scholarly journals Representation as repression: A First Peoples context

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-73
Author(s):  
Roie Thomas

Visual images of a marginalised minority group from southern Africa are analysed against a series of colonialist representations to demonstrate tangible evidence of the role of representation in both disenfranchisement and an increasing autonomy in the case of the San, who are The First Peoples of the Kalahari, commonly known outside Africa as ‘Bushmen’ and in the dominant language of Botswana as Basarwa. This particular group is represented by government and its corporate affiliates as primordial for tourist consumption, yet systemically denied their language, ethnicity and ancestral land. Analysis is supported by critical tourism literature, showing the attitudes, power dynamics and practices evident in the produced imagery. An overview of the theoretical enframing and methodology is followed by analysis of a range of visual representations of the San. Analysis herein is based on a blend of application of post-colonial theory and post-tourism critique, along with some concepts from semiotics. Most of these visual and linguistic materials have been produced by government and industry for tourist consumption, while others include my own photography and ostensibly impartial museum exhibits.

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Icíar Alonso Araguás ◽  
Jesús Baigorri Jalón

Abstract This paper focuses on the figure of the interpreter as it appears in the visual images illustrating chronicles and other texts from the period of the Conquest of the Americas by the Europeans. The fact that linguistic and cultural mediation was necessary for an understanding between the cultures is commonly absent from the records, as if direct communication had been possible between both sides-yet another fiction of the encounter. Based on the assumption that visual representations are valuable records to understand the perception of the role of interpreter in the past, we analyze six images of different cultural and ethnic authorship, painted between 1550 and 1619. The aim of the paper is to make a contribution to the task of building the history of interpreting, following a line of research which, as proposed in the conclusion, merits further exploration.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Naifa Al Mtairi

This paper highlights Edward Said’s ideology for discerning literary texts that followed the colonial period as a post-colonial discourse. Though some scholars disapprove that notion, Said holds the view that literature is a product of contested social and economic relationships. The West attempts to represent the East and consequently dominates it, not only for knowledge but for political power as well. He assures the worldliness of texts and their interferences with disciplines, cultures and history. Thus, the post-colonial critic should consider the post-colonial literature that might take the form of traditional European literature or the role of the migrant writer in portraying the experience of their countries. The pot-colonial theory with its focus on the misrepresentation of the colonized by the colonizer and the former’s attitude of resistance, draws new lines for literature and suggests a way of reading which resists imperialist ideologies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 953-974 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Lucas ◽  
Ruth Jeanes

This article critically examines the work undertaken by Global North volunteers in Global South sport-for-development programmes. Whilst existing studies acknowledge the centrality of Northern volunteers to the delivery of sport-for-development programmes in the Global South, there are few detailed explorations of how volunteers approach working in diverse cultural contexts and their impact on local communities. Drawing on an ethnographic methodology and post-colonial theory, the article reflects on the first author’s experiences as an AusAID funded volunteer working as a cricket development officer in the Solomon Islands. In addition to the first author’s fieldnotes and critical reflections, the article draws on interviews conducted with indigenous and expatriate stakeholders involved in the sport-for-development programme. The findings demonstrate the complexities of Global North volunteers’ engagement with sport-for-development. The use of post-colonial theory illustrates the ways in which Global North volunteers can perpetuate neo-colonial initiatives and systems of working that are imposed on Global South communities. The study suggests that volunteers can be very aware of their position but can feel helpless in challenging external agencies to promote more culturally sensitive and localised approaches to development work. Furthermore, the paper indicates the complications of developing localised initiatives, indicating how external agencies, through the Global North volunteer, used indigenous people to create the impression that programmes are locally driven. The paper concludes by examining the ways in which indigenous communities resisted the imposition of a sport-for-development initiative that did not meet their needs.


Author(s):  
Matava Vichiensing

In Sandra Cisneros’s novel The House on Mango Street is about the Latino experience as a minority group in the United States. This article focused on the concept of ‘othering’ originally as part of a post-colonial theory. This concept can be related to feminist and Marxist perspectives as well. It is also involved in many academic fields, including literature. The construction of othering in this novel can be manifested in forms of linguistic features, mimicry, double consciousness, unhomeliness, gender roles, and socioeconomic class. The findings represented the negative effects of the othering practices in which affecting psychological, economical, and sociocultural dimensions of the people in general.


