This Project examines the coexistence of two cultures?–?in this case the host Gulf, and the imported Western?–?and addresses certain problems that still need attention. This Project celebrates the creation of the third, hybrid, culture as a result of their intermingling. In this Research, Postcolonial Theory? and Transitional Object Theory? are used as conceptual frameworks, and are combined with Archaeology and Design as a practice. On a personal level, the Project evolved out of my cross-cultural origin and experiences. On an academic level, the Project serves as an experiment, trying to fill the gaps in the Gulf region’s search for identity. This Project utilized Design in two phases, initially during the research, and then as tool?/ language to mediate the issues found within the cross-cultural context. The Project explores and questions the ways in which artifacts/objects alter our perception, experience and memory. On an interdisciplinary level, this Project claims that Design?–?as a discipline –?is integrated in the process of curating memories through the creation of physical objects. Since objects have always been used as tools to dictate the narratives of our social memory, questions of power and control are essential – the current status of this region is a third culture, a hybrid product of Culture ‘A’ and Culture ‘B’. This project is interested in mechanisms that can be used to preserve this interesting phenomena often stigmatized as negative.

My thesis explores the formation of the subject in the novels of Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, and Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day. I attach the concept of property in terms of how male protagonists are obsessed with materialistic ownership and with the subordination of women who, as properties, consolidate their manhood. The three novelists despite their racial, gendered, and literary differences share the view that identity and truth are mere social and cultural constructs. I incorporate the work of Judith Butler and other poststructuralist figures, who see identity as a matter of performance rather than a natural entity. My thesis explores the theme of freedom, which I attached to the ways characters use their bodies either to confine or to emancipate themselves from the restricting world of race, class, and gender. The three novelists deconstruct any system of belief that promulgates the objectivity of truth in historical documents. History in the three novels, as with the protagonists, perception of identity, remains a social construct laden with distortions to serve particular political or ideological agendas. My thesis gives voice to African American female characters who are associated with love and racial and gender resistance. They become the reservoirs of the African American legacy in terms of their association with the oral and intuitionist mode of knowing, which subverts the male characters’ obsession with property and with the mainstream empiricist world. In this dissertation, I use the concept of hybridity as a literary and theoretical devise that African-American writers employ. In effect, I embark on the postcolonial studies of Henry Louise Gates, Paul Gilroy, W. E. B Du Bois, James Clifford, and Arjun Appadurai in order to reflect upon the fluidity of Morrison’s and Naylor’s works. I show how these two novelists subvert Faulkner’s essentialist perception of truth, and of racial and gendered identity. They associate the myth of the Flying African with the notion of hybridity by making their male protagonists criss-cross Northern and Southern regions. I refer to Mae Gwendolyn Henderson’s article on “Speaking in Tongues” in my analysis of how Naylor subverts the patriarchal text of both Faulkner and Morrison in embarking on a more feminine version of the flying African, which she relates to an ex-slave, Sapphira Wade, a volatile female character who resists fixed claim over her story and identity. In dealing with the concept of hybridity, I show that Naylor rewrites both authors’ South by making Willow Springs a more fluid space, an assumption that unsettles the scores of critics who associate the island with authenticity and exclusive rootedness. / Ma thèse est une étude comparative entre William Faulkner, Toni Morrison et Gloria Naylor. Elle me permet d’explorer comment les protagonistes males construisent leur identités en se référant à la possession matérialiste et en se basant sur la subordination de la femme, qui est une autre forme de possession, afin de consolider leur masculinité. Dans leurs textes respectifs, Go Down, Moses, Song of Solomon, et Mama Day, les trois auteurs, malgré leur différences culturelles et même littéraires, partagent l’idée que l’identité, l’histoire, et la vérité ne sont que des construits culturels et sociales. On se basant sur la théorie de Judith Butler et d’autres théoriciens poststructuralistes et contemporains, ma thèse reflète qu’il n’y a pas d’identité « naturelle » ou de réalité objective. La perception identitaire n’est qu’une illusion imaginaire et idéologique ou le sujet ne fait que répéter et performer le discours de son environnent. Faulkner, Morrison, et Naylor basent leurs oeuvres sur le thème de la liberté. Ils explorent comment, à partir de leurs corps, leurs caractères se conforment ou bien se détachent de l’idéologie qui confine leurs identités sexuelles, raciales et sociales. En critiquant, non seulement l’identité’ mais aussi l’histoire, ma thèse montre que les trois écrivains détruisent la perception que la vérité est objective surtout dans les documents historiques. Ainsi, la vérité devient qu’une forme de distorsion qui consolide une certaine idéologie. Ma thèse montre que les trois auteurs mettent en valeur la voix de la femme Afro-Américaine. Elle joue le rôle d’une médiatrice pour les protagonistes males. Elle rejette le discours matérialiste et sexiste. Cette voix féminine représente le thème de l’amour et la survie de sa communauté noire et la résistance raciale. La femme Afro-Américaine préserve la culture Africaine à travers son attachement à la tradition orale et à la connaissance intuitive. En se basant sur la tendance subversive de l’art et de la littérature postcoloniale qui est promulguée par les théories de Henry Louise Gates, Paul Gilroy, W. E. B Du Bois, James Clifford et Arjun Appadurai, je montre qu’à travers Toni Morrison et Gloria Naylor, le texte de Faulkner reste logocentrique et essentialiste dans sa vision hiérarchique de l’identité raciale et sexuelle. Morrison et Naylor se référant au mythe de l’Africain volant afin de justifier qu’il n’y a pas d’identité fixe et stable, donnant ainsi la voix a une identité hybride et fluide. En se basant sur l’article, « Parler en Langues » de Mae Gwendolyn Henderson, ma thèse explore comment en réécrivant d’autres textes, Gloria Naylor déconstruit non seulement Faulkner, mais aussi le sexisme qui demeure résident dans le texte de Toni Morrison. L’histoire de Willow Springs se base sur le mythe féminin d’une ex esclave Sapphira Wade, qui en étant volatile, son histoire et son identité résistent toute forme de catégorisations. En étudiant l’hybridité’ dans la culture Afro-Américaine, ma thèse montre que le Sud qui est décrit dans l’oeuvre de Mama Day est plus hybride que celui de Faulkner et Morrison.

