Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'In-betweenness'

This thesis contends that Mary Webb is a considerable writer, who works between concepts and strives to reconcile them. Chapter One sets Webb in the context of certain Victorian and early twentieth-century writers who consider humanity in relation to nature and the natural, within a broad historical or conceptual perspective. Chapter Two discusses Webb's idea of a continuum of nature and the spirit. She believes in the wholesomeness of nature, but emphasises the need for humanity to lead the development of greater sensitivity. This would counter the natural instinct to hurt in order to survive, and also the kind of civilisation which dominates and exploits others. Webb works to understand the place ofevil within a universe which is potentially good. Chapter Three argues that Webb envisages her land as 'half-Celtic' in that its full reality is revealed only to those open to the perception of otherworldly dimensions. Such a land shares liminal characteristics with Faery. Chapter Four sets Webb's linguistic practice in the context of an interweaving of the concept of original 'natural' language with that of continually developing discourse. She uses a dialogic technique by which both sublime and limited uses of simple language such as dialect are set against narrative voices of varying sophistication. A sensitised simplicity, both in language and in certain historical situations, begins to emerge. The Conclusion, drawing on further senses of Webb's betweenness, argues that she writes in a borderland between the highbrow and the middlebrow, in a mode of thought that might be called metaphysical inclusivism. The perception that she is didactic can be dispelled by recognition that the narrative voices are not necessarily the author's. The view that she is primarily a writer about the countryside needs to be adjusted, in order to recognise that she works from a human-centred perspective between our natural origins and our problematic higher destiny.

This thesis analyses the relationship between knowledge and love in late-Victorian culture. It argues that love, considered as secondary throughout the rest of the nineteenth century, came to be seen as equally fundamental as rational knowledge in the life of the single individual and for the development of the whole society. Previous critics have not pointed out in detail that many thinkers of the fin de siecle affirmed that feelings, and particularly love, constituted a source of knowledge as valuable as that furnished by reason (constituting the basis of the nineteenth-century ideas of science and the scientific method of analysis of reality). In the same respect, love came to be seen as central in all debates regarding sexuality and the ethical life of the individual. These discourses on love were, however, set against as much as accompanied by rational attempts to describe and understand the reality external and internal to human beings. This is what represents in-betweenness: the moments and situations in which two terms usually considered as opposite come to have an equal place and consideration. I will therefore analyse in detail the conception of rationality and knowledge as formulated by the scientific naturalists, agnostics and the British idealists during the 1880s and 1890s as well as their ethical interest in human feelings as dictated by science's inability to furnish any definitive and ultimate knowledge. Subsequently, I will examine the discourses on love (love as a new knowledge to be spread to the general public in order to bring about the betterment of the entire society) advocated by the period's feminists and homosexual apologists. The two themes of knowledge. and love will be specifically drawn together when studying the works of English spiritualists and of the members of the Society for Psychical Research. My original argument consists in a reading of these works as moved by both a rational method of analysis of the ghostly apparitions and a very human need (prompted by the feeling of love) to contact the lost loved ones. This specific argument will then be extended to my analyses of literary ghost stories of the fin de siecle, which continually refer to knowledge and love as the central themes involved in the apparition of a ghost. In this thesis, ghosts are considered as the very epitome of inbetweenness, as capable of breaking the boundaries of many different opposite terms and therefore exemplifying the in-betweenness which characterizes the whole period under consideration.

This practice-led project explores the idea of in-betweenness through the physical and metaphorical aspects of glass. The starting point of the research is that glass, as an artistic medium, when examined with a focus on materiality and the making process on both physical and metaphoric levels, can be compared to the idea of cultural in-betweenness. My aim is to provide metaphoric and theoretical analogies that contribute to an understanding of in-betweenness. To examine the mechanisms of in-betweenness, this research integrates literature review with studio practice and object analysis to interpret the material and process of making objects in both literal and metaphorical dimensions. Historical glass artefacts are analysed to explore the idea of a trans-culture embedded in glass exchange between East Asia and Western Europe during the early modern period (roughly sixteenth to nineteenth centuries) and in practice today. Building on the preexisting scholarly analysis of objects from disciplines including anthropology, art history and archaeology, I experimented with glass and creative process in the studio to provide a fresh analysis based on the materiality of glass and the making process. Findings achieved through the conceptual and practical research reveal parallels between the idea of cultural in-betweenness and the materiality of glass. The analogies drawn from my studio practice and theoretical research for understanding the mechanisms of in-betweenness include: - In-betweenness is a fluid concept that is in a transitional state: the state of ‘becoming’. - In-betweenness is a gradual yet disruptive action that breaks the order of things. 4 - In-betweenness is a process of partial or selective abstraction to the extent where the awareness of origin remains whilst ambiguity is also present. - In-betweenness can be achieved through a mixture of control and chance. It is deliberate creation with an element of chance while some amount of control is maintained.

This thesis explores Japanese society through the lens of cultural hybridity and liminality to understand the shift towards nonconformity and hyper-individualism among post-postwar Japanese. This shift reflects an important point in Japan's transculturation process whereby post-postwar Japanese have developed a cultural hybridity of inbetweenness (liminality) juxtaposing their native Japaneseness (wakon) against their adopted Westernness (y okon). This wakon-yokon hybrid construct is posing a challenge to Japan's longstanding hybrid modernity philosophy of wakon-y osai (Japanese spirit- Western things), which perpetuated the pre-modern core values and collectivist ethics of Japaneseness for nearly 150 years below its façade of Western modernity. The dilemma inherent in Japan's wakon-y okon in-betweenness is foreshadowed in the pioneering works of Abe Kob o and Murakami Haruki, who both illuminated the conflicting juxtaposition of the core values and ethics of Japaneseness (wakon) and seken-Other (the jury-surrounding- the-Self) against the pursuit of the individualist ethics of Westernness (y okon) and Selfhood ( shutaisei) within their imaginaries.

