Feminist Occidentalist Discourse in ‘Shehrazad Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems’ by Fatima Mernissi

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-46
Author(s):  
Bitari Wissam
Keyword(s):  
Gender Relations ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Hegemonic Discourse ◽  
Fatima Mernissi ◽  
Democratic Discourse ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Postcolonial Feminist

Occidental discourses tend to revise orientalist images about the orient. Many authors have taken the responsibility of giving a new voice to the occident and among those is Fatima Mernissi. In this regard, this paper aims at discussing the shift that has marked the writings of Fatima Mernissi with a particular focus on her book, ‘Shehrazad Goes West: Different Cultures, Different Harems’. It is undeniable that Fatima Mernissi‘s thoughts have known a radical change in terms of ideology and discourse. ‘Shehrazad Goes West’ seems to promote an Occidentalist discourse that isn’t based on appropriating orientalist rhetorical images of the orient but rather on revising/ reconsidering the tropes of essentialism, dehumanization and fixity that Orientalist texts usually opt for. From an auto-orientalist discourse that Mernissi advocated in her narrative Dreams of Trespass, we move to another discourse that manifests itself in ‘Shehrazad Goes West’, which is Occidentalism. In this article, based on a postcolonial feminist approach, I argue that Fatima Mernissi uses another approach of occidentalism in her construction of Western gender relations and the space of Western Harem. Instead of constructing a counter-hegemonic discourse to orientalism that based on misrepresenting the “other” and denying their voices, Eastern representation of the West in ‘Shehrazad Goes West’ does not keep with the same rhetoric of orientalism; rather it dismantles that logic which victimized people of the East and replaces it with a humane vocabulary. Moreover, the Occidentalist approach appropriated in the book does not only target the occident but also the orient resulting on what Abdelkbir Khatibi calls “double critiques”. The significance of this paper lies in highlighting such a potentially inclusive and democratic discourse that would counterbalance the politics of othering inherent in the discourse of orientalism.

Language and Literacy: what writing does to Language and Mind

1996 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Effects ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
The West ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Different Cultures

With the ascendance of new information technologies, the significance of writing has, it seems, slipped from view, in spite of the fact that the conceptual and cognitive implications of the newer technologies is a matter of enthusiastic speculation rather that serious research. On the other hand, it is now reasonably well established that the invention of the first “information” technology, namely writing, has had a profound effect on the ways in which we think about language, the mind, and the world, effects which have taken millenia to unfold. “Effects” is perhaps too strong a term as it is less a matter of how technology affects people than a matter of the ways in which people in different cultures have used and applied the technology and the ways they have altered the technology to suit their purposes. In the West, some of these uses have involved institutional change; thus, to make use of a technology such as writing requires the development of monasteries, schools, and other institutions. Indeed, some of the cognitive effects we usually attribute to schooling are better thought of as consequences or implications of literacy.

scholarly journals Il multiculturalismo e il pluralismo religioso fra illusione e realtà

2006 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Summer School ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Contemporary Religion ◽  
The One ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
International Summer School

Multiculturalism confirms that peoples of different roots can coexist beyond the boundaries of race, language and religion. In recent times, with the accentuation of new migratory processes, the West has however come to find itself between integration and conflict. New political and religious fundamentalisms have emerged that are threatening the encounter between different cultures. On the one side is fear, and on the other the values of tolerance and respect. This book contains a number of reflections presented at the XII International Summer School on Religions (San Gimignano, 27-31 August 2005) organised by the International Centre for Studies on Contemporary Religion.

