This essay explores the concept of hybridity and its relation to cultural identity in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007). Changez' identity is analysed by using postcolonial theory and its notion of hybrid identities. By analysing Changez' cultural identity, I came to the conclusion that his hybridity is not fixed, but rather fluid and changing. At the beginning of the novel, Changez' hybrid identity is fractioned and unstable, leading him to become ashamed and uncomfortable with who he is and his Pakistani culture. At the end of the novel he realises that his experiences in America will always be part of who he is - part of his identity - and his hybridity becomes harmonious and stable, in turn allowing him to use Western culture against itself; a key part of hybridity in postcolonial theory.

La marionnette iranienne, par son fonctionnement, son rôle et son comportement esthétique et sociopolitique sur les scènes théâtrales et à la télévision, est un objet et une sorte de personnage hybride : tout en exhibant la nature hybride de cette forme théâtrale, la démarche marionnettique souligne le « grand » pouvoir de cette « petite » chose mineure et trouve un espace pour jouer avec ce même pouvoir. Ainsi, la marionnette en Iran, depuis au moins dix siècles, participe à un « jeu » au-delà des jeux marionnettiques, tout en résistant aux changements de la société. Elle se renouvelle donc en toute occasion et s’épanouit de nos jours tout en revendiquant à sa guise la liberté de parole et de geste. Pour saisir ce phénomène, cet ouvrage s’attache à suivre les traces de la marionnette dans la société iranienne, à partir du XIe siècle, dans la littérature classique persane au style allégorique et symbolique, puis, à partir du XVIIe siècle, dans les récits de voyageurs occidentaux. Parallèlement aux études historiques, cette thèse donne des informations majeures sur l’identité sociale de la marionnette iranienne et sur les trois techniques traditionnelles du théâtre de marionnettes. A partir du XXe siècle, la transformation, voire la mutation des formes marionnettiques iraniennes, ainsi que leur entrée à l’Université témoignent d’un renouveau à travers lequel certains sujets délicats, voire tabous, peuvent être abordés en détournant la censure. / Iranian puppetry and the Iranian puppet show, it's operation, it's role and it's sociopolitical nature, on both stage and TV, is a form with a kind of hybrid character. Indeed, this approach emphasizes the power of this “small” scale theatrical art form to tackle “big” subjects, demonstrating it's hybrid nature. Puppetry in Iran, for the last ten centuries, participates in a “game” beyond the traditional marionette show, resisting change in society. However it somehow manages to renew itself on every occasion and flourish in the present, proclaiming the freedom of speech and gesture. The goal of this thesis is to grasp this phenomenon, by following puppetry in Iranian society through the ages. From the eleventh century classical Persian literature, with it's allegorical and symbolic style, onto the seventeenth century with stories of Western travelers and finally the twentieth century, where Iranian marionettes are transformed or mutated into something universal relevant to Iranian society, addressing certain touchy subjects or taboos and managing to circumnavigate censorship rules. Alongside these historical studies, this thesis describes the social identity of Iranian puppetry and the three traditional techniques of puppet theater.

This thesis analyzes eight specific Swedish medieval ballads that contain supernatural transformation and hybridity for how they depict gender in late medieval and early modern contexts. Using literature as a historical resource and a micro-historical approach, this thesis applies gender theory, intersectional approaches, and monster theory to its reading of these ballads. Through this analysis, this thesis has found that transformation in these ballads highlights what it meant to be human in the late medieval and early modern periods, by contrasting and defining humanness through the tension of being a hybrid. And inevitably, discussions of the body during these periods involved having a gendered body. While these stories define what was human and what was not, they discuss and negotiate late medieval and early modern conceptions of masculinity and femininity. Additionally, the conflicts in these stories introduce real-life issues such as power, violence, and social roles. Characters in these ballads negotiate gender and social roles by subverting and upholding societal power structures. A woman acts independently and marries a snake against her family’s wishes. Wives use magic to upend the social hierarchy usurp their husbands’ authority. Father’s roles as protectors are both questioned and underlined in stories of their failures. This thesis concludes that late medieval and early modern audiences had many different understandings of gender, and these audiences used supernatural transformation ballads as a means of communicating complex and contradictory elements of identity and gender during this period.

