First Nations foodways have been altered through systemized efforts of colonization and were effectively reduced in part from the creation of stores and through limiting reserve systems. The current research seeks to understand the dietary choices and changes among three generations of Fist Nations women. Research takes place in a remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario. The differing food practices among the three generations of women highlight transformations resulting from a traumatic history. Decreases in the consumption of traditional, land based foods, as well as the practices around these foods (procurement, preparation, knowledge exchange and social engagement) alter the experiences of the younger generations. The conversations/exchanges around food take place within the culturally significant space of the teepee. The teepee is a core element. These exchanges have a tremendous bearing on the overall wellness of these women and their efforts to reclaim and remain culturally resilient.

This work examines the use of psychoanalytic terms and concepts in postcolonial theory, with attention to the social and historical contexts in which those terms and models originated. The thesis provides an overview of the different academic and political contexts out of which postcolonial theory evolved, focusing on how identity came to be a central term within postcolonial debates. Drawing on the work of scholars such as Anne McClintock, it critiques the current use of psychoanalytic models by postcolonial theorists, arguing that psychoanalysis is itself implicated in the history of European imperialism and brings with it concomitant assumptions about the nature of race, class, gender, and sexuality. The thesis provides an overview of the work of Charcot, Freud and Lacan. It takes up some of their major contributions to psychoanalysis, and discusses the social and political contexts in which those works were developed. The thesis goes on to provide a detailed analysis of the intersection of postcolonial theory and psychoanalysis in the work of Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Helene Cixous. The thesis concludes by discussing what I view as the two major ethical and intellectual problems that arise from the use of psychoanalysis in postcolonial theory. I argue, first, that psychoanalysis developed within the same cultural and political context as European colonialism. In spite of its moments of self-consciousness, psychoanalysis, nonetheless, reproduces some of the models of identity that supported European imperialism, both in Europe and abroad. Secondly, I argue that psychoanalysis takes, at root, a pessimistic view of human nature and this pessimism is fundamentally at odds with the emancipatory motives of postcolonial theory. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Le 11 septembre 2001 a créé une nouvelle catégorie cultuelle et culturelle, les « musulmans ». Face à la montée de l’islamophobie dans les sociétés occidentales, Miriam Cooke invente le néologisme « The Muslimwoman », ou en français, la femme-musulmane. Prise entre les tensions néo-colonialistes et islamistes, l’étiquette femme-musulmane offre une plateforme d’action qui permet soit de rejeter, d’embrasser ou de subvertir cette identification grâce, entre autres, à la littérature. A partir de six romans écrits en anglais et en français, publiés après le 11 septembre, par des femmes arabo-américaines, Mohja Kahf et Laila Halaby, arabo-britanniques, Leila Aboulela et Fadia Faqir, et francophones, Zahia Rahmani et Saphia Azzeddine, ce travail propose une réflexion sur l’émergence d’une sensibilité littéraire internationale qui interroge les « identités musulmanes » dans cet état global d’exception. Cette redéfinition de l’identité dans des langues séculaires – l’anglais et le français - est étroitement liée à l’histoire de l’immigration de chaque pays. Les personnages s’interrogent sur leur « identité musulmane » dans le pays d’“accueil”. Ces romancières s’efforcent de ne pas tomber dans l’un des deux discours dominants, néo-colonialiste et islamiste, et invitent d’ores et déjà le lecteur à suivre la construction identitaire de leurs personnages de l’intérieur et à suivre les difficultés auxquelles ils font face. L’Islam, par sa capacité à voyager dans ce monde globalisé, permet différentes affiliations, des plus sereines aux plus discutables. / Soon after 9/11, G.W. Bush launched the War on Terror outside and inside the U.S.A. A new cultural and religious category became more visible: « Muslim ». Muslim women in Western societies became the representatives of this community and the target of Islamophobia. In this context Miriam Cooke invented the neologism « The Muslimwoman », an identification created by outside forces, either neo-colonialist or Islamist. This new identification offers a platform for action: Muslim women either embrace, deconstruct or subvert this identification from within and through literature. Mohja Kahf and Laila Halaby as Arab-American ; Leila Aboulela and Fadia Faqir as Arab-British ; Zahia Rahmani and Saphia Azzeddine as francophone writers question the significance of these new « Muslim identities » in Euro-american societies, in their novels. Without falling into the neo-colonialist or the Islamist discourse, « Muslim identities » emerge as plural. Islam's capacity for reformulation outside of Muslim heartlands according to conditions of modernity helps usher in a process of engagement with « Muslim identities », ranging from peaceful to more questionable responses.