This dissertation is a study about belonging among the Fatanis who are caught between two places, namely Makkah and Jawi. Using historical and ethnographic data collected during two years of transnational fieldwork in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Malaysia, this dissertation shows that belonging is constituted as much by ideas of community, namely home and the homeland, as it is by lived experience as well as practical and cultural factors. Its central argument is that belonging is unstable, often incomplete, and always contingent owing to the dynamic quality of social life. Belonging is a condition that is volatile. It is not something that can be retained perpetually. A person might experience comfort from belonging someplace at a particular moment, while yearning to be somewhere else simultaneously. Thus, longing often accompanies belonging. In the late-eighteenth century, some Fatani men and women left Patani, on the northern Malay Peninsula, and sailed northwest until they arrived at Makkah. These migrants left in search of safety and inspiration as Siamese armies pillaged their homeland in attempts to depopulate Siam’s recalcitrant tributary kingdom from 1785-1839. Almost two and half centuries later, in contemporary times, the Fatanis are once again on the move. This time, unfavorable conditions in Makkah are the causes of reverse migration to the homeland, which the Fatanis refer to as Jawi. For the Fatanis, who are caught between Makkah and Jawi, belonging is elusive. Makkah, the place and society that many of them consider home, is familiar, but also where their right of residency as foreigners is fragile. On the other hand, Jawi, the homeland, is foreign to the Fatanis despite their status as nationals. From one page to another, this text tells the Fatanis’ stories of pain and yearning, but also of their ingenuity and perseverance.
Anthropology

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
A pesquisa tem como foco a análise de narrativas de deslocamento de estudantes que participam de um programa de intercâmbio internacional, em cidades mineiras de pequeno ou médio porte. O programa traz para o Brasil estudantes de ensino médio, de diferentes nacionalidades, e envia jovens brasileiros para outros países, com o objetivo de conviverem com pessoas de outra cultura pelo período de um ano. Os objetivos do presente estudo consistem em mostrar: i) a natureza das narrativas co-construídas nas entrevistas de pesquisa, com contagem e recontagem de experiências coletivas e individuais nos processos de deslocamentos; ii) as construções identitárias do eu e do outro, em posicionamentos junto às famílias, à escola, ao aprendizado da língua portuguesa, especialmente nos entre-lugares culturais, envolvendo a decisão de participar do intercâmbio, a viagem e a chegada; a convivência e a comunicação cotidiana com brasileiros nas cidades de residência e viagens pelo Brasil; o retorno aos seus países e a recepção por familiares e amigos. A abordagem teórica busca articular narrativas de deslocamento, no âmbito da Teoria da Narrativa, com os entrelugares socioculturais. Narrativas de deslocamento envolvem orientação em mundos sociais, práticas de deslocamento e de espacialização, e deslocamentos institucionais; são articuladas na ordem da interação, junto a grandes e pequenas narrativas. Os entre-lugares culturais marcam limites entre nós e eles, e novas formas de sociabilidade e fluidez nas relações sociais. A natureza metodológica da pesquisa é de ordem qualitativa e interpretativa. Foram feitas entrevistas de base etnometodológica e sociolingüística, em grupo e individuais; face-a-face e mediadas por computador com digitação e recurso de voz; em processo longitudinal; com seis intercambistas - dois norte-americanos, um dinamarquês, duas belgas e um mexicano - que viveram em Minas Gerais, entre 2007 e 2008. Os dados construídos são complexos, já que as entrevistas envolveram alternância de código, com uso do inglês, emprego de duas línguas – inglês/português, espanhol/português –, e utilização do português. A transcrição buscou dar conta das alternâncias. Na análise dos dados, destacam-se as relações entre pequenas e grandes narrativas, co-construídas em entrevistas de grupo e individuais, nos processos de deslocamentos. Os posicionamentos construídos nas entrevistas de grupo são retomados pela pesquisadora-entrevistadora nas entrevistas individuais, como forma de explorar pontos anteriores e provocar avaliações dos participantes. Os estudantes posicionam-se, inicialmente, como membros estabelecidos em suas culturas e outsiders em relação ao Brasil, e apresentam estereótipos negativos. No decorrer do intercâmbio, há um posicionamento de entre-lugar cultural, indicador de adaptação à vida e cultura brasileiras. Os estereótipos, embora mantidos, não são feitos no binômio superior-inferior, mas em relação de igualdade, com mudança na percepção social. O aqui e o lá, construídos nas narrativas, demonstram a oposição entre estabelecidos e outsiders, em relação à convivência com as famílias, à participação na escola, às práticas cotidianas, com dificuldades em estabelecer laços de amizade e comunicação em português. Indaga-se em que medida os participantes atingem o objetivo do programa do intercâmbio cultural de convivência e aprendizado de uma outra cultura.
This research focuses on the analysis of narratives of displacement told by exchange students who take part in an international exchange program, in small and medium-sized cities in Minas Gerais. The program brings high school students from different countries to Brazil and sends Brazilian students to other countries, so that these students experience another culture for one year. This study aims at showing: i) the nature of the co-constructed narratives in research interviews, with collective and individual experience tellings and retellings of displacement processes; ii) the identity constructions of self and others, in relation to family, school, Portuguese language learning, especially in the cultural in-betweenness, which involves the decision of taking part in the exchange program, the trip and the arrival; the contact and daily communication with Brazilians in the cities they lived and trips throughout Brazil; the return to their countries and the reception from relatives and friends. The theoretical approach intends to articulate narratives of displacement, vis-à-vis Narrative Theories, with the sociocultural in-betweenness. Narratives of displacement involve orientation in social worlds, displacement and spatialization practices, and institutional displacements; they are articulated in the interactional order, together with big and small narratives. The cultural in-betweenness sets limits between us and them, as well as new forms of sociability and fluidity in the social relations. The methodological nature of this research is qualitative and interpretive. Ethnomethodological and sociolinguistic based interviews were conducted in group and individually; face-to-face and mediated by computer, with typing and voice resources in a longitudinal process; with six exchange students – two NorthAmericans, a Danish, two Belgians and a Mexican – who lived in Minas Gerais, from 2007 to 2008. The constructed data are complex, as far as the interviews involved code switching. The first interviews were conducted in English, then in two languages – English/Portuguese, Spanish/Portuguese – and the last ones in Portuguese. The transcription tries to reproduce this code switching. In the data analysis, the relation between small and big narratives that are co-constructed in research interviews in the displacement process is highlighted. The positionings constructed in the group interview are brought up by the researcher-interviewer in the individual interviews, as a way of exploring previously mentioned events and getting evaluations from participants. In the beginning, the students represent themselves as established members of their own cultures and outsiders in relation to Brazil and they also show negative stereotypes. Throughout the exchange program, there is an in-between cultural positioning, indicating their adaptation to Brazilian life style and culture. The stereotypes, though maintained, are not treated as a dyad superior-inferior, but in equal terms, with changes in their social perceptions. Here and there, constructed in the narratives, show the opposition between established and outsiders, vis-à-vis their living with families, participation in school, daily routine, the difficulties in establishing friendship and in communicating in Portuguese. How far the participants achieve the aims of the cultural exchange program of experiencing and learning a new culture is questioned.

