This essay, on Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, deals with the characters’ identities and the influences of multiculturalism on their complex identities. It also discusses the role of the characters roots and history in constructing their identities and how they have made life problematic for the characters in multicultural London. The roots and history of the first generation of immigrants make problematic identities for the second generation in the novel. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate the instability of identity as depicted in the novel. The characters in the novel cannot ‘’plan’’ their identities because it is a process which continues in all stages of life. Though the first generation of immigrants want to ‘’plan’’ an identity for their children (the second generation of immigrants), they are not successful. Because identity is a process and it is changeable based on place and time. The second generation of immigrants, who live in London, tries to mix the dominant culture (English culture) with their familial culture in order to have a different identity. They also want to escape from their family’s roots and history but it is difficult, because leaving roots is not an easy process.

Liberal neutrality – as understood in current legal and political debates – has two underlying intuitions and therefore two distinct elements. On the one hand it refers to the intuition that there are matters the state has no business getting involved in (hands-off element). On the other hand it is motivated by the idea that the state ought to treat citizens as equals and show equal respect and for their different conceptions of the good life (equality element). This thesis defends this two-fold understanding of neutrality with reference to Rawls’ conception of society as a fair system of cooperation and the idea of citizens as free and equal persons. In particular, the idea that citizens are to be treated as free justifies the hands-off element and argues that the state must be involved in nothing but justice. In the context of political decision making this requires the state to be justificatorily neutral. Treating citizens as equals requires the state to grant its citizens equal political rights and also to ensure that these rights have “fair value.” Given the danger that cultural bias undermines the equal standing of citizens the state has to ensure procedures of political decision making that are able to take citizens’ different conceptions into account. Treating citizens as free and equal therefore requires that the state bans all considerations of the good from being part of the justification of state action while at the same time taking these considerations into account when deliberating the way how these regulations are to be implemented.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

“Robin D.G. Kelley coined the term polyculturalism as an alternative to multiculturalism, ‘since the latter often implies that cultures are fixed, discrete entities that exist side by side—a kind of zoological approach to culture.’ ” Polyculturalism assumes the whole world’s cultures are interactive and fluid instead of independent and static, and individuals’ relationship to cultures are complex and cannot be categorized. Yet an individual constitutes multiple cultures, and individual identity embraces the various forms of culture in all aspects of one’s life. My research examines how polyculturalism affects aspects of communications among people who hold a multiplicity of voices. It uses my personal experiences as the basis for work that expresses the effects of mistranslation and cultural mixing and seeks to communicate them to people of various cultural backgrounds.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’analyser le processus relationnel interethnique estudiantin d’une université dite multiculturelle de Roumanie. Ce milieu universitaire réunit des Hongrois et des Roumains, deux groupes ethniques qui vivent dans un temps-espace commun, l’université Babes-Bolyai de Transylvanie, mais qui se construisent des identités ethniques, régionales ou nationales différentes. Le temps-histoire ainsi que le temps-mémoire de la Transylvanie participent à la construction de deux identités opposées ethniques et nationales : l’une hongroise, l’autre roumaine. Au contraire, la mémoire autobiographique ajoute à cet égard une identité commune, régionale pour les deux groupes ethniques. L’espace, déterminant et outil dans la construction identitaire, est analysé comme espace - ethnicisé, mais aussi comme espace – étudiant, commun pour les deux groupes. Pourtant, dans les deux cas, l’appropriation de l’espace peut approfondir les frontières ethniques. La langue, un autre déterminant dans la construction identitaire, est la manifestation directe de l’identité nationale, ethnique ou même régionale. Elle joue un rôle essentiel dans le processus d’auto-identification et d’identification de l’Autre, en fonctionnant comme élément de liaison ou de séparation. Dans certains cas, elle peut représenter un instrument ou une cause des conflits « symboliques » dans l’université. Dans ce contexte, l’application de la politique multiculturelle se manifeste surtout au niveau institutionnel et le dialogisme revendiqué par le multiculturalisme critique s’entrevoit dans des cas particuliers. L’analyse développée sous ces aspects est basée sur un terrain anthropologique (2007-2012) concernant les relations interethniques et le monde étudiant. / The objective of this thesis is to analyze the interethnic relational process between the students from a so called multicultural Romanian university. This academic environment brings together Hungarians and Romanians. Both ethnic groups live in a common space-time- the Babes-Bolyai University of Transylvania- but are building different ethnic, regional or national identities. Transylvania’s time-history and time-memory participates in the construction of two opposing ethnic and national identities: one Hungarian and one Romanian. On the contrary, autobiographical memory adds in this respect a common regional identity for both ethnic groups. Space - factor and tool in the identity construction- is analized as ethnicized-space and also as student-space, common for both groups. Yet, in both cases, the appropriation of space may deepen ethnic boundaries. Language, another factor in the identity construction, is a direct manifestation of national, ethnic or even regional identity. It plays an essential role in the process of Self-identification and the identification of the Other, functioning as connecting or separation element. In some cases, language may represent an instrument or a cause of “symbolic” conflicts in the university. In this context, the implementation of multicultural policy is most evident at an institutional level and the dialogical characteristic claimed by critical multiculturalism is seen in special cases. The analysis elaborated in this sense is based on an anthropological field (2007-2012) concerning interethnic relations and the student way of living.

