Connection to identity and representation

Orientalism – style, artefacts, or traits considered characteristic of the peoples and cultures of Asia.

‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism‘ Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

^^Blocking ethnic people (orient – asia) from telling their own stories

Important quote ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’  Edward Said

‘the East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive.’ (Barry, 2017:195) – idea of going to Asia is a free spirited journey, different portrayal to if travel from Asia to Britain.

The past and history of the black journey, with white Europeans (West vs East) above black race has created a dominant ideology in the current era, even though it is considered subtle, there are still many areas where racism is still a firm part of society

The Other

Jacque Lacan – Theory of the other – mirror stage – ‘we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not’

Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’

To describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion etc.) serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual identity. Socially structured by our surroundings created by the rest of society which has developed through time, to curate and understand our own identity

Frantz Fanon

Book The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

Assimilation of colonial culture corresponding to the ‘mother country’ Chinua Achebe talks of the colonial writer as a ‘somewhat unfinished European who with patience guidance will grow up one day and write like every other European.’ (1988:46)

Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’

Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

illustrates how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others, usually in line with the dominant ideas, the dominant groups and their corresponding dominant interests. In terms of postcolonialism Said, notes how ‘consent is gained and continuously consolidated for the distant rule of native people and territories’ (1993:59).

Power of individuls and communities to take back derogatory terms and bring power back to communities

Paul Gilroy – double consciousness

Inspired by W.E.B Du Bois,  involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency