Saturday, May 15, 2010

Post Modernism (groupwork)

Post Modernism is the most radical of the previous group presentations, by far. That is to say, post modernism removes the idea of confinement, of limited space and information and defies all possibilities.

My part of the presentation, for example, is a good exercise on proving the idea of modernism and post modernism. Take the "Birth of Venus" drawing exercise: the original work is a modern idea of how the birth of Venus came about. Once my group prompted the class to ask of their interpretation of the "Birth of Venus" did the original become post modern. One good example from the exercise was a classmate's (in her idea) lack of effort using text to display the "Birth of Venus" (all on her paper was "Birth of Venus" in type). Little did she know she had created a very constructive and post modern idea of an original piece. That was a turning point for the exercise as what my classmate had thought to be useless, became useful — she had created her own interpretation.

The direction of the post modern presentation as a whole was to illustrate to the class how we as society can make the most recent and current trend or item of interest and create such to make our own. The group presentation, I should say, hoped to illustrate that most everything we encounter can become unique.

What You See Is What You Get

What one sees before them is usually what they expect to receive in return: someone who aids an elderly person across the street may be perceived as nice, for example. But not all is what life seems; we definitely take advantage of others without actually realizing it and in turn, others take advantage of us. Most of society also define their perceived notions and their ways of thinking according to what is taught in a classroom and how media affects them. How does society perceive Orientalism, then? Does the media affect them, or does what is taught by scholars affect them to change their opinion? Edward Said introduced to us the idea of Orientalism and how the “East was a concern for the West on every level: material, political, aesthetic, and spiritual” and “almost a European 'invention'” (Varisco 31). Scholars during the nineteenth century played a factor in determining the Orient: scholars created the East in order to study the East (Dexheimer 1). In the case of Princess Caraboo, the real life situation and the movie interpretation, we can see the Orientalism taking place. What the princess does in her situation is embody the idea of Orientalism.
The term Orientalism, according to Said, is “principally a way of 'defining' and 'locating' Europe's others” (Ashcroft, Ahluwalia 48). An other, as one may define, is one's equal no matter their social class and education. The Orient defines Europe and balances Europe as its counterpart, as both the Orient and Europe are interdependent. That is to say European much of the culture and civilization derives from the Orient, that what is made up by Europeans becomes a part of their way of living — even if such means integrating the Orient into education as well (Dexheimer 1). Europeans went as far as using Art to display such interdependency and influence Orientalism, as one can see from the below example.

This painting, An Egyptian Potter Seller Near Giza by Elisabet Jerichau-Baumann is one prime example of Orientalism during the early nineteenth century. The painting shows an idealized, glorified female potterer intended (or seemingly so) for the male gaze. The male gaze is appropriated by the further glorification of the Orient as seen by Europeans. Such Art and imagery encourage the idealizations the weak Orient needs the strength and power of the West (Sered 1). With paintings and such encouraging the idealization of the Orient, one in the nineteenth century may have believed Europe to be the center of the world; where what is being taught in Europe should be adopted by those elsewhere.
In the movie Princess Caraboo, we see a lonely female, wandering about in odd clothing. She speaks not one word of English and is dressed in outlandish clothing. An aristocratic couple soon discovers her and takes her in as they fancy her — they find the woman intriguing and dub her “Princess Caraboo”. What makes her so intriguing to the couple is the fact that they cannot determine her place of origin: Did the Princess come from India, from China, or from elsewhere? Because they cannot determine her place of origin, the couple are set out to translate her language in some way, and in turn give her a place to stay.What exactly makes Princess Caraboo so interesting to the aristocrat couple? Below you will see a summarized example of the movie and the thoughts of the journalist.

