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Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma

This thesis examines how autobiography and its variants such as the memoir transforms from being the story of the writing-‘I’ to that of its other. In this regard, the thesis specifically looks at how the texts under study turn their narratives into a process of objectification of the non-self “othe...

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Main Author: Mustapha, Bala Ruma
Format: Thesis
Published: 2017
Subjects:
H Social Sciences (General)
JC Political theory
Online Access:http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/1/All.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/9/mustapha.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/
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spelling my.um.stud.77552020-06-21T19:27:18Z Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma Mustapha, Bala Ruma H Social Sciences (General) JC Political theory This thesis examines how autobiography and its variants such as the memoir transforms from being the story of the writing-‘I’ to that of its other. In this regard, the thesis specifically looks at how the texts under study turn their narratives into a process of objectification of the non-self “other” by framing their narratives through the trajectory of overarching social hierarchies such as us/them, clean/dirty, native/stranger, visible/invisible, peaceful/violent, etc. This strategy enables the writers to turn the autobiographical act into a space for accentuating differences between themselves and others. Consequently, they turn the non-self into an object and subject of difference through ridicule, disdain, mockery, and demonisation. The main aim of this strategy is to objectify the non-self by ascribing some negative qualities to it. It is the contention of this thesis that objectification as it occurs in these texts is in the main a process of identity formation based on the taxonomy of difference in the social world of the author-narrators shaped by their beliefs and ideologies. The thesis concludes that in Mahathir’s, Mandela’s, and Gandhi’s texts the “other” is used as a narrative device to construct and project a chosen and preferred positive identity of the self. In this sense, the “other” becomes a trope for self-articulation and enunciation within the textual-world of each of these writers. Viewed in this way, the “other” becomes the surface created and sustained by autobiography which could be viewed as a discourse of power on which to bounce off the contrasted image of the self. 2017-06 Thesis NonPeerReviewed application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/1/All.pdf application/pdf http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/9/mustapha.pdf Mustapha, Bala Ruma (2017) Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma. PhD thesis, University of Malaya. http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/
institution Universiti Malaya
building UM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaya
content_source UM Student Repository
url_provider http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/
topic H Social Sciences (General)
JC Political theory
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
JC Political theory
Mustapha, Bala Ruma
Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
description This thesis examines how autobiography and its variants such as the memoir transforms from being the story of the writing-‘I’ to that of its other. In this regard, the thesis specifically looks at how the texts under study turn their narratives into a process of objectification of the non-self “other” by framing their narratives through the trajectory of overarching social hierarchies such as us/them, clean/dirty, native/stranger, visible/invisible, peaceful/violent, etc. This strategy enables the writers to turn the autobiographical act into a space for accentuating differences between themselves and others. Consequently, they turn the non-self into an object and subject of difference through ridicule, disdain, mockery, and demonisation. The main aim of this strategy is to objectify the non-self by ascribing some negative qualities to it. It is the contention of this thesis that objectification as it occurs in these texts is in the main a process of identity formation based on the taxonomy of difference in the social world of the author-narrators shaped by their beliefs and ideologies. The thesis concludes that in Mahathir’s, Mandela’s, and Gandhi’s texts the “other” is used as a narrative device to construct and project a chosen and preferred positive identity of the self. In this sense, the “other” becomes a trope for self-articulation and enunciation within the textual-world of each of these writers. Viewed in this way, the “other” becomes the surface created and sustained by autobiography which could be viewed as a discourse of power on which to bounce off the contrasted image of the self.
format Thesis
author Mustapha, Bala Ruma
author_facet Mustapha, Bala Ruma
author_sort Mustapha, Bala Ruma
title Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
title_short Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
title_full Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
title_fullStr Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
title_full_unstemmed Political autobiography as objectification of an/other: A study of Mahathir Mohamad’s a doctor in the house, M.K Gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and Nelson Mandela’s long walk to freedom / Mustapha Bala Ruma
title_sort political autobiography as objectification of an/other: a study of mahathir mohamad’s a doctor in the house, m.k gandhi’sthe story of my experiments with truth, and nelson mandela’s long walk to freedom / mustapha bala ruma
publishDate 2017
url http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/1/All.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/9/mustapha.pdf
http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/7755/
_version_ 1738506058902536192
score 13.211869

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