Chinese Whiteness: The Discourse Of Race In Modern And Contemporary Chinese Culture

This thesis chronicles the development of western forms of race and racism in China. It then studies contemporary China using theories derived from whiteness studies in order to explain the unique position that whites (Caucasians) have in China today. In Chapter I, I break down the definition of race and introduce a foundation for a whiteness studies approach to research. In Chapter II, I analyze how Chinese classified themselves and other humans prior to the western system of race. In Chapter III, I chronicle the introduction of western forms of race and racism to China, and the appropriation of these concepts to suit Chinese goals. In Chapter IV, I approach cultural phenomenon in contemporary China by situating them in their historical traditions as well as by approaching them as displaying an internalized racism and white privilege. Finally in the Conclusion, I postulate on what China¿s contemporary racial system means for China.

The Representation of Motherhood in Polish Cinema

The project aimed to analyse representations of motherhood in Polish cinema as a special case of a more general system within the representation of women. It concentrated on the image of the Polish Mother created during the 19th century in Polish culture under the influence of specific political, social and religious factors. Ms. Ostrowska's initial hypothesis was that this symbolic image became one of the most stable elements in Polish cinema and as her research revealed, it was valuable for the preservation of national identity but nevertheless a fiercely constraining model for Polish femininity. In order to fully understand the nature of this persistent image it was initially necessary to related it to broader contexts and issues in representation. These included the image of the Polish Mother within general mythological structures (using the notion of myth in the Barthesian sense). Following her initial research Ms. Ostrowska felt that it was most appropriate to view the myth of the Polish Mother as a dominant ideological structure in the discourse of motherhood within Polish culture. An analysis of the myth of the Polish Mother can provide an insight into how Polish society sees itself at different periods in time and how a national identity was constructed in relation to particular ideological demands stemming from concrete historical and political situations. The analysis of the film version of this myth also revealed some aspects of the national character of Polish cinema. There the image of woman has become enshrined as the "eternal feminine", with virtues which are inevitably derived directly from Catholicism, particularly in relation to the networks of meanings around the central figure of Mary, Mother of God. In 19th century Poland these were linked with patriotic values and images of woman became part of the defence of the very idea of Poland and Polishness. After World War Two, this religious-political image system was adapted to the demands of the new communist ideology. The possibility of manipulating the ideological dimensions of the myth of the Polish Mother is due to the very nature of the image, which as a symbol of civil religion had been able to function independently of any particular state or church institution. Although in communist ideology the stress was on the patriotic aspect of the myth, its pronounced religious aspect was also transmitted, consciously or not, in the denotation process, this being of great significance in the viewer's response to the female character. This appropriation of elements derived from the national patriotic tradition into the discourse of communist ideology was a very efficient strategy to establish the illusion of continuity in national existence, which was supposed to convince society of the rightness of the new political situation. The analysis of films made in the post-war period showed the persistence of this discourse on motherhood in a range of cinematic texts regardless of the changing political situation. Ms. Ostrowska claims that the stability of this discursive formation is to a certain extent the result of the mythological aspect of the mother figure. This mythological structure also belongs to the ideology of Romanticism which in general continues to prevail in Polish cultural discourse as a meta-language of national community. The analysis of the films confirmed the hypothesis of the Polish Mother as a myth-sign whose signifier is stable whereas the signified depends on the specific historical conditions in which it is set. Therefore in the famous propaganda documentary Kobiety naszych dni (Women of Our Days, 1951) by Jan Zelnik, and in other films made after the October 1956 "thaw" it functions as an "empty sign. She concludes that it would be difficult to deny that the myth of the Polish Mother has offered Polish women a special role in national life, granting them a high moral position in the social, hierarchy. However the processes of idealisation involved have resulted in a deprivation of her subjectivity and the right to decide about her own life. This idealisation also served to strengthen traditional patriarchal structures through this set of female obligations to the mother land. In Polish ideology it is not a man who demands sacrifice from a woman but the motherland, which, deprived of the institutions of male power for nearly 150 years, had functioned as a feminine structure. That is why oppressive aspects of the myth have been obscured for so long. While Polish women were doubtless able to accept the constrictions because of their sense of national duty and any misgivings were overridden by the argument of the cause, it is important to recognise that the strength of these constructions, compounded by the ways in which they spoke of and continue to speak of a certain perfection, make them persist into contemporary Poland. Poland is however no longer embattled and the signs that made these meanings are potentially empty. This space for meaning will be and is already being contested and increasingly colonised by current western models of femininity. Ms. Ostrowska's final question is whether this will help to prevent a possible resentful victimisation of the silent and noble Polish Mother.

