This thesis provides a comprehensive critical analysis of Iain M. Banks’s Culture series, ten science fiction (SF) texts concerned with the Culture, Banks’s vision of his “personal utopia”: Consider Phlebas (1987), The Player of Games (1988), Use of Weapons (1990), The State of the Art (1991), Excession (1996), Inversions (1998), Look to Windward (2000), Matter (2008), Surface Detail (2010), and The Hydrogen Sonata (2012). I place this series within the context of the space opera sub-genre, and – drawing upon a critical toolkit developed by Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. in The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction (2008) – I explore the extent to which Banks achieved his goal of reshaping the sub-genre for the political Left. Due to the complexity and ambiguity of Banks’s creation, this research addresses the central question: what is the Culture? I argue that the Culture constitutes a utopian variation of Csicsery- Ronay’s technologiade, challenging the notion that Banks’s creation represents an empire or imperialist project. I consider the Culture as a culture: peoples linked by a shared value system and way of life; a method of development and nurturing; a system of utopian processes. Drawing on Archaeologies of the Future (2005), I argue that the Culture series demonstrates Frederic Jameson’s notion of ‘thinking the break’, with Banks’s writing constantly affirming the possibility and desirability of radical sociopolitical change. I identify six key radical moves away from the nonutopian present – characterised as shifts, breaks or apocalypses – which form the Culture’s utopianprocesses, with each chapter exploring the extent to which the Culture has overcome a fundamental obstacle impeding the path to utopia. The Culture has moved beyond material scarcity, alienated labour, capitalism, and the class-system, maintaining State functions. Culture citizens are notable for significantly adapting their own bodies and minds – controlling senescence and ultimately death itself – but motivated by the desire to improve rather than transcend their humanity. The Culture has achieved a form of equality between the sexes and removed patriarchy, yet is still coping with the implications of sex and gender fluidity. Despite relying upon seemingly quasi-religious innovations, the Culture is entirely secular, having moved beyond any kind of religious or faith-based worldview. Finally, the Culture is perhaps an example of what Jameson has called ‘the death of art’, as creative and artistic practice seems to have become part of everyday life, which contrasts with the numerous artworks produced on its margins.

viii, 170 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This thesis examines the connection between colonialism and violence during the early years of English settlement in North America. I argue that colonization was inherently destructive because the English colonists envisioned a comprehensive transformation of the American landscape that required the elimination ofNative American societies. Two case studies demonstrate the dynamics ofthis process. During the Anglo-Powhatan Wars in Virginia, latent violence within English ideologies of imperialism escalated cont1ict to levels of extreme brutality, but the fracturing ofpower along the frontier limited Virginian war aims to expulsion of the Powhatan Indians and the creation of a segregated society. During the Pequot War in New England, elements of violence in the Puritan worldview became exaggerated by the onset of societal crisis during the Antinomian Controversy. The resulting climate of fear unified the colonies and created an ideological commitment to the genocide of the Pequots. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Jack Maddex, Chair; Dr. Matthew Dennis; Dr. Jeffrey Ostler

Since its opening in 1836 Bristol Zoo has displayed animals from every continent except Antarctica in order to deliver amusement and instruction to its visitors. Over time, the nature of this human-animal space changed in a variety of important ways, reflecting transformations in the ways humans gave meaning to non-human animal life. This thesis engages with insights rooted in colonial, environmental, cultural and intellectual histories, principally arguing that multi-layered interspecies relationships were predominantly rooted in a complicated dyad of object-subject. Animals were seen as representative objects to be bought, sold, studied and enjoyed, as well as simultaneously individual subjects capable of communing with their human counterparts. Such relationships were frequently illustrative of a fluid balance of control and, in many ways, lay bare the uncertain philosophical boundary separating humans from the rest of the natural world. While this thesis details important changes over time, it approaches these relationships thematically. It shows that animals were objects of desire, though they had different values depending on species, age, sex and utility. Later, their value was increasingly attached to the genetic information coursing through their veins. Modes of maintaining the animal and displaying it for instructive and entertaining consumption reveal similarly complicated ways of thinking about non-human animal life. The imagination of animals in scientific and anthropomorphic ways denote entangled ontological classifications of human and nonhuman animals, and the existence of a hierarchy of species based on the possession of humanoid features. Moreover, the material influence of animals, while challenging conceptualisations of absolute human power in captive spaces, has often been interpreted in ways which reinforced the status of animals as objects of physical and imaginative manipulation. Finally, in death, animals were understood in ways that changed significantly during the period, but which remained rooted in the familiar binary of object-subject.