The aim of this study has been to examine representations of Latino boys and young men in Latino American coming of age novels. Two concepts have been central to the study: positions of (in)betweenness and the ability to "fall in line" with norms and expectations. Three overarching themes are been explored in relation to masculinity. These are sexualities, ethnicities, and the representation of women. First, representations of queer sexualities are explored, focusing on the protagonists' "coming out" process and the varying reactions to this. The second part of this theme explores representations of disciplining strategies between boys and men as a means to regulating homosocial bonding and maintain the dominant masculinity ideal. The second theme, ethnicity, examines representations of "authentic" Latino identities in relation to language and bilingualism, and the link between location and identity. Disciplining measures aimed towards the protagonists, such as criminalization and dehumanization, are also explored. The final theme deals with the lacking representation of women in literature and research focused on men and masculinity. In the novels, women are depicted as confidants, present in the boys' lives mainly in order to provoke and facilitate their renegotiations of ideas regarding the previously discussed themes. The boys are represented as inhabiting positions of (in)betweenness throughout the novels, whether in relation to ethnicity, sexuality or gender. While (in)betweenness holds a potential to challenge and "worry" fixed categories, these positions are also characterized by unease, precariousness and the risk of being disciplined by other men.

This case study was conducted in a small rural community called Mpembeni, in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. It was motivated by my observation of high levels of competence in ‘cattle knowledge’ amongst children coupled with a simultaneous failure at school. I view schools as integral parts of the community and consider them as being influenced by the community, which they in turn influence. This study set out to understand that which embodied informal learning in home/pasture-based contexts as well as formalised learning processes in schools. I used Sociocultural theory as the most congruent of educational theories to surface and illuminate the intergenerational learning processes that were taking place in the area. This warranted my use of research investigation methods that could, in non-intrusive ways, expose the everyday community practices that related to cattle as a particular medium of cultural expression. Ethnography, sourced from anthropology, aided by ethnomethods, was not only compatible with my study and the way in which I wanted to write out the research report, but also with my educational theory and its counterhegemonic intents. To understand the colonialities that framed the discord that embodied home and school as learning contexts, I used postcolonial theory, not only as a lens but as a counterhegemonic response. This theory also informed my research methodology as well as afforded me the reflexivity tools for an examination of my own intergenerational learning and the relational identities of myself as ‘Other’ in the lives of the research participants. It further facilitated the exploration of the potential for potential hybrid third spaces within the bubbling meeting nodes of the socio-cultural context of school and home/pasture based settings of learning. I observed cattle herding related practices, interviewed children, their parents and/or carers, dipping tank managers, livestock inspectors, community elders and members. I also analysed some of the written and unwritten content that made up the formal and informal based learning processes and reviewed some of the most recent South African Curriculum Statements and related texts on the representations of cattle. I sought views from teachers on their interactions with the people of Mpembeni, whose children they taught. I also explored axes of tension, silences and presences on anything related to cattle in schools. I argue and make a case for the development of thought by African scholars to advance Africa’s education rather than aid mimicry and the importation of theories of little congruence and relevance to the African context and Africa’s future. The study has made some contributions to new knowledge. This is in its exploration of sociocultural intergenerational methods and techniques that are employed for learning in community contexts, highlighting the importance of surfacing and understanding of children’s knowledge and experiences. The study has gone further to deliberate the in-betweenness of school and home learning environments, highlighting and unsilencing silenced, peripherised, new, old, considered irrelevant in the past, context and time congruent and liberatory knowledges. I propose that the knowledges located in these cleavages of difference be utilised to transform and create learning bridges between home and school environments. I propose that those ways of knowing that see others as nothings, be exposed and unlearned. Methods of learning that naturally unfold at home could be replicated at school with a recognition of the intergenerational methods, techniques, practices and the learning values in a critically constructive manner that narrows difference and othering.

Once known only as Bodybuilding and Women’s Bodybuilding, the sport has grown to include multiple competition categories that both limit and expand opportunities for female bodybuilders. While the creation of additional categories, such as Fitness, Figure, Bikini, and Physique, appears to make the sport more inclusive to more variations and interpretation of the feminine, muscular physique, it also creates more in-between spaces. This auto ethnographic research explores the ways that multiple female competition categories within the sport of Bodybuilding define, reinforce, and complicate the gendered experiences of female physique athletes, by bringing freak theory into conversation with body categories.

The significance of Holy Saturday, the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, is often ignored in Christian life. The most influential modern theologian who has taken its importance seriously is the Swiss Catholic theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar. He has presented a very innovative but also controversial interpretation that on Holy Saturday Jesus Christ suffered in utter solidarity with the dead in Hell and took to himself our self-damnation. However, this interpretation and several other aspects of his theology related to it seem to depart from the traditional teaching in an idiosyncratic way and have invited various critiques. What this thesis aims to do is to critically examine Balthasar’s theology of Holy Saturday and present its implications for Christian suffering and discipleship, while doing full justice to the genre within which he is working (a combination of theology and spirituality) and at the same time taking into consideration the main critiques made against him. First of all, we will argue that Balthasar does not try to present a radical reinterpretation of the doctrine of the Descent into Hell in contrast to the traditional teachings but rather tries to fully appreciate the in-betweenness of Holy Saturday as the day of transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, in other words, from the old aeon to the new. Balthasar says that Christ Himself descended into Hell as victor over sin and death objectively, but He still had to wait for the victory to arrive subjectively. Further, we will claim that this silent waiting on Holy Saturday, which marks the transition from the Cross to the Resurrection, helps us to deepen our understanding of the meaning of suffering in Christian discipleship. The waiting on Holy Saturday represents the fundamentally ‘tragic’ state of the Christian (understood as “tragedy under grace”) torn between the law of this world and the truth of Christ. As a paradoxical being in transition, the Christian believes that their victory is both already there and not there yet. In this sense, the Christian still lives in Holy Saturday. This notion deepens our understanding of suffering in the Christian life, because now we could translate the meaning of suffering into ‘tragic waiting,’ while fully facing the subjective reality of suffering and at the same time maintaining the hope of finding its salvific meaning by relating it to the paschal mystery. Our conclusion will be that this ‘tragic waiting,’ which itself is our lives, now can be seen in a Christological light. In short, we can patiently endure our Holy Saturday because of Christ’s Holy Saturday in Hell.

