While Taiwanese Aboriginal culture has become essential for Taiwanese to construct a new national identity, this report examines the uses, makings, and transmissions of Taiwanese Aboriginal music in contemporary society, illuminating power dynamics of how Aboriginal music has been presented and perceived among different groups. The shifting Taiwanese identity within the contemporary political context opens up the discourses of indigeneity that have interpreted the Aboriginal culture as a site either for forming the new Taiwanese identity or claiming indigenous rights and subjectivity. Through the analysis of these discourses, I deconstruct how Taiwanese Aboriginal music has been exoticized and folklorized as Other by the Han-centric perspective. Further, by examining Aboriginal song-and-dance at intra-village rituals, at a Pan-Aboriginal festival, and at international cultural performances, I seek to argue that Aborigines are neither simply implementing the “otherness” imposed by the Han majority nor are they completely in conflict with it. By using Homi Bhabha’s concept of the Third space that resists the binary of the dominant ideology and counter-hegemonic discourses of a minority, I particularly consider the Aboriginal vocable singing as a site within which Aborigines strategically adopt different identities depending upon the performative context. Through this theoretical perspective, I argue that the multiplicity of identity and the interconnectedness of Aboriginal musical practices across different groups and regions challenge the rhetoric of multiculturalism and diversity of cultures in the sense of neo-liberal ideology. / text

Hybrid beings have been a part of the artistic imagination since art was first made on cave walls and rock faces. Yet their visual makeup and symbolic meanings have changed over time from deities, demons, and oddities of nature to unconscious states of being and the socially and culturally marginalized. This dissertation will examine a history of hybrid beings and the work of Australian artist Patricia Piccinini. Her silicone sculptures, photographs, installations, and videos are hyperrealistic representations of composite beings that appear to have blended rather than fragmented characteristics of human and animal, which sets them apart from their historic precedents. Piccinini suggests that her hybrids are products of genetic engineering, ostensibly created to serve human beings as comforters, nurturers, protectors, and surrogates for humans and endangered species alike. I argue that Piccinini's hybrids shed light on the hubris and commercialism inherent in bioscientific advances, yet they also reveal a kind of societal ambivalence regarding the posthuman era. Her works suggest utopian aspirations for the future while mourning the loss of humanity as it has been known. Examining Piccinini's art through the lens of liminality and the body, I will contextualize her hybrids within cultural and art historical models from ancient Egypt and Greece through the Victorian eras. In particular, I will establish common ground with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), which served as an early inspiration for Piccinini's images and conceptual aims. I will also highlight hybrid imagery in Dada and Surrealism and feminist art to reveal the similarities and differences in their approaches and intent. Piccinini's works operate within Donna J. Haraway's notion of the cyborg; therefore, I will also analyze her art within that theoretical model. In addition, I will compare and contrast Piccinini's art to early hyprerrealist sculptors and contemporary artists working in this manner. Piccinini's hybrids establish that both humans and animals are social constructs, and that society has a responsibility for the life forms it creates. Ultimately, this project demonstrates that Piccinini's hybrids are not cautionary tales of a dystopian future but representations of the biotechnological sublime.

