Orientalism

The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism

‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism‘
EDWARD SAID

• eastern (orient) people couldn’t represent themselves (so represented from the west eg white people)

creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’

V.G. KIERNAN

JAQUES LACAN

• the other, we don’t ever see ourselves only reflections
• The Other, a mirror by which a reflection of the self can be measured out and examined.
• first time a baby sees itself in a mirror
• mirror stage
• forms identity (who we are)

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

• ideological state apparatus (ISA)
• ‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing.

FRANTZ FANON

1. 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)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’

ANTONIO GRAMSCI – Hegemony

• how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others
• (hegemonic struggle) a struggle that emerges from NEGOTIATION and CONSENT
• ‘from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light
• people can reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity
• hegemony = leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others.

PAUL GILROY

• Double Consciousness ( ‘cultural polyvalency’ )
• There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack (cultural politics of race and nation, 1987)

From a race and ethnicity point of view:

Orientalism:

• Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the West.
• An approach to thinking
• Edward Said– Wrote books on Orientalism
• Jacques Lacan– The Mirror Stage
• Louis Althusser– Ideological state apparatus (ISA)
• Antonio Gramsci– Hegemony- The tug of war for power
• Paul Gilroy– Writes about double consciousness
• W. E. B Du Bois- Writes about double consciousness

Paul Gilroy:

Paul Gilroy says 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.’ (2004:13) His 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.

Orientalism – The link between culture, imperial power & colonialism

Edward Said – “The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”, “creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness”, “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”

• The East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness)
• Often discussed by contemporary philosopher Slavoj Zizek, the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan

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

“All ideology hails or interpolates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject”

• Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society – education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity
• In other words, the way in which society calls / addresses / hails you is interpolation, which is the way in which your subject identity is formed and which, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology

Frantz Fanon

• In terms of post-colonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
• Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared‘ 

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

• Gramsci suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. In other words, Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than others
• In terms of post colonialism, is ‘a flexible positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the relative upper hand’

Gilroy & Du Bois

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.’ (2004:13) His 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

‘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 poly-valency’. 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’.

• Systemic Societal Sexism – how sexism is built into societies system of functioning
• MISOGONY – a fear and hatred of women (sexism)
• PATRIARCHY – a mechanism used by males as a way of exerting power and control in society
• Scopophilia – pleasure in looking
• Objectifying and Sexualising
• Jacques Lacan – Mirror stage, a moment in which a person realizes who they are
• feminist – a political position
• female – a biological construct
• feminine a set of culturally defined characteristics
• intersectionality –

Raunch Culture

According to Barker and Jane (2016), third wave feminism, which is regarded as having begun in the mid-90’s is the ‘rebellion of younger women against what was perceived as the prescriptive, pushy and ‘sex negative’ approach of older feminists.’ (344) and put forward the following recognisable characteristics:

• an emphasis on the differences among women due to race, ethnicity, class, nationality, religion
• individual and do-it-yourself (DIY) tactics
• fluid and multiple subject positions and identities
• cyberactivism
• the reappropriation of derogatory terms such as ‘slut’ and ‘bitch’ for liberatory purposes
• sex positivity

fourth wave feminism – revolves around the idea that you can be who you want

SOURCE: http://mymediacreative.com/postcolonialism

DEFINITIONS:

1. COLONIALISM – When a country takes control over another country.
2. POST COLONIALISM – Studying something in a colonized country.
3. DIASPORA – the dispersion or spread of people from their homeland.
4. BAME – UK slang that refers to minorities (asian, hispanic etc).
5. DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – Internal conflict by subordinated groups in an oppressive society.
6. CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – a belief in a genetic essence that defines all members in racial categories.
7. CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – Different cultures merging together to make something new.
8. ORIENTALISM (SAID) – How we view Arab countries.
9. APPROPRIATION – When something sacred to someone is sexualised or made fun of (e.g. native indians of america and their culture appropriated for childrens costumes on halloween).
10. CULTURAL HEGEMONY – The domination of a culturally diverse society by the most popular class
11. THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – An area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.
12. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS – These public service broadcasting groups (PBS) are mostly biased when representing ethnic minority groups which can make society adopt stereotypes and misunderstandings of these ethnic minorities.

