scholarly journals ‘Art is my language’: Afghan cultural production challenging Islamophobic stereotypes

2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-129
Author(s):  
Bilquis Ghani ◽  
Lucy Fiske
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Open Spaces ◽  
The West ◽  
Popular Imagination ◽  
Afghan Women ◽  
In Transit

Afghans and Afghanistan have, since September 11, risen to prominence in Western popular imagination as a land of tradition, tribalism and violence. Afghan women are assumed to be silent, submissive, and terrorised by Afghan men, who are seen as violent patriarchs driven by an uncompromising mediaeval religion. These Islamophobic tropes also inform perceptions of Afghans seeking asylum. In transit, identities are further reduced; asylum seekers lose even a national identity and become a Muslim threat – criminals, terrorists or invaders. These narrative frames permeate political discourse, media, and reports of non-governmental organisations (seeking donor funds to ‘save’ Afghan women). Drawing on fieldwork in Afghanistan and Indonesia, this article looks at how Afghans in Kabul and Indonesia are using art and other forms of cultural production to challenge over-simplified hegemonic narratives in the West, to open spaces for dialogue and expression within their own communities, and to offer a more nuanced account of their own identities.

Interrogating the Cultural Production of Mexico

2020 ◽  
pp. 48-57
Author(s):  
Brian M. Napoletano
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Art History ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
The West ◽  
Tourist Town ◽  
Mexican State ◽  
Cultural Power ◽  
Del Rio ◽  
Lazaro Cardenas

As part of a deconstruction of national identity, Jennifer Jolly, in her Creating Pátzcuaro, Creating Mexico: Art, Tourism, and Nation Building under Lázaro Cárdenas, analyzes the tourist town of Pátzcuaro in the west-central Mexican state of Michoacán as a microcosm of cultural power in which tourism, art, history, and ethnicity were woven together under the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1934–40).

Aesthetic Dilemmas of Adaptation and the Politics of Subjectivity: Animating the Chinese ClassicJourney to the West

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengcheng You
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
The West ◽  
The Real ◽  
Quest For Meaning ◽  
National Allegory ◽  
Canonical Text ◽  
The Fantastic ◽  
Monkey King

This article reviews four major Chinese animated adaptations based on the classic Journey to the West. It shows how these adaptations, spanning four historical phases of modern China, encapsulate changes in Chinese national identity. Close readings underpin a developmental narrative about how Chinese animated adaptations of this canonical text strive to negotiate the multimodal expressions of homegrown folklore traditions, technical influences of western animation, and domestic political situations across time. This process has identified aesthetic dilemmas around adaptations that oscillate between national allegory and individual destiny, verisimilitude and the fantastic quest for meaning. In particular, the subjectivisation of Monkey King on the screen, embodying the transition from primitivistic impulse, youthful idealism and mature practicality up to responsible stewardship, presents how an iconic national figure encapsulates the real historical time of China.

scholarly journals Conocimiento cultural como base para la construcción de identidad nacional. Un análisis del discurso de la prensa sobre el default de 2014 en Argentina

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-103
Author(s):  
Simone Mwangi
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Identidad Nacional ◽  
Linguistic Resources ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Crisis Events

AbstractEconomic and political crisis situations are interpreted differently in different societies and cultures. What is perceived as a major threat in one society can be experienced as an everyday occurrence in other societies. This shows that crises are not issues that exist independently of people, but that they are to a large extent the result of social interpretations. An example of how a community interprets events as a surmountable challenge, rather than a crisis, is Argentina’s public discourse on the 2014 default. Instead of a discourse that concentrates on economic, political and social problems, the event provoked a political discourse on national identity. The present paper uses the methods of descriptive discourse analysis to study this solution-driven way of handling crisis events. The investigation focuses on the cultural knowledge and discourse traditions used in Argentina to interpret the country’s situation in the summer of 2014. The study analyzes how these cultural and linguistic resources contribute to coping with the situation of default while strengthening national identity.

Counter-hegemony in today's Belarus: dissident symbols and the mythological figure of Miron Vitebskii

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 713-730
Author(s):  
Anastasiya Astapova
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Multiple Functions

Tackling the role of state symbols in negotiating national identity and political development, this research focuses on Belarus where the alternative white-red-white flag became instrumental in protests against the dominant political discourse. Since 1995, oppositional mass media have been reporting about cases of this tricolor being erected in hard-to-reach and/or politically sensitive places. These actions were mainly attributed to some “Miron,” whose identity remained concealed and served as a simulacrum of a national superhero in non-conformist discourse. The image of Miron immediately acquired multiple functions: condemning the Soviet colonial past, struggling for the European future, and creating a nation-state rather than the Russian-speaking civil-state of Belarus. Yet, first and foremost, Miron became a means for contesting the authority of the president who has been in power since 1994. Concentrating on the methods employed for the construction of the counter-hegemonic fakelore project of Miron and its aims, this article explores the vernacular response to its creation.

