O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar como a capoeira baiana passou a ser imaginada como símbolo de identidade brasileira por intelectuais e capoeiristas entre as décadas de 1930 e 1960, buscando responder a duas questões principais: quais foram os aspectos que levaram alguns intelectuais do período a se debruçarem sobre a capoeira baiana, selecionando para isso, certos traços, especialmente sua característica musical, na busca de interpretá-la como um símbolo de identidade regional e nacional? Como alguns dos principais capoeiristas baianos exploraram as relações e interpretações destes intelectuais e representantes do poder, confirmando ou contrariando suas idéias? A abordagem segue, principalmente, o método bibliográfico e explora um amplo conjunto de fontes produzidas pelas pessoas que são o foco da análise. Destacam-se, deste repertório, obras literárias e de cunho científico, entrevistas, reportagens, memórias, depoimentos, epístolas, filmes, documentários e discos. Parte dos documentos analisados, como os registros das canções da capoeira, periódicos, as trajetórias de alguns dos intelectuais e capoeiristas foram organizados em séries cronológicas. A abordagem teórica inspirou-se em trabalhos que enfatizaram a compreensão da ação social e criativa dos sujeitos diante das coerções e limites impostos por disposições de poder. Estudos que se detiveram sobre a construção simbólica da pureza africana, identificando seus usos e abusos foram importantes guias, assim como reflexões em torno das disputas pela hegemonia cultural ou sobre as relações entre elites e membros das classes populares. Ao mesmo tempo, a reconstrução das trajetórias de alguns personagens centrais contribuiu para estabelecer importantes vínculos entre as dimensões cultural e política das escolhas individuais. A par da diacronia, procuramos explorar também aspectos sincrônicos das relações entre os sujeitos envolvidos, analisando, por exemplo, a ampla penetração do tema da capoeira em múltiplas formas de expressão cultural. Os resultados da análise apontam para uma descrição pormenorizada de como intelectuais e representantes do Estado passaram a imaginar e se apropriar das manifestações populares como símbolos de identidade regional e nacional. Identificamos que entre estes dois grupos sociais indicados as ações não eram tão homogêneas, como poderiam parecer, o que também era verdade no caso dos capoeiristas, para os quais as estratégias se revelaram muito diferenciadas e criativas. A conclusão deste trabalho demonstra que a capoeira baiana, popularizada num período de apropriação massiva das manifestações populares por parte do Estado, também foi passível de se constituir em estratégia cultural, capaz de fazer a diferença para as pessoas que a produziam, deslocando assim disposições de poder. Nas inúmeras batalhas em que estiveram envolvidos, capoeiristas, intelectuais e outros atores procuraram garantir ou deslocar posições, sem deixar de tentar conciliar a imaginação que tinham da capoeira, com as outras expectativas envolvidas na disputa. Lutas e artes de encontro e desencontro. / The aim of this thesis is to analyze how Bahias capoeira started to be imagined as a symbol of Brazilians identity by intellectuals and capoeira players between the decades of 1930s and 1960s trying to answer two main questions: which were the aspects that motivated some intellectuals from this period to study Bahias capoeira, thereby selecting some features, especially the music aspect, in the search to interpret capoeira as a symbol of regional and national identity? How some of the most influential Bahias capoeira players explored the relations and interpretations of these intellectuals and power authorities, confirming or refuting their ideas? The study follows mainly the bibliographic method and explores a wide range of source material and resources produced by the people who are the focus of this thesis. From these resources we can outline literary and scientific works, interviews, newspaper reports, memories, testimonies, epistles, correspondence, movies, documentaries and music records. Parts of the documents analyzed, such as capoeira songs and magazines, and the trajectory of some of the intellectuals and capoeira players, were organized in a chronological series. The theoretical approach was inspired by works that put their emphasis on the comprehension of the social activism and the creativity of the actors in front of coercion and limits imposed by power mechanisms. Works that looked at the symbolical construction of African purity, identifying its uses and abuses were important guides as well as reflections about disputes for cultural hegemony or about the relationships between the elite and members of popular classes. At the same time the reconstruction of the trajectory of some of the main characters contributed to establishing an important link between the cultural and the political dimension chosen by some individuals. Using the diachrony, the authors also searched to explore some synchronic aspects of the relations between the individuals involved, analyzing, for example, the wide penetration of the capoeira theme in various forms of cultural expressions. The results of this analyses point to a detailed description of how the intellectuals and States representatives began to imagine and to appropriate the popular manifestations as symbols of regional and national identity. We have identified that between these two social groups the actions were not as homogenous as it may have looked, as it were also true in the case of the capoeira players to whom the strategies revealed to be more creative and diversified. The conclusion which this work demonstrates is that the Bahias capoeira, popularized in a period of massive appropriation of the popular manifestations by the State, was also able to constitute itself as a cultural strategy, able to make the difference to people who were producing it, shifting in this manner power dispositions. In the innumerable battles that capoeira players, intellectuals and other actors were involved, they tried to maintain or shift status, always trying to harmonize the imagination they had about capoeira with the perspectives of others involved in the dispute. Fight and art of encounter and separation.

