Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Postcolonial concepts'

This study examines what support that exists in the Swedish upper secondary school curriculum and the English 7 syllabus for teaching postcolonial literature and the postcolonial literary concepts of binary pairs and Othering. This study also illustrates how Arvind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008) could serve as an example of a postcolonial novel to exemplify said concepts in the EFL classroom. To answer these questions, a definition of the postcolonial genre as well as a definition of the concepts within postcolonial literary theory was formulated. With the theoretical framework in place, an analysis of the steering documents was conducted. The Swedish curriculum’s focus on the teaching of every human’s equal value and rights relate to the postcolonial genre, as the genre is dedicated to telling marginalised perspectives in the modern world. The syllabus states that teaching different genres of literature and the usage of different perspectives in the classroom should be a part of the English subject. This supports the teaching of postcolonial literature as it is a successor to Western classics as well as shift in perspective from the colonisers to the colonised. The teaching of the concepts of binary pairs and Othering were indicated to be potentially challenging to practically implement, as literary didactic literature stated the difficulties of adapting literary theory to an upper secondary school level. Teaching literary concepts was indicated to be achievable provided that teachers teach theory with clear guidance of what context to use it in and where not to use it. As for binary pairs and Othering within Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008), the examples focused on were the Indias of Light and Darkness, and how this binary pair Othered one another. As such, the results were found to indicate that there is support for teaching postcolonial literature as well as postcolonial concepts, and that Adiga’s novel would be an adequate text to use for exemplifying these in the classroom.

Cette thèse porte sur les processus identitaires à l'œuvre ainsi que les stratégies et formes de mobilisations caractéristiques des cadres associatives qui se définissent comme féministes et musulmanes dans l'espace francophone. En effet, c'est au cours des années 2000 que l'on assiste à l'apparition d'un nouveau sujet féminin musulman qui aspire à un processus d'émancipation d'abord dans le langage de la religion puis dans une perspective féministe. En se positionnant comme féministes et musulmanes, elles sont considérées comme des subalternes politiques car elles refusent les frontières qui leur sont imposées dans le champ féministe et islamique. Pourtant, les tenantes de cette « rhétorique féministe islamique » sont engagées dans un véritable travail de reconstruction identitaire définissant d'une manière inédite une identité hybride qui combine le féminisme et la religiosité. Notre recherche présente une variété de féministes musulmanes dont les discours varient, que ce soit au niveau de leur rapport à la religion ou au féminisme, dans la façon de se définir et d'agir dans la lutte pour les droits des femmes dans la communauté musulmane comme dans la société civile. Du point de vue discursif, elles vont d'une part, démontrer que les théories liées au genre constituent un véritable processus de subjectivation qui peut s'élaborer dans l'épistémologie islamique. D'autre part, en réquisitionnant la théologie musulmane, elles théorisent une pensée critique en proposant une relecture du corpus religieux à la lumière de l'esprit égalitaire du texte sacré. Du point de vue des stratégies d'action, elles investissent les mouvements féministes, du local au global, dont elles se réapproprient les principes de justice et d'égalité tout en forgeant des alliances stratégiques à partir de principes communs pour élaborer des stratégies collectives de résistance contre un système inégalitaire. Cette génération de militantes d'un nouveau genre semble alors contribuer à l'émergence de cette 4eme vague féministe qui s'inscrit elle, non pas dans la continuité, mais dans la réforme de l'idéologie dominante. C'est dans cette perspective que l'apport des théories postcoloniales et le paradigme d'instersectionnalité semblent être des concepts pertinents pour appréhender les enjeux du féminisme musulman en Europe francophone dans l'espoir d'envisager un féminisme décolonisé et anti-impérialiste.

Thesis (PhD--English)--University of Auckland, 2009.
"Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy in English, the University of Auckland, 2009." Includes bibliographical references.

