The Savage as Living Ghost is a study about four scholarly failures to dismantle the notion of the savage in Western discourse. These scholarly attempts are, broadly, structuralist,... Show moreThe Savage as Living Ghost is a study about four scholarly failures to dismantle the notion of the savage in Western discourse. These scholarly attempts are, broadly, structuralist, poststructuralist, postcolonial or multiculturalist, and decolonial. This study examines these four scholarly attempts by confronting them with close-readings of literary works or films in which the notion of the savage is attached to or associated with Native Americans. As Native Americans constitute the paradigmatic figuration of the savage since the European conquest of America, I focus particularly on the ways the West has constructed Native Americans as savages in this study. In Western discourse, the terms “savage” and “civilized” appear quite frequently in political speeches, the media, academic works, and daily conversation. This study looks critically at the rhetoric of civilization which designates Native Americans as savages and Europeans as civilized, and traces how the notion of the savage serves as a moral and cultural term to establish a hierarchy between Native Americans and the Europeans. Studying this process of othering reveals the dark side of European modernity. Show less
The thesis argues that contrary to the present opinion in the Yukon that there was little or no early Yukon First Nations art, there was in fact an established First Nations artistic tradition in... Show moreThe thesis argues that contrary to the present opinion in the Yukon that there was little or no early Yukon First Nations art, there was in fact an established First Nations artistic tradition in the Yukon before the coming of the white man and also into the early contact years. It is also the general belief of the people of the Yukon that the traditional art is the Northwest Coast Indian art even though there are very few examples of that art style seen before the mid-1980s. The thesis presents a case that the adoption of the Northwest Coast Indian art style is a recent development and has no roots in the early Yukon. Furthermore, the thesis describes what the problems are and how the early Yukon First Nations art almost vanished from the present day Yukon visual culture, what the early art looked like and how it was used. The thesis ends with a description of the situation in the present day Yukon. Because of the lack of historical resources this thesis now becomes the foundation for further research into the history of Yukon First Show less