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Twentieth-century American literature incorporates interracial and biracial themes that bring to light the often unnamed and unrecognized biracial identities of many Americans. Unfortunately, despite the potential value for a deeper understanding of the construction of race, these themes have seldom been seriously considered in the context of reevaluating the nature of the system that creates racial labels and categories until the recent emergence of postmodern critical theories. This thesis examines the black-white interracial themes and biracial protagonists in Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928) and Danzy Senna's Caucasia (1998) in order to explore the texts' representations of systems of hegemonic power that create racial labels and categories. I discuss the binary sociopolitical construction of race in the United States (blackwhite) and the complexity of biracial identities as a foundation for my examination of literary representations of biracial subjectivity, racial passing, primitive exoticism, and the intersections between race, class and gender. I conclude that a study of the interracial theme in literature is a dive into the chasm between margin and center, the enunciative split between the binary racial signifiers black and white. Therefore, representations of biracial subjectivity provide a unique vantage point for surveillance of the complexities of the human struggle to gain and maintain power.

This study examines the experiences of multiracial and multiethnic young adults in Finland, aged between 24-28, as they negotiate their daily lived experiences and construct their identities in the framework of ethnicity, race, belonging, and discrimination. The study utilises a qualitative research approach with a thematic analysis of four semi-structured interviews. In addition, drawing on Richard Jenkins' (2014) theory of social identity, the study discusses the relationship between these individuals and Finnish society. The findings highlight the impact of white normativity on the participants' self-identification and externally assigned identification, as well as fluidity in identity construction and challenges in belonging to Finnish society. Finally, the study highlights that the interviewees have a perception of what it means to be Finnish based on cultural and social norms.

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Critical work on popular American women's fiction still has not reckoned adequately with the themes of interracialism present in these novels and with interracialism's bearing on the sentimental. This thesis considers an often overlooked body of women's popular sentimental fiction, published from 1860-1865, which is interested in themes of interracial romance or reproduction, in order to provide a fuller picture of the impact that the intersection of interracialism and sentimentalism has had on American identity. By examining the literary strategy of "miscegenated narration," or the heteroglossic cacophony of narrative voices and ideological viewpoints that interracialism produces in a narrative, I argue that the hegemonic ideologies of the sentimental romance are both "deterritorialized" and "reterritorialized," a conflicted impulse that characterizes both nineteenth-century sentimental, interracial romances and the broader project of critiquing the dominant national narrative that these novels undertake.

This study analyzes the representations of five bi-ethnic women characters in U.S. mass media both before and after U.S. “post-racial” era, to find and expose evidence of the continuity and perpetuation of racist stereotypes against biracial/bi-ethnic women. I utilize a thematic textual analysis, supported by the theories, ideas, and critical views of postcolonial theorists Frantz Fanon, Gayatri Spivak, and Edward Said, and composed of three prominent themes which expose the nature of the representations of lead bi-ethnic characters in current mass media entertainment (TV programs and films). The themes further explored through this project are: bi-ethnicity (one Black parent and one White parent) as a) over exoticized or hypersexualized; b) inherently problematic; and c) destined for non-existence through invisibility, elimination, and even death. In a second step, I critically examine the theme of the tragic mulatta present in Imitation of Life (Hunder & Sirk, 1959), a film released during the epoch of the African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954-68), and the TV mini-series Alex Haley’s Queen (1993) to then highlight how it becomes immortalized transmedia (across diverse media platforms and historical moments) and ever-present in current “post-racial era” entertainment media film. To examine this, I compared one modern film and that portrayed a leading bi-ethnic woman–Dear White People (2014)– to then compare to the film mentioned above. I then compared TV programs that portray supporting bi-ethnic women characters in Suits (2011), Black-ish (2014), and Empire (2015) to then compare to the TV miniseries mentioned above. Finally, I contend that the presence of transmedia storytelling of the fixation, and manipulation of the supposed political correctness of the tragic mulatta archetype stands to reinforce its dominance in media portrayals. Moreover, the fragmentary existence is based on a lack of research and the indolent borrowing from previous archetypes.

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