Representation of race and identity specifically looking through the lenses of post colonialism Atlantic slave trade.

KEY DEFINITIONS:

• COLONIALISM the practice of acquiring political control over another country to exploit it economically.
• POST COLONIALISM the effect colonialism has on the country 
• DIASPORA the spread or moment of people away from their original homeland.
• BAME– used to describe ethnic minorities 
• DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) describes the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society.
• CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM biological characteristics do not differ due to culture.
• CULTURAL SYNCRETISM  is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique
• ORIENTALISM (SAID) Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists
•  APPROPRIATION using aspects taken from another culture and using it in a different culture.
• CULTURAL HEGEMONY diverse culture which is being controlled and owned by the upper class.
• THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS)he public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
• .THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS have a role at representing minorities in a fair way and if they doesn’t happen it can mean manority’s experience discrimination.

Theorist

EDWARD SAID

• Edward Said– theory of Orientalism – The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism . He looked at English literature and noticed how they came from the west generally white males. he suggest that culture is as important as anything else for
• ‘creating and accepted grid for filtering through into the western consciousness’
• Theorised in the 90s
• could be described as Eastsernism – they dictate through literature and culture what others are know as.
• Linking this to slavery and the holocaust he said its through literature and culture that you can legitimacy certain behaviours regardless of how displaceable.
• In theses novel in which said studied he noticed how western country/people where portrayed in certain ways.
• literature and culture is presenting this all the time.
• this can be identified in lots of texts.
• essentially he is saying literate, culture and art is a way of normalising things.

“the power to narrate or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

Edward Said

JAQUES LACAN

• French psychoanalyst
• identity- he was interested int the first time child recognises themselves in a mirror (mirror stage)
• he spoke about we only have words to try and explain the thought we as human have and that yay are not always able to speak theses thoughts.
• we are socially constructed – we only know who we are by exploring the other as a way of exploring who we are.
• representation is constructed through the eyes of another.
• important to identify and think about what Opel are trying to say.
• for example black people didn’t feel they see themselves in the media (selective representation)

LOUIS AlTHUSEER

• Ideological state apparatus (ISA’s) they way In which structures predetermined affect us/believes. denote institutions such as education, the churches, family, media, trade unions, and law, which were formally outside state (dominate) control but which served to transmit the values of the state, to interpellate those individuals affected by
• you are trapped in ideological state apparatus and how you are hailed. – calls it interpellation.
• Hailed and called- they way people see you and they way you see yourself
• example of hailing- how white people impersonate black people (black face) which created stereotypes still prevalent today, through mocking or a race.
• the society that forms you is the society of the ruling class the dominant idea.
• ie. slavery, rich men making money of slavery wants everyone to think the same as they do.
• herd mentality concurs.
• what portrayed in the media, literature culture art etc – becomes normal eg. racist tv programs.
• interpellation- into society -pre chosen (boys will be boys ect.)

GRAMSCI

• he said that culture and power is changed,
• Gramsci’s theory of hegemony– is tied to his conception of the capitalist state. Gramsci does not understand the state in the narrow sense of the government. … Gramsci claims the capitalist state rules through force plus consent: political society is the realm of force and civil society is the realm of consent.
• Gramsci’s theory of hegemony is tied to his conception of the capitalist state.
•  Gramsci does not understand the state in the narrow sense of the government.
• Gramsci claims the capitalist state rules through force plus consent: political society is the realm of force and civil society is the realm of consent.
• he spoke about HEGEMONY- meaning nothing is fixed things moves such as culture identity power etc and that you need to change the donimnate ideology.
• media has potential and power to change
• The chance to reclaim.

FRANTZ FRANON

• In The Wretched of the Earth Fanon argued for violent revolution against colonial control, ending in socialism. These struggles must be combined, he argued with (re)building national culture, and in that sense Fanon was a supporter of socialist nationalism.- regain your old culture.
• He said that we need to fight through culture and create literature through ‘the mouthpiece of new reality in action”
  

PAUL GILROY

• Paul Gilroy is insistent that ‘we must become interested in how the literary and cultural as well as governmental dynamics of the country have responded to that process of change and what it can tell us about the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’ 
• He said that if you are a from a different culture but grew up in England for example how do you differentiate (cross cultural)
• hybridity- meny.
• ambiguity- the quality of being open to more than one interpretation; inexactness
• Double consciousness– Double consciousness is the internal conflict experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society.