FRANTZ FANON – Colonialism and Post-Colonialism

“‘from America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light” – FRANTZ Fanon ‘on national culture’

Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared’ (McLeod 2000:20) when he remembers how he felt when, in France, white strangers pointed out his blackness, his difference, with derogatory phrases such as ‘dirty Nigger!’ or ‘look, a Negro!’ 

As an early critical thinker of postcolonialism, Frantz Fanon took an active role, proposing the first step required for ‘colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity. The second, is to begin to erode the colonialist ideology by which that past had been devalued. (Barry, 2017:195). In the chapter ‘On National Culture’ (pp;168-178) Fanon presents three phases of action ‘which traces the work of native writers’:

1. 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)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

PAUL GILROY/W.E.B. DU BOIS – Hybridity and ambiguity in Culture

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.’ (2004:13) His 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.

As with much postcolonial criticism the aim to understand and reconcile individual and national identity. Gilroy highlights Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’ full of the ‘terrifying prospect of a wholesale reversal of the proper ordering of colonial power . . . intensified by feelings of resentment, rejection, and fear at the prospect of open interaction with others.’ (2004:111) Put presciently, ‘it has subsequently provided the justification for many a preemptive strike’.

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’.

ANTONIO GRAMSCI – Hegemony

 Gramsci suggests that power relations can be understood as a hegemonic struggle through culture. In other words, Gramsci raises the concept of Hegemony to illustrate 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).

Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that the balance of power can be changed, how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than other, post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire.

hegemony is a struggle that emerges from NEGOTIATION and CONSENT. As such, it is not total domination (not totalitarianism or explicit propoganda) but a continual exchange of power, through ideas. In this sense, postcolonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire – even if the Empire has gone.

ORIENTALISM – The Link between culture, imperial power & 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: xiii

POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. Or as Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8).

The ‘Other’ – 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.

REPRESENTATIONS of – the East /the Orient / the ‘Other’ – are CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER.

LOUIS ALTHUSSER – The Ideological State Apparatus

“‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing.” Althusser 2014:190

Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser, which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc) which keeps people in there place. ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.

MEDIA LITERACY

To equip students with knowledge and understanding that allows them to see the legacy of connections. So that rather acting as an accepting, passive consumer of media texts, they are able to actively engage in the process of meaning-making. Breaking down the layers of construction to grasp the sociological history behind the message. This can be found in any text that you may be asked to look at for your course of studies. At present in the AQA Media Studies A level, students are asked to look at music videos by Common – Letter to the Free, and The Specials- Ghost Town. So in the next section, we can apply some of the ideas that we have presented so far.

LETTER TO THE FREE

“Common is an Oscar and Grammy award winning hip/hop rap artist who wrote Letter to the Free as a soundtrack to The 13th – a documentary by Ava DuVernay named after the American 13th amendment (the abolition of slavery). His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g.: Black Lives Matter). Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.“

• Q1:How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?

Letter to the Free tries to redefine and reverse stereotypes within America given to black Americans by Europe via orientalism.

• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?

Common is attempting to educate, aka phase 2, the people, aka phase 1, to allow these people to choose what they want to believe in and what action they want to take which translates to phase 3.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

Viewers of the music video are made to observe the racism within the United States caused by the failed justice system that made the 13th amendment. Common uses moving and disturbing language within his lyrics to demonstrate that this systematic racism has been happening for years that others with privilege have looked away from and ignored. “Southern leaves, southern trees we hung from”, a lyric from Common’s Letter to the Free that implies how many slaves were lynched (hung) by white slave owners allowing the audience to sympathise and empathise with the black community.

