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Until today most social, historical and cultural studies of the American postwar era have contributed to the myth of a relatively homogeneous society and culture. Even though they understood these years as a turning point for modern American society, they failed to encompass the polyvalence and heterogeneity of American society. Focussing mostly on white and middle class males, these studies formed a onedimensional picture of sociocultural conformity, a picture in which issues of gender, race and class were largely absent. Crossing the boundaries of feminist, cultural and historical studies this dissertation starts from identifying the gaps and problems in current academic research. Those sociopolitical structures that affected non-white women are then juxtaposed with the dominant postwar discourse of womanhood. The literary texts by women of color show them grappling with the conflicting demands of socioecnomic realities and pervasive role definitions. On the surface these literary interventions seemed to submit to dominant ideologies while opposing them at the same time. Thus they are both anticipatory and antagonistic. The dissent and criticism in writings by women of color seem to have become a catalyst for the deep social transformations in the following decades.
Bloody Beaut’ Blue: Australisches Englisch und die Konzeptualisierung des Australischen Ethos
(2005)
Die Dissertation basiert auf der Theorie der Kulturellen Linguistik (Palmer, 1996), der Analyse empirischer Daten des heutigen australischen Englisch als auch historischer Daten, welche die Entwicklung des australischen Englisch wiederspiegeln. Das Ziel der Dissertation ist es, Licht auf die Frage zu werfen, inwieweit die Sprache und das Ethos der Sprachgemeinschaft, welche diese Sprache spricht, einander beeinflussen und spiegeln. Die untersuchten Merkmale betreffen die sehr häufig im australischen Englisch anzutreffenden linguistischen Besonderheiten: Analogien, Rhyming Slang, Diminutive, Flüche aber auch prosodische Sprachaspekte. Die Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) (Wierzbicka) wird als grundlegendes Vergleichselement zwischen Sprache und Ethos hinzugezogen.
The Syilx Okanagan environmental ethic is a philosophy expressed in the practice of Indigeneity as a social (cultural) paradigm and is identified by an inter-reliant experience in the land, as demonstrated in land-use practice which is shaped by the land’s realities as observed, learned and communicated to succeeding generations. Syilx Okanagan Indigeneity reflects an epistemology that optimum human wellbeing cannot be achieved through a human centered ethic but must focus on the optimum ability for the environment to regenerate itself. Syilx Okanagan stories convey the social experience and act as a records system to preserve, maintain and transfer the knowledge of the land. On one level, captikwl contain essential specific environmental knowledge as an oral documentation method, while on another level, as literature, captikwl reconstructs the ethos of interdependency specific to the ecology of the Syilx Okanagan territory through reenactment of nature’s interactions. captikwl in the Nsyilxcen language mimics the dynamic aspects of nature’s required regenerative principles to each succeeding generation, and acts as a feed-back loop reconstructing the social paradigm as an environmental ethic. captikwl might be seen as a distinctly Indigenous human adaptive response scheme within a natural system as it constructs the Syilx Okanagan world and results in behavior with sustainable outcome in the environment. captikwl is a distinct oral artistry that must be read through a literary framework cognizant of oral memory device, structure and Syilx Okanagan context. Okanagan author Morning Dove’s collection of Okanagan stories, as well as, the Mattina and DeSautel bilingual collections and other original version captikwl were consulted. Captikwl demonstrates the concept of tmixw which better translates as a life-force. The word for land is tmxwulaxw, which translates better as a life-force-place, rather than land as location or ecology type. Syilx society demonstrates an “ecological conscience” as the common text through captikwl which is enacted in their social institutions in the manner theorized by respected American conservationist Aldo Leopold, as desirable to achieve within society. The Syilx environmental ethic, rather than a sustainable human ethic of utility, is a willingness to live within a strict imperative to continuously sustain a unity of existence through societal knowledge and reverent practice of respect toward all life-forms. The Syilx environmental ethic diverges from ecocentrism, as articulated by Callicott, in recognizing a fundamental distinction between non-life forms and life forms, in their ability for self-regeneration through inter-reliance, as the focus for delineating moral considerability. The Syilx environmental ethic differs from biocentrism, as articulated by Taylor, in recognizing moral considerability as resting with the on-going life form which is capable of regeneration within its ecology, rather than the singular biological unit. The Syilx environmental ethic also differs from the concept of the ethics of place, as articulated by Berthold-Bond and characterized as an ethical bioregional human utility of a location. Tmixw is the life-force which makes up the tmxwulaxw or life-force-place and the humans are only “placed” as a life-force themselves through Indigeneity as a social paradigm within a criteria of full reciprocity in the regeneration of all life forms of a place. The Syilx environmental ethic also differs from the ethic of sustainability proposed by Daly as a steady state economic model of human utilitarianism, in the positioning of nature treated as capital, to be prudently developed in a way that off-sets depletions of renewable and non-renewable resources in meeting human requirements. The Syilx Okanagan view of economy, while structurally a sustainability model, does not construct value based on human utility as a defining line in decision-making as to which life forms are to be devalued and displaced. Syilx Indigeneity is guided through a societal dialogue practice of Enowkinwixw, a process of decision-making structured to include living within the requirements of the land to fully regenerate. Syilx Okanagan Indigeneity frames an environmental ethic from a tmixwcentric position and offers a model proposing an ethic of re-indigenization as a path to sustainability. The thesis proposes a common text for human society in the form of such literatures, since literature is widely accessible, which demonstrate, imbed and advocate a regenerative land ethic towards the re-indigenization of place.
