A pesquisa aqui apresentada é um estudo da Folia de Reis do bairro rural de Ribeirão Grande, em Ourinhos/SP e das cidades vizinhas. Trata-se também das mesmas festas retratadas nas pinturas do acervo do Museu de Arte Primitiva de Assis José Nazareno Mimessi, como produto das culturas populares subalternas. Analisa suas características estéticas e simbólicas e como seus elementos fundantes permanecem, suas possíveis descaracterizações e os processos de assimilação e acomodação das diferentes culturas que nelas transitam, com vistas a ampliar as conceituações sobre as manifestações das culturas populares do país e colaborar para ampliar a compreensão da realidade na qual estamos inseridos. Por outro lado, este trabalho pretende, ainda, examinar a festa popular estudada como significativo instrumento de comunicação que ultrapassou os limites do passado, compreender como acontecem no presente e projetar perspectivas para a edificação da identidade cultural das culturas subalternas, no futuro. Também pretende apresentar as representações imagéticas das culturas populares subalternas como elementos de sustentação das tradições mantidas pela oralidade, assim como registros e documentos para compreender como se dá a acomodação e reestruturação das novas informações e influências trazidas pelos processos comunicacionais da contemporaneidade. / This research is a study of the Epiphany Celebrations performed in the rural district Ribeirão Grande, in Ourinhos/SP, and neighboring cities. The same celebrations portrayed in the paintings of the Museu de Arte de Assis José Nazareno Mimessi collection are studied as well, as a product of subaltern cultures. It analyzes their esthetic and symbolic characteristics and how their founding elements remain: their likely decharacterization and also the assimilation and accommodation processes of the cultures which transit in them. Aiming to broaden the concept spectrum on the country´s popular cultural manifestations as well as to contribute to widen the understanding of the reality in which we are inserted. On the other, this work expects, also, to examine this celebration as a significant communication tool which has surpassed the boundaries of the past, to understand how they occur in the present and to draw perspectives on the edification of the cultural identity of subaltern cultures, in the future. It also intends to present subaltern cultures imagetic representations as sustaining elements of traditions which are held on through orality as well as records and documents, in order to understand how the accommodation and restructuring of new information and influences brought on by contemporary communicational processes take place.

L’œuvre de la romancière libanaise ‘Alawiyya Ṣubḥ (née à Beyrouth en 1955) est traversée par un rapport intrinsèque entre le corps épanoui et son exercice de la parole, de même qu’entre le corps réprimé et son embrigadement dans le silence, le tout lié à une peur du féminin dans ses manifestations aussi bien corporelles que langagières. Face à la norme répressive, le langage des personnages, lieu de l’articulation du savoir et du pouvoir, comme leur corps, lieu de l’exercice de la domination masculine, deviennent des lieux de contre-pouvoirs, des « subjectivités » en devenir comme dirait Michel Foucault. Ainsi se pose dans les trois romans de Ṣubḥ : Maryam al-ḥakāyā (2002), Dunyā (2006) et Ismuhu l-ġarām (2009) la question de la représentation des femmes et la possibilité qu’elles ont de prendre ou non la parole et de se faire entendre. Dans le système patriarcal mis en scène dans ces romans, le silence est la norme contre laquelle s’élève la voix de certains personnages, femmes et hommes. Par conséquent, quand elle intervient, leur parole, qui se situe aux confins de l’admissible, du convenable et du soutenable, a tout de suite valeur de transgression. Une fois cette parole advenue, la femme, parce que c’est surtout d’elle qu’il s’agit, récupère sa voix et l’image de son corps, ce dernier étant, en quelque sorte, le premier lieu où se manifeste l’appropriation patriarcale du discours féminin, et sa réappropriation par la femme, le premier et principal signe d’une possible émancipation. Un parler « féminin » est alors célébré, un parler qui n’est pas exclusivement de femmes, mais un parler qui ne prétend pas à l’universel, et qui permet l’émergence d’un discours minoritaire échappant à la vision logocentrique et théocentrique du monde. / The work of the Lebanese novelist 'Alawiyya Ṣubḥ (Beirut, 1955) is traversed by an intrinsic relationship between the unimpeded body and its exercise of speech, likewise between the repressed body and its enslavement in silence, all being linked to a fear of what feminine would be in its corporal and linguistic manifestations. Faced with the repressive norms, the language of the characters being a place where power and knowledge articulate on the one hand and their body, as the place of the exercise of male domination on the other hand, become places of counter power. In other hands, they become places of upcoming "subjectivities", as Michel Foucault would say. In the three novels of Ṣubḥ: Maryam al-ḥakāyā (2002), Dunyā (2006) and Ismuhu l-ġarām (2009), arises the question of the representation of women and the possibility for them to be voiced and heard. In the patriarchal system depicted in these novels, silence is the norm against which the voice of certain women and men rises. Therefore, when their word intervene, lying at the confines of the admissible, the suitable and the sustainable, it has immediately the value of transgression. Once this word has come, the woman, main subject of this word, recovers her voice and the image of her body. The body is the first place where the patriarchal appropriation of feminine discourse manifests itself, and the reappropriation of this discourse by woman becomes the first and principal sign of a possible emancipation. A « feminin » speech is then celebrated, a speech that is not exclusively that of women, yet a speech that does not pretend to the universal, and which allows the emergence of a minority discourse that escapes the logocentric and theocentric visions of the world.

