Letter To the Free- Common :

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

Orientalism is the link between culture, imperial power and colonialism. The concept of orientalism can be linked to “Letter to the Free”, especially because of the prison-based setting, which emphasises how what used to be a mainly white-skinned government opposed African-Americans and instead of bringing equality, they imprisoned African-Americans based on their black skin colour. This imprisonment could also be based on the stereotypes held against black people as they are seen as the “criminals” in films and due to the upbringing of society, people held these beliefs of what they saw in films and applied it to the real life world. However, in the song, Common is emphasising how slavery, racism and this stereotype of African-Americans being “criminals” is still occurring in the 21st century. This is shown by the lyrics mentioned in the song such as “The American Dream”, which is the idea of equality across America and the hope for freedom in the US. However, Common juxtaposes this “American Dream” by mentioning the “Jim Crow Laws”, which were laws set in place to enforce racial segregation to the Southern States of America. Many African-Americans opposed the Jim Crow Laws and instead protested to try and emphasise that they want freedom, which is what spurred historical events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the African-Americans sitting at the “White” chairs in Woolworths, Greensboro.

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

Fanon’s 3 phase plan can be applied to Common’s ‘Letter to the Free”. For example, phase 1 is the assimilation of colonial culture which corresponds to the ‘mother country’. Phase 1 is shown in “Letter to the Free” through the introduction, in which the audience are presented with Common appearing in a prison, although the camera enters the prison, thus emphasising the open door as an opportunity for freedom, Common is seen in the prison singing, emphasising how black people are mistreated and “imprisoned”, juxtaposing the freedom that the white people have. Phase 2 is immersion into an “authentic culture” and is shown in the music video by Common removing the stereotypes held against black people. This is shown through the lyrics, in which Common is standing up for the mistreatment of black people and is emphasising how it is wrong to mistreat people based on their skin colour. Finally, the 3rd phase is fighting, revolutionary and ‘the mouthpiece of a new reality in action’. This links to “Letter to the Free” because the symbol of the black box can be seen as revolutionary as it can be seen as an emphasis that black lives are revolutionary and the. box could emphasise how they are there. Phase 3 can also be applied to the music video as it is a source of motivation to encourage black people to speak out and the black and white video, emphasises how the message is more important than colour, thus meaning the use of black and white brings the attention to the message.

• 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 use of different shots and eerie “prison music” (chains clattering) makes it appear as if the listener is taking a tour through the prison and the use of empty shots, create an eerie feel and make it feel as if the prison could be abandoned, thus creating a sense of disturbance and a horror feel, in which the eery setting could be to emphasise how it felt for black people being put in prison due to the colour of their skin. A black box constantly appears and is floating, and the shots of empty jail cells zoom into this black box, in which the shot appears in the chorus of “freedom”. Therefore, it is apparent that the black infinite box is a subliminal message that black is infinite and the infinite box represent the hopes and dreams of black people. The setting of the prison also lacks lights, and is quite dark, creating an eerie feeling and therefore making it seem scary to emphasise how black people felt. Loneliness can also be presented by the use of shots of long, empty corridors and the lack of people, thus emphasising the loneliness that black people faced.

Ghost Town – the Specials:

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

Hybridity is shown in the music video through the use of both black and white band members. Hybridity is also shown by the combination of ska and punk rock music, in which ska music originated from Jamaica, whereas punk rock music originated from the US. This means there has been a hybridity of two very different music genres and also a hybridity of different cultures. Ambiguity is presented in the introduction of the music video, the drive through the empty streets, as it can present a different message based on age, ethnicity, and gender, however, the introduction shot is mainly to emphasise the empty streets that have been introduced due to the high lack of unemployment and nobody going out to work. Finally, Cultural polyvalence is when you belong to more then one culture and is shown by the band members, who are all of different ethnicities and their combination of different ethnicity allow them to experience other cultures.

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

Phase 1 is shown by the combination of both ska and punk rock music, which are bringing different cultures together since ska originated in Jamaica, whereas punk rock originated in the US. Phase 2 is shown by the lack of people in the “Ghost Town” and the title “Ghost Town”, which gives the sense of loneliness and lack of employment. However, this juxtaposes the reality because during the employment crisis, there were many protests and riots, however the name “Ghost Town” could link to loneliness and a lack of people, which is not the case. Finally, phase 3 can be applied to this music video there is a resolution of the band all together, throwing rocks on the beach. They appear to be having a good time and there is no racism occurring, which emphasises an ideal world which is without any racism.

• 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?

