Anu N Govind, Assignment 2

  

Culture and Imperialism

                 Culture and Imperialism are two terms that are interdepended. During the colonization the European culture was widely acclaimed in the non- European world and their imperialist culture were forced upon us. Culture is the part of imperialism. During the colonization the culture of the colonized people gets oppressed. Edward Said look upon the culture and imperialism in a different perspective. When he published the orientalism he thought about the relation between the culture and empire. The text culture and imperialism which was published in 1993.Through this text Said tries to build a relation between culture and imperialism.

“My method is to focus as much as possible on individual works, to read them first as great products of the creative and interpretive imagination, and then to show them as part of the relationship between culture and empire.”

In this text he talks about many texts and then he creates a connection between the text and the Imperialism. In this text Edward said argues the impact of the main stream culture mainly the European novelist on nineteenth and early twentieth century on colonialism and imperialism. There always has a tradition in the European world that to degrade the cultures the third world countries. Many of the European novelist represent the African, Carribean, Indian culture are as some kind of barbaric culture. The striking notion that created about the east was ‘Mysterious East’. There was a  distinction in the European world that Third world countries are not like the European world. The third world countries people mainly understood of violence and misbehave. So the Europeans decide they have to be ruled.  Along with that culture resistance also had happened during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century in Algeria, Ireland, and Indonesia. Through this text Edward said discuss the imperial culture in the wide pattern and cultural resistance, nationalist culture.

  In the beginning said tries to look upon the word ‘culture’ in the ‘Culture and Imperialism’. According to the Edward said ‘Culture’ is

“First of all it means all those practices, like the arts of description, communication, and representation, that have relative autonomy from the economic, social, and political realms and that often exists in aesthetic forms, one of whose principal aim is pleasure.”

Edward said believes that the literary text which published during that time also a factor in widening the imperial attitude and imperialistic culture throughout the world. Edward Said explains imperialism as a “ he practice, the theory, and the dominating of the metropolitan centre that rules a distant territory”.

Imperialism is originated during the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century. The England and France were the country which dominated all over the world. The first world war and the Second World War also paved the way for imperialism in the world.

Edward Said point out that the novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and described it as ‘prototypical modern realistic novel’ about a European which conquering a non-European world. The text ‘ Robinson Crusoe gave a particular importance to the creation of empire. Edward Said says that there is influence of the narrative in imperialism and colonization.

“stories are at the heart of what explorers and novelists say about strange regions of the world; they also become the method colonized people use to assert their own identity and the existence of their own history”

The story of the land and who colonized it, a who owned it are represented in the narrative. During that time the Europeans held a power in narrative. The text which published during that time also talks about colonization.

“The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

There are also certain narratives which talks about the emancipation from the colonizing. In that narratives the narrator cast off the imperialism. The protagonist in these narratives are fighting for the nationalist culture, equality , and for human community.

   The Second form of culture was, according to Mathew Arnold,

“culture is a concept that includes a refining and elevating element, each society's reservoir of the best that has been known and thought”

Mathew Arnold talks about the culture as a pure kind of thing and it should be refined and in perfect manner. Mathew Arnold says that the text of Dante Shakespeare which is the form of narrative which highlighted their culture. There culture are refined form of thing and developed through these narrative. The culture of Europeans were considered as high culture and they began to consider other cultures as barbaric. In the second sense culture is a thing which the political and ideological cause one another. Culture is something which inherited in the text of their own nations. Through the text of Shakespeare, dante their form of ‘high culture’ was defined. Like, through the text of their nations also inherited their national culture. While colonizing the colonized world were conscious about the high culture. The Europeans were considered the culture of the third world countries were barbaric. They introduced the text like Shakespeare or Dante as high form of culture. The writers like Ruskin Bond, Thackeray, Carlyle are relegated the other cultures and they think about the so called “refined culture” and they considered it as ‘High culture’. These writers were degraded the other cultural form. The main intention of the colonization was the based on the profit and looting the gold and the precious items from the nation.

   In the novel ‘Great expectations’ by dickens, most of the dickens novels were dealing with metropolitan function of the British. The other books are Robert Hughes's magisterial The Fatal Shrwe and Paul Carter's the road to botany bay. These novels are not only story but an a history of colonization in Australia. During the eighteenth century Australia were established as one of the penal colony which criminals were transport into the Australia. These are planned moves to create a colony in Australia. The novel ‘Road to botany bay’ also talks about the same instance and colonization of Europeans in Australia. The text ‘ Great expectations also showing a imperialist attitude  and about the imperialist culture. Most of the dickens characters have a secure and normal connection with the empire.  

