Date of Award

2019

Degree Name

English

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Dr. Kristen Lillvis, Committee Chairperson

Second Advisor

Dr. Roxanne Aftanas

Third Advisor

Dr. Jana Tigchelaar

Abstract

Awareness and voice are explored through case studies of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. Karl Marx’s unaware and voiceless lumpenproletariat, Gayatri Spivak’s possibly aware but voiceless subaltern, and Saul Williams’ losers are compared. Williams’ loser may or may not have access to and engage in re-vision and re-representation, since the loser may exist at any point along the continuum of awareness and voice. Capitalism and the superstructure make everyone a loser. Thus, there is an inherent solidarity among losers, and it is this solidarity that may bring re-vision and re-representation to those who are unaware and voiceless. Unlike the lumpenproletariat and the subaltern who fall under modernist metanarratives, the loser has a postmodern subjectivity whereby the individual’s inherent access to discourse gives her/him access to power. Carl Jung’s and Julia Kristeva’s theories of individuation and self-realization are used to further expound upon the individual’s relationship to discourse, and, by extension, to re-vision and rerepresentation. To conclude, the solidarity of the loser and the loser’s inherent access to discourse and power may facilitate awareness and voice, revision and re-representation, for self and others.

Subject(s)

Communism and society.

Postcolonialism in literature.

Awareness.

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