As the title suggests, this essay is a feminist and postcolonial literary analysis of the main character Okonkwo´s downfall and demise in acclaimed author Chinua Achebe´s 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart. A recurrent theme within the narrative is the concept of gender differences and gender roles, in the strict traditional and patriarchal system which serves as the setting of the narrative. Okonkwo, who is a traditional and proud Igbo man, has an aversion toward what is considered to be weak and feminine. Okonkwo is therefore struck with depression when he finds himself in a weak and helpless position, as well as emasculated emotional state of mind. Furthermore, Okonkwo becomes a victim to colonialism in the latter part of the narrative, which consequently adds to his already helpless and emasculated state of mind. The purpose with this essay is therefore to investigate if feelings of emasculation are the cause for Okonkwo´s final decision to end his own life. Based upon the analysis included in this essay, one of the conclusions that could be drawn was that the helplessness and feelings of emasculation Okonkwo experiences within the narrative are too much for him to cope with and therefore cause his downfall and demise.

Rencontre inattendue de Marguerite Duras et de Hanif Kureishi, ce travail tient son intérêt de l'analyse originale et personnelle que les deux auteurs-cinéastes donnent à lire mais également à voir et à entendre du concept de métissage. En marge de leurs contemporains et prédécesseurs lesquels l'analysent essentiellement dans le cadre de la littérature coloniale et postcoloniale, M. Duras et H. Kureishi ont la particularité de l'étudier pour la consécration et la réhabilitation de la notion de différence qu'il entraîne. Ebranlée en première partie du chapitre d'ouverture lorsque nous nous alignons sur la pensée de Daniel Sibony et montrons alors combien le métissage est lié à la notion d'entre-deux, la théorie selon laquelle le métissage participe à réhabiliter pleinement le concept de différence s'impose ensuite en maître. L'omniprésence de la disjonction pour point de départ, nous montrons comment elle parvient à arracher l'expression coupure-lien à la sphère de l'entre-deux et soulignons dans le même temps son pouvoir liant. Aboutissant à la conclusion que seule la disjonction peut donner sens à une œuvre chargée de métissage, nous resserrons les liens entre les deux notions et montrons ainsi comment les deux concepts participent au brouillage des frontières. Illustrée par le biais des didascalies et de la mise en voix de la marginalité, le floutage des frontières prend une dimension particulière lorsque nous nous intéressons au statut accordé à la norme. Détrônée de son centre, elle reste un élément constitutif de la marginalité et autorise à penser cette dernière en terme de métissage. Indissociables l'un de l'autre, les deux concepts le sont encore moins dans les deux derniers chapitres à l'occasion desquels nous proposons une lecture oblique du métissage par le biais de la sexualité et de l'instant. Le jeu de miroir entre les deux concepts oxymoriques démontré, nous concluons alors à une stratégie d'écriture visant à déstabiliser le lecteur occidental
By staging an unexpected meeting between Marguerite Duras and Hanif Kureishi, this study reveals how both writers succeed in shedding new light on the concept of "métissage". Unlike many contemporary writers and critics who approach it only through colonial and postcolonial theories, M. Duras and H. Kureishi also consider it from other perspectives such as the visual and the oral. But this is not the only feature which distinguishes them. That they both study "métissage" in order to consecrate and rehabilitate the concept of difference it implies is indeed what sets them most apart. Though challenged in the first part of the opening chapter where the connections made between "métissage" and the "in-between" echo Daniel Sibony's own approach of the "in-between" as a "coupure-lien", the concept of difference is fully rehabilitated in the second part and even considered a paradoxical notion whose linking effect arises from its very disjunctive nature. Chapter 2 tightens the links between "métissage" and the margins and examines how both blur boundaries. Illustrated first through an analysis of stage directions and the mise en voix of the margins, the blurring of boundaries finally enables the norm to be revisited. Ousted from the centre, the norm remains an essential element of the margins and allows them to be referred to in terms of "métissage". Hitherto inseparable, "métissage" and the margins are even more so in the last two chapters where the former is apprehended through the oblique, that is through sexuality and the instant, two concepts firmly associated with the margins. Having demonstrated the mirror effect of the oxymoronic concepts that are "métissage" and difference, this study concludes that both M. Duras and H. Kureishi develop a writing strategy aimed at destabilizing the western reader