GHOST TOWN

Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?

The representations between black Jamaican culture and white people can be identified as hybridity and cultural polyvalency to educate the audience on other cultures around the world and help these cultures become more accepted without stereotypes.

• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?

Similar to how Common is trying to educate his audience about how black people are still oppressed in the 21st century, The Specials are trying to educate their audience, aka phase 1, on racial problems within the UK, aka phase 2, at the time as well as trying to unite these different cultures together, aka phase 3.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

At the time Ghost Town was written, filmed and produced, there were more than 5 riots that had caused violence to rise within the UK and a large mass of people were left unemployed. The Specials tried to address these issues within Ghost Town by using rastafarian based lyrics intertwined with english lyrics in an attempt to unite these cultures together. “Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town? We danced and sang, and the music played in a de boomtown” referencing the time before all of the riots that had happened and how it must change in order to preserve and regain peace in the UK allowing the audience to identify the need for change.

Judith Butler describes gender as “an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts”. In other words it is something learnt through repeated performance.

How useful is this idea in understanding how gender is represented in Music Videos?

Refer in detail to your chosen style models

style models

– young rising sons – high

• Q1:How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?

the concept of orientalism can be applied to commons Letter to the Free, as commons music/video tries to change the stereotypes that have been given to black americans.

• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?

It was been produced to inspire people to gain more knowledge about their culture and heritage.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

the music video aims to show the ‘hail’ the audience, in order to make them aware of the racism in the USA, caused by the 13th amendment. Throughout their lyrics, they use words to describe the situation of racism. for example “the caged birds sings fro freedom” “black bodies being lost in american dream”

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?

it shows multi cultures, between white, black and jamaican culture. They mix the cultures together to educate people on other cultures – mixed reggae and rock together.

• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?

they used it to bring cultures together and gain knowledge about the problems in uk during that time, such as unemployment.

• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

it was made to address the audience about the violence, unemployment problems in the uk during that time. “Government leaving the youth on the shelf’ they are acknowledging the problems that need to be changed and they use this to get the audience to engage and fight for change.

Define these terms

1. COLONIALISM – the policy of having full or partial political control over another country
2. POST COLONIALISM – used to describe the concurrent project to reclaim and rethink history
3. DIASPORA
4. BAME – black, asian, minority ethnic
5. DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society.
6. CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – idea of certain principles and sets of values that are objectively right or wrong in every context
7. CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – combination of separate concepts into one new idea
8. ORIENTALISM (SAID) – tendency in Western media to depict the cultures of East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa in imperialist terms
9. APPROPRIATION -use of pre-existing objects or images with little or no transformation applied to them
10. CULTURAL HEGEMONY – process by which certain values and ways of thought promulgated through the mass media become dominant in society.
11. THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action
12. THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS –

http://mymediacreative.com/postcolonialism/7/

Representation and identity

Race and ethnicity through empire and colonialism (Atlantic slave trade)

Orientalism (Edward said)

The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism

Culture creates an accepted grid for filtering through he orient into western consciousness

V.G.Kiernan quote An economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous

Edward Said The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism

Paul Gilroy A civilizing mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive

Jacques Lacan

We are socially constructed and only understand who we are by exploring the other

Louis Althusser

ISA

Ideological State Apparatus

Hailing / interpolation the way you are called and others view you therefore how you view yourself

The dominant ideas are those of the ruling class

Frantz Fannon

wretched of the earth 1961

1. 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)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

Paul Gilroy / William Dubois

Hybridity and ambiguity in culture cultural poly valence (many cultures)

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?
• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

We are looking at post-colonialism, specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

Orientalism

Orientalism is the stereotyping the East from the viewpoint of the West (Europe). This view is typically that people and the culture from the East is lesser than the Wests.

” 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

Edward said, 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’,‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. Media is not neutral, western culture defines the orient as a lesser culture due to stereotypes. ‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’

The Orient as the ‘Other’

In his book Orientalism, Edward Said, points out that ‘the Orient has helped to define Europe (Or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience [as] . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what does this mean? What is the ‘Other’?

