Identities and the Media: Post-colonialism & Orientalism

Orientalism: blog tasks

To complete our work on post-colonial theory, work through the following tasks:

1) Watch the opening of Yasmin (2004) again. Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?

 

- The opening clip to Yasmin offers both negative and positive views of British Muslims. IT challenges Edward Said's theory of orientalism by showing us various clips of Yasmin the main character going to work, conforming to society through things like going to the pub and cracking jokes with her co-worker. There are also clips of another Muslim man who works at a garage going about his daily life without disturbing the locals. This shows very positive representations of British Muslims. However this is challenged through clips of a man in his home, who is seen to be waking up late suggesting that he doesn't have work. He also is seen making his morning tea outside in the back garden instead of the kitchen which shows that he is uncivilised and reinforces the theory of orientalism. Another way the theory is challenged is through the fact that the Muslims man who found graffiti on his door and when Yasmin enters the pub and receives stares for ordering orange juice. This can all suggest that white British people are portrayed as uncivilised.

2) Summarise the three theorists we have looked at this week: Alvarado, Fanon and Said.

Alvarado - Racial representation in mainly black people are Exotic, Dangerous, Humorous and Pitied.

Fanon - Putting on the white mask - infantilise, Primitive, de-civilise and Essentialise.

Said - Uncivilised vs. civilised. (them and us, Theirs and ours)

 3) Finally, choose ONE clip for EACH of the theorists and explain how you could apply that theory to the clip. Pick your clips from YouTube but feel free to use TV, film, music video or advertising - whatever you think is most powerful and relevant. Embed the clips in your blog before writing your analysis under each clip.

ALVARADO

This links to the theory as it shows them being presented as pitied. This is due to the fact that you can see the dangerous conditions that they are living in. They use new born babies as a way to emphasise that feeling of sympathy for the refugees. This gets progressively more intense once it switched from scenes of the camp to scenes of when they are arriving at the shore by the rocks where the waves are crashing and there are many difficulties with the refugees whilst bringing them in.

FANON

Black lightening is a TV series that centres around black gangs and drug dealing and attempting to reform the society. This links to the representation of black people as Fanon's de-civilised as they are a lot of scenes with gangsters and a lot of emphasis on gangs. However this representation is also challenged by black characters being represented as the opposite more civilised. The main character is the head of a school and is wearing a suit and is well put together compared to the gangs. This highlights the phrase 'putting on the white mask.'

SAID

This clip is the opening song to the film 'Aladdin' called 'Arabian Nights'. In the clip you see that the original lyrics had been changed from “Oh I come from a land, from a faraway place, where the caravan camels roam, where they cut off your ear, if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home”. This was then changed to "where its flat and immense and the heat is intense.." Due to the fact that it gained a largely outraged response from the Arab audience. This is evidence of the ideas of orientalism in the sense that the east is portrayed as uncivilised and violent. This shows that it is a deeply-rooted perception as this has been placed in a song meant for children as it is in a Disney movie.