Similar to Common’s “Letter to the Free”, the black and white shots at the beginning can create an eerie feeling and the title “Ghost Town” could link to the horror genre, thus emphasising the scary reality of that society and the “Ghost Town” and riots occurring due to the employment crisis. The shots in the beginning also appear to be recorded in first person, the view of what the band members can see, which makes it feel as if the audience is with the and and also experiencing this ‘reality’ as well. The band also appear to break the ‘fourth wall’ by looking directly at the camera, which could appear as if they are trying to establish a relationship with the audience and are trying to send a message directly to the audience.

• Looking at identity, representation and the self, specifically through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
• From perspective of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Racism + Post Colonialism)

• ORIENTALISM: Said
• The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism – theory/critical approach by Edward Said.
• Wrote culture and imperialism
• Looked at canon in literature – West – white, male, imperial perspective
• Culture is as important in creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness’.
• How do people allow slavery to happen? authority figure? – complexity
• Through Lit and culture can legitimates – through beliefs and visions – if everyone does it – create environment where it is acceptable
• Lens of empire creates ideas of the world (slavery allowed)
• Dominate cultures can have… 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
• V. G. Kiernan (American: The New Imperialism) (cit in Said, 1993:350 -‘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’
•  Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8)

Jacques Lacan – Mirror Stage (First time children see themselves in the mirror – unnerving. Only see what they aren’t not what they are.)

• Socially constructed
• cannot see of know ourselves
• only through exploring the other – what we are not
• Representation of the East as the Other -CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER.
• Theory of the other – people are the living embodiment of being the other.
• Wrote in 1980s

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

• Ideological state apparatus (ISA) – structures full of ideas and beliefs, connected to state/dominate interest.
• Socially constructed
• Interpellation and haling – way in which identity is formed/way you are seen therefore you seen yourself
• The way you are portrayed is the way you begin to see yourself and become – Not free
• Ideas that form you is the society of the ruling class – dominate ideas – ruling class – Marxism – want everyone to thing the same (Slavery and Genocide)
• Trapped in ideological state apparatus (ISA) – herd mentality
• Blackface – racism in art form

Frantz Fanon

• From a French Slave Colony – Interpellation
• The Wretched of the Earth (1961) – writes about treatment/experience
• saw him through lens of empire
• Faced derogatory phrases
• Came up with this 3 point pla:
• 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’.
• Music Video: Through music can see hegemony – nothing is fixed/fluid (Gramsci)- Hegemonic struggle the chance to reclaim …

Syncretism, Double Consciousness & Hybridisation

• These words are mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.
• Paul Gilroy – double conciseness (Think consciously about two things).
• Wrote in 1990s – He was a Black Academic in London.
• Wrote a book called, ‘There a’nt not back in the union jack’.
• ‘Place of racism in comtempory political cultural’.
• Double conciseness – Gilroy developed idea from Dubois
• 1950s – needed cheap labor to rebuild people came from all over the world e.g.India
• Idea of being Black, British/Black-America – seeing themselves as duplicity – see a separation
• Multicultural – multiple cultures
• Hybirdity – many
• Ambiguous – changeable
• Cultural polyvalency – many cultural identities
• Music Videos: Emigrants came over and brought new music (reggae – two tones) – hybirdisation

Black History

• Roman, Tudor
• Slave owners compensated for loss of ‘probity’
• Slaves weren’t freed instantly

Dubois

• Wrote ‘Souls of black folk’, in 1903 – about the effects of racism on identity
• Disabling black people to reach full potential in society and therefore as human beings

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony: struggle for a better society.

source link: http://mymediacreative.com/

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

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

‘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)

‘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 (American: The New Imperialism) (cit in Said, 1993:350)

The mode is characterised by ‘the desire to contain the intangibilities of the East within a western lucidity, but this gesture of appropriation only partially conceals the obsessive fear.’ (Suleri, 1987:255)

Similarly, ‘the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, laziness and so on). At the same time, and paradoxically, the East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive.’ (Barry, 2017:195)

Overall, 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‘. (Said, 1978:238). 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 emergence of Postcolonial critical thinking

Postcolonial critical thought emerged as a distinct category in the 1990’s, with an aim to undermine the universalist claims that ‘great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’ (Barry, 2017: 194). In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.

The arguments around postcolonial critical thought ‘constituted a fundamentally important political act’ (MacLoed, 200: 16)

For an interesting and consise overview of the development of ‘literary canons’ in literature, read Chapter 1 ‘Theory before Theory’ (particulary Literary Theorising from Aristotle to Leavis) in Beginning Theory by Peter Barry link here for extracts.

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’?