As we can see, the behaviorism the Princess embodies is what some Europeans considered the behaviors of the Orients, making all observers Oriental. For instance, “The woman is both eager to be dominated and strikingly exotic. The Oriental is a single image, a sweeping generalization, a stereotype that crosses countless cultural and national boundaries” (Sered 1). The first observation one can make about Princess Caraboo is the tongue in which she speaks. In today's society, one possibly can conclude that the “language” Princess Caraboo speaks is entirely made up. During the nineteenth century, one would not conclude nor reason against Princess Caraboo's misuse of language and tongue. In fact, one may wonder who would be able to translate what is said and the origin of the language — as seen in the film. Secondly, once Princess Caraboo is in care of the aristocratic couple, does she continue the role of being an exotic Oriental. Princess Caraboo exemplifies an “eager(ness) to be dominated” as the Oriental would define her, even to the point of her bowing (Sered 1).
One finds that the conception of Orientalism does not necessarily mean Europe was lacking in culture or history, but quite possibly because they feared what the East may present to the West. The nineteenth century was a time where science, invention, and industrialization began to arise. One may deduct Europe decided to get ahead of the game, if you will, to stand their ground as the most advanced in the world. This does not mean that Princess Caraboo was the most advanced person in England at the time, but more so she was able to create such a ruse that people believed for months. How those around Princess Caraboo were able to accept her as an Oriental princess can be debated a number of ways. One may posit questions such as: Did the Europeans create their ideas of the Orient in order to remain as the “superior” being, to regain their imperialism? (Ashcroft, Ahluwalia 47) or did they create the Orient out of pure ignorance or trust entirely the words of scholars?
One shall take both stances and apply the concepts to Princess Caraboo. On the viewpoint of the ignorance of Europeans, for instance, may be explained by the cultural racism phenomenon. The concept of cultural racism is “a frame that relies on culturally based arguments […] to explain the standing of minorities in society” (Bonilla-Silva 28). In the nineteenth century, one may suspect that the Orient was created to understand the East and its culture using little information. Cultural racism is created out of the ignorance of others — those who do not see a culture for its worth, but rather what is recognized. The Orient was only created because “myth, opinion, hearsay and prejudice generated by influential scholars quickly assumed the status of received truth” (Ashcroft, Ahluwalia 49). This shows that ignorance does not just start from one's own thoughts, but also how one is influenced by the media and education. If a scholar is misinformed or misinterprets a society's culture, then those who learn from these scholars are also misinformed. In the most extreme cases, such cultural racism can lead some to believe they are more privileged over other races.
Europeans “want” to remain as superiors to others, especially those whose presence (culture, schooling, education) may pose a threat to Europe's standing in the world as “superiors”. Said argues that the West “created a dichotomy, between the reality of the East and the romantic notion of the Orient. The Middle East and Asia are viewed with prejudice and racism” (Deheimer 1). Although learning about the Orient could bring about adverse effects on society's way of thinking (cultural racism), learning may also enhance certain behaviorism. For instance, consider privilege (one shall use white privilege in this example): “[Any person] racialized as 'white' — or as members of the dominant race — receive material benefits from the racial order, they struggle […] to maintain their privileges” (Bonilla-Silva 9). During the era in which Orientalism came about, one can argue (as Said may have) that Europe created the Orient in order regain their standing, revitalize imperialism. The Orient reinforces Europe's standing in the world as the superior, above all. Said continues, “To write about the Arab Oriental world, therefore, is to write with the authority of a nation, and not with the affirmation of a strident ideology but with the unquestioning certainty of absolute truth backed by absolute force” (Sered 1). A European who learns under such pretext will ignorantly live believing, with certainty, that Europeans have the right to define all that is Asian.
By housing Princess Caraboo, the aristocratic couple, the Worralls, enforce the cultural racism approach to the Orient. The couple does not question the Princess enough, rather, the couple accept the Princess in their home. Initially, Princess Caraboo is an unknown and is only deemed important once a scholar (anthropologist in the real life scenario) realizes a part of her language is from the Orient. The Worralls realize what a grand opportunity they have to host such an exotic being — based on the fact that they know nothing of her background and her social class. That being the case, one interesting factor of Princess Caraboo's hosts is that they allowed for Princess Caraboo to stay in their household despite her social class. Princess Caraboo was given a social standing on equal grounds to that of the Worralls; she was, by being an “exotic” from the Orient, raised on a pedestal. The Worralls were vain in their decision to assume anyone who speaks in tongues comes from the Orient. But because they were so conditioned to believe what scholars taught and what images (Art and the like) portrayed, did they only take in Princess Caraboo for such conditioning.
Princess Caraboo, on the other hand, encourages the belief of social class and white privilege. Cultural racism is enforced by way of the Worralls; but through Princess Caraboo, her actions and demeanor encourage white privilege. On the surface, one may find Princess Caraboo as one who is acting as a person from the Orient as exotic. This makes her a person of interest, a person to study as her habits are unique and not like any others. By the Princess embodying such mannerisms, she enforces Orientals. For example, during the scene where the Princess is to shoot a bow and arrow, she hops around as if she is performing some sort of ritual. The Princess herself does not know if what she is doing represents any part of Asia, but continues to act as she pleases. How does her behavior enforce white privilege, then? Princess Caraboo is found as a wanderer and someone with no social standing. She uses the hype of the Orient to her advantage, so she may gain some social class in her society despite portraying herself as an Orient.
The nineteenth century dwelled on the concept of the Orient to the point where Art and the media was involved. Princess Caraboo lived on her throne in the care of the Worralls for months on end because of the Worralls' belief in her (being from the Orient). She spoke no English for those months (whether she attempted to learn English is unknown) and was never questioned about her background once. When the Princess became so exotic, so popular, only then did someone discover her lie. The Princess was found via the media, what one learns from a scholar or the media indeed has adverse effects. Orientalism did not stop at Princess Caraboo, however. The period of Orientalism continues even until now — we may not idealize Asian countries as we once had in previous decades, but some still approach Asia with the same attitude. Observing this, one can hope that Orientalism in today's soceity does not create Orientalists, and one should further hope the scholarly work of Edward Said is taught to avoid disillusionment of the “Orient”.