This means the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan. A good way to develop an understanding of this term is in his exploration of 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. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. 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.

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

‘All ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject’.

Ideological state apparatus (ISA), is a theoretical concept developed by (Algerian born) French philosopher Louis Althusser, which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society (education, culture, the arts, the family, religion, bureaucracy, administration etc) which keeps people in there place. ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.

Frantz Fanon

In terms of post-colonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many is a key text in the development and ancestry of postcolonial criticism. Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique and appears to recognise the ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared’ (McLeod 2000:20) when he remembers how he felt when, in France, white strangers pointed out his blackness, his difference, with derogatory phrases such as ‘dirty Nigger!’ or ‘look, a Negro!’ 

These articulated the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood. ‘Colonialised’ people to reclaim their own past by finding a voice and an identity.

1. 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)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemonic Struggle and the Chance to Reclaim

‘From America, black voices will take up the hymn with fuller unison. The ‘black world’ will see the light’ – Frantz Fanon ‘on national culture’

Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that the balance of power can be changed, how certain cultural forms predominate over others, which means that certain ideas are more influential than other, post colonialism articulates a desire to reclaim, re-write and re-establish cultural identity and thus maintain power of The Empire.

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

“Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem-Doron

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.’ (2004:13) His 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.

As with much postcolonial criticism the aim to understand and reconcile individual and national identity. Gilroy highlights Enoch Powell’s notorious 1968 ‘rivers of blood speech’ full of the ‘terrifying prospect of a wholesale reversal of the proper ordering of colonial power . . . intensified by feelings of resentment, rejection, and fear at the prospect of open interaction with others.’ (2004:111) Put presciently, ‘it has subsequently provided the justification for many a preemptive strike’.

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’.

Definitions

• COLONIALISM – acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
• POST COLONIALISM – the academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands.
• DIASPORA – a scattered population whose origin lies in a separate geographic locale.
• BAME – a term used in the UK to refer to black, Asian and minority ethnic people.
• DOUBLE CONSCIOUSNESS (GILROY) – a term describing the internal conflict experienced by subordinated groups in an oppressive society.
• CULTURAL ABSOLUTISM / RACIAL ESSENTIALISM – when one cultural is deamed more supreme than another and all have to belong to one cultural/the belief in a genetic or biological essence that defines all members of a racial category.
• CULTURAL SYNCRETISM – is when distinct aspects of different cultures blend together to make something new and unique. Culture is a large category, this blending can come in the form of religious practices, architecture, philosophy, recreation, and even food. It’s an important part of your culture.
• ORIENTALISM (SAID) – refers to the Orient, in reference and opposition to the Occident; the East and the West, respectively. Edward Said said that Orientalism “enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present.”
• APPROPRIATION – the act of taking something such as an idea, custom, or style from a group or culture that you are not a member of and using it yourself: Theft is the dishonest appropriation of another person’s property.
• CULTURAL HEGEMONY – cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions, which allow those in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, worldview, and behavior of the rest of society.
• THE PUBLIC SPHERE (HABERMAS) – Habermas says, “We call events and occasions ‘public’ when they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive affairs”. Jürgen Habermas defines ‘the public sphere’ as a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Access is guaranteed to all citizens”.
• THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING IN TERMS OF FAIR REPRESENTATION OF MINORITY GROUPS / INTERESTS – PSB’s role is to reflect multiple community interests and news, and different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds to be all inclusive to there audience.
• Hybridisation – is a term used to describe a type of media convergence whereby a new mode emerges containing elements of combined media. Hybrid media represent most modern media and the concept that different media forms can work together to create new media.
• Syncretism – the merging of different inflectional varieties of a word during the development of a language.

