate the broad view necessary to examine the intricacies of group and self-expression. Through this evidence, Alburnus Maior offers a case study for how mobility and colonization in the ancient world could impact identity. Due to the pressures of coping within a multicultural community, miners formed settlements that were central to their daily lives and facilitated the embodiment of state, community, and personal identities. Identity changes over time and can simultaneously communicate several ideas that are hard to categorize. This study approaches this challenge by looking from macro to micro contexts that influenced several expressions of identity. Chapter 2 begins with a historical background that explores the expansion of the Roman Empire and considers how different experiences of conquest influenced the colonists who immigrated to Dacia. The circumstances that led to the massive colonization of Dacia are also considered. Chapter 3 describes how the mines at Alburnus Maior were exploited, who was present, and assesses the impact of state officials, legionaries, and elite entrepreneurs on the formation and expression of state identity through cult, law, and language. The formation of immigrant communities and the working conditions that permeated everyday life at the mines are then considered in the next chapter. Settlement, cult, and religious membership are evaluated for their role in creating and articulating community identities. Chapter 5 then analyzes the personal and sometimes private expression of identity that appears in commemoration, naming conventions, and burial. The three levels of state, community, and personal identities often overlap and collectively show that the hybridization of ideas from several cultures was central to how those at Alburnus Maior negotiated their identity in the Roman Empire.

This thesis finds out how the concepts of the divine in African Traditional Religions are similar or different, particularly in Ghana and Lesotho and in other parts of Africa in general. In doing so, the researcher combines literature review of eminent scholars who have studied the religious and socio-cultural life of the people of Ghana and Lesotho in particular and Africa in general, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various religious phenomena that reveal the concept of the divine in the two countries concerned and in other African countries through comparison of their worships and socio-cultural activities in order to come out with the differences and the similarities that may call for synthesis of the concept in Africa. He also finds out how the concept of the divine in Africa has been influenced by foreign religions and culture particularly Christianity, Islam, Western culture and Education. And how their services and disservices have affected the concept of the divine in Africa. The researcher also looks at the issue of monotheism as against polytheism in African religious perspective to find out whether the African Traditional Religions are polytheistic, monotheistic or monolatry. The study reveals that the concept of the divine, in the two countries under study, ends up in one Supreme deity-God- .but that the approach to the concept is not always the same. There are some differences and similarities, which also prevail in other African Traditional Religions and in Christianity. There is also a look into whether the term "African Traditional Religions" is appropriate for the religious belief and practices found in Africa, and whether a synthesis of religious practices in Africa would be possible in future. In the final analysis the study reveals that the African concept of the divine as pertains in the two countries is not different from that of Christianity and Islam but that the approach to the concept differs due to differences in the perception of the divine through sociocultural and religious milieus. / Religious Studies & Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

In May 1984, the Nahua, a Panoan speaking indigenous people living in a remote corner of the Peruvian Amazon, experienced their ‘first contact’ with Peruvian national society. 25 years later they appear to many observers to have ‘thrown away their culture’ under pressure from the outside world. This thesis argues instead that these changes were adopted by the Nahua for their own very good reasons and that these transformations reflect greater continuity with the past than first appears. The apparent lack of nostalgia that the Nahua have for the past instead reflects an inherent capacity for flexibility. This flexibility is manifested at a collective level in the frequent fissions of local groups and at an individual level in their susceptibility to losing their sense of self. The thesis focuses on two key aspects of this flexibility. The first is that the Nahua understand the site of their personal transformations to be the body which they describe as ‘soft’. This ‘softness’ refers to its ability to incorporate other worldly powers and become like the animals they eat or the people with whom they co-reside. Nevertheless, this capacity also means they can become ‘other’ when they live apart from their kin. This elasticity of selfhood is typical of many indigenous Amazonian peoples but the Nahua sit at the more flexible end of this spectrum. This is because they cultivate an attitude of radical hunger towards the outside world and place relatively less importance on techniques of restraint and control. The second aspect is the astonishing flexibility of Nahua worldviews. This is because their cosmologies are less a fixed set of facts and more a shamanic technique of knowing the unknown. These techniques help the Nahua understand the mysteries of the spirit world, their dreams and the world of Peruvians. In conclusion, it is the ‘softness’ of their bodies, the elasticity of their selves and the flexibility of their cosmologies that explain the extraordinary resilience of the Nahua in the face of dramatic transformations in the surrounding world.

This thesis finds out how the concepts of the divine in African Traditional Religions are similar or different, particularly in Ghana and Lesotho and in other parts of Africa in general. In doing so, the researcher combines literature review of eminent scholars who have studied the religious and socio-cultural life of the people of Ghana and Lesotho in particular and Africa in general, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various religious phenomena that reveal the concept of the divine in the two countries concerned and in other African countries through comparison of their worships and socio-cultural activities in order to come out with the differences and the similarities that may call for synthesis of the concept in Africa. He also finds out how the concept of the divine in Africa has been influenced by foreign religions and culture particularly Christianity, Islam, Western culture and Education. And how their services and disservices have affected the concept of the divine in Africa. The researcher also looks at the issue of monotheism as against polytheism in African religious perspective to find out whether the African Traditional Religions are polytheistic, monotheistic or monolatry. The study reveals that the concept of the divine, in the two countries under study, ends up in one Supreme deity-God- .but that the approach to the concept is not always the same. There are some differences and similarities, which also prevail in other African Traditional Religions and in Christianity. There is also a look into whether the term "African Traditional Religions" is appropriate for the religious belief and practices found in Africa, and whether a synthesis of religious practices in Africa would be possible in future. In the final analysis the study reveals that the African concept of the divine as pertains in the two countries is not different from that of Christianity and Islam but that the approach to the concept differs due to differences in the perception of the divine through sociocultural and religious milieus. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)