The volume of poetry Kleur kom nooit alleen nie (Colour never comes on its own) by Antjie Krog, is analysed extensively in this thesis. The main focus of the study is the way in which metaphors associated with boundaries, bordering, transgression and the crossing of boundaries are used to represent the struggle to come to terms with a traumatic past and to rethink new possibilities of co-existence in the future. In the poems the boundaries of the word, the text and the genre of poetry, as well as geographical and political boundaries and the boundaries of gender, especially the boundaries instituted by the patriarchal order, are challenged. The narration of alternative histories to supplement and correct documented history may also be considered as a boundary-crossing activity. Although colour is the most obvious metaphor of the divisions between people and is indeed used as the central metaphor throughout the volume, many other, sometimes more subtle examples of boundaries and bordering are explored and developed. There is for instance a strong focus on the psychological complexity of creativity and of writing poetry. The poet's withdrawal to a liminal zone which incorporates the almost spiritual dimension of her creative activities clearly forms a kind of leitmotiv in the collection. The text clearly suggests that the artist as a liminal figure achieves an enhanced ability to understand the forces at work in a community. Sharing the results of this insight from the liminal zone with the community implies that the artist can stimulate innovative processes which will obliterate boundaries and enable people to co-exist peacefully. Although the crossing of borders in most cases result in being wounded, there are also the possibilities of recovery and healing. The resultant scars are often regarded as strong identity-shaping features in people. Krog argues that language plays a decisive role in processes of reconciliation and that the text itself becomes a threshold area where different discourses interact and cross-fertilise one another. The structure of the thesis reflects the theoretical approach and is an attempt to present a balanced discussion of the aesthetic and the ideological aspects of Kleur kom nooit alleen nie as a poetic text. Appropriate theories are implemented to do justice to both the aesthetic qualities and the ideological undercurrents of single poems as well as the volume as such. Two discourses are therefore superimposed in order to present an adequate reading of this polyphonic and ambivalent text. 'The exploration of the varied manifestations of the boundary forms a continuous thematic line throughout the thesis but related themes such as identity, liminality and hybridity are also incorporated. On account of the postmodernistic nature of the text, the basic theoretical framework is that of literary postmodernism, with narrativity of the text, intertextuality, post-colonialism and feminism as its most significant manifestations. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The volume of poetry Kleur kom nooit alleen nie (Colour never comes on its own) by Antjie Krog, is analysed extensively in this thesis. The main focus of the study is the way in which metaphors associated with boundaries, bordering, transgression and the crossing of boundaries are used to represent the struggle to come to terms with a traumatic past and to rethink new possibilities of co-existence in the future. In the poems the boundaries of the word, the text and the genre of poetry, as well as geographical and political boundaries and the boundaries of gender, especially the boundaries instituted by the patriarchal order, are challenged. The narration of alternative histories to supplement and correct documented history may also be considered as a boundary-crossing activity. Although colour is the most obvious metaphor of the divisions between people and is indeed used as the central metaphor throughout the volume, many other, sometimes more subtle examples of boundaries and bordering are explored and developed. There is for instance a strong focus on the psychological complexity of creativity and of writing poetry. The poet's withdrawal to a liminal zone which incorporates the almost spiritual dimension of her creative activities clearly forms a kind of leitmotiv in the collection. The text clearly suggests that the artist as a liminal figure achieves an enhanced ability to understand the forces at work in a community. Sharing the results of this insight from the liminal zone with the community implies that the artist can stimulate innovative processes which will obliterate boundaries and enable people to co-exist peacefully. Although the crossing of borders in most cases result in being wounded, there are also the possibilities of recovery and healing. The resultant scars are often regarded as strong identity-shaping features in people. Krog argues that language plays a decisive role in processes of reconciliation and that the text itself becomes a threshold area where different discourses interact and cross-fertilise one another. The structure of the thesis reflects the theoretical approach and is an attempt to present a balanced discussion of the aesthetic and the ideological aspects of Kleur kom nooit alleen nie as a poetic text. Appropriate theories are implemented to do justice to both the aesthetic qualities and the ideological undercurrents of single poems as well as the volume as such. Two discourses are therefore superimposed in order to present an adequate reading of this polyphonic and ambivalent text. 'The exploration of the varied manifestations of the boundary forms a continuous thematic line throughout the thesis but related themes such as identity, liminality and hybridity are also incorporated. On account of the postmodernistic nature of the text, the basic theoretical framework is that of literary postmodernism, with narrativity of the text, intertextuality, post-colonialism and feminism as its most significant manifestations. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

This essay argues that Jamaica Kincaid’s The Autobiography of My Mother depicts how the indigenous colonized in Dominica are living ‘unhomely lives’ and that their experience is one of the double consciousness. i.e. when a person see the world through different "lenses." The person does not only have a dual personality but also feels the notion of having different roles in society, such as having a black identity and at the same time conforming to the stereotypical norms of the white society for a black person. Therefore, the person sees the world, and oneself, through one’s own “black” lens and the “white” lens at the same time. Subsequently, with a setting full of diversities, the novel depicts a colonial background where the characters have been ascribed certain features to their persona. Furthermore, the novel uses metaphors to show a futile endeavor of finding identity of the main characters in an ineluctable power structure. By utilizing the postcolonial theoretical framework; mainly Du Bois’s notion on ‘double consciousness’ and Bhabha’s term ‘unhomely lives’ which means to grow up between two cultures, to live on borders and in margins and not feel at ease in either sides, expands the readers understanding of the text. A central aspect of the novel is the alienation of an individual’s personal identity in the context of a postcolonial society. Therefore, the psychology of the novel’s characters will be a major theme of this essay. Nevertheless, the novel shows that it is hard for the characters Alfred and Xuela to break free from the bonds of society.