"Serbian" Cultural Events in Buda and Pest between 1860 and 1867 Miklós Tömöry (Erasmus Mundus Master "TEMA" - Budapest-Prague-Paris) Abstract Key terms: nationalism, Serbian history, Habsburg Empire, Buda and Pest, urban cultural milieus Situated at the very heart of the Habsburg-ruled Hungarian Kingdom, the twin cities of Buda and Pest played an important role as centres of modern Hungarian (Magyar) and Slavic national movements as well in the course of the nineteenth century. Public and semi-public urban spaces and institutions of the public sphere were used by members of the emerging Slovak, Serbian, Croatian national intelligentsias. Considering their importance in this earlier stage of nation building (and not primarily because of their overall ethnic composition) it is even possible to call Buda and Pest as "Slavic cities".1 These urban spaces had a specific role in the case of the Serbian national movement. In these cities institutions were founded which served as patterns for other national movements as well. During this period of time a vivid exchange of ideas between Hungarians and Serbs can be observed in the cities; multilingualism and even multiple identities were characteristic for the era. To describe complex cultural interrelations in the urban space the thesis will use the notion of urban...

The thesis explores the theme of hybridity in Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy and in her last novel, Fledgling, which both deal with complex relationships between humans and a different species. The main focus is on the characters of mixed origin - offspring of two distinct species and beings whose existence is a result of genetic experiments. These individuals occupy a metaphorical "in-between" space where cultural, racial, sexual and other boundaries meet and blur. The theoretical framework follows two sets of ideas - Homi Bhabha's notion of hybridity and the so-called Third Space, and Donna Haraway's cyborg figure. The second chapter of the thesis is centered on the origins and development of the concept of hybridity and its current use in postcolonial discourse. Furthermore, it introduces the most relevant ideas from Bhabha's The Location of Culture and Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" and compares them. The following two chapters are mainly devoted to Butler's hybrid characters, Akin and Jodahs from Xenogenesis and Shori, the protagonist of Fledgling. This section analyses, among other issues, their physical features and special skills connected with hybridity, the construction of their identity, their relationship with others and their relation to the clash between different species and...

