01 Tuesday Feb 15

“Notes for February 15th by Upma Kapoor”
On Tuesday, February 15th, we discussed Postcolonial criticism and one of its most recent developments, Edward Said's Orientalism. However, we first had a quiz on our readings (to refresh your memory, we had to read Barry's Beginning Theory p. 184-195; excerpt from Edward Said's Orientalism, and Bhabha's Signs Taken For Wonders). Following the quiz, we started taking note. There are three terms we should know about Orientalism before reading She. They include the following: 1. Colonization--This includes Europe, large parts of Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Recent focus has shifted to places like Canada, Australia and Scotland. Typically defined as a political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations settled for the exportation of their goods. Major influence apparent in the 19th century (fun fact: that's when She was written!) 2. Decolonization--indigenous movements towards independence or separate from the British government. 3. Postcolonial--After colonization, the term described the period after colonization. Countries reflect on their experience while writing these narratives. There is a focus on literature by people living in the former colonies and the ways they represent the colonial experience. Orientalism--created in 1978-- does not take off until the 1990s and is now firmly established in most English syllabi and mainstream academia. Said’s Orientalism is a historical phenomenon, a way in which the East is represented as an Other, an inferior. It goes back as far as Homer to describe the ways this theory was inaugurated. Barry presents Orientalism as a European projection onto the Other (the aforementioned colonized countries) that were used in postcolonial theory to describe postcolonial subjects. Sensuality, greed, laziness, excessive emotion, lust are frequent qualities associated with the Other and projected by the Europeans. The colonial subject is referenced in homogenous terms, collectively rather than individualistically. Edward Said himself is of Palestinian descent, and Orientalism’s follow-up is the Culture and Imperialism. Said studied texts such as Jane Eyre, William Butler Yeats, Dickens and other prominent English authors in his studies to convey his argument. There is an internal consistency between Orientalism and the Orient that does match reality, hence his discussion of the realm of representation and the evident dissonance between this representation in material reality. This projection of qualities onto the Other produced dynamic literatures of exchange. This form of writing is present in She. The West, or the Occident, is characterized as masculine whereas the East is characterized as feminine and subordinate. On a larger level, this serves as a discussion of Orientalism versus Imperialism. Said also discusses stereotype versus self-representation (an ahistorical representation of a country that is both temporal and specific). After our in-depth discussion on Orientalism, we put our knowledge to the test by studying an excerpt of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth. We decided that the Oxford English Dictionary contains an obvious Orientalist bias as opposed to the obscure source. Both sources characterize Hybridity. Bhabha represents a different phase of postcolonialism--it serves as a qualification of the claims Said is making. Bhabha illustrates evasions, gaps, and misrepresentations in Western constructions of the Other. Dr. Mathur suggested that we think how this literature invokes a sense of resistance (hint: this is where Bhabha’s theory becomes really important). Hybridity is the colonizer redefining the identity of the colonized in their terms in a sense that the colonized adopts set terms; subjugated colonized and redefines them in their imperialistic terms; the colonized identity adopts these terms to describe themselves (or even challenge them). It interrupts a clear domination/submission (for Said). The top of p. 1876 of Bhabha contains missionary equates the English with God. The people, however, challenge his account suggesting that God directly gave them this book (Bible). Appropriating divinity for themselves and cut out the intercession of the English. The top of p. 1876 second column exemplifies this, “That is true...” Challenging the English intercession. Bhabha looks at the most explicitly orientalist of texts contain the seeds of its own collapse; what challenges the dominative narrative, suggesting that another way to look at hybridity is to write against the dominative culture. This is displayed on p. 1889 column 1 paragrah 2, which examines and defines colonial mimicry.

"Brittany Nassef Post-Colonialism/Orientalism"
At the beginning of class on February 15th, we took a quiz on the readings from Peter Barry's Beginning Theory, pgs 184-195, Edward Said's Orientalism, and Homi Bhabha's Signs take for Wonders. Dr. Mathur presented her Power Point on Post Colonialism.

