Reflection #13

May 10, 2011

           There was much diversity spoken today in class regarding Orientalism, imagined communities, the subaltern, and finally, the cyborg and post human. I will touch briefly on the first three topics mentioned.

The year of 1978 was the redefining point for the word “Orientalism” by Edward Said, a Palestinian-American scholar who “perceived as a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the East” (Windschuttle, Edward Said 2). This was Said’s central idea of Orientalism. He felt that a Eurocentric prejudice was prevalent toward the Arabo-Islamic peoples and their culture because of “a long tradition of false and romanticized images of Asia and the Middle East in Western culture” (Windschuttle, Edward Said 2). Therefore, this was the “justification for Europe and the US’ colonial and imperial ambitions” (Windschuttle, Edward Said 2). In conclusion, Said claims that Western writings depict the Orient “as an irrational, weak, feminized ‘Other,’ contrasted with the rational, strong, masculine West” (Orientalism, Edward Said 3). He feels that the creation of a “difference” between the East and the West is accredited to unchanging “essences” within the Oriental formulation.
           The Imagined Community was coined by Benedict Anderson stating “that a nation is a community socially constructed, which is to say imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group” (Anderson, Imagined Communities 1). They are limited and sovereign. This concept was conceived at the time when Enlightenment and Revolution were replacing religion with literature. Literature held its part in the Imagined Communities and their creation was made possible because of “print-capitalism.” There is an essential interplay between fatality, technology, and capitalism in the formation of a nation.
           Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak introduced “Can the subaltern speak?” She referred to nuances, one of which was the banning of Sati involving race and power dynamics. Some critics state “that the sati-performing women cannot speak because they die in the ritual-suicide” (Spivak 1). Spivak’s description of herself is “a practical Marxist-feminist-deconstructionist” (Spivak 1). She is known for her stylized speech; however, such speech cannot save a women on a suicide mission!
Word Count: 346

Works Cited

“Benedict Anderson.” En.wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, 17 April 2011.
Web. 15 May 2011.
“Edward Said.” En.wikipedia.com. Wikipedia, 13 May 2011.
Web. 15 May 2011.
“Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.” En.wikipedia.com. Wikipedia,
12 May 2011. Web. 15 May 2011.
Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of theory and Criticism.
New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2010. Print.
“Orientalism.” En.wikipedia.com. Wikipedia. 11 May 2011.
Web. 14 May 2011.