Reclaiming Indigenous Narratives through Critical Discourses and the Autonomy of the Trickster

How do prevailing narratives about Native Americans, particularly in the medium of film, conspire to promote the perspective of the dominant culture? What makes the appropriation of Indigenous images so metaphorically popular? In the past hundred years, little has changed in the forms of representation favored by Hollywood. The introductory chapter elucidates the problem and outlines the scope of this study. As each subsequent chapter makes clear, the problem is as relevant today as it has been throughout the entire course of filmic history. Chapter Two analyzes representational trends and defines each decade according to its favorite stereotype. The binary of the bloodthirsty savage is just as prevalent as it was during the 1920s and 30s. The same holds true for the drunken scapegoat and the exotic maiden, which made their cinematic debuts in the 1940s and 50s. But Hollywood has added new types as well. The visionary peacemaker and environmental activist have also made an appearance within the last forty years. What matters most is not the realism of these images, but rather the purposes to which they can be put toward validating whatever concerns the majority filmmakers wish to promote. Whether naïvely or not, such representations continue to evacuate Indigenous agency to the advantage of the majority. A brief historical overview confirms this legacy. Various disciplines have sought to interrogate this problem. Chapter three investigates the field of postcolonial studies, which makes inquiry into the various ways these narratives are produced, marketed, and consumed. It also raises the key questions of for whom, and by whom, these narratives are constructed. Additional consideration is given to their value as commodities in the mass marketplace. Typically the products of a boutique-multiculturalism, their storylines are apt to promote the prevailing point of view. Critical theory provides a foundational framework for chapter four. What is the blockbuster formula and how do the instruments of capital promote it? Concepts such as culture industry and repressive tolerance examine both the function and form of the master narrative, as well as its use to control the avenues of dissent. Moreover, the public sphere and its diminishment highlight the challenges inherent in the widespread promotion of an alternative set of narratives. Nonetheless, challenges to prevailing narratives do exist, particularly in the form of Trickster narratives. Often subject to persistent misrecognition, the Trickster demonstrates a potent form of agency that undeniably dismantles the hegemony of Western cinema. The final chapter examines some of the Trickster's more subtle and obscure productions. Usually subjugated to the realm of the mystical, rather than the mythical, these misinterpreted forms have the power to speak in circles around a majority audience. Intended for an Other audience, they are coded in a language that delivers a type of direction through indirection, promoting a poignant agency all their own.

Occurrence and Origin of Placer Gold in Montana

From time immemorial man has used gold as a medium of exchange, a mea­sure of value, as jewelry and for ornamentation. Placer gold has led dir­ectly or indirectly to the settlement of lands, California and Alaska being the two best known examples. It has led the way to the discovery of other important mineral wealth, the discovery of the copper and silver deposits at Butte, Montana and the discovery of the silver deposits at Cripple Creek, Colorado being two good examples.

Authorising History: Gestures of Authorship in Fourteenth-Century English Historiography

This book discusses the strategies and rhetorical means by which four authors of Middle English verse historiography seek to authorise their works and themselves. Paying careful attention to the texts, it traces the ways in which authors inscribe their fictional selves and seek to give authority to their constructions of history. It further investigates how the authors position themselves in relation to their task of writing history, their sources and their audiences. This study provides new insights into the processes of the appropriation of history around 1300 by social groups whose lack of the relevant languages, before this 'anglicising' of the dominant Latin and French history constructions, prevented their access to the history of the British isles.