L’identité est un concept très complexe qui peut se décliner en quatre catégories : l’identité ethnique, l’identité culturelle, l’identité sociale et l’identité personnelle. Alors que l’identité ethnique sera difficilement changée, les trois autres catégories peuvent muter, peuvent se combiner à d’autres éléments, on parle d’hybridation de l’identité. L’identité hybride est une identité ayant plusieurs composantes et se présente en fonction de la situation vécue par une personne. Dany Laferrière nous montre une manifestation de cette identité hybride dans son ouvrage Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer. L’hybridité est constatée chez les jeunes filles blanches fréquentant les personnages noirs issus de la migration à Montréal. Elles bravent des interdits pour passer le temps avec ces personnages quitte à avoir une double vie, témoignant alors de la multiplicité de leurs identités en fonction de la situation.L’identité unique n’existe plus, mais pourra se manifester à l’issue d’interactions répétées formant alors une nouvelle identité. L’interculturel est alors à la base de l’identité hybride. Cette dernière ne pourra cependant être qu’éphémère. / The hybridity of the characters in the novel Comment faire l’amour avec un nègre sans se fatiguer by Dany LaferrièreIdentity is a very complex concept that can be broken down into four categories: ethnic identity, cultural identity, social identity and personal identity. While the ethnic identity will hardly be changed, the other three categories can mutate, can combine with other elements, we speak of hybridization of identity. Hybrid identity is an identity with several components and presents itself according to the situation experienced by a person. Dany Laferrière shows us a manifestation of this hybrid identity in his novel How to make love to a negro without getting tired. Hybridity is seen in young white girls dating black characters from migrant backgrounds in Montreal. They brave prohibitions to spend time with these characters even if it means having a double life, testifying then to the multiplicity of their identity depending on the situation.The single identity no longer exists, but may manifest itself at the end of repeated interactions then forming a new identity. Interculturality is therefore the basis of hybrid identity. The latter, however, can only be ephemeral.

In restaurants, dance halls, and travel brochures around the world, the word “Cajun” brings to mind a plethora of significations related to flavorful foods, exotic language, and geographical affiliation with South Louisiana— but what exactly is “Cajun” anyway? How has “Cajun” emerged as a community, culture, and identity? Who are the Cajuns today? This thesis rereads “Cajun history” in the larger context of Créole Louisiana, tracing issues of class, language, colonization, racialization, and modernization from Colonial Louisiana through 2020. This is accomplished with the aid of literary analyses, including authors such as Cable, Chopin, de la Houssaye, and Arceneaux, films such as Louisiana Story, and folk stereotype humor in the form of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. The thesis introduces postcolonial theoretical frameworks of mimicry, fixity, hybridity and créolization as methods for understanding the oft-forgotten historical relationality of identities, cultures, and languages in Southern Louisiana. In the 1970s Caribbean writers such as Édouard Glissant put forward the unfinished and unpredictable creativity of the historical, geographical, and anthropological space of Creole society and culture from the Antillean point of view. In a similar move, my introduction of the theory of creolization to Louisiana history seeks to wrestle back the power of Acadie or even France as the fundamental matrix of non-Anglophone culture, history, and identity in Louisiana. Instead, the complex perspective of Creolité threatens the stability of these origin myths, revitalizing our concept of history, culture, and identity in the localized touchstone of South Louisiana, while understanding that this localized perspective is always already an ongoing production at the borders of culture(s) in contact. Ultimately, I argue that Southern Louisiana since colonization has consistently been a site of créolization, destabilizing claims of Acadianness as the sole figurehead for francophone or franco-créolophone identity in the region. / Graduate / 2021-09-19

ABSTRACT COLONIALISM, EDUCATION, AND GABON: AN EXAMINATION OF THE SELF-TRANSLATION OF GABONESE CITIZENS IN THEIR POSTCOLONIAL SPACE THROUGH EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE. SEPTEMBER 2016 MOUSSAVOU FROY BATSIELILIT, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Maria Tymoczko Gabon’s educational model, mode, and language of instruction are similar to that of France. Likewise, the official language in Gabon remains French. The similarities between both countries, as a result, have continued to perpetuate and reinforce the indirect, or direct, influence of French culture in Gabon. The resemblance also contributed to the inability of Gabon to create an independent identity from France. As a result, Gabonese citizens are self-translating and rewriting themselves as an extension of France while simultaneously censoring half of their identities from the narrative of nation. To understand the current situation, I investigate education and the language situation in Gabon and relate them to the field of Translation Studies in terms of the latter’s concepts. The thesis begins with a historical background of Gabon. The discussion then shifts to analyze the connection between language and power, and its use during French colonialism in Africa. The importance of language and power is in turn linked to education, resulting in an analysis of Gabon and France’s educational systems and materials. The issues of education, language, and identity are discussed so as to determine the influences on Gabonese citizens’ identities.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law & Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2014. / South Africa’s Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) scores are consistently well-below the average of other efficiency-driven economies, as well as for other sub-Saharan countries (Turton and Herrington, 2013). Despite this, a 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report suggests that youth in sub-Saharan Africa demonstrate marked entrepreneurial propensity and potential (Kew, Herrington, Letovsky and Gale, 2013). As such, this thesis seeks to contribute an understanding of how black, youth entrepreneurs located in Johannesburg’s informal economy, seek to achieve legitimacy, and thus ‘become’, through the attainment of an accepted entrepreneurial identity. To this end, the role of hybridity, as a form of entrepreneurial capital, is explored as a potential mechanism. A hypothesised conceptual framework is accordingly evolved which explores the relationships between entrepreneurial identity aspiration, resource attainment, legitimacy, and how these are mediated by hybridity. Survey data gathered from young, black entrepreneurs (n=503) across Johannesburg’s seven administrative districts, using a structured questionnaire, and tested using multiple regression analysis, reveals the following: a direct relationship between entrepreneurial identity aspiration, entrepreneurial resources as well as the attainment of legitimacy is found, suggesting that black youth do indeed aspire to entrepreneurial legitimacy, and thus, seek to ‘become’ accordingly. Moreover, hybrid values are seen to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial iii identity aspiration and resource attainment such that they accounted for the relationship. This suggests the potential for hybridity as a form of entrepreneurial capital such that values might have been seen to act as a form a catalyst for the attainment of other resources. The study contributes a conceptual framework which provides a theoretical understanding of young, black entrepreneurs in South Africa. More specifically, it suggests a values-mediated relationship between entrepreneurial identity aspiration and the attainment of resources such that youth seek legitimacy accordingly. As such, this study is the first to provide insights into the potential impact that hybrid values might have on shaping an entrepreneurial identity. Additionally, it contributes evidence to suggest that opportunity-driven behaviour motivates young, black entrepreneurs in Johannesburg’s informal economy, beyond necessity motives which are used to stereotypically frame this space. It is recommended that further research be undertaken to test this framework in other contexts in order to gain a finer understanding of hybridity as a potential entrepreneurial resource. This might additionally involve research into the cues that potentially result in a switching between different values.

