Broken Mirrors: Iterations of the Other in the Post-Colonial Novel
Location
Online - Session 5C
Start Date
4-21-2021 3:30 PM
Major Field of Study
Humanities
Student Type
Graduate
Faculty Mentor(s)
Tom Burke, MA and Joan Baranow, Phd
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
This thesis will explore the post-colonial notion of the Other as an iteration of the broader cultural tendency to make meaning via binary opposition. I will study a variety of texts from post-colonial, gothic, and science fiction genres to reveal the connective thread of empire and subjugation that transcends time and place. Furthermore, I will examine the various attempts of characters to resist this reality by creating an alternate space within the dominant culture. I am interested 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 will necessarily expand the project into a consideration of larger questions of subjugation based on race, class, gender, and sexuality. As this study will reveal, the quest for identity and agency amid a culture of repression remains a timeless struggle.
Broken Mirrors: Iterations of the Other in the Post-Colonial Novel
Online - Session 5C
This thesis will explore the post-colonial notion of the Other as an iteration of the broader cultural tendency to make meaning via binary opposition. I will study a variety of texts from post-colonial, gothic, and science fiction genres to reveal the connective thread of empire and subjugation that transcends time and place. Furthermore, I will examine the various attempts of characters to resist this reality by creating an alternate space within the dominant culture. I am interested 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 will necessarily expand the project into a consideration of larger questions of subjugation based on race, class, gender, and sexuality. As this study will reveal, the quest for identity and agency amid a culture of repression remains a timeless struggle.