Los negocios con la tierra pública en la frontera del río Salado del Norte. Santiago del Estero, 1850-1880

Inscribiendo al artículo en los nuevos estudios de tierras y procurando resolver algunos interrogantes en relación a la ocupación del suelo más allá de la campana bonaerense, nos aproximaremos a los grandes procesos de apropiación y traspaso de los territorios de la frontera del Salado del Norte, en el Departamento Matará, llevados adelante por la elite socio-política local. Analizaremos los mecanismos utilizados para acceder legalmente a la propiedad de la tierra y los negocios entre el estado y los particulares generados con los nuevos territorios en disponibilidad considerados "tierra pública".

El mercado de tierras en las fronteras interiores argentinas. La expansión territorial de Buenos Aires y Santiago del Estero en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX

En este trabajo proponemos una mirada comparativa de la expansión territorial de las provincias argentinas de Buenos Aires y Santiago del Estero entre las décadas de 1850 y 1890. Mediante la conjunción de estudios regionales verificamos los mecanismos de apropiación de las tierras públicas, la emergencia de un aparato legal que intentará regular las prácticas de ocupación y la incorporación de agentes económicos de alcance regional y nacional, en algunos casos invirtiendo en ambas provincias. Este proceso cobrará un fuerte impulso durante la segunda mitad del siglo xix, incorporando nuevos espacios al mercado mundial de tierras y bienes primarios. Estudiamos los mecanismos de conformación del mercado nacional de tierras, en qué momento y a ravés de qué tipo de transacciones algunos empresarios bonaerenses comenzaron a tomar tierras en los nuevos mercados que se brían en las alejadas fronteras internas del norte y quiénes fueron estos inversores

Under the sign of consumption

The series of enunciations exposed in this work attempts to establish a conceptualization of consumption in relation to the communication and reception processes of symbolic goods. In addition, it will attempt to account for some possible derivations of the problem in question. The article explores different definitions penned by diverse authors seeking to set out the essential aspects concerning the object of study Thus, consumption becomes a space within which the appropriation of material and symbolic goods, social differentiation and symbolic class distinctions, integration, communication, amongst other things, take place. Despite the fact that none can sufficiently explain all the peculiarities related to consumption practices, all offer enriching insights that help us understand the concept we are dealing with. This is why the purpose of the present formulation is to reflect from another perspective, stressing the particularisms. And, in this way, to begin to lift the veil that conceals the forces of the social matrix

Apropriaçâo da terra e formaçâo de grandes patimônios fundiários na fronteira sul do Brasil, através dos inventários post mortem (1800-1860)

This article is dedicated to the study the ways of appropriation of land in the south border of Brazil, in the first half of the century XIX. The historiography has, for tradition, associated the appropriation of large tracts of land, in Rio Grande do Sul, with royal donations. That would have been made, mainly, in the form of 'sesmarias' donations. However, a more detained study shows than the public concessions were just one among other forms of appropriation of the land used by families that accomplished a voracious accumulation of lands. Among other sources, inventories post mortem, registrations of concessions of lands and official correspondences are used. The main analysis focus relapses on the municipal district of Alegrete, between 1800 and 1870

The 'Philosophical paintings' of the Republic

En el presente artículo examino la apropiación platónica del lenguaje poético en República y sostengo que, a pesar de sus críticas a la poesía en los libros 3 y 10, el lenguaje poético está correctamente entrelazado dentro del tejido filosófico para pintar lo corrupto, lo feo y lo inmoral. En términos específicos, la adaptación platónica de diversos motivos poéticos e imágenes en República se vuelve más significativa si prestamos atención a Sócrates como un quasi-pintor en el diálogo e interpretamos sus imágenes filosóficas como una respuesta de la filosofía a las engañosas representaciones dramáticas de la poesía. De este modo, el arte de la pintura que, incluso es criticado en el libro 10 de República, en manos de Platón resulta una herramienta filosófica que le permite investigar la relación de nuestro mundo senso-perceptivo ordinario con el campo metafísico de las Ideas y el lugar de lo humano en él