A Line in the Sea

Race & Class ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suvendrini Perera
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Container Ship ◽  
Royal Navy ◽  
Indonesian Archipelago ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Face ◽  
September 11 Attacks ◽  
The Government

In the week before the attacks in the US 'changed the worldforever', a Norwegian container ship, the MV Tampa, rescued almost four hundred asylum seekers from asinking boat off the Indonesian archipelago. The captain sailed towards Australia, but was refused permission to land by a government declaring that this nation would 'not be held hostage by our own decency'. In the face of UN and international disapproval, the Tampa was boarded by armed troops and forcibly moved out of Australian waters. During the following week, capitalising on widespread general hostility towards Afghanistan and Islam in the wake of the September 11 attacks, the Australian parliament rushed through legislation implementing unprecedented measures to keep out asylum seekers. The Australian government's actions chillingly foreshadowed a wider western reaction. In May 2002, Britain's prime minister Blair proposed a series of initiatives strikingly similar to those adopted by Australia, including the use of the Royal Navy to intercept and turn back asylum seekers and the internment of refugees off-shore on large ships leased by the government. The story of the Tampa, then, is part of an unfolding global story.

scholarly journals Biometrics: constructing 'ideal' subjects and 'aliens' at the Canada-U.S. border

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjana Mandaric
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Research ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Employing critical social research in combination with critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the use of biometrics technology in the citizenship and immigration context with particular emphasis on its application at the Canada-U.S. border. The central argument of thls paper is that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S crossing, the border has become a social filter that separates welcome from unwelcome migrants depending on strategic objectives to include and exclude population groups, which makes them part of a social an economic strategy in the post-September 11 securitized environment. Moreover, the paper takes the position that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S. border, the notion of citizenship is being reconstructed whereby racialized migrants and vulnerable populations will be tremendously affected: most notably, poor migrants from the South as well as refugees and asylum seekers from elsewhere.

scholarly journals Biometrics: constructing 'ideal' subjects and 'aliens' at the Canada-U.S. border

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjana Mandaric
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Vulnerable Populations ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Research ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Strategic Objectives ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Post September 11 ◽  
Refugees And Asylum Seekers

Employing critical social research in combination with critical discourse analysis, this paper examines the use of biometrics technology in the citizenship and immigration context with particular emphasis on its application at the Canada-U.S. border. The central argument of thls paper is that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S crossing, the border has become a social filter that separates welcome from unwelcome migrants depending on strategic objectives to include and exclude population groups, which makes them part of a social an economic strategy in the post-September 11 securitized environment. Moreover, the paper takes the position that through the use of biometrics technology at the Canada-U.S. border, the notion of citizenship is being reconstructed whereby racialized migrants and vulnerable populations will be tremendously affected: most notably, poor migrants from the South as well as refugees and asylum seekers from elsewhere.

scholarly journals The Political Discourse Behind Canada’s Unusually Harsh Detention Practices: The MV Sun Sea Case

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaina Singh
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Analysis Strategy ◽  
The Government

On August 13th 2010, the MV Sun Sea ship carrying 492 Tamil asylum seekers arrived off of the coast of British Columbia. Immediately upon arrival the Tamil asylum seekers were detained for a prolonged period of time, subjected to intensified interrogation techniques, and unfairly questioned even when in possession of identifying documents. This paper examines how the government used political discourse to try and justify the unusually harsh detention of asylum seekers. Through a critical discourse analysis strategy, eight newspaper articles will be analyzed and the theories of securitization, discourse, and orientalism will be used to advance certain political ideologies. The political justifications of detention operate through the theme of the egocentric state, and the theme of categorizing and demonizing asylum seekers. The final theme discussed is the concept of victimization, which will offer an alternate perspective to this paper’s main focus on political discourse.

scholarly journals The securitization of asylum seekers in Canadian political discourse.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajwant Deo
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Refugee Health ◽  
Canadian Charter ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Securitization Theory ◽  
New Policies

This study examines the representation of asylum seekers in Canadian political discourse published between 2009 and 2012. During this time period, Tamil asylum seekers arrived in Vancouver on the Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea. Also in 2010 and in 2012 Bill C-11 and Bill C- 31 were introduced, which resulted in harsh changes to Canada’s asylum system. This study used securitization theory to understand how asylum seekers were presented as threats and the exceptional measures which were implemented to deal with them. It was found that asylum seekers were depicted in a very negative manner where they were accused of abusing the system, burdening the economy, and conspiring with migrant smugglers. This justified number of policies including the designated country of origin policy, mandatory detention for irregular arrivals, and cuts to refugee health care. These new policies were found to be inconsistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

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