A pesquisa aqui apresentada é um estudo da Folia de Reis do bairro rural de Ribeirão Grande, em Ourinhos/SP e das cidades vizinhas. Trata-se também das mesmas festas retratadas nas pinturas do acervo do Museu de Arte Primitiva de Assis José Nazareno Mimessi, como produto das culturas populares subalternas. Analisa suas características estéticas e simbólicas e como seus elementos fundantes permanecem, suas possíveis descaracterizações e os processos de assimilação e acomodação das diferentes culturas que nelas transitam, com vistas a ampliar as conceituações sobre as manifestações das culturas populares do país e colaborar para ampliar a compreensão da realidade na qual estamos inseridos. Por outro lado, este trabalho pretende, ainda, examinar a festa popular estudada como significativo instrumento de comunicação que ultrapassou os limites do passado, compreender como acontecem no presente e projetar perspectivas para a edificação da identidade cultural das culturas subalternas, no futuro. Também pretende apresentar as representações imagéticas das culturas populares subalternas como elementos de sustentação das tradições mantidas pela oralidade, assim como registros e documentos para compreender como se dá a acomodação e reestruturação das novas informações e influências trazidas pelos processos comunicacionais da contemporaneidade. / This research is a study of the Epiphany Celebrations performed in the rural district Ribeirão Grande, in Ourinhos/SP, and neighboring cities. The same celebrations portrayed in the paintings of the Museu de Arte de Assis José Nazareno Mimessi collection are studied as well, as a product of subaltern cultures. It analyzes their esthetic and symbolic characteristics and how their founding elements remain: their likely decharacterization and also the assimilation and accommodation processes of the cultures which transit in them. Aiming to broaden the concept spectrum on the country´s popular cultural manifestations as well as to contribute to widen the understanding of the reality in which we are inserted. On the other, this work expects, also, to examine this celebration as a significant communication tool which has surpassed the boundaries of the past, to understand how they occur in the present and to draw perspectives on the edification of the cultural identity of subaltern cultures, in the future. It also intends to present subaltern cultures imagetic representations as sustaining elements of traditions which are held on through orality as well as records and documents, in order to understand how the accommodation and restructuring of new information and influences brought on by contemporary communicational processes take place.

The aim of this essay is to critically consider Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small Things from a postcolonial feminist perspective, with a special focus on how she models different representations of women, taking as a background the discussions within postcolonial feminism about subalternity and the representations of women from the so-called Third World in theory and literature, as well as the concept of agency from Cultural Studies. This purpose is reached by studying and comparing three main female characters in the novel: Mammachi, Baby Kochamma and Ammu, centering on their different ways of relating to the male hero of the novel, Velutha, an Untouchable in the lingering caste system of India. The essay argues that Roy has contributed with diverse representations of subaltern women in the ‘Third World’ who—despite their oppressed and marginalized status—display agency and are portrayed as responsible for their own actions.

Amitav Ghosh's novel The Calcutta Chromosome is a science-fiction which deals with subalter voice. In this paper I have discussed that how Ghosh has written an alternative hisory for the suabltern and how he establishes a connection between subaltern and the science-fictional term, the posthuman. I also argue that through such representation Ghosh proposes a open ended way to think about the subaltern future as well.

