Item – Thèses Canada

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Numéro d'OCLC
830533343
Lien(s) vers le texte intégral
Exemplaire de BAC
Auteur
Martens, Stephanie B.
Titre
American imaginaries and Aboriginality in early modern political thought
Diplôme
Ph. D. -- University of Alberta, 2013
Éditeur
Edmonton, Alta. : University of Alberta, 2013.
Description
1 online resource
Notes
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Dept. of Political Science, University of Alberta.
Spring 2013.
Title from PDF file main screen (viewed March 19, 2013).
Includes bibliographical references.
Résumé
This dissertation proposes an original reading of two important texts in early modern social contract theory: Hobbes' Leviathan and Locke's Treatises of Government. It analyzes the references to the Americas made in these texts to show how their illustrative use in depictions of the state of nature is articulating a particular, long-lasting, and highly consequential conception of otherness, one coined "Aboriginality." Two goals are pursued through this investigation of the role of the Americas in social contract theory. First, it is shown that by applying Michel Foucault's critical methods to canonical texts, we can uncover new paradoxes and propose new interpretations of "old" texts. Through the analytical lens of "Aboriginality," social contract theory is not as much the modern affirmation of natural rights as a theoretical funnel, channelling "American imaginaries" into a rigidified conception of the state of nature, initiating what would become our modern understanding of civilization, subjectivity, and citizenship. The historical context, the post-1492 apparition of the "Americas," literally as a New Continent and figuratively as a new trope in literature and in the European mind, is analyzed as a "social imaginary," and the impact of the travel literature on philosophical and legal discourse assessed. Particular attention is devoted to the Spanish Scholastics' view on the "nature of the Indians"--showing how the Americas and its Indigenous inhabitants posed a theoretical and anthropological challenge for Western legal and political theorists of the time. The Scholastic approach can then be contrasted to that of Hobbes and Locke, whose association between state of nature and Indigenous America contributes to the development of modern "civilizational thinking"--this theoretical shift would be fairly harmless if it were not necessarily associated with the exclusion of "Aboriginality," and with it, of those deemed natural and uncivilized. This interpretation sheds new light on the distinction biopower/sovereign power established by Foucault, stressing the importance of contract theory and of the "juridico-political" discourse in genealogies of the modern subject.
Autre lien(s)
Free Access
era.library.ualberta.ca
Sujet
Civilization History.
Nationalism.
Racism.
Indians of North America.
Indians of South America.
Civilisation Histoire.
Nationalisme.
Racisme.
Peuples autochtones Amérique du Sud.