Postcolonial Identities in Patrick Neate's "City of Tiny Lights"

Postcolonial Identities in Patrick Neate's Author: Rebekka Brox
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 364050691X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Tubingen (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Firstly, this paper focuses on Farzad and his self as a “contrary geezer”. As a first step it is analysed in what respect Farzad can be described as a man living in diaspora. Subsequently, it is shown what special position Uganda acquires in his life. By applying Salman Rushdie’s theory of imaginary homelands the paper demonstrates how Farzad uses imagination in order to cross space and time to return to his deceased wife. The means for this return are alcohol and painting. The latter is examined in more detail showing its significance for Farzad’s life. Finally, Farzad’s obsession for cricket and its implications are interpreted. Secondly, the character of Gundappa is introduced who has quite a peculiar way of dealing with his identity issue. It is shown what massive effect the death of his mother has on him and his self-perception and how this finally leads to the abandonment of his real identity. It is analysed how and why he he starts disguising as someone who he is not and creates several new identities. Thirdly, the paper has a closer look on the main protagonist Tommy. This part starts out with Tommy’s time as a terrorist showing how the death of his mother led to a similar but slightly different reaction as the one of his brother Gundappa and how he ends up being a man without an identity. Furthermore, the recurring flashbacks are analysed with special attention to his distanced relationship to this time as a soldier of the Mujahideen. It is depicted in what respect this still influences his life. Next, it is described how he regains and accepts his identity. Applying postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhaba’s theories of ‘living in-between’ and mimicry to Tommy it is shown how he realises that he will never be regarded as a pure Englishman by society. Instead, he accepts the multitude of cultures that influence his identity and finds himself living at the border of different cultures shuttling from one to the other and using the possibilities that this shuttling between cultures offers. As a further step this theory of living at a border is transferred to his occupation as private investigator. Furthermore, the influence that his ethnicity has on his occupation is examined and whether he can sustain his aspiration of acting in the tradition of Chandler’s crime novel figure Philip Marlowe. Finally, Tommy’s language is considered as a means of expressing identity.

Postcolonial Identities in Patrick Neate's "City of Tiny Lights"

Postcolonial Identities in Patrick Neate's Author: Rebekka Brox
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 364050691X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Bachelor Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Tubingen (Englisches Seminar), language: English, abstract: Firstly, this paper focuses on Farzad and his self as a “contrary geezer”. As a first step it is analysed in what respect Farzad can be described as a man living in diaspora. Subsequently, it is shown what special position Uganda acquires in his life. By applying Salman Rushdie’s theory of imaginary homelands the paper demonstrates how Farzad uses imagination in order to cross space and time to return to his deceased wife. The means for this return are alcohol and painting. The latter is examined in more detail showing its significance for Farzad’s life. Finally, Farzad’s obsession for cricket and its implications are interpreted. Secondly, the character of Gundappa is introduced who has quite a peculiar way of dealing with his identity issue. It is shown what massive effect the death of his mother has on him and his self-perception and how this finally leads to the abandonment of his real identity. It is analysed how and why he he starts disguising as someone who he is not and creates several new identities. Thirdly, the paper has a closer look on the main protagonist Tommy. This part starts out with Tommy’s time as a terrorist showing how the death of his mother led to a similar but slightly different reaction as the one of his brother Gundappa and how he ends up being a man without an identity. Furthermore, the recurring flashbacks are analysed with special attention to his distanced relationship to this time as a soldier of the Mujahideen. It is depicted in what respect this still influences his life. Next, it is described how he regains and accepts his identity. Applying postcolonial scholar Homi K. Bhaba’s theories of ‘living in-between’ and mimicry to Tommy it is shown how he realises that he will never be regarded as a pure Englishman by society. Instead, he accepts the multitude of cultures that influence his identity and finds himself living at the border of different cultures shuttling from one to the other and using the possibilities that this shuttling between cultures offers. As a further step this theory of living at a border is transferred to his occupation as private investigator. Furthermore, the influence that his ethnicity has on his occupation is examined and whether he can sustain his aspiration of acting in the tradition of Chandler’s crime novel figure Philip Marlowe. Finally, Tommy’s language is considered as a means of expressing identity.

