Document Type
Master's Thesis
Graduation Year
May 2021
Emphasis
English
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Program Director
Judy Halebsky, PhD
First Reader
Thomas Burke, MFA
Second Reader
Amy Wong, PhD
Abstract
This thesis explores the post-colonial notion of the Other as an iteration of the broader cultural tendency to make meaning via binary opposition. The study of Wide Sargasso Sea, Infidels, and At Swim Two Boys reveals the connective thread of empire and subjugation that transcends time and place. Furthermore, I examine the various attempts of characters to resist this reality by creating an alternate space within the dominant culture. My interest lies in exploring the ways in which various markers of identity form the “self,” and consequently how characters attempt to gain agency and fully realize identity despite marginalization and disenfranchisement. Examining the various modes of Othering necessarily expands the project into a consideration of larger questions of subjugation based on race, class, gender, and sexuality. As this study reveals, the quest for identity and agency amid a culture of repression remains a timeless struggle.
Included in
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons