Page 264 - DENG501_LITERARY_CRITICISM_AND_THEORIES

Literary Criticism and Theories

Notes 22.6 Key-Words

1. Hegemony : In the work of the Italian Marxist thinker Gramsci, the word is used to account
for the way in which a ruling class maintains itself in power.
2. Subaltern : Of lower rank.
3. Mimicry : The fact that the colonizer in his/her relationship with the colonized is always
vulnerable to the irreverence and mockery beneath the seeming servility of the
colonised.
22.7 Review Questions

1. What is the main argument of Edward Said’s book Orientalism?
2. How have Foucault’s view on discourse and power influenced Said’s Orientalism?
3. What does Spivak mean by ‘subalternity?’ What distresses her about the condition of women
in colonial societies?
4. What does Bhabha mean by ‘minicry’ in the colonial context?
Answers: Self-Assessment

1. (i)(a) (ii)(a) (iii)(c)
22.8 Further Readings

1. Edward Said, Orientalism. London: Routledge, 1978. Culture and Imperialism.
Lonson: Chatto and Windus, 1993.
2. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Gary Nelson and
Lawrence Grossberg (eds.) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London:
Macmillna, 1998.
3. Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture, London: Routledge, 1994.
4. Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffins (eds) The Empire Writes Back.
London: Routledge, 1989.
5. Robert Young, White Mythologies, London: Routledge, 1990.

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