The Intelligible Metropolis

The Intelligible Metropolis PDF Author: Nora Pleßke
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839426723
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
Writings on the metropolis generally foreground illimitability, stressing thereby that the urban ultimately remains both illegible and unintelligible. Instead, the purpose of this interdisciplinary study is to demonstrate that mentality as a tool offers orientation in the urban realm. Nora Pleßke develops a model of urban mentality to be employed for cities worldwide. Against the background of the Spatial Turn, she identifies dominant urban-specific structures of London mentality in contemporary London novels, such as Monica Ali's »Brick Lane«, J.G. Ballard's »Millennium People«, Nick Hornby's »A Long Way Down«, and Ian McEwan's »Saturday«.

Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture

Geographies of Affect in Contemporary Literature and Visual Culture PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004442553
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Opening a dialogue between the literary and filmic works produced in Central Europe and in the Anglophone world, this volume explores the role of affects and emotions such as shame, fascination and withdrawal in contemporary literature and culture.

Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+

Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9401206589
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ provides an encompassing survey of artistic responses to the changes in the British cultural climate in the early years of the 21st century. It traces topical reactions to new forms of racism and religious fundamentalism, to legal as well as ‘illegal’ immigration, and to the threat of global terror; yet it also highlights new forms of intercultural communication and convivial exchange. Framed by contributions from novelists Patrick Neate and Rajeev Balasubramanyam, Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ showcases how artistic representations in literature, film, music and the visual arts reflect and respond to social and political discourses, and how they contribute to our understanding of the current (trans)cultural situation in Britain. The contributions in this volume cover a wide range of writers such as Graham Swift, Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay, Nadeem Aslam, Gautam Malkani, Nirpal Dhaliwal and Monica Ali; films ranging from Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice to Michael Winterbottom’s In This World and Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men; paintings and photography by innovative black and Asian British Artists; and dubstep music.

Multi-ethnic Britain 2000+

Multi-ethnic Britain 2000+ PDF Author: Lars Eckstein
Publisher: Rodopi
ISBN: 9042024976
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ provides an encompassing survey of artistic responses to the changes in the British cultural climate in the early years of the 21st century. It traces topical reactions to new forms of racism and religious fundamentalism, to legal as well as 'illegal' immigration, and to the threat of global terror; yet it also highlights new forms of intercultural communication and convivial exchange. Framed by contributions from novelists Patrick Neate and Rajeev Balasubramanyam, Multi-Ethnic Britain 2000+ showcases how artistic representations in literature, film, music and the visual arts reflect and respond to social and political discourses, and how they contribute to our understanding of the current (trans)cultural situation in Britain. The contributions in this volume cover a wide range of writers such as Graham Swift, Ian McEwan, Zadie Smith, Jackie Kay, Nadeem Aslam, Gautam Malkani, Nirpal Dhaliwal and Monica Ali; films ranging from Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice to Michael Winterbottom's In This World and Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men; paintings and photography by innovative black and Asian British Artists; and dubstep music.

An American in Paris: Audrey Hepburn and the City of Light - A historical analysis of genre cinema & gender roles

An American in Paris: Audrey Hepburn and the City of Light - A historical analysis of genre cinema & gender roles PDF Author: Sandy Nirwing
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3638460878
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 29