Cette étude se propose de mettre en évidence l'influence du théâtre dans les romans-mémoires du XVIIIe siècle. Alors qu'il revient sur sa vie depuis son entrée dans le monde, le narrateur (ou la narratrice) évoque et analyse, dans un récit à la première personne, son Moi d'autrefois. Il s'agit de relater les étapes d'une ascension sociale, de faire part aussi de ses égarements ou d'une passion malheureuse sur le mode tragique, sensible ou comique. Toutefois, ces romans de l'introspection s'ouvrent, paradoxalement, sur le spectaculaire. Des dramaturges célèbres deviennent des personnages de fiction, leurs œuvres sont citées, les héros se rendent dans les lieux où s'exerce l'art dramatique et, surtout, le romancier recourt à des éléments caractéristiques du genre théâtral : déguisements, variations sur des personnages et des scènes types, construction dramatique et recours à l'esthétique du tableau, ampleur et disposition des dialogues contribuent à faire du lecteur un spectateur. / This study is meant to highlight the influence of drama on the (French) memoir-novels of the 18th century. The narrator, be it a man or a woman, recollects his or her life from the moment they are coming into the world. This evocation and analysis of their earlier “I” is recalled in a first person narrative. The idea is to recount his or her social ascension, step by step, evoke his or her past mistakes and relate an unrequited love, in a tragic, sensitive or comic tone. Yet, these introspective novels paradoxically reach a theatrical dimension. The then famous playwrights are turned into fictional characters, their works are quoted, the heroes go to places where the art of drama is performed and, most importantly, the novelist resorts to elements which are characteristic features of drama : costumes, variations on specific characters and scenes, a dramatic construction, the use of the aesthetics of the tableau, the extent and distribution of the dialogues ; all of these contribute to place the reader in the position of the audience.