In this essay, the Harry Potter series will be analyzed in three different sections. I will use African American criticism and Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the discussion of ‘race’ and segregation that occurs between three different groups. This section will explain along what lines the world of Harry Potter is segregated and to what extent. Further, it will contain a case-study of house-elves through the lens of postcolonial criticism, that shows how certain groups are relegated to the status of “subaltern”, what form their oppression take and how they respond to it. I have chosen the elves, who are at the very bottom of the social ladder, because the extent of their oppression has been cut out from movie adaptions, and Rowling herself has liquidated the house-elf plot from the last novels. They provide the clearest example of differentiation between the groups of magical creatures, even though as a group they do not play an important part the series. The main concepts that will be used in this section are the issues of subaltern, mimicry and anticolonialist resistance. Finally, I will look at the novels through a multicultural perspective to see how Rowling has portrayed contemporary multicultural England and how it connects to the racial divisions in the magical world.

The thesis explores the relationship between citizenship education and identity in conflict-affected societies, by comparing the teaching of citizenship across different schools in Northern Ireland and Israel. In both societies, citizenship education addresses issues that are deemed controversial, such as the recent or ongoing conflict, citizenship, racism, and sectarianism. The theoretical framework brings together (neo) Marxist, post-colonialist, and critical pedagogical approaches to citizenship education and identity. Fieldwork was carried out in four different schools (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian), using individual interviews, focus group interviews, observations, and document analysis. The major findings suggest that citizenship education at the policy, school, and classroom level is permeated by an avoidance of controversial issues related to the conflict and identity. In both societies, dominant narratives about the conflict glorify and justify violence, preventing a more critical examination of the conflicts. Additionally, educational policies promote a neoliberal/managerialist culture that censors the critical potential of citizenship education by determining that the priority for schools is academic standards and performativity. This limits teachers' ability to develop students' critical political thinking, to address controversial issues, and to challenge racist and sectarian views. However, the data also point to the employment of transformative forms of citizenship education, which became particularly evident among minorities. The thesis contribution is threefold: first, drawing on a (neo) Marxist and postcolonial theoretical framework facilitates a structural examination of the state of citizenship education through the lens of power relations. Second, the multi-level study shows how processes of avoidance and censoring trickle down from the policy level into schools and into classrooms. Third, since citizenship education is permeated by sidestepping and censoring, it is at risk of reproducing the conflict, structural sectarianism and racism, and socio-economic inequalities. The thesis concludes with the assertion that there is a need to provide teachers and schools with political and institutional support through offering training programmes; guidance and more time during the citizenship lesson to teach about controversial issues related to the conflict and identity. It also points at the need to further research pedagogies of critical teachers, who are able to promote transformative citizenship even in an uncongenial political environment that subtly promotes avoidance and censoring.