Denna studie är utformad med syfte att med hjälp av teorier som orientalism, identitet och föreställd gemenskap undersöka hur andra generationens invandrare med ursprung från mellanöstern använder sig av humorsketcher publicerade på sociala medier i relation till deras identitet. Frågeställningen grundar i hur intervjupersonerna förhåller sig till humorsketcher som driver med situationen att tillhöra två/flera olika kulturer samt hur intervjupersonerna upplever sin identitet relaterat till innehållet. Frågeställningen besvarades med kvalitativa intervjuer och resultatet visade att intervjupersonerna fann humorsketcherna betydelsefulla och fungerade som hanteringsform mot kulturkrockar. Trots olika länder som bakgrund var deras resonemang slående likt och visade att med hjälp av humorsketcher fann de en förstärkt gemenskap till andra som upplever sig vara i mellanförskap.
This study was conducted with the purpose to investigate how second-generation immigrants with origins from the Middle East use humor sketches published on social media in relation to their identity. The study is analyzed based on postcolonial perspectives and theories such as orientalism, identity and imagined community. The aim is based on how the interviewees experience their identity related to the content shown is the sketches. The method used was qualitative interviews where the results showed that the interviewees found the humor sketches important and meaningful as they functioned as a form of defense mechanism against cultural clashes. Their reasoning was strikingly similar and showed that with the help of the humorsketches, they found a strengthened community and a connection to others who feel as if they are in an ”in-betweenness” as well.

This thesis is a study of how the American author Edith Wharton (1862-1937) in a number of novels and short stories written between 1876 and 1937 depicts cultural encounters between Americans and Europeans, mostly Frenchmen. Chiefly concerned with Fast and Loose, “The Last Asset”, Madame de Treymes, “Les Metteurs en Scène”, The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence, each of which articulates ideas relevant to the theme investigated, the thesis also contains a supplementary discussion of The Reef, The Glimpses of the Moon, The Mother’s Recompense and The Buccaneers. Borrowing terms and theoretical perspectives from Pierre Bourdieu and postcolonial literary criticism, particularly Homi Bhabha’s theories about inbetweenness, mimicry and otherness, the study contends through detailed analyses of single works that Wharton’s descriptions of Franco-American encounters are dynamic processes through which the parties involved are made aware of their own and “the other’s” distinguishing qualities and, in some significant cases, reach a heightened state of consciousness resembling Bhabha’s inbetweenness. Wharton’s cultural encounters often involve people with different levels of education and different economic and social positions, which justifies the use of Bourdieu’s method of analyzing the relationship between educational and social status in terms of different kinds of capital. While in her early works Wharton merely intimates the contours of the cultural encounter, in mature works such as Madame de Treymes and The Age of Innocence she views it as a highly complex process the many stages of which are intimated through the use of subtle narratological techniques. Throughout her work Wharton makes intricate use of imagery and keywords, some of them testifying to her interest in anthropology, to suggest the manifold dimensions of the cultural encounter, which is seen as both tempting and repelling. Her accounts of the Franco-American encounter are complexly related to the different phases of the American political and social situation described in her novels. The American experience of the meeting of the ‘old society’ and the ‘new’ is rendered even more complex by being seen as the background against which Europeans and Americans negotiate transactions of symbolic and economic capital. In most of her works these lead to tragic or tragic-comic misunderstandings; only in her last, unfinished novel does she describe a full-fledged Euro-American identity, a successful fusion of American and European experiences.
Den här avhandlingen är en studie i hur den amerikanska författarinnan Edith Wharton (1862-1937) i ett antal romaner och noveller skrivna mellan 1876 and 1937 skildrar kulturella möten mellan amerikaner och européer, främst fransmän. Avhandlingen behandlar huvudsakligen verken Fast and Loose, “The Last Asset”, Madame de Treymes, ”Les Metteurs en Scène”, The Custom of the Country and The Age of Innocence, som alla uttrycker idéer om kulturmöten; den innehåller även en kompletterande diskussion av verken The Reef, The Glimpses of the Moon, The Mother’s Recompense and The Buccaneers. Med termer och perspektiv hämtade från Pierre Bourdieu och postkolonial litteraturforskning, främst Homi Bhabhas teorier om in-betweenness (”mellanskap”), mimicry och otherness hävdar studien genom detaljerade analyser av enskilda verk hur Whartons beskrivningar av fransmäns och amerikaners möten är dynamiska processer där i bästa fall båda parter blir medvetna om sin egen och ”den andres” särart, och i vissa fall även når ett intensifierat medvetande som påminner om Bhabhas in-betweenness. Whartons kulturmöten sker oftast mellan personer med olika bildning samt ekonomisk och social position, vilket gör att Bourdieus perspektiv för analys av relationen mellan utbildning och social status som styrd av olika sorters kapital kommer till användning. I sina tidiga berättelser antyder Wharton konturerna av det kulturella mötet, i mogna verk som Madame de Treymes and The Age of Innocence gestaltar hon det som en mycket komplex process vars många skeden antyds via hennes användning av subtil berättarteknik. Alltigenom sina verk tillämpar Wharton ett komplext bildspråk och nyckelord, varav vissa vittnar om hennes intresse för antropologi, som antyder kulturmötets många dimensioner, framställt som samtidigt lockande och frånstötande/avskräckande. Hennes redogörelser av det fransk-amerikanska mötet är komplext relaterat till de olika faser av den amerikanska politiska och sociala situation som beskrivs i hennes berättelser. Den amerikanska erfarenheten av mötet mellan den ”gamla sociala grupperingen” och den ”nya” skildras som mer komplext genom att ses som den bakgrund mot vilken européerna och amerikanerna förhandlar transaktioner av symboliskt och ekonomiskt kapital. I merparten av hennes verk leder dessa transaktioner till tragiska eller tragikomiska missförstånd; bara i hennes sista, ofullbordade roman beskriver hon en fullt utvecklad euroamerikansk identitet, en lyckad sammansmältning av amerikanska och europeiska erfarenheter.

