Being in time - the fictional coloniser as dasein

Armstrong, Sean Somerville (2002) Being in time - the fictional coloniser as dasein. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This study examines the theory and praxis of colonial discourse analysis and the validity of its conception of 'the colonising (white, European, Western) subject' via a Heideggarian interpretation of colonial fiction. The Introduction provides a brief review of colonial discourse analysis and postcolonial studies since Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978 and isolates the main themes to be examined. The First Chapter examines in detail the problems which adhere to the concept of colonial discourse and its theoretical homogenisation, un-worlding and de-humanisation of the fictional and historical coloniser as understood in relation to Heidegger's description of "Enframing". The Second Chapter sets out the basic structures of Dasein's existential-ontological constitution as described by Heidegger in Being and Time and introduces the principle criterion for the critical analysis which follows. The Third Chapter re-defines colonial discourse, as "idle talk", in terms of the temporality of Dasein and examines the various ways in which certain fictional colonisers, when understood as "beings in Time", reflect the fact that Dasein's individuality is always already ontologically grounded and made manifest in its "authentic potentiality-for-Being-its-Self'. The Fourth Chapter discusses the theme of death, as "Being towards death", in the life and work of Rudyard Kipling, and suggests that death, as both a profoundly significant environmental factor and as a fundamental temporal orientation can be understood to bring Dasein before itself as a 'Being in the world'. The Fifth Chapter examines anxiety and boredom in certain works of colonial literature in terms of the intentional comportments of Dasein's "care" and as those ontological "states-of-mind" which deliver the individual Dasein and the world (as "Being-in-the- world") over to Dasein. The Final Chapter investigates the cultural phenomenon of 'colonial heroism' in terms of the ontological constitution of the hero, the writer and the reader, as Dasein, and in relation to Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. My Conclusion offers a summary of each of the previous chapters before considering some of the broader ramifications of the arguments which have been advanced.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: English literature.
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Literature
• Supervisor's Name: Mackenzie, Dr. Donald
• Date of Award: 2002
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2002-71408
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 May 2019 10:49
• Last Modified: 27 May 2021 10:53
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/71408