Le roman postcolonial relève de l’interprétation de l’Histoire inhérente à l’écrivain d’origine africaine. En l’absence de sens acceptable pour les intéressés, la fiction interroge et met en exergue les aspects occultés de l’Histoire. L’étude s’attache à mettre en évidence des grilles de lecture autres qu’occidentales permettant de comprendre l’Histoire immédiate, thématique de plus en plus marquée chez les romanciers contemporains de Côte d’Ivoire. L’on se propose d’analyser la façon dont les romanciers ivoiriens des années quatre-vingt-dix à nos jours problématisent le thème de l’Histoire, comment ils l’intègrent à la trame narrative et pourquoi. La gestion d’une Histoire européo-centrée est un exercice délicat mais essentiel pour sortir de l’impasse. Les écrivains cherchent à doter leur peuple d’une Histoire à l’africaine ; Histoire compliquée par le colonialisme. L’étude vise à montrer comment cette évolution correspond à une urgence pour les auteurs : ceux-ci tentent en effet, à travers l’écriture romanesque, de trouver des réponses à la fragilisation des structures étatiques et de conjurer le spectre de la guerre civile amorcée par l’instrumentalisation du concept de l’Ivoirité. L’analyse porte sur les représentations mentales et culturelles, et l’on interrogera les catégories littéraires de façon à rendre compte de la façon dont elles induisent une vision de l’Histoire
The postcolonial novel is linked to the interpretation of History inherent to the african native writer. Without any acceptable understanding for the people concerned, fiction examines and brings out various occulted aspects of History. This study' s purpose is to underline some ways to interpret History other than from a western point of view, allowing the understanding of present History, a theme more and more present with contemporary Ivorian novelists. We propose to analyze the way Ivorian novelists, from the 90's until today, are treating History and how and why they integrate it into their fiction. The management of a european-centered History is a touchy but essential exercise to break the deadlock. Writers are willing to give their people an african History, complicated by colonialism. The study's goal is to show how this development is an urgency for the authors: in fact they try, through fiction, to find answers to the weakening of state structures and to ward off the specter of civil war initiated by the manipulation of the concept of "Ivoirité". The analysis focuses on the mental and cultural representations and we will go through the various literary categories, in order to summarize the way they induce a vision of History

Cette étude porte sur le fait littéraire afro-antillais de l’ère coloniale (1920-1960). Il s’agit d’examiner les stratégies des agents à partir des cas de René Maran, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant et Mongo Beti et de percevoir comment ils se définissent leur identité littéraire et sociale.

Pour ce faire, notre démarche s’articule en deux temps :(1) examiner les conditions de possibilité d’un champ littéraire afro-antillais à Paris (colonisation française et ses effets, configuration d’un champ littéraire pré-institutionnalisé, etc.) ;(2) analyser les processus de consolidation du champ, ainsi que les luttes internes qui opposent deux tendances émergentes représentées d’abord par Senghor et Césaire, ensuite par Beti et Glissant, dont les prises de position littéraires mettent en œuvre des « modèles empiriques » ;ceux-ci régulent et unifient leurs rapports au monde et à l’Afrique.

This study relates to afro-carribean literature in colonial period (1920-1960). We want to examine the strategies of agents like René Maran, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Édouard Glissant and Mongo Beti ;and we want to understand how they invente literary and social identity.

Our approach is structured in two steps: we shall analyse (1) the conditions for an afro-carribean literary field to appear in Paris (french colonialism and its consequences, configuration of literay field.) ;(2) the consolidation of this field and the internal struggles between two tendances represented by Senghor and Césaire, by Glissant and Beti whose literary practice shows the “empirical model” that regularizes and consolidates their relation with the world and Africa.
Doctorat en philosophie et lettres, Orientation langue et littérature
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

The rise of postcolonial theories in the 1970s did not yield much influence in the then practice of humanities computing, but following the mass-scale digitisations of cultural heritage materials over the past thirty years questions of Indigenous agency and the colonial roots of the digital cultural record have become more urgent than ever. This thesis operates within the area of postcolonial digital humanities and seeks to explore three questions. The first regards the socioethical concerns associated with the digitisation of Indigenous cultural heritage materials originating in Oceania, a geographic region which is peripheral on digital humanities maps but at the same time paradigmatic for exploration due to its cultural, political and linguistic diversity and multiple histories of colonial plundering. The second question investigates the extent to which global cultural heritage institutions digitise collections originating in Oceania in a culturally responsive manner, whereas the third focuses on the actions that digitising institutions can take in order to improve their websites from a decolonising perspective. The analysis that has been conducted on relevant literature and digitisation websites has resulted in an outline of theoretical concerns that should be taken into consideration prior to digitisation, as well as an assessment of existing digitisation activities and recommendations for improvement.