This thesis, “Re-visioning a Discipline: Martin Wickramasinghe’s Contribution to Comparative Literature,” explores the comparative approach of Martin Wickramasinghe, the pioneering twentieth-century Sri Lankan novelist, literary-cultural critic, and journalist. Wickramasinghe drew on Sinhala folk and classical, Pali, Sanskrit, and Western literary traditions, especially those of England, and Russia. His comparative approach had two main principles: First, literary concepts do not belong to any literary culture on the basis of their origin. Second, any concept that exists in a given literary culture can be “remoulded” and incorporated by another culture. The rejection of the notion of origin-based ownership of literary concepts and the reformulation of literary concepts as phenomena that may be circulated among literary cultures create a hierarchy-less base for comparison. In creating his comparative approach, Wickramasinghe problematized the binaries of local and metropolitan, village and city, and national and international. I examine his comparative approach by analyzing, first, his re-interpretations of the concepts of reader and grāmyatā (vulgarity). For example, Wickramasinghe challenged the elitism of Sanskrit literary theoretical conceptions of the reader and vulgarity. Second, I discuss how he “remoulded” different literary concepts in his theoretical writings and fiction. For example, he created a concept of realism that drew on classical Sinhala narratives as well as Western literature and theory. In this thesis, I place Wickramasinghe’s comparative approach in conversation with postcolonial scholarship such as that of Dipesh Chakrabarty, Simon Gikandi, Revathi Krishnaswamy, Gayathri Spivak, and S. Subramaniam. Wickramasinghe’s comparative approach provides us new insights on how to compare different literary cultures without ascribing hierarchical values to these cultures. He rejected the binaries of colonial and postcolonial Sri Lanka and, instead, situated himself in a liminal position. His writings illumine how Pali, Sanskrit, and European metropolitan literary traditions all impacted Sinhala literary culture in different historical periods. Wickramasinghe focused on how Sinhala literary culture appropriates literary concepts from other literary traditions rather than on the traditions themselves.

Inspired by the approach of the Italian microhistories, this paper explores A Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim – Matthew Flinders’ story of his cat – to investigate what the text reveals about humanity and animality. From the clues Flinders left behind, it seeks to piece together a picture of the co-creation of human and animal identity through the relationship between cat and crew. It uses the theory of ‘becoming in kind’ to illustrate how human identity and animal is shaped in their mutual interactions. The topics covered include masculinity, race, and the scientific colonial mission. In conclusion, the paper finds that in the writing of his narrative Flinders constructed his own identity as a maritime commander, revealed the patriarchal forces that were at work in forming this part of his character, and expressed his ideal of the sailor in his descriptions of Trim. The treatment of animals was very important for establishing racial divisions in Flinders’ text, as seen in the cases of Bongaree and the imagined slave on Mauritius. The men on the ship used play with a Trim as a form of bonding, free from the negative associations with intimacy, and were able to express their affectionate sides in conversations with him. Importantly, Trim’s ‘cathood’ was determined by his upbringing among sailors, as he developed into specifically a ship’s cat.

Tourism has various effects on society. Not only economic but also immaterial effects on destinations as well as on tourists themselves. Especially regarding tourism between the Global North and South, it is arguable if tourism is a social force influencing societies in a positive way or if it rather reinforces stereotypes and colonial structures. Postcolonial approaches help to narrow down this topic and to complement classical tourism studies. This paper focuses on the situation of German tourists in a former German colony: Namibia. It examines how the tourists perceive themselves within the system of tourism in a postcolonial context, how they perceive the Other and colonial heritage during their trips. Interviews were conducted with eight German tourists who had travelled to Namibia during the last years on their experiences and thoughts to complement existing studies and broaden the picture. The interviews show that stereotypes and notions of white superiority still exist within tourism whilst the sensitivity for history, colonial times and postcolonial structures is rather weak amongst German tourists. At the same time, the tourists wish for more equality and encounters at eye level. It is reinforced that tourism scholarship as well as the tourism industry itself should have postcolonial issues in mind, as well as the non-economic effects of tourism which are in dire need to be considered stronger. The tourists showed that they are ready for a closer engagement with history if colonial heritage is presented and interpreted more intensively. If this interpretation is elaborated in communicative processes respecting all stakeholders, especially the local populations, tourism can not only impact economic development, it can also be a strong social force which ultimately would create a better understanding and experience for both stakeholders, the tourists, and locals respectively.