[pt] Este trabalho objetivou investigar como se caracteriza a identidade e a nação para escritores pós-coloniais em situação de deslocamento prolongado, através de suas obras, e como essas questões são geradas por meio dos encontros culturais que ocorrem em dois âmbitos: o real e o transcendente. Para a sua realização, procedeu-se à seleção de material teórico sobre os tópicos acima citados. Além do referido material bibliográfico, esta pesquisa também contou com um corpus de uma obra intitulada A doçura do mundo, de Thrity Umrigar, e outra de nome De olho nas penas, de Ana Maria Machado. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho estruturou-se da seguinte forma: na introdução, delimita-se o tema e explica-se a motivação para este estudo; o capítulo 2 faz um breve percurso histórico que conecta a América Latina à Índia por meio do imaginário dos descobrimentos e outras condições subalternas em relação ao centro europeu; o capítulo 3 traz algumas teorias relacionadas às problemáticas da identidade e nação desde o período colonial até o período pós-colonial, contemplando seu fenômeno característico - o deslocamento prolongado; o capítulo 4 proporciona algumas teorias relacionadas ao estudo de mística e cultura, abordando as questões pós-coloniais estudadas no capítulo anterior, porém, em um nível transcendente; o quinto capítulo refere-se à análise da obra A doçura do mundo; no capítulo 6, consta a análise da obra De olho nas penas; e, finalmente, no capítulo 7, tem-se as conclusões obtidas com a realização deste estudo. / [en] This paper aims investigating the concept of nation and identity which are characterized to the postcolonial writers in lingering displacement condition, through their work, and how these questions are generated by cultural encounters which happen in two levels - the real ambit and the transcendent one. To make it, there was the selection of the theoretical material. Beyond the mentioned bibliographic material, this research has also a corpus of two works called If today be sweet, by Thrity Umrigar, and another called De olho nas penas, by Ana Maria Machado. In this sense, the current work has been structured as following: in the introduction, the theme is delimited and the motivation to this study is explained; in chapter two a brief historical route connecting Latin American to India is built through the imaginary of the discoveries and other subaltern conditions in regard to the European center; in chapter three some theories regarded to the identity and the nation problematic is shown, since the colonial period until the postcolonial period, contemplates its characteristic phenomenon – the lingering displacement from the original land; in chapter four some theories regarded to the mystic studies and culture are provided, showing the postcolonial questions studied in the previous chapter, however, in a transcendent level; the fifth chapter refers to the analysis of the work If today be sweet; chapter six, consists of the analysis of the work De olho nas penas; and, finally, the chapter seven presents the conclusions achieved with this study. / [es] Este trabajo buscó investigar como se caracteriza la identidad y la nación para los escritores postcoloniales en situación de traslado prolongado, a través de sus obras, y como esas cuestiones son obtenidas por medio de los encuentros culturales que ocurren en dos ámbitos: lo real y lo trascendente. Para su conclusión, hubo la selección del material teórico sobre los tópicos anteriormente citados. Además de lo referido material bibliográfico, esta investigación también presenta un corpus de una obra titulada A doçura do mundo, de Thrity Umrigar, y otra de nombre De olho nas penas, de Ana Maria Machado. En ese sentido, el presente trabajo fue estructurado de la siguiente forma: en la introducción, se delimita el tema y se explica la motivación para este estudio; el capítulo 2 hace un breve recorrido histórico que conecta Latinoamérica con India por medio del imaginario de los descubrimientos y otras condiciones subalternas en relación al centro europeo; el capítulo 3 proporciona algunas teorías relacionadas a las problemáticas de la identidad y la nación desde el período colonial hasta el período postcolonial, contemplando su fenómeno característico - el traslado prolongado; el capítulo 4 presenta algunas teorías relacionadas al estudio de la mística y la cultura, abordando las cuestiones postcoloniales estudiadas en el capítulo anterior, pero, en un nivel trascendente; el quinto capítulo se refiere al análisis de la obra A doçura do mundo; en el capítulo 6, consta el análisis de la obra De olho nas penas; y, por fin, en el capítulo 7, hay las conclusiones obtenidas con la realización de este estudio.

This essay explores and investigates post-colonial identity in Ireland in Hugo Hamilton’s The Speckled People: A Memoir of a Half-Irish Childhood (2003) and The Sailor in the Wardrobe (2006). Relying primarily on Homi K. Bhabha’s postcolonial criticism, which draws on some ideas from psychoanalysis, this essay argues that the autobiographies resonate well with the ideas of culture as a strategy of survival and of the post-colonial child as an analyst of Western modernity. Thus, three chosen concepts; ‘the Uncanny’, ‘Third Space’ and ‘Hybridity’ work together to reveal a recurring theme of split and duplicity in reference to the colonial past throughout. Furthermore they also reveal that the actual writing of the autobiographies in itself must be regarded as a way of responding to and negotiating that very same split and duplicity in reference to Ireland’s past.