Ghost Town by The Specials

Ghost Town by The Specials conveys a specific moment in British social and political history while retaining a contemporary relevance. The cultural critic Dorian Lynskey has described it as ‘’a remarkable pop cultural moment’’ one that “defined an era’’. The video and song are part of a tradition of protest in popular music, in this case reflecting concern about the increased social tensions in the UK at the beginning of the 1980s. The song was number 1 in the UK charts, post-Brixton and during the Handsworth and Toxteth riots.

The aesthetic of the music video, along with the lyrics, represents an unease about the state of the nation, one which is often linked to the politics of Thatcherism but transcends a specific political ideology in its eeriness, meaning that it has remained politically and culturally resonant.

The representations in the music video are racially diverse. This reflects its musical genre of ska, a style which could be read politically in the context of a racially divided country. This representation of Britain’s emerging multiculturalism, is reinforced through the eclectic mix of stylistic influences in both the music and the video.

http://mymediacreative.com/postcolonialism/

Questions – Letter to the Free

• Q1: How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
• This could be applied to Letter to the Free as it tries to reverse stereotypes given to black Americans by the West (Europe) through orientalism.
• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• Common is educating (phase 2) to the hybrid cultural people (phase 1) so that these people can make up their mind in what they want to believe in and what action they might take (phase 3).
• Q3: How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?
• The audience is called to look at systematic racism in the USA that has been caused by the 13th amendment. They use emotive language to demonstrate what has been happening for years but has be looked away from and ignored. Lyrics such as ” The caged birds sings for freedom to bring, Black bodies being lost in the American dream” make you feel sympathetic towards the black community and as we have seen through recent events with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement they are changing to make a difference and change the world for the better.

looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

perspective of the Atlantic salve trade:

orientalism: the power to narrate, or block other narratives from forming or emerging is very important to culture and imperialism = Edward Said

he suggested that culture is important as violence for creating “an accepted grid for filtering through the orient into western consciousness”

black slavery is done through belief, visions

as he came from middle east – he wanted to recognise that the non white doesnt have the power to narrate = dominant cultures ‘(white slave traders)

Orientism – ‘distort your vision’

postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim 

Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ 

Jacques Lacan – theory of the orient as the other

• you never know who you are’ = we are socially constructed

• we only know who we are, by exploring 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 – theory of interpellation – ideology hails or interpellates concrete individuals as concrete subjects, through the functioning of the category of the subject

= ideology state apparatus (ISA)

• ‘Ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way to ‘recruit’ subjects among individuals . . . through the very precise operation that we call interpellation or hailing.
• = hailed or interpellated to look something
• society forms you – the dominant ideas are from the dominant class
• we are trapped in ideological state apparatus and hailed and kept in your place – you just go along with what everyone else says
• BLACKFACE – a cultural history of a racist art form – racist show business

Frantz Fanon – ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared”

came up with a 3 point plan:

1. 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)
2. Immersion into an ‘authentic’ culture ‘brought up out of the depths of his memory; old legends will be reinterpreted’
3. Fighting, revolutionary, national literature, ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’.

antontio gamschi – hegemony – culture/society changes and shift (nothing is fixed – things move: cuture, power.

use the culture to challenge

media creates things to have the potential to change society, power, in the concept of hegemony:”the last poets” – “niggers are scared of revolution”

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities. – book = “Ain’t No Black In The Union Jack” — A proposal for a new flag for the UK and other socially engaged art work by Gil Mualem – Doron

Britain haas a multi cultural community = workers from India, and other cultures come to work in Britain after the ww2

hybrid identity

ambrigurity = unsure

cultural polyvalency = having many cultural identities

immigrants grow up listening to reggae – living in Britain -becomes aware of rock – two tone expression (merge of two genres of music)

Paul Gilroy (British, black academic = ‘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.’ 

talks about double consciousness = Paul developed from a black American W.E.B Dubois (talks about being a American black ‘split identity’ – thinking about two things – talks about being black and British (double consciousness)

Black History

• Roman, tudor
• slaves were not feed instantly