Postcolonialism - texts

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All material and ideas on this page were contributed by John Gibbs, Stantonbury campus.

'Otherness' and 'Orientalism'

When explaining and illustrating the idea of ‘otherness’ and of Edward Said’s concept of ‘Orientalism’ : some useful texts are the paintings of the orientalists which can be found on Google Images. They can be compared to the representation of orientals or easterners in films/books such as the Narnia stories- particularly "The Horse and his Boy" by C.S Lewis, the easterners in "Lord of the Rings" by J.R Tolkien, and the classical fantasy film ‘300’ where the Spartans are represented in a wonderfully daft binary set against all the opposing qualities of the Persians e.g Spartans: masculine, athletic, physically perfect and overtly heterosexual . Persians: effete, deformed and sexually ambiguous.

You can also use the representation of easterners in Hollywood films to examine Foucault’s concepts of discourse and power. Since the orientalist discourse is dominated by the powerful western media industry. "Casablanca" illustrates this well - the Arab setting seems almost devoid of Arabs and Sydney Greenstreet’s Blue Parrot Club presenting an ‘other’ to Rick’s more wholesome American Bar, or the scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Indiana Jones shoots the sword wielding Arab. My favourite example is when the professor in Back to the Future, cries ‘It’s the Libyans’!’ when a van load of manically gun wielding Arabs appears. You can see these clips on Youtube - just click on the titles of the films.

Post-colonialism and Spaces and Places

You can explore post colonialism in Spaces and Places by looking at some British cities. Statues and monuments in London: The Victoria Fountain outside Buckingham Palace has representations of Asia and Africa as exotic figures at the feet of the Queen. Look for images of power, lions and military success. Also the assertion of the classical and medieval roots of British identity in neoclassical buildings such as the National Gallery or Victorian Gothic in the Houses of Parliament. These styles reflect the ‘island race’ Whig narrative of British history which formed part of a dominant national myth in Britain from the mid 19th century and much of the 20th Century. Extracts from Churchill’s History of the English Speaking people or his speeches, illustrate this view of Britain’s imperial destiny. You can look at these buildings and statues as texts and consider the preferred reading (imperial power and destiny), negotiated reading (historical artefacts, tourist locations) and oppositional reading (rejection of imperialism and militarism) Pictures of these places can be found on Google or you could have a day trip to London.

The British Museum is another great place to consider post colonialism- is it a treasure house of imperial plunder in a neoclassical façade, or a high cultural virility symbol asserting our national high minded sensibilities, or part of the theme park London tourist industry. Signifiers of national greatness have shifted their meaning in a post colonial Britain and tend to be refined in terms of heritage (less excluding than national destiny), education (note the redesign of museum and gallery interiors away from glass cases of treasure and curiosity, towards interactive educational resources) and tourism. Tourism neutralises any ideological and potentially excluding connotations like imperialism and redefines places as objects of consumption.

Objects of Desire

To consider objects of desire and post colonialism ask whether the Elgin Marble should be returned to Greece or indeed whether any of the treasures in the British museum which were acquired during Britain’s period of imperial power should be returned to their country of origin. Why does Greece desire them? What do they represent or mean to us?