Ph.D. University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / Modern African poetry in English is a product of a number of literary traditions broadly categorised as either „indigenous‟ or „alien‟ to Africa. Working on the premise that these vary from one region to another, this study seeks to compare the myriad of poetic influences and traditions as manifested in contemporary East and West African poetry of English expression using a corpus of selected contemporary African poems. The contemporary era, here temporally defined as the post 1980s period, is typified by borrowing across literary genres and traditions to the point where the boundaries of what may be designated as „indigenous‟ or „alien‟ has become difficult to determine and distinguish. Core to my thesis is what Jan Ramazani (2001) designates as the hybrid muse, which ensures that contemporary poetry or poetic discourses explicitly or implicitly acknowledge that they are defined by their relationship to others, hence regarded as „epochal continuities‟ of foundational poetics. The study seeks to illustrate how creative writing, in particular poetic composition, emerging from the two regions exhibits affinities, parallels, as well as inter-connectedness despite the much emphasised disparities and peculiarities. Central to contemporary poetry examined in this study is „song‟ as a metaphor for its characteristic hybrid nature. The following chapters engage with different facets of song; from the praise song – hatched as a dirge in Chapter Two, mashairi as a Swahili sung poem tradition influencing poetry in written English in Chapter Three, what Osundare calls „songs of the season‟ in Chapter Four and how the experiment dialogues with journalistic discourses, song school and the different „Lawinos‟ singing in contemporary times in Chapter Five, through to Mugo‟s mother‟s poem and other songs in Chapter Six. Recent poetry from Africa is replete with and informed by diverse texts and intellectual discourses available to the poet in East or West Africa. Despite the much emphasized differences, I argue that there need not be explicit intertextual relations; that even when produced or consumed in tregion („solitary speaker‟), contemporary poetry still typically includes „language‟ or textual material derived not just from a „socially diverse discursive formation‟ but econo-political and intellectual environment underpinning the „other‟. The contemporary socio-political and economic conditions as well as various institutional parameters ensure that sharp differences in thematic preoccupations and aesthetic – are not as much as they may have been portrayed in “foundational poetry”. Considering the commonality in contemporary poetry issues from more or less the same pool of texts, intertextuality marking the era therefore evidences dialogues within and across the regions examined

This essay examines how the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy are portrayed and how these factors contribute to the formation of hybrid identities among the younger generation of women in Nervous Conditions (1988) by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Both characters are faced with different predicaments which makes it necessary to divide the factors in regard to each character. The factors that are connected to Tambudzai are the following: the death of Nhamo, the patriarchal male figures, and the will to obtain an education. Meanwhile, the factors that are connected to Nyasha are the relationship with her patriarchal father, the desire for liberation and gender equality. Postcolonial and feminist criticism are applied. The main focus of the essay is hybridity, or double identity, where the specific term cultural hybridity is used in order to analyze the effect that the struggle against the patriarchy has had on Tambudzai's and Nyasha's emerging hybrid identities. The feminist-psychoanalytic approach is used to analyze the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy.  The results show that the factors that inspire Tambudzai and Nyasha to counter the patriarchy have been visible and crucial to the formation of their hybrid identities. The struggle that Tambudzai and Nyasha have to face when going against the patriarchal system brings certain predicaments in their lives that affect them and their identity tremendously. One of these predicaments is the realization that patriarchy is universan and, hence, something you cannot escape.

Acredita-se que a mescla entre elementos de procedências distintas, inerente a qualquer processo de hibridização, encontra-se enraizada na matéria ficcional de Wilson Bueno, aí se revelando sob matizes diversificados. Dentre todas as formas de hibridismos operadas pela literarura do autor, é, sem dúvidas, o híbrido linguístico intencional aquele que alicerça a todas. A análise desse discurso literário priorizou duas obras de contextos enunciativos distintos na produção literária de Wilson Bueno, com a intenção de tentar aclarar as perspectivas hibridística e semiosférica em ambas, a saber: as novelas Mar Paraguayo, de 1992, e Mascate, ainda inédita. Na linguagem dessas duas narrativas, uma abordagem imanente, à maneira do Formalismo Russo, hibridizada com aspectos da teoria pós-colonial, em especial, aparece como método de análise, quando solicitada pelo texto literário, para embasar a análise. / It is believed that the mixture among elements of different origins, inherent to any hybridization process, is embedded in the fictional work of Wilson Bueno. Among all forms of hybridity present in the authors literature, there is, no doubt, the intentional linguistic hybrid is the one which underpins all of them. The analysis of the mechanisms of this literary discourse focuses two works from different contexts in Buenos production, with the intention of trying to interpret the hybridistic and semiospheric perspectives in both, namely: the narratives Mar Paraguayo (1992), and Mascate, still unpublished. In the language of these two stories, the immanet approach, in the Russian Formalism manner, hybridized with aspects of the Postcolonial Theory, in particular, is my method of analysis.