Master of Arts / In the southwest corner of China, the confluence of cultural diversity and national integration have produced a new kind of voice in the Chinese language: an ethnic voice. Speaking fluently in the Chinese nation’s language and culturally beyond its Han foundations, minority ethnic writers or shaoshu minzu in China are inciting a challenge to the traditional conceptions of Chineseness. In the PRC, the re-imagining of the boundaries between ethnicity, nation, and the globe is being produced in ethnic voices that resist the monopolizing narratives of the CCP and the Han cultural center. Furthermore, in the West where the antiquated conception of China as a monolithic Other is still often employed, the existence of these ethnic voices of difference demands a (re)cognition of its multifaceted and interwoven ethnic, political, and social composition. Three ethnic poets from the southwest are examined in this thesis: Woeser (Tibetan), He Xiaozhu (Miao), and Jimu Langge (Yi). They represent the trajectory of ethnic voice in China along the paradigms of local/ethnic vision, national culture, and global connections. By being both within and outside the Chinese nation and culture, they express a hybrid struggle that exists within the collision of ethnic minority cultures and the Han cultural center. Like the hybridity of postcolonial literature, this is a collision that cannot be reduced to it parts, yet also privileges the glocal impetus of ethnically centered vision. The poets’ voices speak the voice of difference within China, the Chinese language, and Chineseness throughout the world.

Women farmers in Accra, Ghana function in spaces that are delineated by gendered social, political and economic structures. It is essential for planners and policymakers to understand the gender dynamics involved, so as not to increase burdens on women's productive and reproductive roles on urban farms. This thesis problematizes the solitary subject of urban women in development, situating them into the context of Accra's urban and peri-urban spaces. My research draws on feminist theory to highlight the intersectionalities of women in Accra and the way that their individual experiences are impacted by homogenous development frameworks. The case study examines the role of urban and peri-urban agriculture in addressing the needs of women farmers in Accra. The findings of this study acknowledge various forms of empowerment and autonomy that women experience as urban farmers in Accra, and they highlight how the hybridity of urban agriculture is challenging mainstream urban development.

This study helps us understand the complexities of transnational abandonment, and transnational abandonment in the context of Saudi heritage in particular. Based on a textual analysis of narratives on a blog by individuals abandoned by their Saudi fathers, my findings suggest that they discursively construct their identity in three ways: a) by negotiating their illegitimate status as perceived by many Saudis, and the validity of their search; b) by making sense of the absence of father and the cultural knowledge of the paternal side, while negotiating the inevitable presence of the father in many other ways and their ethnic difference; c) by navigating the tensions of continuing with the search and anticipating the consequences. These themes highlight how conditions of father absence, particularly where the father has a national origin different from one's own has dynamic and conflicting implications socially and culturally, and for production of identities for their children. In sum, this study challenges uncritical celebration of multiculturalism in the US, and broadens the understanding of the complexities of hybrid identities.

This essay reads and analyses the novel The Lonely Londoners by Samuel Selvon through the lens of postcolonial theory. It examines the West Indian migrants who migrated to Britain in the 1950s, searching for a better life. They had been indoctrinated by the colonizers for decades of the prosperous life awaiting them in the Motherland. They arrived in Britain with high hopes and eager minds to find a possibility of abandoning the colonial oppression in exchange for alife in London. However, that did not become the reality for the migrants. The novel depicts the shattering of the sensation of self-worth and identity which they sacrificed in their attempts to adapt to and belong in English society. The migrants find themselves confused and ambivalentin this very harsh and cold British society. Further, this essay investigates the ways in whichmimicry and hybridity have been portrayed in the novel through analysing two of the main characters applying theories by Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Stuart Hall, and Edouard Glissant.

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