Historical references to colonization, decolonization, and post colonial aspects were made in order to make the connection between post colonialism as a literary theory, and as a cultural movement. Post colonial theory is the "literature from members of former colonies and the ways in which they represented colonial experience, as well as their influence on it."

Post colonial criticism, which didn't really take off until the '90s, was really set in motion by Edward Said's work on Orientalism. Said expressed how the East was viewed by the West as inferior and "Other" in literature. Peter Barry described Orientalism as "a European projection of those qualities on the 'Other'." Said said that Orientalism had two major points: there is an internal consistency between Orientalism and ideas about the Orient; for example, how colonized subjects are represented, and the split between the representation and the actual material world of the Orient. The second major point deals with the dynamic exchange between individual authors and the larger political concerns shaped by the three largest empires.

Westerners have a preconceived notion that people from the East are lazy, dirty, lustful, and have many negative qualities. Easterners are all described homogenously as having these negative qualities, and Said suggests that these notions come from literature written about the East.

Homi Bhabha described a hybrid, or an unstable identity as the third characteristic of Orientalism. Bhabha also wrote about mimicry and the Oriental application to literature. Bhabha's view of Orientalism explains the misrepresentations of other cultures, shows the evasions and gaps present in the literature, and points out the presence of hybridity and polyvalency.

Hybridity is defined as “the sign of the productivity of colonial power, shifting forces, and fixities, and the strategic reversal of the process of domination through disavowal.” It also sets the standard for the identity of a colonized group by the colonizer. The colonized group then adopts the terms that the colonizer used and uses them to describe themselves. Whereas mimicry is defined as an account between the same person or character, where the reader questions the text, incorporates it, and then challenges the reading.

Orientalism can be deciphered in a structuralist manner pretty easily. Major binaries, such as West vs. East, Rationality vs. Irrationality, Individualistic vs. Homogenous, and Masculine vs. Feminine, really stand out in Orientalist texts.

Then we did an in-class writing assignment of White Teeth by Zadie Smith. We discussed the differences in the two definitions of “Pandey” and talked about which one was more authoritative and more likely to be classified by Said as Orientalist.

The class decided that the first description was very blunt and negative in the sense that it stereotyped the Middle East with the ideas of mutiny and treason. The second description, however, is much more informative and little less biased as well as more descriptive and opinionated. We also decided that the first definition was more authoritative and was most likely to be classified as Orientalist by Said.

We took a closer look at page 1876 at the end of column 1 into the beginning of column 2 from Bhabha’s reading. The class discussed how the people were impropriating God for themselves in order to cut the English influence out of their culture. The equation of a higher power with the Eastern people showed a good example of hybridity because the dominant narrative has the ability to sort of collapse within itself. Orientalist texts usually set themselves up to crumble because the people are writing against the dominant literature. Examples of Orientalist texts and movies were given. Some of these examples include Kubla Khan, Disney’s Aladdin, Avatar, Memoirs of a Geisha, King Kong, Byzantium, Dracula, etc. We also examined page 1889, column 1, paragraph 2, for mimicry. Bhabha explained his definition of colonial mimicry as previously defined by Lacan, and also showed mimicry’s relationship to hybridity.

She by H. Rider Haggard is also an Orientalist text. We will begin reading She for Thursday’s class. It is an adventure novel about two Englishmen who travel to Africa and find a multitude of primitive people and activities, as well as exoticness. While reading She, it is important to look for moments of Orientalism and hybridity as well as gaps. We were also advised to be able to do a Freudian reading and a Structuralist reading describing the binaries present in She.

The remainder of class we watched an interview with Said where he talked about Orientalism’s impact and how significant and controversial it is. We also graded our quizzes and then met with our presentation group partners to discuss contact information and our topic. Also, be sure to check blackboard for EXTRA CREDIT under the Discussion Board link and reread the texts if needed because they are very challenging.