Descending into the Indeterminate State between the Determinate

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Megumi Yama
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Childhood Memories ◽  
The West ◽  
Native Culture ◽  
Folk Tale ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
The World ◽  
Different Cultures

Abstract When Jung received the manuscript of the Taoist-alchemical treatise entitled The Secret of the Golden Flower from Richard Wilhelm he realized what his drawings of mandalas meant and received confirmation of his theories about the Self. At the same time, Jung realized that he had encountered ‘the East’ within, as he was digging into the depths of his own psyche. Today, thanks to the publication of The Red Book (RB) and Memories, Dreams, Reflections (MDR), we can understand that through that process, Jung held dialogues with the dead. This is considered to mean that he had contact with the world of death to reach another culture—the East. Yama argues that the indeterminate state between the determinate culture and another is chaotic and uncertain, a space which may possibly lead to the world of death. Nowadays, amongst rapid globalization, many people from diverse backgrounds have opportunities to encounter different cultures for various reasons, sometimes out of interest and sometimes out of necessity. In some cases, but not all, individuals simply step across into the other culture without the experience of ‘descending into the depth,’ as Jung had. Yama explores Jung’s inner journey and his childhood memories from the view of what was taking place while he was moving symbolically from the West to the East. For further exploration of the life of someone who is destined to live between different cultures, Yama introduces a Japanese old folk tale and presents clinical material, as well as her personal experience as one who spent her adolescence outside of her native culture.

scholarly journals Traducir lo Árabe: La Traducción como Herramienta Ideológica

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larosi Haidar
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Arabic Literature ◽  
Cultural Interaction ◽  
The West ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Essential Aspect ◽  
Different Cultures

ABSTRACTThis work is to emphasize the aspects more or less subjective, more or less arbitrary, that somehow determined the overall vision had, and partly remains, the West, We, on the East, They, the Arabs. This vision, image rather fictitious and created not always innocently, will set the positions and relationships that govern today rapprochement between different cultures. A fundamental and essential aspect of this cultural interaction would come from the hand of the translation, a discipline that, by its nature, will reflect the Other according to their conceptual universe and its interests; in short, according their ideology. In recent decades, the reception of Arabic literature in translation has been greatly reduced, which is essentially due to the negative image that the West has of it. Because the stereotypes of old, in many cases even more exaggerated, Arabic literature is not taken into account as it is, Literature, but rather as a body of studies and technical reports on the society of the Other. The idea that Arabic has nothing to offer intellectually, is fully entrenched, so that any approach, any translation must take it into account and act accordinglyRESUMENMediante el presente trabajo, se pretende hacer hincapié en aspectos más o menos subjetivos, más o menos arbitrarios, que de alguna manera determinaron la visión general y generalizada que tenía, y en parte sigue teniendo, Occidente, Nosotros, sobre Oriente, Ellos, los árabes. Esta visión, imagen más bien ficticia y creada no siempre de forma inocente, será la que configure las posturas y relaciones que hoy en día rigen el acercamiento entre las diferentes culturas. Un aspecto fundamental e imprescindible de esta interacción cultural vendría de la mano de la traducción, disciplina que, por su propia esencia, será la que reproduzca al Otro según su universo conceptual y sus intereses, en definitiva, según su ideología. En las últimas décadas, la recepción de la literatura árabe por medio de la traducción se ha visto muy menguada, lo que se debe esencialmente a la imagen negativa que en Occidente se tiene de la misma. Debido a los estereotipos de antaño, en muchos casos exagerados todavía más, la literatura árabe no es tenida en cuenta como lo que es, Literatura, sino más bien como un corpus de estudios e informes técnicos sobre la sociedad del otro. La idea de que el árabe no tiene nada que ofrecer a nivel intelectual, está totalmente arraigada, tanto que todo acercamiento, toda traducción, debe tenerlo muy en cuenta y actuar en consecuencia.