“Za Hranetsiu” – “Beyond the Border”: Constructions of Identities in Ukrainian-Canadian Literature
(2010)
Grounded in the literary and cultural studies, the dissertation “Za Hranetsiu” – “Beyond the Border”: Constructions of Identities in Ukrainian-Canadian Literature answers the question how identities of different Ukrainian immigrants and their offspring have been constructed, continuously developed and transformed in contemporary Canadian literature. The study simultaneously presents a discussion of postmodern identities, a concise historical survey of Ukrainian immigration to Canada in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and an overall picture of the exceptionally substantial body of Ukrainian-Canadian literature. Detailed literary analyses focus on seven Ukrainian-Canadian works: Sons of the Soil (1939-45/1959) by Illia Kiriak, Yellow Boots (1954) by Vera Lysenko, A Letter to My Son (1981) by George Ryga, The Green Library (1996) by Janice Kulyk Keefer, The Doomed Bridegroom: A Memoir (1998) by Myrna Kostash, Kalyna’s Song (2003) by Lisa Grekul, and The Ladies’ Lending Library (2007) by Janice Kulyk Keefer.
1. "Sole or Whole" – Quilting the Racialized Subject Calgary feminist and scholar Aruna Srivastava tackles the complex question of what it means to be "mixed-race/mixedblood/halfbreed/mestizo/hybrid/hyphenated?" in her editorial to Hyphe Nation (1996). In response to her question, this study of contemporary African-Canadian literature suggests that mixed-race Canadians are often constructed as the Other in Canadian society. In consequence, constructions of "racial hybridity" in African-Canadian literature usually aim at carving out a space that doesnt marginalize "racial" mixing but eviscerates restrictive Manichean constructions of identity in order to promulgate concepts of wholeness and self-definition. In consequence, African-Canadian mixed-race writers create hybrid identities that are infinite, multilayered, fragmented and yet whole. They reflect the processes of shifting, overlapping and re-creation in the process of creating identity and can hence be read as representations of complex, de-central, non-hierarchical identities. They are quilting multidimensional racialized subjects. 2. Signifying the In-Between: "Race", "Racial Hybridity" and Questions of Belonging "Race" is not a biological category. Rather it represents a social construction predicated upon the interpretation of difference. It was designed to establish, justify or perpetuate hegemonic social structures and is adherent to the principle of white supremacy. Contemporary "race" theory often neglects the experiences of racially mixed individuals because it fails to offer flexible models of identity in which bi- and multiracial people find themselves represented. This thesis argues in favor of a poetics of difference that accepts and recognizes the heterogeneity of subjectivities while taking into consideration the various dimensions of class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity. Accordingly, constructions of racial hybridity in contemporary African-Canadian literature demonstrate that racism must be acknowledged as an ideology in which people believe and upon which people act. Thus identities often bear the stamp of various histories of resistance and domination, while tackling the question of belonging and re-defining Canadianness. 3. African-Canadian Borderlands References to interracial contacts and the existence of bi- and multiracial people have been omitted from the official founding narratives of the Canadian nation. African-Canadian writers have therefore been successful chroniclers of the past and filled blanks in Canadian historiography in order to shed light on hitherto repressed or erased knowledge. Part of this process is also the inscription of the mixed-race experience into Canadas past. Along this line, bi- and multiracial Canadians often criticize that the state-proclaimed policy of multiculturalism fails to take their manifold racial and ethnic subjectivities into account. 4. "From Sole to Whole" – African-Canadian Mixed-Race Poetics Mixed-race characters in US-American literature often appear in the literary motif of the "tragic mulatto" and it is often implicitly suggested that the bi- or multiracial protagonist is categorized as black. In contrast, African-Canadian constructions of racial hybridity less frequently adhere to the stereotype of the "tragic mulatto" and leave more space for employing alternative modes of racial and ethnic identification. Canadian writers of mixed descent have created a mixed-race poetics that calls attention to contexts, relationships, intersections and wholes. They encourage sites of inclusiveness, incessant shifting and discontinuity in the process of constructing identities. Nevertheless, modes of identification among racially hybrid writers in Canada vary, ranging from detesting whiteness to claiming a Black Nationalist stance. In general, however, they support the idea of fluid and flexible identities. The answer to the initial question of Srivastava is hence given by a vast variety of African-Canadian subject positions. An essentially "black" or "racially mixed" Canadian subject does not exist. Instead, constructions of racial hybridity in African-Canadian literature offer a holistic view of identity and aim at re-conceptualizing the various senses of self and community in Canada. This strategy provides a significant means of self-empowerment and self-reclamation – making racially mixed African-Canadians "whole" instead of "sole".