Utilisant un cadre théorique hybride, mêlant travaux de géographie, notamment culturelle, et approche littéraire et stylistique, ce travail de thèse interroge les diverses spatialités mccanniennes et leur écriture, mais aussi les implications éthiques et esthétiques de cette articulation. Il étudie la manière dont la représentation de ces spatialités pousse l’écriture à chercher son équilibre, alors qu’elle s’inscrit dans des espaces diégétiques et narratifs caractérisés par l’entre-deux et l’hybridité. Ces deux notions sont placées au cœur d’un corpus mu par un élan irréductible et kaléidoscopique, définissable comme une quête d’équilibre et dont éthique et esthétique constituent les facettes les plus essentielles.Sont donc observées les formes et modalités des spatialités mccanniennes, la relation que les personnages entretiennent avec elles, ainsi que leur inscription dans un contexte contemporain. L’écriture de l’entre-deux et de l’hybridité, sources potentielles d’équilibre comme de déséquilibre, est également analysée. On voit enfin comment ces états intermédiaires sont propices à un élan impliquant la création de lignes dynamiques constituant un mouvement vers l’Autre. Cet élan interroge bien souvent la relation avec l’Art et avec l’Autre, ainsi que l’équilibre parfois problématique entre esthétique et éthique. Les possibles contradictions entre ces deux derniers pôles sont examinées, de même que le potentiel créatif, voire démocratique des échanges permis par leur dialogue
This thesis uses a hybrid theoretical approach mixing cultural geography as well as literature and stylistics in order to study the various spatialities that can be found in Colum McCann’s fictional work. It focuses on the writing of space, place and landscape, as well as on its ethical and aesthetical aspects. It analyses the way representing these spatialities forces the texts to try and find some sense of balance while the realities they describe and the world they were written in are characterised by in-betweenness and hybridity. These notions are at the core of this corpus, which is defined by an impetus that is both irrepressible and kaleidoscopic and that can be defined as a quest for balance in which ethics and aesthetics play a most essential role.The forms those spatialities can take, the bond the characters have created or create with them as well as the way they are inscribed in the contemporary world are analysed. This study also examines the writing of in-betweenness and hybridity, which can be factors of both balance and imbalance. This intermediarity encourages the development of an impulse which means creating dynamic trajectories towards the Other. This impetus interrogates relationships to Art and Otherness, as well as the (im)balance between aesthetics and ethics. It is therefore particularly relevant to scrutinize the latent contradictions between these two poles but also the creative, sometimes even democratic potential of their interactions

Cette thèse se propose de relire l’œuvre de J. D. Salinger à la lumière de l'usage que fait l'écrivain des motifs du détour et du suspens, tous deux caractérisés par un fonctionnement ambivalent. L'écriture de Salinger, fondamentalement introspective, prend par bien des aspects des allures de quête, à la fois identitaire et littéraire. L'exploration de l'identité qu'elle met en scène implique notamment un détour par l'altérité, auteur et personnages revêtant un certain nombre de masques, au risque parfois de refuser de s'en défaire ensuite. L'auteur se devine également derrière ses pratiques d'écriture, dont la dimension obsessionnelle révèle un profond désir de maîtrise de son travail, qui l'amène parfois à se perdre dans ses textes et s'apparente finalement davantage à une attitude de fuite qu'à la recherche d'un idéal littéraire. Dans l’œuvre salingerienne, le détour participe d'une réflexion sur les concepts de norme et de déviance, ainsi que sur le thème de l'errance. D'abord perçu comme néfaste, il apparaît à terme comme un moyen privilégié d'accéder à des révélations insoupçonnées. L’éloge de l'écart que l'on observe sur le plan thématique trouve un écho dans l'utilisation par les personnages-narrateurs de stratégies narratives louant les mérites du détour. La digression, le fragment, le renvoi aux marges du texte ainsi que l'intertextualité – autant d'outils interrogeant la distinction généralement établie entre le centre et la périphérie, entre l'accessoire et l'essentiel – révèlent toute leur efficacité lorsqu'ils sont employés pour aborder des sujets qui échappent aux cadres traditionnels. Le décentrement du texte passe également dans certains cas par un recours à la métatextualité qui permet notamment à l'écrivain de prolonger et de mettre en scène la réflexion qu'il mène sur son écriture. Les encarts métatextuels, parce qu'ils viennent interrompre temporairement la narration, peuvent aussi être considérés comme des manifestations du suspens dans le texte, suspens d'abord employé par Salinger pour interroger les notions de progression et de stase. Son œuvre présente simultanément une réflexion sur la résistance au passage du temps et la notion d'entre-deux, l'auteur affectionnant particulièrement la représentation de périodes liminales, à la fois lieux du mouvement et lieux hors du temps. Par ailleurs, l'écrivain s'attache par diverses stratégies narratives déployées dans ses textes à suspendre l’interprétation du sens, qui se révèle mouvant, différé, voire tout simplement retenu, lorsqu'il ne s'abîme pas dans l'absurde ou le non-sens. Ce faisant, Salinger interroge la validité de toute interprétation, plaidant pour une approche plus intuitive de l'art, et s'efforce du même geste de repousser indéfiniment l'achèvement de son œuvre, trahissant par là l'urgence éprouvée de mettre à distance l'angoisse mortifère qui l'obsède
The aim of this PhD research is to try to shed new light on J. D. Salinger's work by focusing on the writer's use of two inherently ambivalent motifs, namely detour and suspension. Salinger's writing, partly because of its introspective nature, often takes on the appearance of a quest, both personal and artistic. It stages the author's exploration of his own identity, which implies exploring otherness through the use of masks worn by both characters and writer, who sometimes refuse to later put them down. The study of Salinger's writing practices shows an obsessional dimension indicative of his powerful desire to control every aspect of his work, sometimes leading him to fully immerse himself in the world of fiction – an attitude in the end more evocative of evasion than of a search for literary perfection. In Salinger's work, the representation of detours is the starting point of a reflection on the concepts of norm and deviance, as well as on the theme of wandering. While it first appears as harmful, the detour motif eventually shows its potential for the revelation of unsuspected truths. Deviation is thus presented in a positive light, and its effectiveness as a writing strategy is repeatedly praised. Such stylistic devices as digression, fragmentation, or intertextuality are called upon to question the classical distinction between center and margins, between what is essential and what is incidental. Those devices are most effective when it comes to dealing with topics unfit for traditional approaches. The author’s will to decenter the text also involves the use of metatextuality, which serves the writer's exploration of his own writing and its staging for the reader's benefit. Metatextual passages, as they temporarily bring the narration to a halt, may also be seen as manifestations of suspension. In his work, Salinger first uses suspension to question the notions of progress and stasis. His texts invite the reader to engage in a reflection on the characters' resistance to the passing of time as well as the notion of in-betweenness. Indeed, the author has specialized in the depiction of those liminal periods in the lives of individuals, which are characterized by change and an out-of-time quality. Moreover, the writer makes use of different stylistic devices to suspend the reader’s access to the meaning of his stories. In most of them meaning remains unstable and unsure, whether elucidation is deferred or simply refused to the reader, who is also confronted to manifestations of the absurd or even utter nonsense. Salinger thus challenges the value of interpretation, pleading for a more intuitive approach to art, and makes sure he indefinitely postpones the completion of his own work, in the same way that his characters develop strategies to postpone their confrontation with death

