ENG370H1 Lecture Notes - Totalitarianism, Antonio Gramsci, Civil Society
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Monday September 17, 2012
Edward Said “Orientalism”
Book Cover
Painting by Jean-Leon Gerome called “The Snake Charmer”
Is something that will attract the reader’s attention
Represents a foreignness that isn’t necessarily supposed to be the Orient but
shows how different the worlds are nonetheless
Key Questions
When was/is the postcolonial?
o It doesn’t have clear boundaries because, for the most part, it is defined
based on perspective. Some people feel that they are still in a colonial
period, while others believe that they are in a neo-colonial period.
Where is it/Which countries may be said to be ‘postcolonial’?
o This is also contested generally. For some it includes Canada, New
Zealand, and Australia. For most, it includes India, Pakistan, Africa, and
the Caribbean.
White settler colonies have a slightly different relationship to
their former Empire.
What is ‘transnationalism’?
o Often used to describe the movement of goods, products, material,
thought, art, the way in which some people live in a world that is not as
guarded by borders. Although there is more freedom in regards to
movement and migration, there is also a tighter control on it so that it
stays that way.
Theoretical Contexts
Marxism
o Inflects Spiervack’s writing in particular in regards to class
Poststructuralism (Foucault)
o Notion of discourse, panoptic guard of society
Feminist Theory
o An exchange between two schools of thought.
o Talks about matters and notions of identity that are highly gendered.
Breaking open the idea of fixed gender identity
Queer Theory
o Post-postcolonial in a sense
o Has recently become a subject of interest by emphasizing the importance
of sexuality
o Foreignness was often eroticized by those who went there
Sexual relations between those of difference
races/cultures/ethnicities
Psychoanalysis