Transculturation
A familiar lesson in elementary history might be that a conquered people will generally acculturate into the dominant culture of their conquerors. However, the process of how these two cultures interact is often not that simple. For example, the term transculturation was coined in the 1940s by sociologist Fernando Oritz to describe the process by which a conquered people choose and select what aspects of the dominant culture they will assume (Pratt 589). Unlike acculturation, transculturation recognizes the power of the subordinate culture to create its own version of the dominant culture. In an essay entitled, "The Arts of the Contact Zone," author Mary Louise Pratt argues that transculturation does not have to be confined to the social spaces where disparate cultures intersect; it can be extended to everyday situations, such as the classroom. However, though Pratt recognizes that transculturation can take place on a very personal level, she still fails to discuss the emotional nature of transculturation. An analysis of Derek Walcott's poem, "A Far Cry from Africa," using scholar Homi Bhabha's concept of "mimicry" will give a deeper understanding of Pratt's vision of transculturation by redefining it as a process of personal struggle by which each individual in a subordinate group is moved to choose and select which aspects of the dominant culture he or she will assume.
"A Far Cry From Africa" is the story of a man half African and half English, who is witnessing the death and destruction of his homeland resulting from the English colonization of South Africa. In his description he does not, however, favor one side over the other, but focuses rather on the injustices of both cultures. At the end of the po...
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Works Cited
Bhabha, Homi. "From 'Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse' in the Location of Culture, pp. 85-92." Stanford Presidential Lectures and Symposia
in the Humanities and Arts. 02 March 2000. 15 September 2000. <http://
prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/biblio.html>.
Bradley, Heather M. "Conflicting Loyalties in 'A Far Cry from Africa'". Literature of the Caribbean. The Scholarly Technology Group, Washington and Lee University.
1997. 15 September 2000. <http://landow.stg.brown.edu/post/caribbean/walcott/
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Pratt, Mary Louise. "Arts of the Contact Zone". Ways of Reading. Ed. David
Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 5th ed. Boston: St. Martin's, 1999. 582-596.
Walcott, Derek. "A Far Cry from Africa". Derek Walcott Collected Poems 1948-1984.
New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986. 17-18.
During the late 1950?s and early 1960?s, many African nations were struggling for their independence from Europe. In ?Down at the Cross,? James Baldwin relates this struggle to that of blacks in the United States during the same time period, and there are far more similarities than Baldwin mentions. Although this comparison offers hope, demonstrating the power of blacks over white oppressors, the ongoing European presence in Africa is a painful reminder that independence and freedom are not complete.
The novel The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano exists as an extremely important work in the abolitionist movement in England. As an 18th century narrative written by a former black slave, the novel provides a glimpse into the lives of the African slaves involved in the slave trade as well as the slave traders themselves. Even with the controversy over the authenticity of Equiano’s claims on his origin in Africa and his subsequent voyage through the Middle Passage, this novel serves as a powerfully instructive piece of literature. Throughout the novel, Equiano strives to impress upon the reader a certain set of moral standards or ideals that he desires to instruct the reader about. One such moral ideal that is prevalent throughout the entirety of the novel is Equiano’s construction of the idea of the value and worth of the African slaves, as opposed to the view of the African slaves as simply commodities or objects to be purchased and traded.
Sadker, Myra, David Sadker, and Susan Klein. "The Issue of Gender in Elementary and Secondary Education." Review of Research in Education 17 (1991): 269. JSTOR. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.
Cry, the Beloved Country is such a controversial novel that people tend to forget the true meaning and message being presented. Paton’s aim in writing the novel was to present and create awareness of the ongoing conflict within South Africa through his unbiased and objective view. The importance of the story lies within the title, which sheds light on South Africa’s slowly crumbling society and land, for it is the citizens and the land itself which are “crying” for their beloved country as it collapses under the pressures of racism, broken tribes and native exploitation.
... truly set the political system of America apart from the political system of England. By only looking at the textbook definition of a revolution it can be argued that the revolution truly was not revolutionary, but after the colonists won the war nothing went back to normal. The colonists could not conserve what they had before, but instead had to completely upheave the entire system. Therefore by the definition of what a revolution actually is, allows the American Revolution to be truly revolutionary.
Mary Louise Pratt wrote the essay “Arts of the Contact Zone” with the purpose of explaining that society would benefit if people were exposed to and understood the concept of “contact zones”. She refers to contact zones as social spaces where cultures meet and clash with each other, usually with one culture being dominant over the other. A person living in a contact zone is exposed to two different cultures, two different languages, and as a result is presented with a struggle in each culture to maintain themselves. From being surrounded by several different cultures, people begin to integrate the concept of transculturation—a process in which subordinate cultures evolve by taking things from dominant, more advanced cultures, and make it their own. She also calls to attention the error of assuming that people in a community all speak the same language and all share the same motives and beliefs. Pratt insists that education and society must be reformed in such ways that introduce people to the principles of contact zones in order to gain mutual understanding of each other and acquire new wisdom. In order for this mutual understanding to be achieved, the subordinate cultures that exist need to be able to make their voices heard; this leads to the improvement of society as a whole.
