National Identity, Ethnic Identity, Minoritiness...These are all categories which appear to have existed always already, categories which seem to be normative by nature. They are determinative, for they position human beings on different levels of the social ladder and organize strategically human interrelations. Yet, while these same apparently transcendental categories appropriate a position of universality, they also claim to be particular to a specific place, a specific people, a specific race etc. The disjunction inherent in these categories can be realized within this ideological contradiction. It is therefore this very disjunction that calls upon the rethinking of identity in relation to nation, ethnicity and minority. In this thesis I offer a translation of nine separate excerpts from Kobayashi Aya's account on Burakumin experience in Japan. The author's contemplation on Japaneseness and Minoritiness, her questioning of national identity as a category and of this category as predetermined become the focus of my work. While outlining the structure of Kobayashi's writing and the methods she chooses to employ, I analyze the concepts of performativity, repetition and disruption as potential options for rethinking Japaneseness and Minoritiness as categories of identity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.19715 |
| Date | January 2003 |
| Creators | Mutafchieva, Rositsa |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of East Asian Studies) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002022803, Theses scanned by McGill Library. |
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