This Bachelor’s thesis examines the use of ancient bronze statues in the 2017 film Call me by your name by director Luca Guadagnino. Various scenes which feature ancient statues are examined individually using semiotic analysis. The scenes are examined individually, first described on a denotative level, then analyzed on a connotative level. The theoretical stand point is based on the studies of art works in film. Key theoretical concepts used are ”in between-ness” which is a state in which change in narrative is made possible through looking at art, and ”parallels”, a means of which to make art represent the characters in the film. The thesis finds the sculptures in Call me by your name to play a part in affecting the narrative of the film, mainly in regard to the love story between the two lead characters, two men named Elio and Oliver. The acts of looking, examining, and touching the statues in this film help the narrative turn in favor of the lead characters romantic relationship. The thesis argues that the nude bronze sculptures of men from ancient Greece are used in this film as signifiers of desire, timelessness and homoerotic lust.

In network analysis, it is useful to identify important vertices in a network. Based on the varying notions of importance of vertices, a number of centrality measures are defined and studied in the literature. Some popular centrality measures, such as betweenness centrality, are computationally prohibitive for large-scale networks. In this thesis, we propose a new centrality measure called k-path centrality and experimentally compare this measure with betweenness centrality. We present a polynomial-time randomized algorithm for distinguishing high k-path centrality vertices from low k-path centrality vertices in any given (unweighted or weighted) graph. Specifically, for any graph G = (V, E) with n vertices and for every choice of parameters α ∈ (0, 1), ε ∈ (0, 1/2), and integer k ∈ [1, n], with probability at least 1 − 1/n2 our randomized algorithm distinguishes all vertices v ∈ V that have k-path centrality Ck(v) more than nα(1 + 2ε) from all vertices v ∈ V that have k-path centrality Ck(v) less than nα(1 − 2ε). The running time of the algorithm is O(k2ε −2n1−α ln n). Theoretically and experimentally, our algorithms are (for suitable choices of parameters) significantly faster than the best known deterministic algorithm for computing exact betweenness centrality values (Brandes’ algorithm). Through experimentations on both real and randomly generated networks, we demonstrate that vertices that have high betweenness centrality values also have high k-path centrality values.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d’étudier l’intégralité des œuvres de Maxine Hong Kingston à la lumière de la thématique de la multi-appartenance. L’écriture de Kingston, éminemment transgressive, soulève le problème d’une identité plurielle pour un sujet entre deux cultures, en l’occurrence chinoise et américaine, et les questionnements qui la parcourent sont au cœur de la littérature sino-américaine et plus largement asiatico-américaine. Mettant en scène des personnages pris dans un entre-deux, l’écrivaine explore la difficulté pour les immigrés de trouver leur place sur la terre d’accueil, et ce d’autant plus quand cette dernière manifeste une méfiance radicale face au groupe ethnique dont ils sont issus. En repoussant systématiquement les limites imposées, Kingston ouvre son écriture à tous types d’espaces et de cultures, déconstruisant ainsi les stéréotypes nuisant à une bonne compréhension de la littérature sino-américaine, dont les qualités littéraires n’ont pas été toujours reconnues. Qu’il s’agisse d’espaces géographiques ou d’espaces génériques, l’écrivaine montre comment la situation d’entre-deux, bien qu’instable, peut permettre la construction d’une identité complexe. Tout en réaffirmant leurs liens avec leur terre natale, les personnages de Kingston « revendiquent l’Amérique » comme étant également leur terre, remettant ainsi en cause l’idéal d’une Amérique blanche. Engagée aussi bien sur le plan politique que littéraire, Maxine Hong Kingston présente une image complexe et inclusive de l’identité américaine qui englobe tout individu ayant participé à la construction de la nation, quelle que soit son origine ethnique, et rappelle ainsi le potentiel éminemment politique de la littérature
The aim of this PhD research is to study all of Maxine Hong Kingston’s works from the angle of multiple belonging. Kingston’s writing is inherently transgressive and addresses issues commonly found in Chinese American literature and more generally Asian American literature: the issues of being caught between two different cultures–the Chinese and the American ones–as well as of having to deal with a plural identity. Through her characters who experience in-betweenness, the writer focuses on the difficulties for immigrants to find their own place in an adoptive country that blatantly expresses a strong mistrust of their ethnic group. As she systematically challenges imposed limits, Kingston’s writing opens up to all types of spaces and cultures, thus deconstructing the stereotypes that have long prevented a proper understanding of Chinese American literature, whose literary qualities have often been denied. Be they geographical or generic spaces, the writer points out how a situation of in-betweenness, though unstable, can contribute to the construction of a complex identity. While reasserting their bond to their homeland, Kingston’s characters “claim America” as their own, thus calling into question the ideal of a white America. Committed both on the political and literary levels, Maxine Hong Kingston represents a complex and inclusive American identity that encompasses all individuals having contributed to the building-up of the nation, regardless of their ethnic origins, therefore reminding the reader of the eminently political power of literature

