Orientalism

Aeschylus. The Persians. Prentice Hall, 1970.

Gruen, Erich S. “Rethinking the Other in Antiquity.” Princeton University Press eBooks, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400836550.

Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. Penguin UK, 2016.

I would like to combine this week’s reading and the important psychoanalytic theory of the Other with the basic position I stated last week. Sans the tedious theoretical elaboration of the Mirror Stage, the conclusion is simple: one subject can only see himself from the Others’ eyes.

In the world of postcolonial capitalism, it is difficult to debate the place of an atomized subject in the world. Both definitions of womanhood and of the East inevitably fall into essentialism, which is an extremely complex issue, as Said draws out in her essay. Questions like “what is a woman” and “what is East Asia” inevitably involve discourse and cultural oppression.

Next, I would like to ask a question that has haunted me for a long time: are the triggers behind cyber-postmodernism and neoliberalism irreconcilable contradictions inherited from the above-mentioned post-colonialism? To illustrate, Cyber-postmodernism is a widespread and frequent phenomenon. Its purpose is to negate, and it negates to negate. Postmodernist art denies everything, just like the bananas taped to the wall in that art gallery. Yet its very existence is impotent; it cannot truly negate anything, but instead becomes an abstract and purely hedonistic pleasure.

The intention is to express “cultural tolerance” in films, novels, etc., but the means used is to encapsulate post-colonial ideology into these cultural expressions, is it really inclusive? For example, the depiction of Wakanda in the movie Black Panther and the depiction of Chinese cultural identity in Shang-Chi. Even the very existence of the concept of Captain America is a result of the aftermath of post-colonialism. If I were to go into detail, Wakanda, a fictional nation with an extremely high level of technology, chooses its supreme leader through a deadly force duel. This far-fetched and chaotic description is precisely postmodernism’s attempt to reconcile the contradictions left behind by post-colonialism. And this phenomenon, itself, is the result of Orientalism ideology.

All attempts at so-called cultural inclusion and equality within a colonialist perspective are inherently contradictory. This culture sees the human being as something inhuman, as a polymer of some impure concept. The resistance to postcolonialism is not simply to distinguish between the I and the Other, but to essentially abolish the I and the Other, while of course retaining the specific attributes of both sides. Marx’s classic statement, articulated in Theses On Feuerbach, is clear enough: “man…is the ensemble of the social relations”. Against the typical discriminatory works of culture such as The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, the human being, any human being, is treated as a purely individual person. There is no difference between you and me, we are all human beings first and foremost.

But how does that work, and can it really work? Or am I dreaming? I myself don’t know exactly where the left’s path leads. Failed, all of it.