Peter Carey has been discussed in academia since the 1980s. And since then these discussions revolve around postmodernism, postcolonial studies or, indeed, both at once. So, either Peter Carey has been writing the same old novel for nearly thirty years by now, or there are whole worlds in his writings that have yet to be uncovered. Since I claim the latter is the case, this thesis sets out to chart at least a few areas of these vast forgotten territories, to use a consciously colonial metaphor. The theoretical ‘vehicle’ with which the new areas are entered is agency. Which means that the thesis investigates how individual characters manage to become successful actors, or fail to do so. The thesis first provides an overview of Carey's writing (Chapter 2), then traces three typical 'Carey themes' through his entire oeuvre and shows how they are relevant for agency (Chapter 3), before discussing the concept of agency itself at some length in Chapter 4. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 are close readings of My Life as a Fake, Illywhacker and Tristan Smith and investigate the novels' main characters' development in depth. The appendix contains research that would be relevant for a biographical approach to Carey's works. It explains the climate of Australian literature production in the 1970s in which Carey emerges as an author and that is relevant for his writing up to his latest works Amnesia and a Long Way from Home. It also relates a few biographical notes that are relevant for many of his works.:1. Introduction 4 2. Literary Overview of Carey’s Writing 18 3. Agency in Carey’s Writing: Three ‘Carey Themes’ 29 4. Agency 49 4.1. Important Terminology 49 4.2. Agency: A New Phenomenon? 53 4.3. The Ancient Sources of Agency 62 4.4. The Agency Game: The Sociological Concept of Agency 67 4.5. Agency, Nature, and Metaphysics 76 4.6. The Problem of Normativity 84 4.7. Getting the Moral Framework Back into the Picture 89 4.8. Getting Intrinsic Capacity Back into the Picture 95 4.9. The Whole Picture 100 5. My Life as a Fake 109 5.1. The Story 109 5.2. The Central Conflict: Apollo and Dionysus Caught in a ‘Deathlock’ 112 5.3. My Life as a Fake and the Struggle for Authenticity 125 5.4. Chubb and McCorkle Revisited: Authenticity and the Social Arena 132 5.5. Conclusion 138 6. Illywhacker 141 6.1. Lies and control 148 6.1.1. Book I 149 6.1.2. Book II 156 6.1.3. Book III 164 6.2. Compulsive Visions and Compelled Selves 171 6.2.1. The McGraths: Molly and Jack 185 6.2.2. The Young Compulsive Mistresses 190 6.3. Peter Carey’s Entrapped Dreamers 199 6.4. From the Aircraft Factory to the Museum: Baudrillard in Australia 204 6.4.1. The Three-Tiered Advance of Australia Fair 205 6.4.2. Agency in the Hyperreal Condition 214 6.4.3. Illywhacker and the Western World: Anti-Depressants 217 6.5. Final Remarks on Illywhacker 221 7. Tristan Smith 224 7.1. Tristan as Narrative Voice and as Character inside his Story 228 7.2. Tristan’s Bildung: A Study in two Mirror Phases 231 7.2.1. Initial Conceit 232 7.2.2. The Gaze of the Other 236 7.2.3. The First Mirror Stage 241 7.2.4. Interlude 246 7.2.5. The Voyage 249 7.2.6. The Second Mirror Stage 252 7.3. Tristan’s Subversiveness: “Bodies […] out of Control” 258 7.3.1. Postcolonial Approaches and External Reality 259 7.3.2. Cultural Simulation: Ghostdorps and Ghost Lights 264 7.3.3. Confronting Simulations: Tristan and Peggy 270 7.3.4. Not Escaping the Now: Felicity 275 7.3.5. Jacqui: From Self-Realisation to Escapism and Back to the Now 280 7.4. The Radical’s Conceit: Peter Carey’s Political Activists 287 8. Conclusion 292 9. Bibliography 303 10. Appendix 314 10.1. Publishing Carey: The Emergence of an Author 314 10.2. Peter Carey and the New Nationalism 320 10.3. Biographical Notes on Peter Carey’s Writing 330