Comparative Analysis of Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar’s Travels to European Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Aysel KAMAL ◽  
Sinem ATIS
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Young Lady ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
The West ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Turkish Literature ◽  
Art And Architecture

Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar (1901-1962) is one of the most controversial authors in the 20th century Turkish literature. Literature critics find it difficult to place him in a school of literature and thought. There are many reasons that they have caused Tanpinar to give the impression of ambiguity in his thoughts through his literary works. One of them is that he is always open to (even admires) the "other" thought to a certain age, and he considers synthesis thinking at later ages. Tanpinar states in the letter that he wrote to a young lady from Antalya that he composed the foundations of his first period aesthetics due to the contributions from western (French) writers. The influence of the western writers on him has also inspired his interest in the materialist culture of the West. In 1953 and 1959 he organized two tours to Europe in order to see places where Western thought and culture were produced. He shared his impressions that he gained in European countries in his literary works. In the literary works of Tanpinar, Europe comes out as an aesthetic object. The most dominant facts of this aesthetic are music, painting, etc. In this work, in the writings of Tanpinar about the countries that he travelled in Europe, some factors were detected like European culture, lifestyle, socio-cultural relations, art and architecture, political and social history and so on. And the effects of European countries were compared with Tanpinar’s thought and aesthetics. Keywords: Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, Europe, poetry, music, painting, culture, life

La ética del Otro: una introducción al pensamiento de Emmanuel Lévinas

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Carlos Alvaréz Teijeiro
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Essential Question ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First Philosophy

Emmanuel Lévinas, the philosopher of ethics par excellence in the twentieth century, and by own merit one of the most important ethical philosophers in the history of western philosophy, is also the philosopher of the Other. Thereby, it can be said that no thought has deepened like his in the ups and downs of the ethical relationship between subject and otherness. The general objective of this work is to expose in a simple and understandable way some ideas that tend to be quite dark in the philosophical work of the author, since his profuse religious production will not be analyzed here. It is expected to show that his ideas about the being and the Other are relevant to better understand interpersonal relationships in times of 4.0 (re)evolution. As specific objectives, this work aims to expose in chronological order the main works of the thinker, with special emphasis on his ethical implications: Of the evasion (1935), The time and the Other (1947), From the existence to the existent (1947), Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (1961) and, last, Otherwise than being, or beyond essence (1974). In the judgment of Lévinas, history of western philosophy starting with Greece, has shown an unusual concern for the Being, this is, it has basically been an ontology and, accordingly, it has relegated ethics to a second or third plane. On the other hand and in a clear going against the tide movement, our author supports that ethics should be considered the first philosophy and more, even previous to the proper philosophize. This novel approach implies, as it is supposed, that the essential question of the philosophy slows down its origin around the Being in order to inquire about the Other: it is a philosophy in first person. Such a radical change of perspective generates an underlying change in how we conceive interpersonal relationships, the complex framework of meanings around the relationship Me and You, which also philosopher Martin Buber had already spoken of. As Lévinas postulates that ethics is the first philosophy, this involves that the Other claims all our attention, intellectual and emotional, to the point of considering that the relationship with the Other is one of the measures of our identity. Thus, “natural” attitude –husserlian word not used by Lévinas- would be to be in permanent disposition regarding to the meeting with the Other, to be in permanent opening state to let ourselves be questioned by him. Ontology, as the author says, being worried about the Being, has been likewise concerned about the Existence, when the matter is to concern about the particular Existent that every otherness supposes for us. In conclusion it can be affirmed that levinasian ethics of the meeting with the Other, particular Face, irreducible to the assumption, can contribute with an innovative looking to (re)evolving the interpersonal relationships in a 4.0 context.

Discovering the Other: Study Abroad as Fieldwork

1996 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-122
Author(s):  
Joseph R. Stimpfl
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Cultural Adjustment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Immersion ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Fieldwork Experience ◽  
Different Cultures

The literature annotated here is from a subset of literature in cultural anthropology that deals with ethnographic fieldwork: the basic research exercise of cultural immersion. This bibliography is meant to offer a representative sample of literature in anthropology that deals with the fieldwork experiences of researchers. Cultural anthropology is devoted to the concept of “discovering the other.” Its method of inquiry is often referred to as participant/observation: the researcher lives the culture while observing it. Since so much of the fieldwork experience deals with personal adjustments to living in different cultures, the literature is charged with the problems of adjustment and understanding so common to study abroad experiences. This literature is particularly relevant to those interested in cross-cultural learning and issues in cultural adjustment. 