Lernstil, Lern(er)typ oder auch Intelligenztyp sind verbreitete Begriffe innerhalb des pädagogischen Diskurses über effektive Möglichkeiten der Förderung der Schülerinnen und Schüler sowie der Entwicklung individueller Fähigkeiten. Verschiedene Modelle und Theorien zur Thematik (Vester 1975, Allinson/ Hayes 1996, Vermunt 1992, Herrmann 1989, Gardner 1982) werden untersucht und mit weiterführenden Ansätzen wie dem ganzheitlichen Lernen oder der emotionalen Intelligenz in Verbindung gebracht. Auch Ergebnisse aus der Gehirnforschung geben Hinweise auf einen erfolgreichen Lehr-/ Lernprozess. Eine Untersuchung der Bildungspläne hat ergeben, dass der Unterricht in den deutschen Bundesländern an die individuellen Lernvoraussetzungen bzw. Lernertypen angepasst sein soll. Zur Analyse des Beitrages des „Primary and Elementary Métis Awareness Programm“ (Inkster 2006) zum ganzheitlichen und lernertypengerechten Unterricht wurden insbesondere die Ansätze und Messinstrumente von Armstrong (1994) und Gardner (1982) (Theorie der multiplen Intelligenzen) angewandt. Die Aussagekraft der Untersuchungsergebnisse soll durch eine Kombination von quantitativen und qualitativen Messmethoden erhöht werden. Die Auswertungen zeigen, dass das Lehr-/ Lernprogramm von Rene Inkster (kanadische indigene Pädagogin, Künstlerin, „Elder“ und Autorin) über Materialien für die verschiedenen Lernertypen verfügt. Die Erhebungen dieser Studie zielten auf die Untersuchungen von alters- und geschlechtsspezifischen Aspekten ab. Die Untersuchungen an Schülerinnen und Schülern der Jahrgangsstufen 7 und 9 an deutschen Gymnasien konnten nicht nachweisen, dass die Lernenden Aktivitäten/ Materialien entsprechend ihrer individuellen Lernertypenprofile bevorzugen. Allerdings zeigten die Untersuchungen, dass eine erhöhte Motivation aufgrund der ganzheitlichen und lernertypenorientierten Konzeption des „Primary and Elementary Métis Awareness Program“ erreicht werden konnte. Dies trifft inbesondere auf die Probanden der Jahrgangsstufe 7 zu.
Written language in the public sphere (shop signs, advertisements, placards, graffiti, etc.) constitutes the “Linguistic Landscape” of an urban agglomeration. An examination of such displays gives us an insight into function, status and spread of certain languages. Here, the study of linguistic landscapes does not only bear a purely linguistic dimension, but necessarily links to other fields such as politics, semiotics, urban development, communication and literacy. In this case study the cityscapes of the Moldovan capital Chisinau and the Lithuanian capital Vilnius will be analyzed. Peripheral and central districts of the cities have been chosen. From each of these districts, data on the number of mother tongue speakers have been obtained. Two corpora, each containing 1000 items of specimen of written language have been made and contextualized with the help of GPS tracking to ensure the possibility of future diachronic research. The data for these corpora was collected in December 2010 and March 2011. The aim of this study is two-fold: On the one hand this approach gives an insight into the general use of different languages in Moldova and Lithuanian as well as on the functional domains they fulfill. On the other hand the distribution of different languages on signs in each district shows how minority languages such as Russian are represented in public. The results suggest that the linguistic landscape of Chisinau is actually very diverse and alongside Romanian, English and especially Russian are used frequently. The functional domains differ though. Whereas the national language is part of almost all shop signs and advertising in general, it is usually used in conjunction with Russian. Informal displays of written language such as graffiti or small placards are mostly written in Russian alone. Other minority languages in Moldova such as Gagauz and Ukrainian were almost never visible on written displays of language in the city. In contrast to that the linguistic landscape of Vilnius is far less diverse and although the Lithuanian capital is home to sizeable Russian- and Polish-speaking minorities, these demographic patterns do not show. Yet, apart from Lithuanian English is an integral part of the linguistic landscape, especially in advertising.