The thesis is concerned about the postcolonial context of the minority tribal people, the Taiwan Yuen-Chu-Min (台灣原住民, TYCM), in Taiwan. The argument of this thesis includes two parts: Part one provides the background to develop the foundation for the contextualization of the TYCM tribal people’s colonized experience and postcolonial discourse in light of their contextual concerns－tribal mother tongue, tribal texts, and ordinary tribal people; Part two draws connections between these TYCM tribal people’s postcolonial concerns and biblical interpretation, which is called “TYCM Tribal Biblical Interpretation”, and practices reading Gen 2:4b-25 with the subaltern people, TYCM ordinary tribal people, through the Five Step Reading Process in a group collaborative effort with 14 tribal reading groups. The project of TYCM Tribal Biblical Interpretation, as practiced through the Five Step Reading Process, is committed to create decolonization strategies to connect with the colonized experience of tribal people to help them play their traditional role of the Prrngawan to facilitate ordinary tribal people to become the “real” and “flesh-and-blood” readers of their tribal texts and biblical texts through their mother-tongue to freely participate in constructing and in continuing to restore their tribal spirituality, worldviews, and appropriation readings to highlight de-colonized biblical readings in their struggles of their postcolonial context in present day Taiwan.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

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)

Text in English with abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Setswana. Translated titles in Afrikaans and Setswana supplied
Dataset link: https://doi.org/10.25399/UnisaData.14101913.v1
The gap between diverse cultures living in a globalized world is not intransigent nor unassumingly flexible. This space is an arena of dissimilarities and correlations, which result in interactions that incite unusual expectations. ‘Cultural hybridity’ is clearly mirrored within contemporary society. New methods and approaches are required to comprehend the lived experiences of escalating displacement. This research traces the trajectory of migration, identity, self and other from the point of view of contemporary diasporic artists. Notions of ethnicity, authenticity, identity, transnationality, singularity and duality are debated against the backdrop of the creative practices of Anish Kapoor and Yinka Shonibare. Informed by Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the third space, and also theories of hermeneutic translation by Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricoeur, this dissertation creatively and critically investigates the ambiguities and ambivalences in this field of inquiry.
Die gaping tussen uiteenlopende kulture wat in ’n geglobaliseerde wêreld woon, is nóg onversetlik nóg pretensieloos veerkragtig. Hierdie ruimte is ’n arena van ongelykhede en korrelasies wat lei tot interaksies wat ongewone verwagtings ontketen. “Kulturele hibridisme” word duidelik in die eietydse samelewing weerspieël. Nuwe metodes en benaderings word vereis om die werklike ervarings van toenemende ontheemding te verstaan. Hierdie navorsing spoor die trajektorie van migrasie, identiteit, self en ander vanuit die oogpunt van eietydse diasporiese kunstenaars na. Idees rondom etnisiteit, egtheid, identiteit, transnasionaliteit, enkelvoudigheid en tweevoudigheid word teen die agtergrond van die kreatiewe praktyke van Anish Kapoor en Yinka Shonibare bespreek. Hierdie verhandeling, wat geïnspireer is deur Homi K. Bhabha se konsep van die derde ruimte, asook teorieë van hermeneutiese verplasing deur Georg Gadamer en Paul Ricoeur, ondersoek op ’n kreatiewe en kritiese wyse die dubbelsinnighede en teenstrydighede in hierdie ondersoekveld.
Sekgala magareng ga ditso tse di farologaneng tse di tshelang mo lefatsheng le le susumetsanang ga se a tsepama le mme ga se obege bonolo. Sebaka seno ke serala sa dipharologano le dikamano tse di lebisang kwa dikgolaganong tse di tlhosetsang ditsholofelo tse di sa tlwaelegang. Tota 'motswako wa setso' o bonala sentle mo setšhabeng sa sešweng. Go tlhokega mekgwa le selebo se sentšhwa go tlhaloganya maitemogelo a phuduso e e oketsegang. Patlisiso eno e lebelela motlhala wa bofudugedi, boitshupo, jwa sebele le jo bongwe go tswa mo mogopolong wa batsweretshi ba sešweng go tswa mo mafelong a bofudugedi (diaspora) Go ganetsanwa ka megopolo ya lotso, boammaaruri, boitshupo, boditšhaba, bongwefela le bobedi go lebeletswe ntlha ya ditiragatso tsa boitlhamedi tsa ga Anish Kapoor le Yinka Shonibare. Thesisi eno e e theilweng mo mogopolong wa ga Homi K. Bhabha wa sebaka sa boraro, le ditiori tsa saense ya boranodi ka Georg Gadamer le Paul Ricoeur, e batlisisa ka boitlhamedi le ka tshekatsheko, ketsaetsego e e mo lephateng leno la dipatlisiso.
Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology
M.A. (Visual Arts)

