Weekly Post #9 - The Final Day

This class has proved to be educational and fun, despite what you may think Dr. Wexler. For me, personally, I have been truly grateful that I was able to get into this class to complete my requirements for my degree. Thanks for everything.
This class was probably easier this time around for me because not as many theorists were covered, and were given the assignment of this blog to help us understand the theories better. In the past, I was never given such an assignment that allowed me to see my own understanding of what I was learning, thank you for that.

Analysis #7 - Post-Colonial Theory and Said

Post-colonial theory's main trademark is discovering identity. Post-colonial theory arose from countries that once were colonies and received their freedom or in fact still remain under the rule of another country. It deals with national identity, and attempting to rediscover or uncover that which was lost as the result of being ruled by an outside government.

This theory effects many countries all over the world  that have attempted or are attempting to make themselves unique from the government that one occupied them and ruled over them. One example could be South Africa. For many years the white people of the country ruled over the blacks and kept firm control over almost every aspect of life, what was on television, in the papers, what was taught in schools, what books and films were read and shown. It took but a few to stand up, say 'no' and attempt to change this brutal rule.

Many people outside the country knew little of what it was like to live in this small country. In an attempt to change the view of the country, many risked their lives to change it. Though these changes were not always for the better, the country experiencing what is sometimes referred to as "brain drain", referring to the high crime rate of various kinds, both violent and deadly, including making the country second in line by the United Nations for murder, and first for rapes and assaults per capita from 1998-2000 following a compiled survey.

Even gaining freedom from being colonized and tyrant like rule didn't bring peace to this small nation.

The country though it became a democracy to rejoin the United Nations after getting kicked out, fell into chaos. Even attempting to reestablished cultural and national identity from before British rule, the country still has a lot of work to do.

Edward W. Said saw that imperialism wasn't necessarily a way to bring the world about to the British way of thinking as he states in Culture and Imperialism, dealing with post-colonialism or post-imperialism:
"No, cultural forms like the novel or the opera do not cause people to go out and imperialize--Carlyle did not drive Rhodes directly, and he certainly cannot be "blamed" for the problems in today's southern Africa--but it is genuinely troubling to see how little Britain's great humanistic ideas, institutions, and monuments, which we still celebrate having the power ahistorically to command our approval, how little they stand in the way of the accelerating imperial process. We are entitled to ask how this body of humanistic ideas co-existed so comfortably with imperialism, and why--until the resistance to imperialism in the domain, among Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, developed--there was little significant opposition or deterrence to empire at home" (p 1889, Said).
Britain, at the start, had the idea of simply growing their power, but instead, caused civil unrest, and slowly destroyed cultures and societies in their quest to gain as much land as possible. Even when colonies were decolonized, not all those places  entirely recovered. Many fell to pieces and are trying to pick up the pieces as they try to move towards the future.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.

Analysis #6 - Feminism and Butler

First off, feminism is a difficult subject to par down to a simple analysis, without getting to far in depth. Butler's most influential book, Gender Trouble, takes the misconceptions of feminism and goes into depth about the distinction between sex and gender. While sex is biological and gender is a social construction, but society places them separately rather than as one.
This opens the argument about what are the biological differences and the social differences between man and woman. Before the 20th century, where women began to exert themselves beyond social norms, more than before, women were considered the "fairer sex", in essence the "weaker sex". Though there is then the argument about the fact that the female body has to deal with a great deal more after puberty than a male body does. Menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, etc. These "trials" are some of the more painful, as well as natural incidences in a woman's life that men never experience. Despite these well known facts, women were held in a position that kept them from having the same power as men outside the home, but at times not even giving much if any power within the home. A woman was supposed to act a certain way, dress a certain way, behave a certain way, but were never allowed to make decisions like the men in their lives did. This even went to the point that women had to publish their writings under pseudonyms so that their work would simply be published.
In today's society, many women now hold positions both in the home and at work that once belonged many times to men, bring much equality to the two sexes and genders.
Towards the end of Gender Trouble, Butler brings up the fact that gender has no real factuality:
 "Gender can be neither true nor false, neither real nor apparent, neither original nor derived. As credible bearers of those attributes, however, genders can also be rendered thoroughly and radically incredible" (p. 2553, Butler).
Such theories on feminism alone can be wide and varied. Even books like American Psycho, later made into a film, are more often than not looked upon as plays upon women, as having no real value to society, since they were either presented as "Barbies" in the form of Patrick's fiancee or as prostitutes. This is but one take on the subject, as are many of the takes on theories by theorists the world over.

Works Cited
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. Print.