The rise of the 21st Century Islamic extremist movement, which was mobilised by the al-Qaeda attacks of and responses to September 11, 2001, heralds a new period in the history of terrorism. The increased frequency and intensity of this type of terrorism affects every nation in the world, not least Australia. Rising to meet the challenges posed by terrorism is the field of terrorism studies, the field which aims at understanding, explaining, and countering terrorism. Despite the importance of the field, it has been beleaguered with criticisms since its inception as a response to the rise of international terrorism. These criticisms specifically aim at the field's lack of objectivity, abstraction, levels of research, and levels of analysis. These criticisms were the impetus behind the adoption of the methodology of this thesis, which offers the distinct ability to understand, explain, and forecast the way in which terrorists interact within covert cells. Through social network analysis, this thesis examines four terrorist cells that have operated in or against Australia. These cells are from the groups Hrvatsko Revolucionarno Bratstvo (Croatian Revolutionary Brotherhood), Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth), Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure), and Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Community) and operated between 1963 and 2003. Essentially, this methodology attempts to discover, map, and analyse the interaction within the cells during the covert stage of their respective operations. Following this, the results are analysed through the traditional social network analysis frameworks to discover the internal dynamics of the cell and identify the critical nodes (leaders) within the cells. Destabilisation techniques are subsequently employed, targeting these critical nodes to establish the most effective disruption techniques from a counter-terrorism point of view. The major findings of this thesis are: (1) that cells with a focus on efficiency rather than covertness were more successful in completing their objectives (contrary to popular belief); and (2) betweenness centrality (control over the flow of communication) is a critical factor in identifying leaders within terrorist cells. The analysis also offered significant insight into how a Jemaah Islamiyah cell might operate effectively in Australia, as well as the importance of local contacts to terrorist operations and the significance of international counter-terrorism cooperation and coordination.

Cette thèse résulte de la recherche d’un sujet dépourvu de tout repère à ses liens relationnels. Elle rompt les territorialités de la narration et va au-delà des seuils du sujet, à travers des mouvements rhizomiques et en suivant les lignes littéraires et culturelles qui permettent d’échapper aux forces emprisonnantes d’assujettissement. Cette étude trait des sites marginalisés de la transformation et de la dislocation, en passant par les sites de la résistance et de la décolonisation. Ma lecture de la littérature migrante et, des littératures indigènes, la déterritorialisation et la décolonisation s’entrelacent en trois sites majeurs au sein: la liminalité, l’intermédiaritéé et le devenir. Ces sites ne représentent pas seulement les formes esthétiques innovantes qui traversent les seuils de l’identité dans notre culture contemporaine, mais ils assistent aussi ce projet à son but ultime de réinventer et de réarranger la relation entre le soi et l’autre vers de nouveaux débuts. Cette nouvelle perspective munie de l’éthique de s’engager dans la situation, s’abstient d’émettre un jugement et entend prévoir des possibilités d’une transformation révolutionnaire aux niveaux politique, social et économique. Dans ce projet, les mouvements de déterritorialisation émergent dans les écrits et les productions artistiques de Richard Mosse, Chris Abani, Rawi Hage, Leslie Marmon Silko et Thomas King et fournissent les possibilités d’une certaine réflexion sur les seuils de différents sujets masculins en crise. Ce projet s’adresse, en premier lieu, à la Chose sous-jacente qui se déplace entre-deux territoires et perturbe le désire de capturer son essence; en revanche, suivant Deleuze et Guattari, elle se déplace avec les mouvements nomadiques des sujets masculins qui deviennent des simulacres assujettis dans divers sites de désapprentissage. À titre d’exemple, ces sites de désapprentissages illustrés dans Incoming et The Castle de Richard Mosse dissocient la matérialité du déplacé de son image et informe le discours sur les façons à travers lesquelles l’existence est mise en danger, limitée et violée par la représentation. À travers GraceLand d’Abani, ce projet examine des modes de liminalité et des cérémonies d’initiation et reconnaît les expériences vécues des sujets masculins dans des structures culturelles différentes. Dans les romans de Rawi Hage, j’explore les façons à travers lesquelles la masculinité s’arrange ou se réarrange, de façon créative, dans des actes de performance. Cette thèse revient sur le sujet de la liminalité par le biais de Ceremony de Silko et de la narration post-apocalyptique de l’identité de Thomas King. L’analyse aborde certain des enjeux que les hommes indigènes et ceux qui affirment les identités masculines doivent affronter. Ainsi, dans le dernier chapitre, la convergence harmonieuse des voix indigènes et des littératures indigènes et migrantes situe ces lignes de fuite qui pourraient se rejoindre ou refuser de se croiser, ou se désintégrer dans le flot de la violence.
This dissertation stems from the search for a subject without reference to the webs of relations that hold it. Through rhizomatic movements, it breaks territorialities of narrative and moves beyond the subject’s thresholds by following literary and cultural lines of escape away from imprisoning forces of subjugation. The investigation flows along marginalized sites of transformation and displacement and through sites of resistance and decolonization. In my readings of migrant and Indigenous literatures, deterritorialization and decolonization intertwine at three major sites: liminality, in-betweenness, and becoming. These sites are not only innovative aesthetic forms that cross the threshold of identity in our contemporary culture; they also participate in the project of reinventing and rearranging the relation of self and other toward new beginnings. The new perspectives that are offered engage ethically, avoid judgment, and foresee the possibilities for revolutionary political, social, and economic transformation. The movements of deterritorialization that emerge within the writings and artistic production of Richard Mosse, Chris Abani, Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King and Rawi Hage provide possibilities for reflection at the thresholds of different male subjects in crisis. This project first addresses the underlying Thing that moves in between territories and confounds the desire to capture its essence; instead, following Deleuze and Guattari, it moves along with the male subjects’ nomadic movements as they become desubjectified simulacra in various sites of unlearning. In Richard Mosse’s Incoming and The Castle, for example, such a site of unlearning separates the materiality of the displaced from its image and informs discourse about the ways in which representation endangers, limits and violates existence. Through Abani’s GraceLand, this project further investigates modes of liminality and initiation ceremonies and acknowledges the lived experiences of male subjects in different cultural structures. In Rawi Hage’s novels, I explore the ways masculinity arranges or rearranges itself creatively in acts of performance. The dissertation also again turns to liminality by way of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Thomas King’s post-apocalyptic narrative of identity. In this way, the harmonious conjunction of Indigenous voices and Indigenous and migrant literatures attempts to locate where these lines of escape might come together, refuse to cross, or crumble back upon themselves in flows of violence.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
外國語文學研究所
100
This thesis studies the (re-)enchantment of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. “Fairyland” is an important cultural and literary imagination. As one part of the mythical past, fairies occupied the Victorian imagination. Nonetheless, the Victorian fascination with fairies had gradually declined after the late nineteenth century. Modernization, traditionally characterized by Enlightenment and reason, led to a disenchanted twentieth-century world. When Tolkien wrote his famous trilogy in the mid-twentieth century, fairies and fairy-stories did not possess as much of their enchanting power as they did in the nineteenth century. The Lord of the Rings, which revives its readers’ imagination of the fairyland as a modern (re-)enchantment, thus illustrates our studying of the conflict between enchantment and disenchantment in the process of modernization. This thesis examines the subtle relation between enchantment, in-betweenness, and the otherworld. Middle-earth is a world between the self and the other, and its in-betweenness is embodied by the Elves. Their kinship with and difference from the fairies reveal the in-between nature of enchantment. Restoring their otherness, Tolkien’s Elves readopt the fairies’ role of the in-between enchanter. Nonetheless, the delicate balance between self-sameness and otherness is difficult to maintain. The Elves’ final departure from Middle-earth is hence a reconciliation of their possible paradox as the in-between enchanter. This thesis proposes that through enchantment, we could enter a temporary border zone where the reality and the otherworld intersect. As a fantasy fiction and a modern enchantment, The Lord of the Rings is its readers’ glimpse of the fairyland.