No description available.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / Alguns autores apontam o sumiÃo do termo âimperialismoâ dos debates polÃticos contemporÃneos. Este conceito retorna à cena principalmente com a entrada americana na Guerra do Iraque e a luta proclamada por Bush contra o terrorismo. No entanto seu significado nÃo mais guardaria relaÃÃo com as bases econÃmicas da estrutura social, sendo agora utilizado na sua concepÃÃo do sÃculo XIX, onde era visto como uma grande missÃo civilizadora. Prova disso à a publicaÃÃo da obra ImpÃrio, de Negri e Hardt, onde seus autores apontam que o imperialismo acabara e que o mundo hoje seria dominado por uma nova forma denominada ImpÃrio. O que percebemos à que as diversas tentativas de extinguir o conceito de imperialismo nÃo se mostraram fecundas para a interpretaÃÃo da realidade dinÃmica do capitalismo atual. Para nÃs o imperialismo à algo imanente ao capitalismo e a compreensÃo da moderna lÃgica de desenvolvimento do capital perpassa pelo entendimento dos diversos mecanismos imperialistas utilizados pelos paÃses centrais de se apropriar da riqueza dos paÃses perifÃricos garantindo assim a manutenÃÃo tanto de sua posiÃÃo de hegemon quanto o prÃprio processo de reproduÃÃo da ordem sÃcio- metabÃlica do capital. Nossa hipÃtese à que a manutenÃÃo hodierna do sistema monetÃrio internacional, sob a forma do padrÃo dÃlar flexÃvel, cria um ambiente extremamente propÃcio para a reproduÃÃo do capital por parte da naÃÃo hegemÃnica, no caso os Estados Unidos, atravÃs da apropriaÃÃo das riquezas dos paÃses perifÃricos, tornando -se esse o cerne da natureza imperialista contemporÃnea / Some authors note the disappearance of the term "imperialism" of contemporary political debates. This concept returns to the scene especially with the American entry into the Iraq war and Bush proclaimed fight against terrorism. However its meaning no longer holds any relationship to the economic basis of social structure, now being used in their conception of the nineteenth century, where it was seen as a great civilizing mission. What we perceive is that the various attempts to extinguish the concept of i mperialism were not fruitful for the interpretation of the dynamic reality of contemporary capitalism. Our hypothesis is that the maintenance of the international monetary system today, in the form of the floating dollar standard, creates an environment hi ghly conducive to the reproduction of capital by the hegemonic nation, where the United States, through the appropriation of the wealth of the peripheral countries , becoming the core of the contemporary imperialist nature.

Orientador: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T12:57:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_GabriellaBarbosa_M.pdf: 5062296 bytes, checksum: 6f6b8d5d419368ac1675ac4dc9e3758f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Este trabalho pretende apresentar a história das primeiras pesquisas arqueológicas na região da antiga Palestina, ao investigar o desenvolvimento da disciplina que ficou conhecida como Arqueologia Bíblica. Trata-se de uma discussão sobre as relações entre Arqueologia e política, à luz das diferentes leituras modernas sobre um mesmo passado. Com isso, pretende-se evidenciar como a prática arqueológica na Palestina, praticada inicialmente por europeus, depois também por norte-americanos e, mais tade, por pesquisadores nascidos na região, serviu, ao longo de sua história, para legitimar práticas imperialistas e colonizadoras e construir as relações entre ocidente e oriente, no início do século XIX, por exemplo, ou ainda para legitimar disputas atuais, como os conflitos entre árabes e israelenses / Abstract: This research intends to present the history of the first archaeological excavations in the region of the ancient Palestine following the development of the scientific discipline called Biblical Archaeology. It discuss the relationship between Archaeology and Politics, in the light of different modern views about the same past. Therefore we intend to emphasize how archaeological practice in Palestine - first conducted by europeans, then by americans, and much later by natives - was used, during its hstory, to legitimate, for example, imperialist and colonialist practices and to build the relationship between Western and Eastern in the early XIX century, or contemporary disputes, such as the conflicts between arabs and israelis / Mestrado / Historia Cultural / Mestre em História

