Year: 2014
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: (Re-)Mediating OrientalismIf postcolonial studies is to survive in any meaningful way, it needs to absorb itself far more deeply with the contemporary world, and with the local circumstances within which colonial institutions and ideas are being moulded into the disparate cultural and socioeconomic practices which define our contemporary 'globality.' (Loomba qtd. in Lau and Mendes 256-57) Ania Loomba wrote these lines in 1998.Since then, the world has transformed in unprecedented ways.Wars have erupted; natural disasters occurred; 9/11 has forever changed the definition of the word terrorism.These and other events continue to resonate in global discourse fostered by the accelerating speed of mass-mediated communication.Postcolonial literature and life writing in particular are usually not considered main actors in this discourse.As the analysis of contemporary Arab American life writing in this study demonstrates, this notion has to be revised.Autobiographies, even in classical print format, indeed constitute media which specifically address the major issues uniting and dividing the "contemporary world" Loomba mentions.They address "cultural and socioeconomic practices" as well as many other pressing issues by drawing on unique narrative registers.This allows the media audience to notice the "globality" of seemingly local or regional conflicts.As Loomba also urges her readers, it is high time for postcolonial, cultural, and Literary Studies alike to integrate this function into its theoretical horizon.
Source: transcript Verlag eBooks
Author: Silke Schmidt
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2485799559