The many voices of Piedmont: language, identity and alterity in the works of modern and contemporary Piedmontese writers

The aim of this project is to carry out a linguistic analysis of a group of modern and contemporary narratives written by authors from the same Italian region: Piedmont. The novels and short stories examined stand out for the intriguing ways in which they move between a variety of idioms – Italian, Piedmontese dialects, English and pastiches, with some rare excursions into French. A sociolinguistic study and an overview of political changes that Piedmont underwent from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries are provided, with the purpose of outlining the region’s sociogeographical and historical background which can be seen to have fostered multilingualism in a group of writers. With the support of linguistic studies and philosophical theories on the relation between identity, alterity and language (such as Edwards’s Language and Identity and Bakhtin’s reflections on language), I then elucidate the presence of diverse linguistic varieties in selected narratives by Cesare Pavese, Beppe Fenoglio, Primo Levi, Nanni Balestrini, Fruttero & Lucentini, Benito Mazzi and Younis Tawfik. In other words, my purpose is to explain the reasons for multilingualism in each writer, as well as to underscore the ideological positions which lie behind the linguistic strategies of the authors. With this study I attempt to fill a gap and cast new light on Piedmontese literature. Although some critical studies on the use of dialect or English exist on individual authors and works (e.g. Meddemmem on Fenoglio’s use of English and Beccaria on Pavese’s inclusion of Piedmontese dialect), and some important contributions to the history of Piedmontese literature have appeared in print, to date no current, systematic study that compares different Piedmontese writers under the language/identity theme has been published. The study concludes with a summary of the evolution of plurilingualism in Piedmont and highlights the common trends in the use of multiple linguistic varieties as tools for both social demarcation and an opening up to alternative, marginalised andforeign cultures.

Gambling and violence in a nationally representative sample of UK men

The relationship between violence and problem gambling in general population samples is under-researched and requires further attention to inform treatment and prevention efforts. We investigated the relationship between gambling problems and violence among men and sought to determine if the link can be accounted for by mental disorders, alcohol and drug dependence and impulsivity.

Chicano identity and discourses of supplementarity on Mexican cinema: from ‘The Man Without a Fatherland’ (Contreras Torres: 1922) to ‘Under the Same Moon’ (Riggen: 2008)

A radical change took place in Mexican narratives of belonging during the 1990s, when NAFTA was first negotiated. Narratives of migration drastically changed the status of Mexican migrants to the US, formerly derided as ‘pochos’, presenting them as model citizens instead. Following Derrida, I argue the role of the migrant became that of a supplement, which is, discursively, at the same time external to and part of a given unit, standing for and allowing deeper transformations to take place in the whole discourse of bilateral relations and national identity more generally. I use Derrida’s concept of the supplement to discuss changing representations of Chicanos in Mexican cinema, and to assess the extent that they have succeeded in reframing the discourse on national identity, with a focus on gender.

“Love American Style”: Race, Cuban identity and cultural tyranny in Showtime’s Dexter

This article focuses on representation of Cubans in the television series Dexter, paying particular attention to episode 1.5, ―Love American Style‖ with some brief references to other episodes. Assimilation, the American Dream, nationalism and crisis of identity are among the themes and issues that this article investigates. Border theory provides the dominant theoretical framework of the article.

"On our way": identities and representations of African women seeking asylum in Ireland

This thesis provides the first explicit Postcolonial study of asylum in the Irish context that integrates Black Feminist analyses of intersectional identity with Postcolonial Feminist theories of representation. African women seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland were key political instruments used by the state to re-draw racial lines. The study examines how, for a group of African women “On their Way” through asylum, identity and representation work hand in hand to force identities, subaltern spaces and bodies to occupy them. Rich biographical data is gathered through mixed art and drama methods over two intensive participatory research projects conducted in a small Irish city. Data analysis critically examines the poetics (practices that signify) and politics (the powers that govern these practices) and affective economies of global and local NGO visual representations, exposing how they consume, fragment, and appropriate African women’s identities and bodies. Though hypervisible, the women themselves “cannot speak”. The women in the study reported feeling “tired” and “used”. Asking “What work are they doing as they do asylum?” the study finds that black female identities and bodies are forced to perform political, cultural, emotional and material labour on their way through this context of Irish asylum. The author argues that Postcolonial Asylum is a performative encounter that re-scripts colonial race/class/gender discourse through a humanitarian alibi to naturalize European/white supremacy, reinscribe patriarchal power and justify racialised incarceration of bodies seeking asylum in the North. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach that centralizes Black and Postcolonial Feminist theory and innovates Participatory Art-Based Action methodology. Black and Postcolonial feminisms can recognize, theorize and replenish black female political and intellectual agency. Participatory Action research, if grounded in Black feminist epistemology and ethics, can allow participants to “speak back” to what is already said about them in spaces of convivial self-representation.

A philosophy of performance, politics and composition

This thesis discusses socio-political issues worldwide through philosophical approaches to performance, politics and composition. My research also discuss sound decisions which I regard to be simultaneously an outlet for personal expression, as well as a practical tool to inspire a socio-political change in society. Although the latter is paramount to the methodology of the project, the sound cannot be regarded in isolation as a “political composition”. It can only become truly functional in a political sense through interaction with other art forms, within the context of a specific place and time. My portfolio for this project is of two socio-political projects which are my chief concern. The first project concerns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I named this project PATH. PATH aims to foster and expand peaceful thought between Jewish and Palestinian civilians in Israel-Palestine. Through performance art, PATH spreads a message of acceptance, unity and brotherhood between our peoples. Above all, PATH demands and end to intolerance, hatred and violence among all the inhabitants of the State of Israel. The second project concerns women’s rights globally. I have realised that although we have come a long way in our struggle for rights for women, great challenges remain. There is a need to unite women and men against a form of oppression that discriminates against 50% of the world’s population. I called this project, For Utopia.