This research gives an academic perspective on eleven articles written by Doria Shafiq and published in Bint an-Nīl 1948-1956, where the ideological undertones of her feminist discourse were critically examined. The purpose of this qualitative analysis was to study how Shafiq, in an Egyptian context, discussed the contemporary women's societal participation and status, but also which ideological values and conceptions were prominent in her articles. Gayatri Spivak’s reconceptualization of representation and Chandra Mohanty’s identification of ethnocentrism in feminist discourse, were drawn upon to examine representation, agency, essentialisation and Eurocentrism. An extensive linguistic analysis and examination of the socio-cultural context were conducted, using Norman Fairclough’s Dialectical-Relational Approach. The results showed that women’s agency was grammatically reduced and that women in object formation were described as a monolithic entity. Conflicting statements exhibited an ideological shift in the content, as a reflection of how the contemporary political conditions changed in Egypt. Doria Shafiq both reproduced a patriarchal discourse that perpetuated discursive victimisation of women, but also subtly induced liberal values and progressive depictions of the contemporary Egyptian woman.

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MA (English) / Department of English / The prevalence of patriarchal norms and the privileging of the African man in African literary works gradually led to an erasure of women‘s identities, thereby leaving them to hold peripheral positions. This has motivated African women critics to engage in linguistic and performative methodologies to restructure African women‘s status in postcolonial writings. Using feminist literary theory, Marxist literary criticism and postcolonial theory, among others, this study explores the changing images of women as depicted in a selection of Yvonne Vera‘s works, namely: Butterfly Burning (1998); Under the Tongue (1996); Without a Name (1994) and Nehanda (1993). Close reading and textual analysis are employed in examining the strategies devised by Vera to assess patriarchal attitudes that suppress women as well as reconfiguring their identities. This study is inspired by the desire to investigate the techniques employed by an African woman writer in speaking against marginalisation, exploitation and oppression of women in a postcolonial literary environment. Of primary concern to this study, is an examination of how Vera unleashes, re-writes and re-negotiates the potential of an African woman in her novels. This study distinctly shows that, as a subaltern writer, Vera reconfigures her female characters‘ identities through social and economic liberalisation. It is clear in this study that economic liberty has a great impact on the life of an African woman. This study contributes to the growing body of works that appreciates women writers‘ efforts in transforming, reifying and reinstating the image of African women in fictional works. / NRF

This thesis examines the work of the contemporary exilic Iraqi author Ḥasan Blāsim within the framework of magical realism. At the same time it argues for a more formalistic and wider definition of magical realism, which also includes fiction without any supernatural elements. Magical realistic components found in the short story collection Majnūn sāḥat al-ḥurrīya (The Madman of Freedom Square) underline the most important themes in the stories. These are related to the catastrophes that afflicted Iraq and its people in the course of last thirty years. With its emphasis on the documentation of modern Iraqi history dominated by war and exile Blāsim's work belongs to the genre of documentary narrative. The goal of documentary narrative is to contribute to the collective memory of a nation. Despite Blāsim's focus on documenting, magical realism in his work cannot be considered as an attempt to create a parallel cultural world. The supernatural in his stories functions metaphorically and relates exclusively to the real world of war and violence, in which people under heavy circumstances turn into animals, cannibals, which is magical in itself. In addition, Blāsim's work is on a subordinate level discussed from the perspective of postcolonial theory. Postcolonial theory has undergone a complicated...

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This study takes a deeper look into the apologies the Dutch state made in 2021 for the role of The Netherlands in the history of slavery. This was done by the presentation of seven speeches by seven members of the Dutch government in the national archives in the European and the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom. By means of a critical discourse analysis with a discourse-historical approach, we examined the different discourses in the speeches and the power relations that are hidden in them. The aim of the study is therefore to map out the different discourses within the seven apology speeches of the Dutch government and to track the power relations that are present in them. This is done by answering the following research questions: Q1. What are the dominant discourses in the seven apology speeches of the Dutch government for the state's role in the history of slavery?; Q1.1 What power relations can be found in the dominant discourses of the seven apology speeches of the Dutch government for the state's role in the history of slavery? Taken as a whole, the speeches show a willingness to take responsibility, but they also point towards the former colonization and the power relations that stand until this day.

What role, if any, did colonialism play in the history of Europe? To answer this question, scholars have increasingly turned to European border regions. These regions, whose ownership was disputed and often unstable, are excellent case studies for patterns of quasi-colonial rule within the confines of Europe. Historians of Austria-Hungary, especially, have argued that colonialism was by no means limited to overseas territories, but pertained also to the European continent. The occupied territories of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a border region on the fringes of the collapsing Ottoman empire, is one example. This article applies the criteria of postcolonial scholars to another European border region: Alsace-Lorraine. In its constitutional, administrative, economic and cultural status, this Franco-German borderland exhibits many characteristics of quasi-colonial rule that also applied in Bosnia-Herzegovina. But there are also important differences. In extending the question of inner-European colonialism from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Alsace-Lorraine, this article reflects on the applicability of a post-colonial perspective onto European border regions more generally. Such a perspective, it will be shown, has its merits as well as its risks. The emerging differences between quasi-colonial border regions like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Alsace-Lorraine, and overseas territories, are a testimony to the complexity and dynamism of colonialism. It is important not to preclude European border regions from postcolonial discourse on account of their geography alone.

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la question : en quoi l’apprentissage de la danse contemporaine héritière des sources africaines contribue-t-il à la déconstruction de l’occidentalocentrisme au sein de la communauté franco-québécoise blanche à Montréal ? Il sera démontré que cet apprentissage vient à offrir la possibilité à la communauté franco-québécoise blanche de retourner le regard critique vers elle-même afin d’observer sa propre acculturation occidentalocentrique et afin d’observer comment elle perpétue la violence de la blanchité. Ancré dans un cadre critique de justice postcoloniale, l'apprentissage de la danse contemporaine héritière des sources africaines peut contribuer à délier la hiérarchisation entre un occident associé à « l'humanité » et « l'Autre » associé à une humanité en fonction de sa proximité avec l'occident. L'apprentissage de la danse contemporaine héritière des sources africaines invoque une déhiérarchisation des catégories de « modernité/primitivité » et cultive une restitution des pluralités face à une colonialité qui continue à hégémoniser les épistémologies, les ontologies et les esthétiques. Ce faisant, l’enseignement de la danse contemporaine héritière des sources africaines au Québec est un exemple de cas qui déstabilise les paradigmes néo-coloniaux du ‘développement’ dans lesquels le ‘Nord’, associé à la ‘modernité’, est agent de développement, alors que le ‘Sud’ est récipiendaire du développement. Les implications plus larges de cette étude ont trait aux questions d’engagement dans une solidarité réhumanisante qui déconstruit la colonialité; aux questions de coexistence sociale dans la pluralité culturelle; ainsi qu'à l'éthique orientant les relations qu'on entretient avec « l'Autre ».

For a long time, the situation of refugees and asylum seekers has been a source of concern for EU Member states. While different European countries' policies and practices have received much scrutiny, the discourses they produce are less visible in academia. This study thus explores the policy decisions and laws behind the EU’s responses to the refugee crises of 2015 and 2022 by comparing Syrian refugees to Ukrainian refugees in order to understand the distinction in treatment. Through a postcolonial perspective, this study employs a Mediated Discourse Analysis that presents a mainly conventional discourse of refugees and asylum seekers in the context of policies and laws. The analysis found a strong influence of ‘Eurocentrism’ through exclusionary policies, implying a continued concept of 'othering' and the 'myth of differences' as the underlying reason for different asylum policies and laws affecting the right to seek asylum.