their project of capitalist expansion and world domination. Colonial expansion was a means of complete control of territories and furthered the expansion of their capitalist political economy. Africa provided the British with slaves, minerals, and raw materials to help them in their capitalist development. To help support capitalist expansion, the British asserted colonial discourse of power and superiority over the colonized. This discourse, or a system of representation, provided a way for the British
Voice in Things Fall Apart and Anthills of the Savannah In "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse," Chandra Talpade Mohanty suggests a fundamental flaw in most western feminist analysis: the presupposition that women, "across classes and cultures, are somehow socially constituted as a homogenous group identifiable prior to the process of analysis." It is a flaw in thinking that results in "the assumption of women as an always-already constituted group, one which has
particular ways. These are interpretive traditions around salvation history, and apocalypse. Of course, one of the reasons that many people, particularly liberals, have not opposed the war is the discourse of saving Afghan women. There have been a number of insightful postcolonial critiques of this discourse and how it harms Afghan and Muslim women—for example, Lila Abu-Lughod’s talk given at Columbia University, “Responding to War,” which built on Gayatri Spivak’s critique that so often white men feel
The Heathen Inside: "Darkness," Abjection, and the Colonial Discourse In Romanticism and Colonialism, Tim Fulford and Peter J. Kitson argue that few scholars explicate the relationship between Romantic texts, British colonialism, and imperialism. Fulford and Kitson point out that the "Romantic period is a watershed in colonial history," marking the inception of a British empire based on the political philosophy of the "white man's burden" (3). By reading Romantic texts in the historical and political
quip “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon. ” In this paper, I will seek to locate where this post-colonial violence is located in discourses regarding race, class and gender. Particularly, I will look at the representations
Post-Colonial Themes in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon It is interesting to note that, although in the context of this MA course we are studying Malouf's novel in terms of a post-colonial response, the author himself has expressed the opinion that it is not, strictly speaking, a post-colonial text. Most would agree with Malouf in that it is certainly not an example of resistance or response from a member of a colonised community in the same vein as, for example, Chinua Achebe or some Native
Identity Discourse: Having given a concise idea about the French colonial ideology, we will examine the French colonial ideology from another perspective which is identity. Ideology here is similar to discourse in terms of conception as it was discussed by Stuart Hall, a Jamaican-British cultural theorist and sociologist, who he compared ideology to discourse; “A discourse is similar to what sociologists call an "ideology", it is a set of statements or beliefs which produce knowledge that serves
Gender and Sexuality in The Piano The Piano examines the construction of sexuality in nineteenth century colonial New Zealand within the discourses of power that shaped this era. Different discourses of gender and race and their interactions are presented in order to support a narrative critique of the European patriarchal ideology as dominant social structure. In the opening sequence of the film, the viewer is immediately presented with an image of marriage as entirely contractual: "Today
In her essay, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” Chandra Talpade Mohanty explores the simplified construction of the “third-world woman” in hegemonic feminist discourses. In contrast, in her essay “US Third-World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World,” Chela Sandoval specifically analyzes “US third-world feminism” and how it is the model for not only oppositional political activity, but also consciousness in the United
Postcolonial Discourse in Wide Sargasso Sea In Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys confronts the possibility of another side to Jane Eyre. The story of Bertha, the first Mrs Rochester, Wide Sargasso Sea is not only a brilliant deconstruction of Brontë's legacy, but is also a damning history of colonialism in the Caribbean. The story is set just after the emancipation of the slaves, in that uneasy time when racial relations in the Caribbean were at their most strained. Antoinette (Rhys renames her
Post Colonial Interpretations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest “…do we really expect, amidst this ruin and undoing of our life, that any is yet left a free and uncorrupted judge of great things and things which reads to eternity; and that we are not downright bribed by our desire to better ourselves?” – Longinus Since the seventeenth century many interpretations and criticisms of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest have been recorded. Yet, since the play is widely symbolical and allegorical Shakespeare’s
George, Rosemary Marangoly, and Helen Scott. "An Interview with Tsitsi Dangarembga." Novel (Spring 1993):309-319. [This interview was conducted at the African Writers Festival, Brown Univ., Nov. 1991] Excerpt from Introduction: "Written when the author was twenty-five, Nervous Conditions put Dangarembga at the forefront of the younger generation of African writers producing literature in English today....Nervous Conditions highlights that which is often effaced in postcolonial African
political objectives subordinated. That bio-political power has become dominant, and has not always been so (a genealogical reminder kept in the preface to the political statement), is instead an important consideration in discussions of which discourses and what rationalities are more or less politically appreciable, almost separately of their philosophical merits. In his juxtaposition of different ages’ wars, Foucault suggests some changes in political rationality: more clearly the name of the
Concerning Human Understanding (1690), was first criticized by the philosopher and theologian, John Norris of Bemerton, in his "Cursory Reflections upon a Book Call'd, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," and appended to his Christian Blessedness or Discourses upon the Beatitudes (1690). Norris's criticisms of Locke prompted three replies, which were only posthumously published. Locke has been viewed, historically, as the winner of this debate; however, new evidence has emerged which suggests that Norris's
her development of Janie's voice through the different stages of her life. Her use of free indirect discourse exemplifies Janie's power in overcoming oppression, realizing her own potential, and emerging as an individual. Throughout the novel, Hurston's intertwining of the black vernacular (in the form of direct discourse in quoted text) and Standard English (in the form of indirect discourse in third person unquoted text) creates a seamless, fluid narration which provides insight into
this quilt…and so do we." This panel, surrounded by the seven more traditional panels shows how although, on a broad level, the quilt is thought of as a non-activist mourning attempt, there are definite aspects of activism that show through despite discourses popularly associated with the quilt. The other panels pictured here typify the finds of panels that are made for the victims of AIDS. "In memory of…" and "we will remember…" are some of the more common inclusions in the panels. Terry Sutton’s
Learning to Speak: Reflections of a Learner in ENG 100 This summer, after I was informed that I had been offered a teaching assistantship, I was terrified. I was not sure that I was capable of teaching students about a discipline in which I still possessed such a conscious doubt of my own abilities. For most of my life I was what you might call a non-achiever. When my parents strongly suggested that I enroll in college (the other option being to leave the house) everyone around me just sort
forms of knowledge. Wittgenstein and Derrida are two spurs, éperons of philosophical thinking, who changed the milieu of philosophical discourses. They practice new arts of thinking and writing, which lead to a change of paradigm and of style in philosophy. In the case of late Wittgenstein the change manifests in a critical attitude toward modern logical discourses. The annonced silence (Stille) of the Tractatus transfigures itself through textual dispersions into the styles (Stile) of the late Wittgenstein
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Within the Guidelines of Feminist Discourse Surprisingly, in spite of being a male from the 1970s, Tom Robbins has written a novel, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, supporting feminism. This is a term that most of us are familiar with; yet, what is feminism? The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism defines "feminist purpose" for us as "an active desire to change women's position in society" (Brown, Meginis, and Bardari, 231). In order to discuss
Understanding Descartes’ Method of Doubt Clear your mind, if you will, of everything you have ever seen or known to be true. To begin understanding Rene Descartes’ method of doubt, you need to suspend all prejudice and prior judgments and start with a clean slate “for the purpose of discovering some ultimate truth on which to base all thought.” (Kolak, Pg.225). Discouraged with much skepticism from his own beliefs, Descartes was embarrassed of his own ignorance. He set out to try and accomplish