Thesis advisor: Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wallace / This dissertation explores what a new materialist line of thinking can offer the study of eighteenth-century Irish and British literature. It sees specific objects that were considered indicative of eighteenth-century Irish identity—coins, mantles, flax, and spinning wheels—as actively indexing and shaping the formal development of Irish character in fiction, from Jonathan Swift to Sydney Owenson. Through these objects, I trace and analyze the material origin stories of two eighteenth-century discursive phenomena: the developments of Irish national character and Irish literary character. First, in the wake of colonial domination, the unique features and uses of objects like coins bearing the Hibernian typeface, mantles, and flax helped formulate a new imperial definition of Irish national character as subdued, raced, and, crucially, feminine. Meanwhile, material processes such as impressing coins or spinning flax for linen shaped ways of conceiving an interiorized deep subjectivity in Irish fiction during the rise of the individual in late eighteenth-century ideology. Revising recent models of character depth and interiority that take English novel forms as their starting point (Deidre Lynch’s in particular), I show how Ireland’s particular material and colonial contexts demonstrate the need to refit the dominant, Anglocentric understanding of deep character and novel development. These four material objects structure Irish character’s gradual interiorization, but, unlike the English model, they highlight a politically resistant, inaccessible depth in Irish character that is shadowed by gendered, colonial violence. I show how, although ostensibly inert, insignificant, or domestic, these objects invoke Ireland’s violent history through their material realities—such as the way a coin was minted, when a mantle was worn, or how flax was prepared for spinning—which then impacts the very form of Irish characters in literary texts. My readings of these objects and their literary manifestations challenge the idea of the inviolable narrative and defend the aesthetics and complexity of Irish characters in the long eighteenth century. In the case of particular texts, I also consider how these objects’ agency challenges the ideology of Britain’s imperial paternalism. I suggest that feminized Irish objects can be feminist in their resistant materiality, shaping forms of Irish deep character that subvert the colonial gaze. Using Ireland as a case study, this dissertation demonstrates how theories of character and subjectivity must be grounded in specific political, material contexts while arguing that a deeper engagement with Irish materiality leads to a better understanding of Irish character’s gendering for feminist and postcolonial analysis. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

This paper aims to show how Brave New World, a dystopia by Aldous Huxley, has strong postcolonial traces within it. Edward Said's concept of Orientalism and Gayatri Spivak's analyses of Bertha Mason, the fictional representation of the colonial female subject in nineteenth-century English literature, tie up the similarities in how the Reservation and Linda are portrayed within the book. Comparing Gayatri Spivak's theories with Huxley's writings adds a new perspective to the novel. This essay will also include a close reading of the book and aims to unveil how specifik events concerning Linda and the part of the world referred to as "the reservation" are in link with "Orientalism", "othering" and feminism. The argument will be that both Linda and "the reservations" description in the novel are in frame with British imperialistic writings and male patriarchy.

This research observes how discourses of belonging and citizenship manifest in media coverage. I combine both the theoretical framework of postcolonial and coloniality, and a close critical discourse analysis of various media coverage about sanctuary. I observe how nonprofits who work with the immigrant community, municipal government media, and local and national mainstream news media in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Francisco cover the concept of sanctuary. The inauguration of President Donald Trump in 2017 marked a new iteration of executive orders, that barred much of the immigration population that sanctuary policies are attempting to keep safe. Therefore, observing the sanctuary during the Trump administration generates new data to analyze. Through a critical discourse analysis of media in Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and San Francisco, I found that the conceptualization of sanctuary is convoluted. I argue that without a precise definition, it offers the Trump administration space to deem the practice of sanctuary as dangerous. The mainstream news media relies heavily on placing immigrant groups in deservingness frames, translating that some immigrants belong while others do not. In my analysis, I also found that nonprofits and municipal media use media to create welcoming atmospheres through multiculturalism, assimilation, and religious rhetoric, so the immigrant population feels like they belong. While these welcoming practices are helpful to building an immigrant community, these practices were reliant on these strategies, which I argue could overshadow the complex relationship between those supporting the immigrant and the immigrant. / Media & Communication

This essay aims to explore the identities of a selection of female characters in Earl Lovelace’s novel Salt. My research questions are the following: How are the selected characters’ hybrid identities constructed? What role do different circumstances play in the formation of the characters’ identities? How do polyphony, mimicry and the carnivalesque affect their identities? Although the examined women are assumed to conform to similar gender norms, I argue that there is no common female role in Salt. This is demonstrated by the characters’ hybrid identities, which combine divergent characteristics. The method used in the analysis is close reading formulated by Greenham. My analysis reveals that the concept of carnivalesque influences the identities of all the examined characters. It results in a performative, creative power that makes the women discover and redefine their selves. However, it occurs in different ways for each character. Moreover, the characters’ identities are highly polyphonic and complex, with contrastive traits completing each other. To a lesser extent, the analysed women’s identities show traits of postcolonial mimicry, which may be seen as a repetitive and imitative attitude.