Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most widely recognized leaders of late Qing China, and she has been the major subject of numerous non-fiction and academic publications in Europe and North America. This, however, does not mean that Western knowledge on Cixi is strong. Although certain books, particularly those written by Cixi’s closest associates, do provide valuable information describing who she was, most of these books, along with many others, also contain fabricated claims about her as well. As a result, falsities have become heavily intertwined with factual records of Cixi in Western publications. This thesis attempts to re-examine these Western works in order to reach a correct understanding of Cixi’s life. In particular, this study demonstrates how a few major ideological trends, such as imperialism, Orientalism, sexism, and feminism, have influenced Western publications on Cixi and brought either bias or insights into the literature on her. / Graduate / 0332 / 0578 / 0582 / dchen@uvic.ca

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur islam har skildrats och hur muslimer har porträtterats i läroböcker i religionskunskap för gymnasieskolan mellan åren 1994-2010. Vidare är syftet att se hur läromedlen stämmer in med teorin om Eurabien samt de analyser som Edward Said och Samuel Huntington gör. Till detta fogar jag aspekten huruvida skildringarna av islam och muslimer har förändrats över tid, gynnat eller missgynnat islamofobi samt vilka problem som läromedlen skapar för läraren. Metoden som jag använder mig utav är sakorienterad hermeneutik och urvalet är gjort för att få en så stor spridning som möjligt mellan olika författare under de årtal som undersökningen är avgränsad till. Den teoretiska grunden består av dels Edward Saids och Samuel Huntingtons analyser men även av Mattias Gardells, Andreas Malms och Mats Bergenhorns bidrag till vetenskapen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar på att muslimer i de äldre läroböckerna beskrivs som oförnuftiga, samtidigt som det finns beskrivningar av muslimen som en individ vars identitet är helt fylld av Koranen och islam. Vid sidan av detta går det även att se hur Gud görs främmande för kristna och judiska läsare genom en selektiv översättning av den muslimska trosbekännelsen. Kvinnoförtryck och fundamentalism görs i läroböckerna till centrala element av islam, men samtidigt finns det från 1997 och framåt i de undersökta böckerna uttryck av antiislamofobiska, antirasistiska och antikulturalistiska budskap. Läroböckerna kantas även av problematiska generaliseringar som ibland är positiva och ibland är negativa. Läroböckerna bekräftar dels Huntingtons teori samtidigt som de visar tecken på att de kan vara påverkade av Saids analys av orientalismen. Angående föreställningen om ett Eurabien finns det vissa delar av läromedlen som är i samklang med teorin. När det gäller läromedlens roll i skapandet eller motverkande av islamofobi var det en omöjlighet att ge ett svar på var läromedlen vilar då det finns ett flertal olika tendenser som pekar åt olika riktningar, men det är tänkbart att de både kan skapa och motverka islamofobiska åsikter. Vad som dock kan sägas är att de nyare läroböckerna innehåller färre negativa skildringar av islam och muslimer än de äldre läroböckerna.

This essay is a study of  textbooks in religious education for middle school. Textbooks are for many, the first contact with religion and they contain a shorter description of different religions. The study is supported by theories of 'Islamofobi' by Mattias Gardell as well as oriental studies by Edward W. Said. The purpose of the study is to examine how textbooks describe islam and muslims' situation in Sweden. Four textbooks from 1992 until 2011 have been used in the examination. The purpose is also to investigate the differences and/or similarities between these texts. The survey was made by a qualitative content analysis. The result shows that confusing facts emerges regarding islam and muslims' situation in Sweden, as well as muslims' tend to be described as a homogeneous group. In more modern textbooks you will find that muslims' are described as a homogenous group less than before, but there are still parts of the texts which are very generalising.

The Lonely Planet advises visitors to Granada, Spain to "turn off...into the cobbled alleys of Calderería Vieja or Nueva and in a few steps you've left Europe behind." La Calderería is known for its Arab influences and North African immigrant businesses. A tourist's ability to easily step off one continent and enter another realm demonstrates an imagined border between Europe and the Orient, especially North Africa, that is created by historical narratives, policy discourses and daily practices. The antagonism between an imagined white, Catholic and European Spain vis-à-vis its North African Muslim neighbors is fundamental to the history of the Spanish nation. This East/West divide has recently been recast as Moroccan immigration, inspired by proximity and colonial legacies, since the 1980s has made Moroccan the largest immigrant group by nationality in Spain. Supranational borders, neighborhoods and specific streets participate in an intense debate about cultural difference, based on a complicated mixture of racial, ethnic and religious categories. Concurrently, more regional autonomy within the Spanish state has led Andalusia to reclaim its Islamic heritage, especially in Granada where tourism is important economically. This has dovetailed with gentrification of the Albayzín. Both the appropriation of the Islamic period of Iberian history and the contemporary social exclusion of Moroccan immigrants are realized through Orientalism. In La Calderería, tea, souvenirs, male Moroccan vendors, Western female tourists, pavement, cultural conservation, public space ordinances and police surveillance create a site where public and private space blurs and ‘practical orientalism’ constitutes subjects performing and resisting the identities prescribed to them.

Diss. Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2007.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008 . / Also available in print.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-108). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of West Florida, 2009. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 103 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-303).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Peter P. Garretson, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 14, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 227 pages. Includes bibliographical references.