This doctoral thesis proposes an ethics of intercultural theatre, offering a materially engaged framework through which to approach both the problematics and positive potential of intercultural practice. Framing intercultural debates in terms of rights of representation, it suggests that the right to represent Othered people and cultures can be strengthened through 1) involvement of members of all represented cultures, 2) equality and creative agency of all collaborators, 3) advantageousness of a given project to all involved, and 4) positive socio-political effects of a production within its performance contexts. Working through four diverse case studies – Tim Supple's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pan Pan Theatre Company's The Playboy of the Western World, Peter Brook's 11 and 12 and Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle's The Playboy of the Western World – this project uses a Bourdieusian theoretical framework to flag elements of contemporary intercultural practice that strengthen and weaken rights of representation. It recognises that Orientalist and Eurocentric modes of representing Otherness still require address; equally, it points to laudable working practices, moving towards a pragmatics of best intercultural theatre practice.

Scholars of migration, colonization, and cultural interaction in antiquity have increasingly turned towards a variety of concepts (such as hybridity, negotiations, and middle grounds) developed by postcolonial theorists to describe the dynamics of ancient civilizations beyond the major centers of Athens and Rome. Whereas older models of identity saw the ancient world as a series of geographically distinct cultural units with attendant language, religion, and practices--that is to say, a model of identity rooted in the modern concept of the nation state-- recently classicists have come to see ancient identities as abstractions of a series of individual choices that take place over long periods of time and that are always mediated by contact with different groups. Focusing on two authors from what I shall define as the `colonial worlds' of antiquity (Theocritus from Sicily and Lucian from Syria) this study will explore how representations of physical difference and cultural practice negotiate the presence of non-Greek peoples into Greek literary culture.

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Thesis (PhD. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2002. / The purpose of this study is to investigate colonialism in the novels of Nadine Gordimer and Anita Desai. A further purpose is to introduce these two major writers to a wider audience, thereby illuminating not only their work but also the artistic, social and moral assumptions on which it rests. A comparative study of the novels of Gordimer and Desai shows how these writers, from socially and culturally different countries, reflect and explore colonialism. By locating this phenomenon of world history in Post-Colonial Literary Studies the project calls for a discussion of the various critical models of post-colonial writing. In consequence, the study moves beyond the dichotomy of east-west and centre-periphery to a reading of Gordimer's and Desai's novels at several levels, with a particular focus on India's special experience of colonialism - both at home and abroad -and Gordimer's status as a white South African. From this perspective evolves the notion that Desai and Gordimer reveal through their texts patterns of similarity and difference in their respective colonial encounters. If we were to search for a writer from Africa whose being and writing have been directly involved with issues pertaining to the historical phenomena of colonialism and race struggle over an extended period, then Gordimer must be the ideal candidate. She is a writer deeply bound up with the multiple phases and consequences of South African apartheid. Also, she is someone who tries to go beyond history to depict the conscience of the age by writing about the human condition in times of terror and fear. A contemporary analysis of the human condition is a concern that Gordimer and Desai share as writers of fiction. The agony of a post­ colonial India that tries to liberate itself from the dialectic of history is reflected in Desai's novels in the framework of "difference on equal terms". This places her in the "second generation" of lndo-English writers who write from the hybridised and syncretic view of the modern world that celebrates cultural cross-pollination. A special achievement of Gordimer and Desai is to succeed in powerfully portraying female characters in a rapidly changing world, though each writer explores the place of women in society from her own cultural perspective. Writers are transmitters of their cultures. A study of this kind, I hope, will help to stimulate interest and enjoyment in the reading of South African and Indian literature and thus strengthen the literary bond of understanding between the two countries.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Notre thèse a pour objet les écritures poétiques émanant et traitant de l’espace postcolonial (les géo/graphies). Elle vise à analyser la dynamique reliant le logos et le topos, à savoir le texte littéraire et les lieux dont et d’où il parle. Nos recherches doctorales convoquent l’espace comme vecteur herméneutique donnant accès au texte et s’interroge, ce faisant, sur sa fonction signifiante, ses qualités en tant que catégorie d’écriture et de lecture. Notre dessein est de démontrer que l’espace n’est pas seulement le site anodin sur lequel s’inscrit l’intrigue mais qu’il s’impose comme enjeu diégétique et substance génératrice du récit même. À partir d’un corpus de quatre romans - Soupir d’Ananda Devi, Le Silence des Chagos de Shenaz Patel, Douceurs du bercail d’Aminata Sow Fall et Riwan ou le chemin de sable de Ken Bugul -, nous démontrerons, dans un premier temps, que les représentations spatiales dans le texte littéraire rendent « lisibles » l’organisation de la société référentielle et les relations de pouvoir existantes. Dans un deuxième temps, nous étudierons la façon dont les géo/graphies abordées retravaillent les espaces dits réels à travers l’imaginaire et le verbe. Dans un troisième temps, seront divulguées les relations entre l’espace et le texte se manifestant autant dans le langage et la structure du roman que par sa narration et son genre. Enfin, pour comparer et formaliser nos résultats, nous nous proposons d’identifier les chronotopes desquels procèdent les univers fictifs de notre corpus. Ces noyaux organisateurs mettront en lumière le pouvoir démiurgique des textes littéraires à l’étude. Ces derniers érodent les modèles spatiaux et sociaux référentiels tout en faisant émerger des espaces autres. Dans cette perspective, les romans du corpus produisent non seulement de nouvelles « géographies imaginaires » qui se veulent des métadiscours critiques sur la société mais participent également à une refiguration (discursive) du monde.

