Intro to A Season of Migration to the North

How does political policy shape conception of the “other”?How does colonialism shape cultural and personal identity?How can literature revise misconceptions?

About the text… Written in Arabic by popular

Sudanese author Tayeb Salih Published in 1966 in Beirut

after most Arab and African nations had gained autonomy from European colonial rule Sudan: free for a decade Congo: free for six years (Heart

of Darkness) Algeria: free for less than a year

(The Stranger) An exploration of the issues of

Colonialism and Post-Colonialism

About the Sudan… Divided into an eastern

and western half by the Nile River

Was an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, separated into North Sudan and South Sudan

The majority of its citizens practice Islam although during British rule this was strongly discouraged

Foreign relations with Sudan are quite troubled because of their radical stance on Islam and questionable human rights practices in Darfur.

About the plot… Opens from the perspective of an

unnamed narrator who has just returned to his Sudanese village after earning his doctorate in English Poetry in London.

He is intrigued by a “mystery man” named Mustafa Sa’eed who has come to live in his town.

Mustafa Sa’eed “drowns in the Nile” and the narrator spends the rest of the novel trying to understand who he really was.

Sub-plot: Bint Hosna (Mustafa Sa’eed’s wife)

About the “HOW”…

First person from the unnamed narrator’s perspective No chapter breaks Frame story through flashbacks—perspective shifts

happen via section breaks and quotation marks Circular time Circular referencing Symbolic settings:

The Nile (and the directions that it flows) The narrator’s small town Khartoum, the capital city London and Victoria Station Importance of direction: north, south, east, west

Foil characters: Mustafa Sa’eed and the unnamed narrator

Allusions to Othello and Heart of Darkness

Thematic Ideas The effects of

colonialism Navigating a post-

colonial world Clash between social

traditions and social modernity

Women and their power, or lack thereof

The hero’s journey into the unknown

“Otherness”

Childes and Williams:“An Introduction to Post-Colonial

Theory” Without reading the article, what did you

know about Post-Colonial Theory/Literature?

Based on the article, what are answers to the following: When is the post-colonial? Where is the post-colonial? Who is the post-colonial? What is the post-colonial? What are some of the BIG ISSUES of PoCo

Theory? In other words, why is it so darn controversial???

PoCo Terms

Post-Colonial: Refers to the time period after colonial rule has been suspended.

Colonialism: the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory.

Empire: Regarding colonialism, it is the ruling power. Westernization: The process by which non-Western (“Western”

being Europe and USA) countries come under or adopt Western culture in regards to technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, language, philosophy, and/or values.

Imperialism: The creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship based on domination and subordination.

Hegemony: An imperial power rules a subordinate state through indirect power (the “threat of a threat”).

Globalization: Processes of international integration arising from increasing human connectivity and interchange of worldviews, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.

Orientalism Edward Said—1978 One of the most

important theories tied to Post-Colonialism

Key Terms The Orient: Signifies a system of representations framed by political

forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, consciousness, and empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien (“Other”) to the West.

Orientalism: “A manner of regularized writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient.” It is the image of the “Orient” expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship.

Latent Orientalism: The unconscious, untouchable certainty about what the Orient is. It’s basic content is static and unanimous. The Orient is seen as separate, eccentric, backward, silently different, sensual, and passive. It has a tendency towards despotism and away from progress. It displays feminine penetrability and supine malleability. Its progress and value are judged in terms of, and in comparison to, the West, so it is always the Other, the conquerable, and the inferior.

Manifest Orientalism: What is spoken and acted upon. It includes information and changes in knowledge about the Orient as well as policy decisions founded in Orientalist thinking. It is the expression in words and actions of Latent Orientalism.

The Oriental The person represented

by Orientalist thinking. A single image, a

sweeping generalization, a stereotype that crosses countless cultural and national boundaries.

The man is depicted as feminine, weak, yet strangely dangerous because he poses a threat to white, Western women.

The woman is eager to be dominated and strikingly exotic.

Origins of Orientalism Idea was formulated originally to facilitate

Western conquests—colonialism!!! First Orientalists: 19th century scholars

translated “Oriental” writings into English to aid in conquests. “By knowing the Orient, the West came to

OWN it.” Orient=object/passive; West=scholars/active

One vast, multi-faceted region becomes a single “Orient” that is a complete social construct of the West. It exists solely for and its identity is defined entirely by Orientalist scholars.

Depicted in sexual terms: the weak, feminine Orient awaits the dominance of the West.

How does such a discourse facilitate and perpetuate colonialism?

Contemporary Orientalism

Focuses on the “Arab” Jot down what you think of when you

first hear the following words: Arab Muslim Historian

Through contemporary Orientalism, “Arab” is now widely constructed as irrational, menacing, untrustworthy, anti-Western, dishonest, and prototypical.

Our contemporary crisis is that such ideas are backed by political policy and powerful Western institutions, and thus they are unquestionably accepted as “truth” and thereby remain unchallenged by the masses.

“One would find this kind of procedure less objectionable as political propaganda—which is what it is, of course—were it not accompanied by sermons on the objectivity, the fairness, the impartiality of a real historian, the implication always being that Muslims and Arabs cannot be objective but that Orientalists…writing about Muslims are, by definition, by training, by the mere fact of their Westernness. This is the culmination of Orientalism as a dogma that not only degrades its subject matter but also blinds its practitioners.”—Edward Said

SO WHAT?!?

A rejection of Orientalism… Equals a rejection of racial and religious prejudices. “Eliminates greed as a primary motivating factor in

intellectual pursuit.” Erases the line between the West and “The Other.”

How do we fix this? “Narrative” instead of “Vision” Complex history allows for dynamic human experience Does not deny differences, but evaluates them in a

critical, objective manner Focus on smaller, more culturally consistent regions Give the “Oriental” a voice rather than studying from

afar