This study examines George Orwell's contribution to our understanding of imperialism and to political writing in general. The basic assumptions of the study are that for a creative writer plot performs essentially the same function as model-building does for the political scientist and the role of the imagination is paramount both in the drawing of a novelist's picture of environment and in a social scientist's selection of variables. To show how a creative writer can offer the student of politics an unusual perspective of various systems of government (in this case, imperialism), the study draws upon concrete examples from Orwell's novel Burmese Days and other of his related writings to illustrate a number of political science's theoretical concepts. The study is also concerned with showing how Orwell was a pacesetter, as it were, in rejecting jargon as a means of expression and instead pressing vigorously, particularly in his description of imperialism in Burmese Days, for a straightforward yet imaginative prose in describing political as well as other events. The study assumes that Orwell's plea is echoed in a succeeding generation by others such as Landau and asserts that Burmese Days has either rendered many of imperialism's more harmful clichés impotent or has at least exposed them to closer scrutiny. At the same time, despite Orwell's often vehement denunciation of imperialism, it is assumed that there is implicit in the dialogue of some of his characters a recognition that while the system of uninvited foreigners exploiting and governing another people's country may be morally repugnant, in the light of an all-embracing and privacy-invading industrialism British imperialism may have been the least offensive kind of such exploitation. The study argues that our understanding of the motivations for group behaviour may, in some cases such as imperialism, be best pursued through more intensive studies of individuals within the group rather than by investing all of our attention in observing the collective action of the group. The study has evolved not from the notion that a creative writer can ever replace the perhaps more disciplined approach of the social sciences in understanding our world, but that he can significantly aid the academic world in illustrating its theoretical concepts. Finally, it is the overriding conclusion of this study that the moderately experimental nature of its juxtaposition of social science theory and fiction is mutually beneficial to both the social scientist and the student of literature in offering them new perspectives in their respective fields of interest. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation explores formations of the ‘colonial’ in Sudan through the vantage point of transformations in debt and temporality. Situating Sudan in an Ottoman-Egyptian context, it offers an account of how debt and land came to be reorganised so as to be separated from the realm of ethical relations. It does so by exploring legal-juridical changes brought about under Ottoman-Egyptian rule, which gradually altered notions of selfhood and time. In light of this, forms of resistance—especially during the Mahdist uprising—are shown to be a reformulation of disciplinary and ethical regimes and a (re)fashioning of subjects. Concluding with the early decades of British colonial rule, it considers the temporal regimes used to neutralise Mahdist subjectivities, which involved producing a rational, sedentary, and calculative peasantry oriented toward—not an afterlife but—a prosperous future.

Between 1935 and 1941, fascist Italy built an empire in East Africa at a speed and intensity never before seen in the world. Making Fascist Empire Work examines how Italy was able to undertake and organize this intensive, totalizing colonization. Analyzing four colonizing enterprises – an extensive mining concession in Wallega, the Bank of Italy in Addis Ababa, itinerant truckers, and settler farmers in Shoa – reveals that Italian entrepreneurs were essential to the colonization project. They provided the know-how, labor, and financing needed to carry out the regime’s ambitious plans. Moreover, these profit- and adventure-seeking entrepreneurs adapted their enterprises to the local environmental, economic, and political circumstances. They negotiated with local Ethiopian elites and Italian authorities. They also organized their own racial hierarchies of labor in their workplaces and homes. Often, Italian entrepreneurs contravened the fascist regime’s racial apartheid in order to keep costs low and profits high. Yet, the fascist regime knew that self-interested entrepreneurs and market forces alone could not rapidly build its totalitarian empire. Thus, each case study reveals how the fascist regime created specialized parastatal entities and deployed corporatist instruments to control industries, spur development, and strictly separate Italians and Ethiopians. The net result, I argue, was what I call “fascist settler colonialism,” meaning violent empire-building, made possible by the occupation, yet dependent on unleashing private enterprise that, in turn, had to be disciplined by the corporatist state. Over the short term of the empire’s life, the fascist regime was thereby able to supercharge imperial development. Making Fascist Empire Work makes three interventions in the fields of Italian and imperial history. First, its comparative approach reveals how practices creating racial and class boundaries strategically varied across the diverse empire in relation to an industry’s labor demands and the existing socio-political structures of the Ethiopian empire. It is the first study to do so. Second, it refutes the existing scholarship’s assertion that private enterprises were insignificant to the colonization. Instead, Making Fascist Empire Work demonstrates that Italian entrepreneurs actively participated in the imperial project and were central to its success. Moreover, it provides a new account of how fascist corporatism was enacted and contested in Italian East Africa. Its third intervention speaks to imperial history more broadly. Italian East Africa demonstrated that an organized corporatist economy could undertake rapid, intense, and extensive colonial development. It challenged and inspired other imperial powers to reconsider how they approached economic development in their colonies. Ultimately, Making Fascist Empire Work raises new questions about the significance and influence of Italian corporative colonialism on other empires in the interwar and postwar years.

No description available.