Notre thèse a pour objet les écritures poétiques émanant et traitant de l’espace postcolonial (les géo/graphies). Elle vise à analyser la dynamique reliant le logos et le topos, à savoir le texte littéraire et les lieux dont et d’où il parle. Nos recherches doctorales convoquent l’espace comme vecteur herméneutique donnant accès au texte et s’interroge, ce faisant, sur sa fonction signifiante, ses qualités en tant que catégorie d’écriture et de lecture. Notre dessein est de démontrer que l’espace n’est pas seulement le site anodin sur lequel s’inscrit l’intrigue mais qu’il s’impose comme enjeu diégétique et substance génératrice du récit même. À partir d’un corpus de quatre romans - Soupir d’Ananda Devi, Le Silence des Chagos de Shenaz Patel, Douceurs du bercail d’Aminata Sow Fall et Riwan ou le chemin de sable de Ken Bugul -, nous démontrerons, dans un premier temps, que les représentations spatiales dans le texte littéraire rendent « lisibles » l’organisation de la société référentielle et les relations de pouvoir existantes. Dans un deuxième temps, nous étudierons la façon dont les géo/graphies abordées retravaillent les espaces dits réels à travers l’imaginaire et le verbe. Dans un troisième temps, seront divulguées les relations entre l’espace et le texte se manifestant autant dans le langage et la structure du roman que par sa narration et son genre. Enfin, pour comparer et formaliser nos résultats, nous nous proposons d’identifier les chronotopes desquels procèdent les univers fictifs de notre corpus. Ces noyaux organisateurs mettront en lumière le pouvoir démiurgique des textes littéraires à l’étude. Ces derniers érodent les modèles spatiaux et sociaux référentiels tout en faisant émerger des espaces autres. Dans cette perspective, les romans du corpus produisent non seulement de nouvelles « géographies imaginaires » qui se veulent des métadiscours critiques sur la société mais participent également à une refiguration (discursive) du monde.

Using a feminist approach in a postcolonial setting, the interactions between weaving, identity, gender, tourism development, and post-colonial history are explored. This ethnographic research is focused on the indigenous female weavers in Wulai, Taiwan who have experienced both colonialism and tourism development. During Japan’s occupation, the Atayal – one of twelve indigenous groups in Taiwan – were forced to abandon their most important socio-cultural activities: facial tattooing, headhunting, and weaving. The Atayal lost most of their original textiles because many of them were taken to Japan. Today, these textiles are preserved in a few Japanese museums. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the Atayal’s textiles are now reconstructed by the hands of some indigenous women in Wulai who weave primarily for museums. Others, on the other hand, weave for domestic tourists although they have little success in competition with less expensive Han Chinese' factory-made woven products. The reintroduction of weaving not only required the Atayal weavers to retrace their weaving history and to reconstruct and revive lost skills but also opened up a new opportunity to create new motifs with imported looms. The reintroduction of weaving has had multiple effects on the Atayal community. The meaning of weaving has changed from the representation of the Atayal women’s gender identity alone to the representation of the Atayal’s collective ethnic identity as a whole. Now the Atayal proudly claim their weaving culture as a part of their ethnic identity. It has become an ethnic symbol and a tourism product. However, the indigenous residents of Wulai are now barely involved directly with tourism business although symbols of their identity are used to promote tourism.

Using a feminist approach in a postcolonial setting, the interactions between weaving, identity, gender, tourism development, and post-colonial history are explored. This ethnographic research is focused on the indigenous female weavers in Wulai, Taiwan who have experienced both colonialism and tourism development. During Japan’s occupation, the Atayal – one of twelve indigenous groups in Taiwan – were forced to abandon their most important socio-cultural activities: facial tattooing, headhunting, and weaving. The Atayal lost most of their original textiles because many of them were taken to Japan. Today, these textiles are preserved in a few Japanese museums. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, the Atayal’s textiles are now reconstructed by the hands of some indigenous women in Wulai who weave primarily for museums. Others, on the other hand, weave for domestic tourists although they have little success in competition with less expensive Han Chinese' factory-made woven products. The reintroduction of weaving not only required the Atayal weavers to retrace their weaving history and to reconstruct and revive lost skills but also opened up a new opportunity to create new motifs with imported looms. The reintroduction of weaving has had multiple effects on the Atayal community. The meaning of weaving has changed from the representation of the Atayal women’s gender identity alone to the representation of the Atayal’s collective ethnic identity as a whole. Now the Atayal proudly claim their weaving culture as a part of their ethnic identity. It has become an ethnic symbol and a tourism product. However, the indigenous residents of Wulai are now barely involved directly with tourism business although symbols of their identity are used to promote tourism.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a postcolonial novel that, in this essay, is argued to challenge and question the colonial stereotypes which came into greater focus after 9/11 in America. The challenge is carried out via the narrator’s identity struggle by displaying the different stereotypes he is subjected to. The quiet listener to the narrator’s monologue, together with the reader’s part in creating and making sense of the novel also contributes towards challenging these stereotypes. The East and West are set against each other, displaying how both have harsh and generalizing views of the other.