Date of Award

1-1-2013

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies

Program

Spanish

Content Description

1 online resource (ii, 254 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Patricia Pinho

Committee Members

Colbert Nepaulsingh

Keywords

Guyana, Identity, Immigration, Identity (Philosophical concept), Guyanese Americans, Children of immigrants

Subject Categories

Caribbean Languages and Societies | Latin American Studies

Abstract

This thesis investigates the lives of second generation Indo-Guyanese immigrants in Schenectady, New York. Through the creative means of playwriting, I demonstrate how these subjects saw identified racially, ethnically, nationally, and how gender is implicated in these identifications. I argue that the force of "colorblind" discourse and multicultural language in the context the United States promotes an ambiguous sense of racial, ethnic, and national identification. I argue that a Foucauldian framework which I call the "deployment of race" is what manages this ambiguity and disciplines subjects to use a "colorblind" grammar. This thesis/project also makes a methodological argument. The stage play demonstrates the impossibility a privileged researcher faces when attempting to access and understand the world of the "other" and the challenge that power relations between researchers and subjects poses.

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