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to analyze some aspects of the historical surroundings in which Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak wrote her famous essay ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. From a historical perspective, inspired by Quentin Skinner, I examine how Spivak in a context of French theory in U.S. academy criticized Michel Foucault and defended Jacques Derrida. In the first part of my analysis I relate Spivak’s essay to the ”Foucault and Derrida debate” of the sixties and seventies. I argue that many aspects of Derrida’s early critique of Foucault, and many of the themes of that debate in general, was rhetorically repeated by Spivak in ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. In the second part of my analysis, I discuss how Foucault and Derrida in the context of U.S. academy were, rather than empirical persons, turned into common nouns well incorporated into the academic language. In this context, where Spivak appeared, I analyze how the ”notions” Foucault and Derrida was disputed. I argue that Spivak, during several years before she wrote ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”, had been trying to refute anglophone marxist and postcolonial intellectuals who criticized Derrida. These critics, including Terry Eagleton, Perry Anderson and Edward Said, had been blaming Derrida for being unhistorical, politically evasive and merely textualistic. My argument is that Spivak sought to defend Derrida towards these critics in ”Can the Subaltern Speak?”. In this context, her aim was to emphasize the efficiency of Derrida’s deconstruction as a political tool for marxist, feminist and Third world intellectuals.

The wave of mass protests in the Middle East and North Africa highlighted the crucial role of information communication technologies in mobilization and political change. Debate among scholars revolved around the Internet’s potential for toppling authoritarian regimes. However, rather than seeing the Arab Spring as a direct result of social media, this study examines how the online and offline media strategies converged, interacted, or prevailed within the various socioeconomic and political contexts. It looks at the purposes and functions of each medium, with a discussion of the dialectical relationship between them. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork in Morocco, as well as a critical examination of the movement’s communications, this study contributes to the debate about the role of social media and the Arab Spring. It analyzes an Arab Spring movement that did not call for regime change, investigates relationships between the activists’ use of online and offline media, and examines the multiple forms of communication flows in meaning making and nation building within dominant and non-dominant Moroccan publics. Finally, the study explores how the February 20th movement’s communication approaches functioned within the historical, cultural, and sociopolitical context of Morocco in the present day. The findings show that the activists generally relied on the online social platforms to respond to state allegations against the movement, counter hegemonic practices of the state, and to mobilize followers both locally and internationally. While the online environment helped set the agenda for political discussion, it was also, unable, on its own, to mobilize the Moroccan people to the streets. Online platforms simply could not substitute for traditional offline communication, with the result that the activists had to utilize both online and offline communication channels. Dismissing the notion that a homogenous Moroccan communication strategy prevailed in the February 20th movement, the demographic and political contexts in specific cities played a major role in the choice of communication platforms or messages. The study found the activists relied on offline communication strategies, with a particular focus on aesthetic practices to mobilize the subaltern publics. Through implentation of various cultural and linguistic practices, the movement worked to reformulate the traditional concepts of nation and state, create a shared history of oppression and resistance, and envision a new era of participatory politics.

This thesis relies on the works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Seyla Benhabib in the field of Postcolonialism. Guided by their theoretical insights it is aiming at providing an understanding of how postcolonial structures within the International Humanitarian Aid discourse takes form and discuss strategies for communication that would be deemed justified in this context. Through a field research in Lebanon, focusing on the Lebanese Red Cross and their methods used for communication, it provides a scrutiny of the theoretical insights of Spivak and Benhabib, in order to see how plausible they are when discussing the way Global Humanitarian Organizations operate in todays’ world. In the conclusive discussion, the study exposes the importance for these organizations to let go of their essentialist way of looking at the subaltern, continuously depriving her of her subject position. In a context of asymmetrical power relations, there is a need for these organizations to ”learn to learn from below”. The people of the Western world need to unlearn Western privilege to enable themselves to relate to people and communities outside of their own paradigm and thus create presuppositions for an ethical communication.