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Book Description
Intermediate Diploma Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2.0, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Philologie), course: American Expatriates in Paris, language: English, abstract: Nowadays, it has become quiet around various Hollywood genres of the Classic Period of cinema. In the time between both World Wars, and also soon after WWII, Hollywood filmmaking meant entertainment to a frustrated and humiliated world audience. Especially dance-comedy- and musical-genres became more picturesque, especially because of Technicolor, the plots less melodramatic and the actors followed a progressive and innovative typecast. Particularly the world of the Hollywood film musical opened up new possibilities when presenting a fictional world in their studios that enchanted an international audience. Hollywood spared no expenses and pains to explore particularly European capitals to promote a dream as well as their understanding of the American way. To which extent Hollywood created an image of Paris that gained acceptance with a global audience? And in how far can be said that American female stars changed their outer and inner appearance, in order not to correspond to obsolete Hollywood typecast. In my work I would like to give a better impression of what historically happened in American filmmaking, that glorified and idealized the French capital; and in French filmmaking, that searched for new themes, settings and individuals. In the first chapter a historical outline of the time from the 1920s onwards, as well as a brief introduction into the structures of the American- and French-film industry will illustrate to what extent Paris turned out to be an aesthetic and significant feature in motion pictures of that time. In the following it is of my concern to analyze the City of Light & Love and its international reputation. My analysis leads to one specific aspect of filmmaking – the divergence between the American female (stereo-) typology and European gender roles during the postwar years of the 50s and 60s. Audrey Hepburn serves as a well-known example, which is considered to be a representative for European subculture, French haute couture and American fairy-tale dreams. I try to illustrate in how far Audrey Hepburn changed the female image during a time in which anybody preferred blond femininity instead of brunette individuality. My aim is to find out how much Paris served as the ideological medium – both in French- and in Hollywood-filmmaking.

Imagining the Global

Imagining the Global PDF Author: Fabienne Darling-Wolf
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
ISBN: 0472900153
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Based on a series of case studies of globally distributed media and their reception in different parts of the world, Imagining the Global reflects on what contemporary global culture can teach us about transnational cultural dynamics in the 21st century. A focused multisited cultural analysis that reflects on the symbiotic relationship between the local, the national, and the global, it also explores how individuals’ consumption of global media shapes their imagination of both faraway places and their own local lives. Chosen for their continuing influence, historical relationships, and different geopolitical positions, the case sites of France, Japan, and the United States provide opportunities to move beyond common dichotomies between East and West, or United States and “the rest.” From a theoretical point of view, Imagining the Global endeavors to answer the question of how one locale can help us understand another locale. Drawing from a wealth of primary sources—several years of fieldwork; extensive participant observation; more than 80 formal interviews with some 160 media consumers (and occasionally producers) in France, Japan, and the United States; and analyses of media in different languages—author Fabienne Darling-Wolf considers how global culture intersects with other significant identity factors, including gender, race, class, and geography. Imagining the Global investigates who gets to participate in and who gets excluded from global media representation, as well as how and why the distinction matters.

Affective Relations

Affective Relations PDF Author: C. Pedwell
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113727526X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Exploring the ambivalent grammar of empathy where questions of geo-politics and social justice are at stake - in popular science, international development, postcolonial fiction, feminist and queer theory - this book addresses the critical implications of empathy's uneven effects. It offers a vital transnational perspective on the 'turn to affect'.

MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures

MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Languages, Modern
Languages : en
Pages : 1690

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Book Description


Black British Literature

Black British Literature PDF Author: Mark Stein
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
ISBN: 081420984X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
In this fascinating book, Mark Stein examines black British literature, centering on a body of work created by British-based writers with African, South Asian, or Caribbean cultural backgrounds. Linking black British literature to the bildungsroman genre, this study examines the transformative potential inscribed in and induced by a heterogeneous body of texts. Capitalizing on their plural cultural attachments, these texts portray and purvey the transformation of post-imperial Britain. Stein locates his wide-ranging analysis in both a historical and a literary context. He argues that a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach is essential to understanding post-colonial culture and society. The book relates black British literature to ongoing debates about cultural diversity, and thereby offers a way of reading a highly popular but as yet relatively uncharted field of cultural production. With the collapse of its empire, with large-scale immigration from former colonies, and with ever-increasing cultural diversity, Britain underwent a fundamental makeover in the second half of the twentieth century. This volume cogently argues that black British literature is not only a commentator on and a reflector of this makeover, but that it is simultaneously an agent that is integral to the processes of cultural and social change. Conceptualizing the novel of transformation, this comprehensive study of British black literature provides a compelling analytic framework for charting these processes.