In his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano describes his early life in Africa and the shattering effects of the slave trade. From growing up and learning to be a man under the watchful and loving eye of his mother, to being torn from his family and home and being forced to travel throughout Africa before ultimately finding himself aboard a slave ship headed for America, He gives readers a unique view of life as an African during the 1700s. Many themes are explored in Equiano’s tale, but one cannot ignore the most prominent theme of the evil of slavery and the destruction that ensues.
Klein, Martin A. “French West Indies.” Slavery and Colonial Role in French West Africa. Cambridge:
The society in which classical myths took place, the Greco-Roman society was a very patriarchal one. By taking a careful gander at female characters in Greco-Roman mythology one can see that the roles women played differ greatly from the roles they play today. The light that is cast upon females in classical myths shows us the views that society had about women at the time. In classical mythology women almost always play a certain type of character, that is to say the usual type of role that was always traditionally played by women in the past, the role of the domestic housewife who is in need of a man’s protection, women in myth also tended to have some unpleasant character traits such as vanity, a tendency to be deceitful, and a volatile personality. If one compares the type of roles that ladies played in the myths with the ones they play in today’s society the differences become glaringly obvious whilst the similarities seem to dwindle down. Clearly, and certainly fortunately, society’s views on women today have greatly changed.
The Revolution was a prominent point of change in the lives of early Americans. It provided new freedoms and opportunities with a challenge for the colonists to design a new government for themselves. At the same time it reduced the freedom of the Indians and made little progress for both women and slaves. The Revolutionary war was revolutionary and whether for better or worse it brought about a dramatic change in the lives of those involved. When we know both the positive and negative that came from this war we can fully appreciate this point in our history.
...volution may have influenced the ideals of slavery being unmoral, but it did not abolish it. Very few changes occurred that would essentially help slaves savor the sensation of freedom as the American people did. For women, role changes and equal rights were slow and difficult to acquire. Finally, the unfortunate Native Americans suffered worse than any group in having their land forcibly signed over to the new nation. All things considered, the Revolutionary War was a great victory for every American, but it was not truly a revolution. The war brought about great changes for our developing nation, such as liberty, indispensable allies, new trade connections, and the creation of new governments both at the state and national levels; however, it did not directly change or eliminate the abundant issues that existed before and continued to subsist after.
The path to relativism is an easy one to tread, and the rise of such pseudodisciplines as extreme Afrocentrism is a warning of the distance we have already traveled along it. Fortunately, there are those scholars (such as Lefkowitz) who are prepared to (in the words of William F. Buckley) “stand athwart history yelling stop.” As John Adams noted, “facts are stubborn things,” and they are useful tools to block what appears to be a headlong rush into relativism for esteem’s sake. For that reason, Not Out of Africa is both a cautionary tale and a reminder of the value of genuine, fact-based scholarship.
In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie attempts to use history in order to gain leverage on the present, to subvert the single story stereotypes that dominate many contemporary discourses on Africa. Written in the genre of historical fiction, Adichie’s novel transcends beyond mere historical narration and recreates the polyphonic experiences of varying groups of people in Nigeria before and after the Civil War. She employs temporal distortion in her narrative, distorting time in order to illustrate the intertwining effects of the past and present, immersing deep into the impact of western domination that not only catalyzed the war, but continues to affect contemporary Africa. In this paper, I will analyze her portrayal of the multifaceted culture produced by colonialism – one that coalesces elements from traditional African culture with notions of western modernity to varying degrees. I will argue that Adichie uses a range of characters, including Odenigbo’s mother, Ugwu, Olanna and Kainene, to each represent a point in a spectrum between tradition and modernity. Through her juxtaposition, she undermines the stereotypes that continue to characterize Africa as backwards and traditional, proving instead that colonialism has produced a cross culture where the two are intertwined.
While Collins does a succinct job of examining the economic and political factors that heightened colonization, he fails to hone in on the mental warfare that was an essential tool in creating African division and ultimately European conquest. Not only was the systematic dehumanization tactics crippling for the African society, but also, the system of racial hierarchy created the division essential for European success. The spillover effects of colonialism imparted detrimental affects on the African psyche, ultimately causing many, like Shanu, to, “become victims to the white man’s greed.”
Bibliography w/4 sources Cry , the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is a perfect example of post-colonial literature. South Africa is a colonized country, which is, in many ways, still living under oppression. Though no longer living under apartheid, the indigenous Africans are treated as a minority, as they were when Paton wrote the book. This novel provides the political view of the author in both subtle and evident ways. Looking at the skeleton of the novel, it is extremely evident that relationship of the colonized vs. colonizers, in this case the blacks vs. the whites, rules the plot. Every character’s race is provided and has association with his/her place in life. A black man kills a white man, therefore that black man must die. A black umfundisi lives in a valley of desolation, while a white farmer dwells above on a rich plot of land. White men are even taken to court for the simple gesture of giving a black man a ride. This is not a subtle point, the reader is immediately stricken by the diversities in the lives of the South Africans.