In der zu Grunde liegenden Dissertationsschrift wird ein interkulturell fokussiertes Universitäts- und Schulprojekt, welches seinen Schwerpunkt auf die Behandlung der kanadischen Ethnie der „Métis“ legt, fachdidaktisch beschrieben, erörtert und ausgewertet. Grundlage der Untersuchungen war ein im Jahr 2005 veröffentlichtes multimediales, multikulturelles und interdisziplinäres Lehrwerk, das PEMA Program, welches als erstes seiner Art von der Métis Autorin Rene Inkster für kanadische Grundschulen entwickelt wurde. Trotz der Ausrichtung der Lehrmaterialien auf den Elementarbereich und damit einer zu erwartenden „Altersdiskrepanz“, konnte mit Hilfe der empirischen Untersuchungen die entsprechende Adaptation der Unterrichtsmaterialien als empfehlenswert für interkulturelles Lernen im Englischunterricht der Mittelstufe des deutschen Gymnasiums herausgestellt werden. Darüber hinaus verfolgt die Dissertation eine Argumentationslinie, die einen auf Inhalte ausgerichteten Englischunterricht in der Sekundarstufe I als lohnenswerte Alternative beziehungsweise parallelen Ansatz neben einem auf Sprachvermittlung zentrierten Sprachunterricht etablieren möchte. Im Zuge dessen wird im Rahmen der fachdidaktischen Beleuchtung der Begriffe „interkulturelles Lernen“, „interkulturelle Kompetenz“ und der klassischen „Landeskunde“ untersucht, inwiefern eine Dependenz beziehungsweise Opposition der zuvor genannten Begriffe in der Fachdidaktik Englisch etabliert ist. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse und die fachdidaktische Tiefenanalyse der Dissertationsschrift konstituieren die Landeskunde als weiterhin legitimen Eckpfeiler des Englischunterrichts in der Mittelstufe an deutschen Gymnasien und widersprechen den im fachdidaktischen Diskurs hervorgebrachten Zweifeln bezüglich der Rechtmäßigkeit und Aktualität derselben. Das Thema Kanada und im Speziellen die marginalisierten „Métis“, eine der drei indigenen Volksgruppen Kanadas, wird durch die Dissertation als wertvoller Inhalt des Englischunterrichts herausgestellt. Darüber hinaus wird argumentiert, dass sich im Englischunterricht des deutschen Gymnasiums der Sekundarstufe I durch die Dominanz der Lehrwerke ein Kulturkanon bezüglich der (ziel-)kulturellen Inhalte verfestigt zu haben scheint, der nur durch praktikable, an der Unterrichtswirklichkeit orientierter Unterrichtsreihen, wie es das vorliegende Forschungsprojekt darstellt, aufzubrechen ist. Nur so können weitere wichtige Zielkulturen des Englischunterrichts, wie es Kanada ohne Zweifel darstellt, ihren Weg in die praktische Umsetzung des Englischunterrichts in der Mittelstufe des deutschen Gymnasiums finden. In der Dissertation wird neben dem zielkulturerweiternden Plädoyer ebenso das entkolonialisierende Moment eines auf weitestgehend authentischen Lehrmaterialien über indigene Kulturen Nordamerikas basierenden Englischunterrichts vor Augen geführt. Der Einsatz der PEMA Program Adaptation leistet demnach in seiner umfangreichen Betrachtung einer marginalisierten, indigenen Ethnie Kanadas einen Beitrag zur Entkolonialisierung und Entkräftung von Stereotypen. Mit Hilfe praktischer Beispiele wird gezeigt, wie das deutsche „Indianerbild“, genährt durch das deutsche Phänomen der „Indianertümelei“, einem durch LUTZ geprägten Begriff, auch Lehrwerke des Englischunterrichts zu dominieren scheint beziehungsweise die Unterrepräsentation oder gar Abwesenheit indigener Inhalte in Lehrwerken für den Englischunterricht der Mittelstufe Anlass zum Handeln geben. Abschließend werden praktikable Alternativen und Erweiterungsmöglichkeiten hinsichtlich der Implementierung von Inhalten über die Métis im Verlaufe der Mittelstufe und gymnasialen Oberstufe gegeben.