Works Cited
Ahluwalia, Pal and Bill Ashcroft. Edward Said. New York, New York: Routledge, 2001. WEB.

Dexheimer, Jim. Orientalism. Western Michigan University, 4/29/09. May 15, 2010. SITE

Sered, Danielle. Orientalism. Emory, Fall 1996. Web. May 15, 2010. SITE

Varisco, Daniel Martin. Reading Orientalism: Said and the unsaid. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 2007. WEB.

Yaqoob, Yahira. East meets West — and it's love. The National Newspaper, May 16, 2009. Web. May 15, 2010. SITE

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Love you, love me

There is nothing here to understand — in fact we should stop our attempts in understanding everything we see completely. What one observes of others and sees (on the surface) others’ reactions does not equate how others truly feel. There is no sense of reality; we are lost in our own limbo. The fact that we can share our feelings with one another is debatable. Do we really understand when a person is sad, happy, anxious, loved, or anything in between? What is represented through words is not always reflected in our actions: we take words for granted when we should understand expressions as well.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010


There is more to what we consider the basics of the past, present, and future — there is also the afterlife. Those who do not understand the concept of the afterlife may question if such is a reality or even a possibility. Longinus’s On the Sublime does not deal with the afterlife, per se, but what makes something “delightful” to the audience: how text relates to them. The theory of elevating one’s state of mind is both to captivate and open up a new way of thinking. In the given example of House M.D., the main character Gregory House is one who does not understand the concept of the afterlife. It is only until he experiences a change in events that allows him to question himself.
When faced with something new and unusual, one’s brain takes longer to process such an encounter. The same can be said for Gregory House in the episode No Reason — House finds interest in the patient’s actions of self electrocution and House wonders immediately what was presented to him. This shows the ability to form, by way of the patient, a new interest for the audience: House. At this point in time, the main character does not relate to his patient, or anyone else around him for that matter. House does not understand the concept of the patient’s aim at the afterlife, but begins to create other possibilities to achieve similar results. House now wants to explore how to form results without false positives.
Once House forms ideas of reaching the afterlife, he tries doing so through his own means. He does not attempt to fulfill this sense of a higher elevation of the sublime in any similar pattern the patient does. Rather, House approaches the text using nonsensical methods and does not achieve any enlightenment through his own methods. House fails to do what his patient has achieved twice before him — he has failed to reach any level of enlightenment. House does not comprehend the concept of understanding the afterlife and being enlightened by said understanding, cannot be achieved by false positives. It is only until he speaks to the patient does he understand how he can achieve similar results, thus bringing him to step one closer. House decides upon doing what he can for himself, rather than expecting instant results.
The process one takes in order to achieve any sort of enlightenment or understanding of a new concept is indeed a difficult one. We see House coping with such an idea that there may be more to what he sees on the surface. When House does comprehend the method with which he should approach understanding the afterlife, he is then relieved. This is a point where his understanding becomes one of the sublime — an elevated experience of the self. Proving others wrong caused House to fail with his initial attempts of understanding the afterlife. By removing any doubts and accepting the afterlife, House became — in that instant — an accomplished man with (enlightened) qualified ideas.

Works Cited
Murray. Classical Literary Criticism

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Just text.

How can one define the meaning of text? Does the word stem from another word, such as context, or can an audience absorb the word as itself?

In our January 20th discussion, we were asked to create a theory based on the single-most important “thing” to consider when analyzing text. My response is the many ways text can be interpreted — the audience receives and understands information differently. That includes information that is presented to society via the media in all sorts of outlets: the television, the radio, and the internet. The creator of said text should take into consideration of his or her audience, but this does not mean the creator must adjust accordingly. That said, the creator should acknowledge that text can be lost once viewed by another. All text is valid (whether others do not acknowledge such text) and with the above explanation, we have “receivism”.