Los negocios con la tierra pública en la frontera del río Salado del Norte. Santiago del Estero, 1850-1880

Inscribiendo al artículo en los nuevos estudios de tierras y procurando resolver algunos interrogantes en relación a la ocupación del suelo más allá de la campana bonaerense, nos aproximaremos a los grandes procesos de apropiación y traspaso de los territorios de la frontera del Salado del Norte, en el Departamento Matará, llevados adelante por la elite socio-política local. Analizaremos los mecanismos utilizados para acceder legalmente a la propiedad de la tierra y los negocios entre el estado y los particulares generados con los nuevos territorios en disponibilidad considerados "tierra pública".

El mercado de tierras en las fronteras interiores argentinas. La expansión territorial de Buenos Aires y Santiago del Estero en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX

En este trabajo proponemos una mirada comparativa de la expansión territorial de las provincias argentinas de Buenos Aires y Santiago del Estero entre las décadas de 1850 y 1890. Mediante la conjunción de estudios regionales verificamos los mecanismos de apropiación de las tierras públicas, la emergencia de un aparato legal que intentará regular las prácticas de ocupación y la incorporación de agentes económicos de alcance regional y nacional, en algunos casos invirtiendo en ambas provincias. Este proceso cobrará un fuerte impulso durante la segunda mitad del siglo xix, incorporando nuevos espacios al mercado mundial de tierras y bienes primarios. Estudiamos los mecanismos de conformación del mercado nacional de tierras, en qué momento y a ravés de qué tipo de transacciones algunos empresarios bonaerenses comenzaron a tomar tierras en los nuevos mercados que se brían en las alejadas fronteras internas del norte y quiénes fueron estos inversores

Under the sign of consumption

The series of enunciations exposed in this work attempts to establish a conceptualization of consumption in relation to the communication and reception processes of symbolic goods. In addition, it will attempt to account for some possible derivations of the problem in question. The article explores different definitions penned by diverse authors seeking to set out the essential aspects concerning the object of study Thus, consumption becomes a space within which the appropriation of material and symbolic goods, social differentiation and symbolic class distinctions, integration, communication, amongst other things, take place. Despite the fact that none can sufficiently explain all the peculiarities related to consumption practices, all offer enriching insights that help us understand the concept we are dealing with. This is why the purpose of the present formulation is to reflect from another perspective, stressing the particularisms. And, in this way, to begin to lift the veil that conceals the forces of the social matrix

Apropriaçâo da terra e formaçâo de grandes patimônios fundiários na fronteira sul do Brasil, através dos inventários post mortem (1800-1860)

This article is dedicated to the study the ways of appropriation of land in the south border of Brazil, in the first half of the century XIX. The historiography has, for tradition, associated the appropriation of large tracts of land, in Rio Grande do Sul, with royal donations. That would have been made, mainly, in the form of 'sesmarias' donations. However, a more detained study shows than the public concessions were just one among other forms of appropriation of the land used by families that accomplished a voracious accumulation of lands. Among other sources, inventories post mortem, registrations of concessions of lands and official correspondences are used. The main analysis focus relapses on the municipal district of Alegrete, between 1800 and 1870

The 'Philosophical paintings' of the Republic

En el presente artículo examino la apropiación platónica del lenguaje poético en República y sostengo que, a pesar de sus críticas a la poesía en los libros 3 y 10, el lenguaje poético está correctamente entrelazado dentro del tejido filosófico para pintar lo corrupto, lo feo y lo inmoral. En términos específicos, la adaptación platónica de diversos motivos poéticos e imágenes en República se vuelve más significativa si prestamos atención a Sócrates como un quasi-pintor en el diálogo e interpretamos sus imágenes filosóficas como una respuesta de la filosofía a las engañosas representaciones dramáticas de la poesía. De este modo, el arte de la pintura que, incluso es criticado en el libro 10 de República, en manos de Platón resulta una herramienta filosófica que le permite investigar la relación de nuestro mundo senso-perceptivo ordinario con el campo metafísico de las Ideas y el lugar de lo humano en él