The Proximity of Other Skins

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celine Parreñas Shimizu
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Korea ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Pain And Suffering ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
Existing Frames ◽  
The Voice

Transnational films representing intimacy and inequality disrupt and disgust Western spectators. When wounded bodies within poverty entangle with healthy wealthy bodies in sex, romance and care, fear and hatred combine with desire and fetishism. Works from the Philippines, South Korea, and independents from the United States and France may not be made for the West and may not make use of Hollywood traditions. Rather, they demand recognition for the knowledge they produce beyond our existing frames. They challenge us to go beyond passive consumption, or introspection of ourselves as spectators, for they represent new ways of world-making we cannot unsee, unhear, or unfeel. The spectator is redirected to go beyond the rapture of consuming the other to the rupture that arises from witnessing pain and suffering. Self-displacement is what proximity to intimate inequality in cinema ultimately compels and demands so as to establish an ethical way of relating to others. In undoing the spectator, the voice of the transnational filmmaker emerges. Not only do we need to listen to filmmakers from outside Hollywood who unflinchingly engage the inexpressibility of difference, we need to make room for critics and theorists who prioritize the subjectivities of others. When the demographics of filmmakers and film scholars are not as diverse as its spectators, films narrow our worldviews. To recognize our culpability in the denigration of others unleashes the power of cinema. The unbearability of stories we don’t want to watch and don’t want to feel must be borne.

The Impact of Culture on Reactions to Promise Breaches: Differences Between East and West in Behavioral Integrity Perceptions

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Friedman ◽  
Ying-Yi Hong ◽  
Tony Simons ◽  
Shu-Cheng (Steve) Chi ◽  
Se-Hyung (David) Oh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
The West ◽  
Behavioral Integrity ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
East And West ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

Behavioral integrity (BI)—a perception that a person acts in ways that are consistent with their words—has been shown to have an impact on many areas of work life. However, there have been few studies of BI in Eastern cultural contexts. Differences in communication style and the nature of hierarchical relationships suggest that spoken commitments are interpreted differently in the East and the West. We performed three scenario-based experiments that look at response to word–deed inconsistency in different cultures. The experiments show that Indians, Koreans, and Taiwanese do not as readily revise BI downward following a broken promise as do Americans (Study 1), that the U.S.–Indian difference is especially pronounced when the speaker is a boss rather than a subordinate (Study 2), and that people exposed to both cultures adjust perceptions of BI based on the cultural context of where the speaking occurs (Study 3).

‘There shall be no musical servitude’: Towards a Multitudinous Shostakovich in the West

2020 ◽  
Vol 145 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-505
Author(s):  
EIRINI DIAMANTOULI
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Views ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War

Ideologically motivated attempts to elucidate Shostakovich’s political views and to determine whether and how they may be coded into his compositions have come to characterize the Western reception of the composer’s works since his death in 1975. Fuelled by the political oppositions of the cold war, Shostakovich’s posthumous reputation in the West has been largely shaped by two conflicting perspectives. These have positioned him on the one hand as a secret dissident, bent and broken under the unbearable strain of totalitarianism, made heroic through his veiled musical resistance to Communism; and on the other hand as a composer compromised by his capitulation to the regime – represented in an anachronistic musical style. Both perspectives surrender Shostakovich and his music to a crude oversimplification driven by vested political interests. Western listeners thus conditioned are primed to hear either the coded dissidence of a tragic victim of Communist brutality or the sinister submission of a ‘loyal son of the Communist Party’.1 For those prepared to accept Shostakovich as a ‘tragic victim’, the publication of his purported memoirs in 1979, ‘as related to and edited by’ the author Solomon Volkov, presents a tantalizing conclusion: bitterly yet discreetly scornful of the Stalinist regime, Shostakovich was indeed a secret dissident and this dissidence was made tangible in his music.

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