A tese tem por objetivo primordial observar a construção identitária de mestiças fidalgas nos romances Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), de Jean Rhys, True Women (1993), de Janice Windle, e Rosaura: a enjeitada (1883), de Bernardo Guimarães, considerando três fatores distintos: o multiculturalismo e a interracialização no século XIX; a tentativa de as protagonistas se passarem como caucasianas perante elites locais; a reprimida identificação das mestiças escravocratas com classes menos abastadas. Observam-se os pontos de convergência e divergência entre as obras estudadas, uma vez que o autor brasileiro discute a identidade como fator hereditário e nacional, enquanto as demais autoras a interpretam como construto cultural subjetivo. De modo geral, a pesquisa demonstra como estes autores resistem ao cientificismo que vislumbra o mestiço como ser degenerado, metabólica e ontologicamente desequilibrado, procurando advogar-lhe a imagem de modo distinto. Visto que Wide Sargasso Sea e True Women são releituras de obras oitocentistas, o trabalho também contempla relações intertextuais em dois vetores: o primeiro, voltado para relação entre hipertexto e hipotexto, e o segundo, voltado para a eventual relação entre Guimarães e as obras relidas por Rhys e Windle / At first hand, this thesis aims at observing the identitary construction of landowning multiracial women in Jean Rhyss Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Janice Windles True Women (1993) and Bernardo Guimarãess Rosaura: a enjeitada (1883), considering three distinct aspects: the emphasis on Multiculturalism in novels concerning interracialization in the 19th century; the protagonists attempt to pass as Caucasians before local elites and their repressed identification with the culture from lower classes. In this realm, I highlight interceptive and disjointing points between Bernardo Guimarães and the other authors, once the former discusses identity as a hereditary and national factor, and the latter ones interpret it as a free-willing and cultural construct. On the whole, this research shows how these three authors resist an 18th and 19th-century scientific discursive formation which envisaged the mestizo as a degenerated creature, with metabolic and ontological unbalance, and how they strive to advocate the image of the miscegenated on the world very idiosyncratically. Considering that Wide Sargasso Sea and True Women are rereadings of 19th century novels, the thesis also encompasses intertextuality in two different manners: on the one hand, it focuses on the intrinsic relations between the hypertext and the hypotext; on the other hand, it points out the likely relation between Guimarães and the authors Rhys and Windle revisit

The central hypothesis of this dissertation is based on the finding that, like in the countries of Western Europe under the influence of various circumstances, in the Czech Republic, too, there is a shift from the originally proclaimed multicultural concept of integration towards individual civic integration. The objective of the treatise is not only to verify the anticipated trend in the development of the migration policy, but also to seek causes of its modification. The formulation of a hypothesis that would apply equally to the Czech Republic and Slovakia was more complicated. While the formation of migration policies in the area of integration of immigrants into an autochthonous society enjoys a longer tradition in the Czech Republic -- also due to the higher number of immigrants -- in Slovakia it is in its beginnings so far. Even some of the recently adopted outcomes of public policy proclaimed the objective to implement the multicultural dimension vis-a-vis foreigners. The actual policies, however, bore witness to a completely different approach. The core hypothesis of this treatise has thus been complemented by a subhypothesis relating to the conditions of Slovakia: the multicultural dimension of the approach to immigrants in the past only existed at a theoretical level, and only partially. Given the recent adoption of the concept of integration policy, which is not based on the principles of multiculturalism, references to it represent a residual manifestation of the preceding non-systematic treatment of migration and integration in the outcomes of public policy. In real life, several steps hindering the application of this model's principles have been undertaken. Content analysis and diachronic comparative method applied on the documents under review show that there is a change occurring in the Czech Republic in the area of immigration policies. Whereas prior to the financial crisis the government would willingly employ foreigners, the impact of the crisis has led it to a restrictive immigration policy. Demonstrated was also a content shift in the approach to the integration of foreigners. As regards the formation of Slovak migration policies, the process of policy development proved to be more complicated to follow. Public policies in the area of migration and integration of foreigners since 2009 and the stance of the governmental bodies towards them have been largely indifferent. The Czech Republic clearly displays, over the course of the past several years, a shift from the communitarian/multicultural model toward the individual civic integration. The command of the language is considered to be the main vehicle of integration. The Slovak Republic declared multiculturalism only as a remnant of the non-systematic treatment of integration policies, with virtually nothing changing in the real life of immigrants. There had been practically no integration policy in Slovakia up to 2009. Similarly to the outcomes of public policies, the shift in the perspectives on migration away from multiculturalism has occurred in the political programs of Czech political parties as well. The issue of migration in Slovakia has so far not affected election campaigning. Slovak political parties do not have a clear idea of the possibilities of related to the integration of immigrants.