A comparative essay to show links between empowerment in feminism and postcolonialism by comparing the development of the protagonist in Margaret Atwood's Surfacing to the development of Pauline in Louise Erdrich's Tracks.

This thesis addresses particular limitations of postcolonial scholarship about Muslim women. To locate my analysis of postcolonial works, I survey Orientalist productions of the Muslim woman by European travelers and certain Muslim reformists. I read these repressive constructions of the Muslim woman through the lens of postcolonial critique. While postcolonial discourses about Muslim women are frequently framed as a "corrective" to Orientalist accounts, they are often limited by a commitment to teleological conceptions of development. This is especially true of the discourse of "Islamic Feminism" in the works of Margot Badran and miriam cooke. Examining Badran's and cooke's conceptions of feminism and religiosity, I highlight the ways in which it re-inscribes particular Orientalist assumptions, and remains bound by its adherence to secular-liberal values, and teleological conceptions of modernity. These biases carry serious implications for future scholarship about Muslim women within the Western Academy.

Abstract This essay takes as its starting point that the Swedish classroom often is an intercultural environment and that it is therefore important to address issues connected to ethnocentrism in it. In this essay I examine how the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid can be used in schools to raise such ethnocentric issues. The novel’s didactic potential becomes clear by capturing some of the views held by the book’s protagonist as an alternative to Western ethnocentric concepts. Furthermore, the ambiguity of the novel allows for students to reflect on the identification processes that produce ethnocentrism. The power of nostalgia is also discussed in this essay, and with it nostalgia’s possibly alluring, yet counterproductive qualities. Together, these topics and themes from The Reluctant Fundamentalist combine to illuminate a use of literature within the context of intercultural education. Keywords: Intercultural education, Ethnocentrism, Calvinism, Islam, Capitalism. / <p>Dominant cultures exist in many different guises, yet may function almost invariably in symbiosis with double standards and discrimination. However, these acts are often only recognised by those being subjected to them, not by those practising the same. Selective concern and empathy depending on who the practitioners happen to be, as well as who the recipients of said acts are, actually helps to illustrate the precise definitions of these terms.</p>

Thesis (M.A. in english language and literature)--Washington State University, May 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-66).

Thesis (D.Phil.)--University of Oxford, 2008. / Supervisors: Professor Andrew Hurrell, Professor Henry Shue. Bibliography: leaves 223-251.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-63). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2001. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 352-361).

No description available.

Samernas första politiska rörelse runt sekelskiftet i Sverige var startskottet, inte bara för samernas egen politiska organisation, utan också för en debatt kring samernas rasifierade identitet. Debatten kretsade kring rätten till land, och huruvida den skulle förbehållas endast nomadiserande renskötande samer, eller om rätten skulle inkludera alla samer oavsett levnadsuppehälle. Samtidens argumentativa klassificeringssystem satte samernas yrkesutövning främst, men med rasifierade premisser kring samernas temporala och spatiala tillhörighet. En av premisserna för argumentationen, samernas temporala tillhörighet, präglades ur svensk medias synvinkel av en stark tro på att samerna riskerade att försvinna. Jag argumenterar för att detta hade en rasbaserad logik i form av en anakronistisk tillhörighet utanför en (svensk) evolutionistisk tidslinje. Genom en annan premiss, den spatiala, visade de svenska journalisterna på en stark tendens att placera samerna i ett mytiskt mellan-rum, där fjällen fungerade som en gränslös kuliss, som befäste samernas utanförskap i det svenska produktiva landskapet. Då den svenska definitionen av samerna inte baserades på yttre karaktärsdrag, utan på en yrkesutövning, destabiliserar den de flesta västerländska uppfattningar om ras. Denna studie presenterar därför några ledtrådar till hur och varför moderna minoritetsfrågor är så komplexa för den svenska självbilden. / The first political movement of the Sami, the indigenous Swedes, at the turn of the last century, became the starting point, not only for the political organization of the Sami, but also for a debate concerning the racial identity of the Sami. The debate dealt with the right to the land, and whether the use of the land should only be allowed for the nomadic reindeer herding Sami, or whether the right should be extended to all Sami regardless of means of living. The argumentative classification at the time was based on the Sami’s occupation, but with racial premises around the Sami’s temporal and spatial belonging. One of the premises for the argumentation, the temporal belonging of the Sami, was marked by a strong belief on behalf of the Swedish media that the Sami were at risk of disappearing. I argue that this came to have a racial logic in the form of an anachronistic belonging outside a (Swedish) evolutionist timeline. Through the means of a separate logic, the spatial, the Swedish journalists showed a strong tendency to place the Sami in a mythical in between-ness, in which the mountains functioned as a borderless backdrop, which confirmed the alienation of the Sami in the Swedish productive landscape. Because the Swedish definition of the Sami was not based upon physical features, but upon a professional category, it destabilizes most western notions about race. This study therefore presents some clues to how and why modern minority issues are so complex within the Swedish self-image.