As guerras são acontecimentos que provocam a elaboração de narrativas que estão relacionadas com o nacionalismo e a identidade das nações. Esta dissertação de mestrado tem como principal objetivo a análise de algumas narrativas nacionalistas elaboradas a partir da experiência da Guerra do Paraguai, buscando conferir especial atenção para as representações referentes aos grupos sociais subalternos presentes nelas. Para tanto, foram adotadas como fontes centrais de pesquisa as seguintes obras: Traços biographicos da heroína Jovita Alves Feitosa, ex-sargento do 2º. Corpo de Voluntários do Piauhy, redigido por um enigmático autor fluminense; A retirada da Laguna, de Alfredo dEscragnolle Taunay; Reminiscências da Campanha do Paraguai, de Dionísio Evangelista de Castro Cerqueira; e Viagem militar ao Rio Grande do Sul, de Luís Filipe Maria Fernando Gastão de Orléans, o Conde dEu. A idéia principal consiste em avaliar em que medida as imagens de indivíduos dos grupos populares foram utilizadas para a construção de discursos que buscavam legitimar e preservar uma determinada relação social e de poder. / The elaboration of narratives about wars is in general related to nationalism and nation identity. This Thesis intends to analyze certain narratives related to the Paraguayan War. It aims to give special attention to the representations concerning the subaltern groups. For this purpose, the main sources of this research are the following: Traços biographicos da heroína Jovita Alves Feitosa, ex-sargento do 2º. Corpo de Voluntários do Piauhy, written by an enigmatic Fluminense author; A retirada da Laguna, by Alfredo d\'Escragnolle Taunay; Reminiscências da Campanha do Paraguai, by Dionísio Evangelista de Castro Cerqueira; and Viagem militar ao Rio Grande do Sul, by Luís Filipe Maria Fernando Gastão d\'Orléans, Count d\'Eu. The central idea is to evaluate the extent to which images of popular groups were used to legitimize a dominant power position.

Cette analyse a pour but de dénoncer les mythes créateurs du féminin et du masculin hérités des politiques culturelles sexuelles érigées au creuset de la rencontre coloniale. L’étude de A Married Woman (Manju Kapur), Babyji (Abha Dawesar), Indian Tango (Ananda Devi), trois romans présentant le lesbianisme comme une stratégie féministe d’émancipation, permet de mettre au jour diverses dynamiques discursives, d’exploiter le concept de représentation, et d’interroger les catégories préexistantes. Ces trois romans sont en effet écrits par des femmes participant à la culture indo-hindoue, et proposent des héroïnes à la similarité troublante : brahmines, habitant Delhi et insatisfaites de l’immobilisme liberticide de leur genre. Le préjudice hétéropatriarcal gaine les individus plaqués à l’intersection de leurs appartenances identitaires diverses et superposées : le genre, la culture, la sexualité… Le chemin de ces héroïnes suit ainsi une évolution interrogeant les inventions patriarcales de l’identité de la femme indo-hindoue. Au-delà de la dénonciation des dérives de son essentialisation, c’est sa transgression qui est éblouissante, parce qu’elle est sexuelle et lesbienne, engageant ainsi les possibilités d’une altérité, d’une alternative, d’un devenir différent. Ces textes questionnent alors la poésie et l’efficacité d’une esthétique lesbienne, la validité démiurge d’une utopie lesbienne, et le symbolisme d’un motif qui unit femmes de papier et autrices de chair au sein d’un positionnement récusant la subalternité implicite de catégories oppressives et obsolètes. En s’emparant de l’ipséité, ces narrations introduisent une poétique queer défiant déterminismes, cristallisations, normes et hiérarchies. Elles ouvrent à des possibilités radicales et multiples d’existences, de créations, signalant la matérialité de marginalités subversives qui problématisent la notion même d’individu, envisagée dans sa perspective hypermoderne. / This analysis aims at denouncing the original myths of the feminine and the masculine, inherited of the sexual cultural politics uprighted in the crucible of the colonial encounter. The study of A Married Woman (Manju Kapur), Babyji (Abha Dawesar), Indian Tango (Ananda Devi), three novels presenting lesbianism as a feminist strategy of emancipation, allows to excavate various discursive dynamics, to exploit the concept of representation, and to interrogate the preexisting categories. These three novels are indeed written by women belonging to the Indo-Hindu culture, and offer heroines with troubling similarities: Brahmines, Delhiites and dissatisfied with the repressions and inertia of their gender. The heteropatriarcal prejudice suffocates the individuals tackled at the intersection of their several and overlapping identity belongings: gender, culture, sexuality… These heroines’ paths hence follow an evolution interrogating the patriarchal inventions of the Indo-Hindu woman’s identity. Beyond the exposition and accusation of its essentialization’s deviations, it is its transgression which is dazzling, because it is sexual and lesbian, introducing the possibilities of an alterity, an alternative, a different becoming. These texts thus question the poetry and efficiency of a lesbian aesthetic, the demiurge validity of a lesbian utopia, and the symbolism of a pattern unifying the paper women and the women writers in a positioning rejecting the implicit subalternity of oppressive and obsolete categories. By getting a hold of ipseity, these narrations introduce a queer poetic defying determinisms, crystallizations, norms and hierarchies. They open to radical and multiple possibilities of living and creating, indicating the materiality of subversive marginalities which problematize the very notion of individual, envisioned in its hypermodern perspective.