02 Tuesday Feb 15

"Wiki notes for Feb 15th, 2011" by Nani Moskal (the notes above are very well said, so hopefully none of you will even need to read my notes! -which are by no means a comparison, but still a basic outline of class. Have mercy...) Nani Moskal Postcolonial Criticism

After taking a brief quiz today in class, we discussed the term Colonization, as well as the related terms decolonization and postcolonial. In addition, we discussed Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism in comparison to Imperialism, as well as Homi Bhabha’s term hybridity.

Here are brief definitions for these terms in my own words:

•	Colonization –European countires explored and took over large areas of the world to gain the natural resources and create new markets for themselves

•	Decolonization –European countries under colonial rule that gained independence after WW2

•	Postcolonial criticism – focuses on different cultural issues by looking at issues of gender, class, and sexual orientation (Barry, 191-92).

•	Oreintalism- a post colonial theory which uses a cultural representation as a way to assert power

•	Hybridity- uses post colonial criticism and looks at the result of the combination or identity and culture (distinction between self and others “breaks down”). -Then we compared Imperialism and Orientalism through binaries. Imperialism     vs Orientalism - West vs East// -Rational vs Irrational// -Individualistic vs Homogeneous // -Masculine vs -Feminine

We also discussed some recent examples of Orientalism and Hybrid. First, with Orientalism, some broad stereotypes that are misrepresented which we discussed include Aladdin, Avatar, Tarzan, King Kong, etc. While some hybrid examples we thought of were Jane Eyre and Their Eyes were Watching God.

Then to end class we watched a video about Edward Said and his idea of Orientalism. The main points from the video where that Said’s theory tries to answer the question of ‘why’ for preconceived notions as well as look at how we relate or identify to people who are different from ourselves. Lastly, the video discussed how to understand that which is different to us as well as the idea of stereotypes.

This is great topic to discuss whether using it in literary context or not. We often take our perspectives and outlook on life for granted, so by taking an ethnographic approach and stepping out of our own culture and perspectives to look at other’s is a great way to analyze literature.

Notes for February 15th by Brian Nicholas Bates:

Class began with a quiz on the assigned readings. The lecture itself began by touching on the historical backdrop of postcolonial literature and theory. Colonization reached its zenith during the 19th century and involved the systematic conquest, occupation and the political-economic exploitation of African, South American, Middle Eastern, and Far Eastern areas by European powers. This list could also include Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland (in its 17th century relationship with England). Decolonization refers to the period after World War II in which countries under colonial rule obtained independence. “Postcolonial” simply means “after colonization.”

The term “postcolonial literature,” literature written by inhabitants of former colonies about their experiences of colonization, was contrasted with postcolonial theory, which focuses on the idea that colonization is not only a political-economic phenomenon, but is also imaginative, literary, and artistic in nature in that it involves a process of proliferating cultural distortions of the East (or the colonized) in Western writing (or that of the colonizers).

The two names most associated with the early stages of postcolonial theory are those of Edward W. Said and Homi K. Bhabba, though Dr. Mathur noted the lack of attention given to women and their place in imperial and postcolonial discourse by them. Said’s Orientalism, published in 1978, would become a foundational work in postcolonial theory and focused on the way in which Western literature identifies the East as “the other” and subordinate to the West while projecting onto it that which the West does not wish to acknowledge in itself such as the characteristics of laziness, excessive emotion, decadence, or sensuality and the tendency to give a general, homogenous treatment of non-Western culture, relegating it to various sets of tropes that lack a real connection to the reality of the various colonized cultures that it portrays. This practice is apparent in many classic English works such as Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park.

Bhabba’s work from almost a decade later challenges the binary relationships of colonizer/colonized, civilized/savage, masculine/feminine, individualistic/homogenous, rational/irrational of Said’s rather structuralist approach, instead taking one that rather mirrors deconstruction in that it blurs these binaries with the concepts of hybridity and mimicry.

Hybridity is seen when the distinction between the empire and the orient, the self and the other, breaks down (in much the same way that Derrida’s binaries collapse on themselves). The lines blur until the other becomes evident in the self. To exemplify the concept, the class was asked to consider the exchange between a missionary and a group with Bibles. The line, “that cannot be for they eat flesh,” is an example of hybridity because it interrupts the narrative of authority represented by the missionary. Where Said stops at the dominance/submission binary, Bhabba sees the relationship as often times something more complex. Mimicry involves challenging the dominant discourse by parodying it.

The class was asked to discuss a selection of White Teeth. The first definition, representing a Western perception, showed evidence of orientalism while the second was an example of self-representation. The also created a list of popular culture works that serve as examples of orientalism, and later a list that showed characteristics of hybridity. After watching a short video (available under “external links” on Blackboard), class wrapped up by grading quizzes.