Often discussed by contempoary philosopher Slavoj Zizek, 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 serve to structure the ideological perspectives of society, which in turn form our individual subject identity. According to Althusser, ‘the category of the subject . . . is the category constitutive of all ideology’ (214:188). In other words, we are socially constructed and what socially constructs us is ‘despite its diversity and contradictions . . . the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’

Althusser noted that individuals often believe that they are ‘outside ideology’ and suggested the notion of ‘interpellation‘ as a way to recognise the formation of ideology. In that ideology ‘acts’ or ‘functions’ in such a way as to recruit subjects among individuals. In other words, the way in which society calls / addresses / hails you is interpellation, which is the way in which your subject identity is formed and which, more often than not, corresponds to the dominant ideology.

” ‘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

 hailing=following

interpellation= of an ideology or discourse) bring into being or give identity to (an individual or category).

Frantz Fanon

In terms of postcolonialism, we can look at The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many (Barry, 2017, McLeod 2000 etc) 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!’ (ibid).

In other words, what we have in this section of The Wretched of the Earth is a black man living in France, articulating the way he was constructed as ‘other’ specifically through the way he was hailed, called, perceived and understood i.e. interpellated by other ‘subjects’ of France, who clearly saw him through the lens of Empire – racial stereotyping, derogatory abuse – as acceptable social interaction. And if you think that is something of the past, look at the tweet received by ex-England international footballer Ian Wright (just posted when I was writing this blog post) or any number of racist incidents that occur everyday in your country, town, city, community and neighborhood. To recognise these incidents is to recognise the concept of ‘interpellation’ and which in terms of POSTCOLONIALISM is through the lens of Empire.

 Hegemonic struggle (Gramsci) 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’

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’.

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

‘It is well known that Alhussser drew part of his inspiration from Gramsci’ (Althusser, 2016: xxiv) the way in which class relations and subject is ‘exercised through a whole set of institutions . . . the place where encounters between private individuals occur.’ (ibid)

However, 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). However, this form of cultural leadership is a process of (cultural) negotiation where consent is gained through persuasion, inculcation and acceptance. Where dominant ideas, attitudes and beliefs (= ideology) are slowly, subtly woven into our very being, so that they become ‘common sense’, a ‘normal’, ‘sensible’, obvious’ way of comprehending and acting in the world.

For example, a way of reiterating European superiority over Oriental backwardness though image, sound, word, text, which in terms of postcolonialism, 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.’ (Said, 1987:228) In other words, ‘being a white man was therefore an idea and a reality.’ (ibid). However, 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. Put another way, it is the power of representation, played out in the realm of the cultural and civic, looking to make an affect on the political and economic.

Fight the Power, the struggle continues

‘According to Said , ‘Imperialism did not end, did not suddenly become ‘past’ . . . A legacy of connections still binds countries . . . a vast new population . . . from former colonial territories now resides in metropolitan Europe’ (1993:341).

Indeed, in 1982, Noam Chomsky indicated that ‘new forms of domination will have to be devised to ensure that privileged segments of Western industrial society maintain substantial control over global resources, human and material, and benefit disproportionately from this control.’ (cited Said, 1993:343). But as we have already seen, culture is both accepting and subverting, reactionary and radical. It is also an evolutionary and organic means of expression and understanding that develops out of specific historical moments of interaction.

So the idea of a MEDIA LITERACY is 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.

• Q1:How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?
• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• 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?

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

“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

link here

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 follow this wiki link for more on this point.

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

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’.

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.

• 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?

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

these words are mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

paul Gilroy (british black accademic) writes about it (grab quote) maybe  the place of racism in contemporary political culture.’

His theme of Double Consciousness, derived(developed the idea) from W. E. B. Dubois, <- talked about being black and american

(D.C) is the idea of being black & British or black and american being both

uses the term the vail in video w.e.b

edward cied talks about culture look more into orientalism

stuart hall

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. 

You can look at another post that looks at identity, representation and the self. But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

From the perspective of the Atlantic slave trade.

ORIENTALISM:

The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism (Edward Said)

Link between culture, imperial power and colonialism

‘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).

THE ORIENT AS THE ‘OTHER’ Jacques Lacan

CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER. So as much as the concept and image of ‘the West’ itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other.

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.

Hailed/interpellated: the way you are called and how others view you and how you therefore view yourself.

Hailing the dominant ideas

Frantz Fanon:

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.

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. 

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 

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 follow this wiki link for more on this point.

‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’(many cultural identities).

Specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism. From the perspective/lense of the Atlantic slave trade.

ORIENTALISM – Edward Said’s theory

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. “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. ‘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.

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 . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what is the ‘Other’? – looking at the other in terms of race. For example stereotyping races.

