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Performing ethnic identities in global economies
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Rajasingham, Nimanthi. Performing ethnic identities in global economies. Retrieved from https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3FQ9TN7

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TitlePerforming ethnic identities in global economies
NameRajasingham, Nimanthi (author); Diamond, Elin (chair); Dienst, Richard (internal member); Perera, Sonali (internal member); Guha, Sumit (outside member); Rutgers University; Graduate School - New Brunswick
Date Created2013
Other Date2013-10 (degree)
SubjectLiteratures in English, Ethnic conflict--Sri Lanka--History, Postcolonialism--Sri Lanka, Globalization--Sri Lanka--History, Sri Lanka--History--Civil War, 1983-2009
Extentvi, 216 p. : ill.
DescriptionThis dissertation explores the aesthetics of contemporary globalization and ethnic war. It analyzes how literary texts and performances express the relationship between neoliberal doctrines, the idea that economies work best when least regulated, and ethnic wars in the global south. This work uses cultural examples from Sri Lanka as it was the first country in the South Asian region to open its economies to neoliberalism in the 1970s, and subsequently experienced thirty years of brutal ethnic war between the Sinhala majoritarian state and the minority Tamil Tigers. The cultural and aesthetic examples I analyze also demonstrate how both global forces and ethnic conflicts rework colonial and precolonial forms of power. Using an expanded definition of literature that takes us from the page to the stage and beyond, my chapters consider state-sponsored village festivals, workers’ plays and everyday practices, high-culture performances, and diasporic prize-winning fiction. Each chapter illustrates how transnational networks linked to neoliberal doctrines–such as development aid into rural villages, multinational capital into export processing zones, and human rights regimes into conflict zones–are interpreted and performed, and how local conditions may change the character of neoliberalism. When I investigate creative expressions that refuse the logic of war and nationalism, I point to cross-cultural exchanges that provided artists with models for social protest. Sri Lankan examples add to literatures on globalization by scholars like Frederic Jameson, Gayatri Spivak, and David Harvey by expanding their theories of late capitalism to study its relationship to ethnic wars. Similarly, my work expands arguments made by scholars like Mahmood Mamdani, and Valentine Daniel by expanding their arguments about ethnic and communal violence by linking them to late capitalism.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Nimanthi Eleka Rita Rajasingham
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Persistent URLhttps://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3FQ9TN7
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.
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