  By the arrival of Conrad, Kipling, and Gide, and loti during the nineteenth century also paved the way for the imperialism. In the novel Conrad’s ‘Nastramo’ which set in the independent central American republic also talks about the imperialism and their form of high culture. In the novel ‘Holroyd’ by Conrad also talk about the imperialism which they are high cultured people so they are bound to lead the others. Conrad were represented as the forerunner of western views of the third world which we can find in the novelists like V.S Naipaul, Robert stone, Graham Greene and theoreticians of imperialism like Hannah Ardent who gave analysis of non-European world and praising the European culture. Conrad is one these kind of writer who view the world through the eyes of the western man and write novel in that perspective. Conrad never look upon the other cultures and the other way of life and histories. In his novel the dominant was the western way of life and west power to dominate all over the world. He considered the form of culture as a barbaric kind of culture and he has no idea about the third world countries culture and the way of life. He believed that anti-imperialist movement was a corrupted movement. The novel ‘Nostromo’ and the characters in the novel Gould and Holyrod are the elements of the imperialist attitude. According to Conrad,

“We Westerners will decide who is a good native or a bad, because all natives. have sufficient existence by virtue of our recognition. We created them, we taught them to speak and think, and when they rebel they simply confirm our views of them as silly children, duped by some of their Western masters”

Conrad was one of the creature of the western world who praising and degrading the Third World Cultures. He considered the third world Countries were people have to be directed by them and they should be dominated by them. Apart from Conrad V S Naipaul’s ‘A Bend in the river’, Graham Greene’s ‘The quite American’ are also the text who widely spreading the imperialist attitudes. In the novel ‘ Nostromo’ by Conrad in which he against the anti- imperialist movement, he argue that the source of the signification of the world action and life is in the west. According to this view they think that there is no life history and culture in the other parts of the world to speak without representing the west.

  After a certain time they began to think about representing of  the  west. They were conscious about the irony of the Conrad view of Non-European world. After the decolonization the non- European writers like Frantz Fanon, Amflcar Cabral, C.L.R. James, Walter Rodney, after the -novels and plays of Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Garda Marquez, and many others deconstructed the western world view upon the non-western world.

          The world has changed after the time of Conrad and dickens, the voice of minorities began to hear. The imperialism has changed to a new type. The flow of people into the European countries has creates a new kind of imperialism. After the imperialism the people began to flow into the European countries and now mixed group were living in the European countries other than the whites. So the concept of the imperialism has deconstructed. One of the main achievements of the imperialism is all the worlds unite into one even though there is a distinction between the West and East. Even though the concept of the imperialism had gone, the Europeans gave still gave education to the new generation as their culture is refined and pure than the other.

 Edward said adopted the method of analysing the text as aesthetic product first and then built the connection between the text and the empire. Even though there are many imperialist countries Said discussed only about the British, French, and American. During this narrative also played their part and they have wide history about the narratives. Apart from the other imperialist countries British, America, and France have a culture of centrality. America came to be Imperialist country after the Second World War during the second half of the twentieth century.

          The text culture and imperialism is talking about the history of the imperialism and its also about the eastern world. After the cold war, United States emerged as the supreme power the imperialist force began to rise same as the resistance towards the imperialism.  After the orientalism by said it had made big impact in the Arab countries Lila Abu-Lughod's Veiled Sentiment.r, Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam, Fedwa Malti-Douglas's Woman's Body, Woman's World are widely discussed. Like the voice of the minorities that is the voice of the third world country should hear.

  After the cold war the United States emerged as the supreme power. During the nineteenth century the cultural resistance has increased same as the imperialism raised. In the United States itself they began to distinguish people into nativism and separatism. The united States has never considered the culture of other people. Western Imperialism and third World Countries are mutually dependent but they discriminate based on the culture. According to them culture is not monolithic and it cannot be integrated into one. According to said culture is monolithic and culture is not a particular term for west. After the cold war, the United States began to think about their identity in the world. During the time of the colonization itself there is concept in the west that ‘us’ and ‘them’.  According to the Edward said there is no concept of ‘us’ and ‘them’. American identity is the identity that the Americans were conscious about, there is large flow of immigrants into the most of the European world now there is mixed than a unique culture.  they consider the others are nomadic and they don’t belong to their culture. According to the Edward Said there is no unique culture in the world. All cultures are involved each other and inter dependent. No culture is pure and impure, all kind of culture is hybrid, homogenous and extra ordinarily differentiated.

The situation of the contemporary modern America is of modern Arab World. The modern American school is teaching about the uniqueness of their culture and tradition. This will cause another episode of imperialism throughout the world. Even though there are many immigrants in the America they are separating their culture and the immigrant culture. According to Said culture should not separate it should be unify into one whole. Every culture is mutually influenced so there is no concept of the unique culture. In the contemporary society there is multi culture in every country, so culture is monolithic.

Through this text ‘culture and imperialism’ Edward Said discussing about impact of the literraty text in the imperialism. Many texts of dickens, Conrad are widely discussed about the imperialist attitudes. This text also discuss about the book which deconstructed the concept of western view of the East. According to Edward Said culture is not a unique neither for East nor for West. Every form of culture is mutually influenced and involved each other. There is no uniqueness to the culture.