Lens of Empire and Colonialism
postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’
Orientalism – the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism
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: xii
‘In this view, the outlying regions of the world have no life, history or culture to speak of, no independence or integrity worth representing without the West.‘ (Said, 1993: xxi). Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and Imperialism (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic Edward Said. He asked if ‘imperialism was principally economic‘ and looked to answer that question by highlighting ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3)
You have the power to narrate and the power to
Orientalism
Allowing people to tell stories and make people think certain things
creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238) – almost creating a lens to make people believe that the west is a certain way
Idea that the orient is exotic – there is a false misconception of what the world is like
Assertion of western power over the east
Orientalism makes the cultures and histories irrelevant as these things turn into stereotypes
Builds a systemic world view
Legitimizes cheap things (slavery)
Systemic racism
Jacques Lacan – the mirror stage of child development, whereby, as ‘we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. ‘
Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.
To link this to postcolonialism would be to suggest that the West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself.
Louis Althusser: ISA’s & the notion of ‘Interpellation’
He says we are socially constructed – framework (ideological state apparatus (ISA) ) they all impact to socially construct us
Ideas that shape us are ideas from the dominant figures
Interpelate you to make you think a certain way and to agree to things
Frantz Fanon
He says its okay to say you disagree with things, but what are you actually going to do about it?
- 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’.
Understand different cultures, then identify your own culture and then understand what you can do to create a revolution.
Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony
Suggests that you can change the framework and hegemony is a sort of tug of war for power. You could change the way we think about things through culture.
Hegemonic Struggle
Paul Gilroy – Double Consciousness
‘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.’ (2004:13)
W.E.B. Dubois
Theme of Double Consciousness, derived from W. E. B. Dubois, involves ‘Black Atlantic’ striving to be both European and Black through their relationship to the land of their birth and their ethnic political constituency follow this wiki link for more on this point.
As Barry notes the stress on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. Often found by foregrounding questions of cultural difference and diversity, as well as by celebrating ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’. A unique position where ‘individuals may simultaneously belong to more than one culture – the coloniser and the colonised’. (2016:198) Even Fanon suggests an emphasis on identity as ‘doubled, or ‘hybrid’, or ‘unstable’.
Slave owners were compensated 20 million pounds for the loss of their slaves.
Representation is about voices, stories and characters the we DON’T SEE as much as voices, stories and characters that we do see. It’s also about giving a context and understanding to the stories we see and hear.
Theorists
Jacques Lacan – (Mirror theory) – Post colonialism is how we see each other and how we see ourselves.
Edward Said – Orientalism – people are put into categories and stereotypes (framed)
Louis Althusser – ideological stay apparatus Interpellation – being formed by the things around us (the way in which we are made/constructed).
Gramsci – hegemonic struggle – you can change and you can reclaim