In this thesis, I examine a critical procedure appropriate to Black South African autobiography of the 1950s and early 1960s. In particular, I examine these autobiographies as examples of counterhegemonic writing in which the self counters the hegemonic apartheid notion of identity, based on racial and cultural purity, and I propose that the hybrid selves encoded in these narratives have the capacity to inform a new South African nationhood. Chapter One necessitates an autocritique, in which I locate my own discourse within the intersecting discursive strands of Western and local theory, an effort that is guided by the imperatives that emerge from the autobiographies themselves. In Chapter Two, I suggest that the postcolonial autos displaces Humanist, and appropriates postmodernist, conceptions of the "I". Rewriting the terms of the autobiographical pact, the authority of grapos is re-instated in counternarratives that give privileged status to the bios - to lives that claim "I AM!" and selves that reconstruct identity. A related concern is the relationship between autobiographical criticism in South Africa and hegemony. In the chapters that follow, I examine the various ways in which counterhegemonic selves are constructed in Tell freedom, Down Second Avenue, Drawn in colour: African Contrasts and The Ochre People. Peter Abrahams's autobiography is discussed largely in terms of Frantz Fanon's insights on identity construction and the notion of a "hybrid I". Es'kia Mphahlek's (re)writing of the self - whose main feature is ambivalence - forms the focus of Chapter Four. These notions are developed in the final chapter, which focuses on Noni Jabavu's narratives that encode an "in-between" cultural identity and, as in the autobiographies of Abrahams and Mphahlele, a metonymic "I".
English Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The fragmented bodies and lives of postcolonial Caribbean women examined in Caribbean literature beget struggle and psychological ruin. The characters portrayed in novels by postcolonial Caribbean writers Edwidge Danticat, Michelle Cliff, and Shani Mootoo are marginalized as “Other” by a Western patriarchal discourse that works to silence them because of their gender, color, class, and sexuality. Marginalization participates in the act of fragmentation of these characters because it challenges their sense of identity. Fragmentation means fractured; in terms of these fictive characters, fragmentation results from multiple traumas, each trauma causing another break in their wholeness. Postcolonial scholars have identified the causes and effects of fragmentation on the postcolonial subject, and they argue one’s need to heal because of it. Danticat, Cliff, and Mootoo prove that wholeness is not possible for the postcolonial Caribbean woman, so rather than ruminate on that truth, they examine the journey of the postcolonial Caribbean woman as a way of making meaning of the pieces of her life. This project contends that fragmentation – and the fracture it produces – does not bind these women to negative existences; in fact, the female subjects of Danticat, Cliff, and Mootoo locate power in their fragmentation. The texts studied include Danticat’s "Breath, Eyes, Memory" (1994) and "The Farming of Bones" (1999), Cliff’s "Abeng" (1984) and "No Telephone to Heaven" (1987), and Mootoo’s "Cereus Blooms at Night" (1996) and "He Drown She in the Sea" (2005).