This dissertation explores the hybrid training and performance of Chinese classical dance (gudianwu) and ballet in China’s elite dance conservatory, Beijing Dance Academy (BDA), in post-socialist China (1980 - the present). Since the establishment of BDA in 1954, the hybridity of ballet and Chinese dance has been first institutionalized in training professional Chinese dancers and has had a profound influence on the development of dance in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) in the 1980s, many gudianwu practitioners and dance critics in PRC criticized the failure of the hybrid training and performance in promoting a unique Chinese national character. In contrast, hybrid performance practices as a means to Sinicize the Western dance form of ballet have been celebrated. To create a unique Chinese national body aesthetic, gudianwu practitioners have attempted to revive Chinese traditional culture in dance through minimizing the influence of ballet, while Chinese ballet practitioners have created ballet works incorporating Chinese stories and Chinese arts, such as gudianwu, Chinese opera, local music, and traditional costumes. Instead of considering the promotion of unique Chinese characteristics in dance as a fixed and essentialized cultural practice, this dissertation argues that the hybrid dancing bodies of gudianwu and ballet have become important sites for negotiating Chinese nationalism, modernism, and individualism within the context of globalization. In keeping hybridity and Chineseness as the two central concepts in this study, I examine three research issues: first, how ballet has shaped gudianwu classes and gudianwu dancing bodies; second, how Chinese forms, such as martial arts, Chinese opera, and Chinese folk dance, have influenced ballet training and performance; and third, how the tension and interrelationship between these two hybrid dance practices complicates the concept of Chineseness. My methodology is informed by an interdisciplinary lens that includes postcolonial cultural studies (Bhabha 1994), Chinese cultural studies (Chow 1998), and anthropological Chinese dance studies (Wilcox 2011). I apply ethnography as my primary mode of collecting data while taking the meanings, functions, and historical and cultural contexts of dance into account. As the first dissertation that foregrounds the operation of hybridity in Chinese dance and ballet, this dissertation aims to enrich the theoretical framework of postcolonial and Chinese cultural studies and contribute to a mutual understanding between Chinese and Western cultures. / Dance

Although the term hybrid has gained much traction in literary analyses of contemporary experimental poetry, there is a notable divide within scholarly discourse wherein its uses pertain to either form or content. The term has been used by literary critics and anthologists to categorize works of poetry that combine formal techniques and practices from opposing traditions of literary history, but within cultural, postcolonial, and Asian American studies, it has served as an important term that designates sites of resistance within cross-cultural contexts of uneven power dynamics. This discrepancy in uses of the term hybrid serves as the basis for my critical investigation of experimental poetry by Cathy Park Hong, Craig Santos Perez, Don Mee Choi, and Monica Ong. This dissertation presents an interdisciplinary reassessment of the concept of hybridity that applies it to both formal experimentation and cultural content by examining the innovative ways in which Asian American and Pacific Islander poets use hybrid forms to represent hybrid identities and the particular social, political, and colonial contexts within which they emerge. While the term in relation to ethnic American poetry has primarily pertained to multilingual features, my study widens the scope of hybridity to not only include verbal expression but also visual forms of representation (such as photographs, illustrations, and digital renderings of images). How do these poets grapple with both text and image as a means of communicating across and confronting different types of boundaries (such as linguistic, national, cultural, racial, and ideological)? How do they utilize the page as a textual-visual space to not only represent hybrid identity but also to critique their social and political milieu? I address these inquiries by exploring the ways in which Hong, Perez, Choi, and Ong enact formal hybridity to challenge multilingualism as cosmopolitan commodity, the colonial erasure of indigenous language and culture, hegemonic narratives of history, and representations of the racial Other. This dissertation argues that their poetry demonstrates an expansive hybridity in which multilingual and mixed-media practices serve as the very means by which they negotiate the fraught conditions of migration, colonization, geopolitics, and marginalization. / English