碩士
淡江大學
英文學系碩士班
97
This thesis aims to investigate the in-between subject position of the Indians, especially women depicted by Arundhati Roy in The God of Small Things. It attempts to contextualize the dominant forces including the caste system, patriarchy, colonial hegemony and Western modernity in India, so as to trace the loss and difficulties that Roy presents in the novel. In light of Michel Foucault and Homi K. Bhabha, this thesis discloses the fluidity and instability of subject formation under the influence of diverse social and cultural discourses. It reveals the ambivalent and even in-between identity of the Indians who suffer oppression, displacement, loss and alienation as a result of transitions in contemporary cultural flows. However, instead of regarding the dilemma of struggling with these forces as Indians’ doomed life, this thesis explores the possibility of transformation for Indians. It takes the state of ambiguity caused by cultural hybridity as the opportunity of freeing from the suppressive manipulation. Chapter One makes clear that subject formation and women’s sexuality are results of cultural construction. In addition to unveiling the oppression of patriarchy, this chapter deconstructs the absolute truth by exemplifying the theme of transgression in the novel. Chapter Two investigates the in-between identity and discrepant subject position caused by cultural hybridity of the nation as a whole in a shifting society. It conducts the tensions inside Hindu and those with its Western conqueror. Chapter Three discusses the unresolved tension resulting from cultural impacts in post-independent India, showing the sense of alienation caused by Indians’ traumatic memory. Taking the form of hybridity, it explores the possibility of emancipation in the floating cultural space.

This thesis deploys Homi Bhabha's perspective of postcolonial literary theory as a critical procedure to examine particular instances of fiction, as well as reportage on Botswana. Its unifying interest is to pinpoint the shifting nature or reality of Botswana and, by extension, of African identities. To that end, I use Bhabha's concept of liminality to inform the work of writers such as Unity Dow, Alexander McCall Smith, and instances of reportage (by Rupert Isaacson and Caitlin Davies), from the 1990s to date. The aims of the thesis are, among other things, to establish the extent to which Homi Bhabha's appropriation of the term liminality (which derives from Victor Turner's notion of limen for inbetweenness), and its application in the postcolonial context inflects the reading of the above works whose main motifs include the following: a contestation of any views which privilege one culture above another, challenging a jingoistic rootedness in one culture, and promoting an awareness of the existence of several, interlocking or even clashing realities which finally produce multiple meanings, values and identities. In short, it is proposed that identity is not a given but rather a product of a lived reality and therefore a social construct, something always in process. The thesis begins by theorizing liminality in Chapter 1 within the context of Homi Bhabha's understanding and interrogation of the colonial discourse. This is followed by the contextualization of liminality through the reading of, firstly, the fiction of Unity Dow in Chapters 2 and 3, and then the "detective" fiction of Alexander McCall Smith in Chapters 4 and 5. In the discussion of these works, I also touch on instances of reportage which relate to the lives of the authors. In the case of Smith's "detective" fiction, for example, reportage refers to his incorporation of actual historical events and personages whose impact, I argue, suggests the liminality of culture. In Chapter 6, the idea of reportage varies slightly to denote works of fiction in which there is a great deal of historical fact. Thus Rupert Isaacson's The Healing Land: A Kalahari Journey and Caitlin Davies' Place of Reeds are treated as works of reportage in line with Truman Capote's application of that term. What comes out most evidently in this study is the shifting idea of (Botswana/African) identity. It should be noted that rather than present an all-embracing account of the fiction on Botswana, the study only looks at the selected examples of writing and reportage.
University of South Africa National Research Foundation
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)