The dissertation describes an Indigenous dream framework that underscores the significance of dreams as a mirror of trauma and a way that leads back to Indigenous knowledges. Significant differences of Western and Indigenous epistemology are exemplified by juxtaposing Western and Indigenous dream discourses. The selected prose fiction allows for a dream categorization that emphasizes the significance and meaning of dreams as a metaphorical as well as narrative device.
Nightmares/Anxiety dreams are often the result of the devastating effects of colonization and especially Residential School. Nightmares in the texts are often exact replicas of the abuse suffered in the boarding schools. They are discussed in the context of Robert Arthur Alexie’s novel Porcupines and China Dolls (2001/2009) represents dreams and traumatic nightmares and deals with the fictional Blue People First Nation. The community’s collective intergenerational trauma of Residential School experience keeps them stuck in dysfunctional dynamics dominated by suicides, sexual and physical abuse, drug and sex addictions.
Telling dreams, categorized as “instructing dreams,” and “announcing dreams,” teach the dreamer what will happen in the future. They are discussed in the context of Richard Van Camp’s short stories “On the Wings of this Prayer” and “The Fleshing” (Godless but Loyal to Heaven, 2012), which represent the category of the ecological nightmare as well as of telling dreams. Ecological nightmares display environmentally destructive effects of capitalist globalization that have come to “infect” the world. The Windigo figure in the stories serves as a manifestation of resource and in particular petro-capitalism and Western society’s constant need to subjugate nature. Ecological dreams hence call for ecological vigilance and establish Indigenous knowledges as a source of resurgence and restoration.
Existential dreams function as decolonizing tools that facilitate liberation. The thesis provides a literary analysis of Richard Wagamese’ novel Ragged Company (2008) and Cherie Dimaline’s short story “room 414” (Red Rooms, 2007) where homelessness is postulated as the manifestation of individual and tribal/communal disjointedness and isolation. Through existential dreaming, the urban lives of most of the characters dwelling in the shadows and margins of society are existentially transformed and healing seems possible. Paternalistic colonial mindsets continue to patronize Indigenous knowledges (as unreliable and unscientific) until Western “discoveries” prove what has been known for decades.
The thesis underscores dreams as an essential part of Indigenous Knowledges, i.e. as knowledge sources. Surmounting Western dream perceptions and instead valorizing Indigenous knowledges, the characters in the texts discussed in my thesis, unremittingly follow their dreams’ instruction and eventually achieve reconciliation and healing. In the fictional texts discussed, nightmares represent homelessness, trauma, stagnation, and a disconnection to one’s (Native) background, whereas dreams represent continuity through the restoration of identity, finding home, and a sense of belonging. The notion of a dream reality and a waking reality influencing and informing each other relies on sharing dreams with the community, eventually leading to an enactment of the dream or vision. Dreaming and identity are significantly linked and foster processes of intellectual self-determination. The characters’ inability to externalize their internal wishes, desires, and needs results in further denial and consequential bitterness that feed into the spiral of alcohol and drug abuse as well as metaphorical and literal homelessness. The dreams’ semantic field strongly alludes to ceremonial traditions and provides the prospect of a rooted Indigeneity. At the turning points in the lives of the characters, when dreams and visions start to appear, they are lost in translation. The characters’ own illiteracy towards Native epistemology and spirituality has them trapped in the inability to read and act on their dream messages. Strong (often female) Indigenous presences that go hand in hand with the appearance of dreams provide the protagonists with guidance and lead the way back to the “Old Ways.” Through dreaming, the spiral of colonialism is disrupted and replaced by the circle of reconciliation and relationality.
Abstract
This article compares the use of calques modelled on anglicisms in different European languages, especially Spanish and German, which do not only show structural differences (e.g. with regard to the use of noun-noun compounds, which are more common in German) but also reflect different attitudes towards English. Aspects covered range from the factors generally favouring the coinage of such replacive forms, to the reasons for the emergence of different types of calques, to variations in their use and challenges concerning their identification. To unravel the main patterns and trends in calquing, this study includes numerous examples from written and oral language, i.e. items of different register affiliation, age, length, and semantic transparency. On a theoretical level, the article incorporates findings from the fields of lexicology, contact linguistics and sociolinguistics.