Author(s):  
Andrew Gardner

Roman archaeology is one of the major subfields of archaeology in which post-colonial theory has flourished, and not just in relation to the role of the past in the present, but also as a means to approach the interpretation of the Roman world itself. The region of North Africa was a major focal point for some of the earliest post-colonial studies on the Roman Empire, and has remained an arena of investigation for scholars influenced by the Anglophone debate on post-colonial theory, which emerged in the 1980s and flourished in the 1990s, often with a focus on Roman Britain. Religion is both a key source of evidence and an obviously important theme in understanding cultural change, interaction and power, and thus it has likewise been of interest to scholars from within and beyond the region. Here, I give an overview of the work of some of the influential Roman archaeologists working within the post-colonial tradition. I also consider the complex intersections of ancient and modern, and of Britain and North Africa, found in this body of work, and evaluate the impact this tradition of thought continues to have on Roman archaeology going forwards.


Author(s):  
Marta Pavón Ramírez

This chapter explores marriage symbolism in twelfth- and thirteenth-century illuminated manuscripts containing canon and civil law texts but also liturgical texts and illustrated Bibles. Visual representations of weddings and marriages were neither straightforward nor immediate, but challenged the artists to make conceptual and interpretative choices. How was marriage visualized? What could be pictured? How did the artists face the difficult task of illustrating abstract concepts? Pavón Ramírez explores the relationship between visual images and theological ideas, and the role of artists and patrons in the construction of new images of the theological concept of marriage in the Middle Ages.


Author(s):  
Dieter Leyssen

In this paper, the role of meanwhile use as an act of resistance is examined. Can temporal reuse of buildings awaiting redevelopment affect the decisions of architects, policymakers and developers over plans for adaptation or demolition? In recent years, we have seen an increase in practices of meanwhile use in this context. Examples can be found in many European and American cities: relict spaces temporarily turned into bars or co-working environments, vacant offices into galleries, wastelands into vegetable gardens, etc. Important differences surface in terms of process, ideology, politics of space, activism and power relations. The ultimate beneficiary of meanwhile use is often unclear and diverse over cases. Different authors highlighted its catalyst role in processes of gentrification and displacement and identified it as placemaking tool for developers or public authorities. Others thought it a useful method in the adaptive re-use of buildings, learning from every-day uses when imagining future adaptations. This paper scrutinises the role of meanwhile use, operating critically from within redevelopment projects. The analysis draws on practical experiences in a project of meanwhile use in the CIAM-inspired Brussels North District. Alongside interviews with diverse agents, some of the tactical and inter-personal dimensions are being revealed. Using literature from critical urbanism, post-colonial theory, and actor-network theory and findings from the paper's case study, five conditions are crystallised for meanwhile use to be an act of resistance, affecting the outcome of redevelopment projects. 


Author(s):  
Anna Michalak

Using the promotional meeting of Dorota Masłowska’s book "More than you can eat" (16 April 2015 in the Bar Studio, Warsaw), as a case study, the article examines the role author plays in it and try to show how the author itself can become the literature. As a result of the transformation of cultural practices associated with the new media, the author’s figure has gained much greater visibility which consequently changed its meaning. In the article, Masłowska’s artistic strategy is compared to visual autofiction in conceptual art and interpreted through the role of the performance and visual representations in the creation of the image or author’s brand.


Author(s):  
Laura Empson

This book analyses the complex power dynamics and interpersonal politics that lie at the heart of leadership in professional organizations, such as accounting, law, and consulting firms, investment banks, hospitals, and universities. It is based on scholarly research into many of the world’s leading professional organizations across a range of sectors, including interviews with over 500 senior professionals in sixteen countries. Drawing on the latest academic theory to analyse exactly how professionals in organizations come together to create ‘leadership’, it provides new insights into how leaders lead when there is no traditional hierarchy to support them, their own authority is contingent, and they must constantly renegotiate relationships with relatively autonomous professional peers. It explores how leaders persuade highly intelligent, educated, and opinionated professionals to work together; how change happens within professional organizations; and why leaders so often fail. Part I introduces the concept of plural leadership, analysing how leaders establish and maintain their positions within leadership constellations, and the implications for governance in the context of collective or distributed leadership. Part II examines the complex, challenging relationships between professionals as they seek to influence their organizations, including the phenomena of leadership dyads, insecure overachievers, social control, and the rise of the management professional. Part III examines the shifts in the locus of power as professional organizations grow, adapt, and react to external stimuli such as mergers and acquisitions and economic crises. The conclusion identifies the paradoxes inherent in professional organizations and examines the role of leaders in attempting to reconcile them.


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