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

Ideolgical State Apparatus – s 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. So, your family and friends etc influence your values.

in other words – He said ISA’s (ideological state apparatus) is what makes us, us, in society. It is a structure that we are in which is full of ideas values and beliefs. These things construct who we are as individuals so that we become a certain person. This could be your friends, school, the government, they all shape our beliefs and make us stuck there.

Hegemonic struggle (Gramsci) is the chance to reclaim. Imagine a tug of war between your own identity and what other people are telling you. 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).

Frantz Fanon

In terms of postcolonialism, we can look at a book called The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Frantz Fanon, which for many (Barry, 2017, McLeod 2000 etc) 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. People in France saw him as a black stereotype and through the lease of empire.

Fanon presents three phases of action/plan ‘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’. 

Syncretism, double consciousness & hybridisation

mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities.

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.

Jaques Lacan:

Theory: first time a baby looks in a mirror, this moment is called ‘the mirror phase’

This applies to representation, when black people look at tv and film, they don’t see themselves, lack of representation in the media. Television in the 1970’s represented and used ethnic minorities as the joke and often made fun of them saying they were stupid or couldn’t understand english.

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 . . . One of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other’. So what is the ‘Other’? – looking at the other in terms of race. For example stereotyping races.

Orientalism– 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 sue 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’-the recognition of the ‘Other’ is mainly attributed the French philosopher and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’

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), which is used to describe the way in which structures of civic society which keeps people in there place. ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’.

Frantz Fanon–  ‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared‘, articulating 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 – Hegemony is a tug of war for power, and that balance 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, mechanisms for understanding cross-cultural identities. Paul Gilroy  –  W. E. B. Dubois –  ‘cross-cultural’ interactions is indeed a characteristic of postcolonial criticism. ‘cultural polyvalency’. Two tone movement-eclectic mix of stylistic influences 

equal justice initiative- “narrative of white supremacy created” “slavery did not end it simply evolved”

Black British history- David Olusoga

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 of the free as common tried to reverse the stereoytypes given to black americans similar to those with orientalism.

• Q2: Can you apply Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action to this music video?
• Fanon’s 3 phase plan could be applied as the music video is inspiring people to become more educated on their own culture and heritage in order to start the 3 phase plan.
• 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 address the systematic racism in the USA caused by the constitution and the 13th amendment, they used emotive language to demonstrate what has been happening for years. ‘The caged birds sings for freedom to bring, Black bodies being lost in the American dream’. The language used makes the audience sympathetic and inspired to make a change.

Questions, Ghost town;

• Q1: Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?
• Hybridity, ambiguity and cultural polyvalency can be show in this video due to cross of cultures between white people and black and Jamaican culture. The two tone movement mixes these cultures in order to educate the society on other cultures by making it more accessible.
• Q2: How does this text apply to Fanon’s 3 phase plan of action?
• This text applies to Fanon’s 3 phase plan as alike with commons, letter to the free it it hopes to aspire people to begin to educate themselves. The specials used this to bring cultures together but to also educate on the problems within the uk at the time.

• 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?
• In ghost town the audience is called to address the problems in the uk at the time. Unemployment rates were high, violence had risen since the riots and the video helped to call responsibility to these problems. ‘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.

Concerns IDENTITY and REPRESENTATION

Narrative of white supremacy created during slavery – 40,000 to 435,000 slaves in Alabama

ORIENTALISM

Edward Said

‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3) – culture sets normative values

‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism‘ Culture and Imperialism – The Orient (Asia) can’t tell their own stories and so only the white experience can be told about.

‘The East is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, the mystical and the seductive.’ (Barry, 2017:195) – portray aspects that Westerners do not want for themselves such as cruelty and sensuality.

‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238)

The Orient could not represent themselves – fixed narrative

Jacques Lacan – Theory of the ‘Other’

Mirror stage – can’t see ourselves as a whole and use a reflection to understand who we are/ are not

The West tries to work out the ‘Other’ (East) but also the East are tries to work out the West – duality

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

Ideological state apparatus (ISA) is a concept where societal structures such as education and cultures but also family, religion are used to make people believe something by the state.

We are socially constructed by ‘the ruling ideology, which is the ideology of ‘the ruling class’,’ (2014:245).

‘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 – The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

‘mechanics of colonialism and its effects of those it ensnared‘ (McLeod 2000:20)

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

Antonio Gramsci – Hegemony

How culture is not fixed and how culture changes with ideas and actions such as N.W.A disobeying police orders to play their music.

Power relations = hegemonic struggle through culture.

Paul Gilroy (W.E.B. Dubois) – Double Consciousness

Multiple identities (hybridisation) such as being black and British etc.

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