Introduction to Culture and Imperialism
Basic Information:
Writer: Edward Said (1935-2003)
Published date: 1993Theme: Relationship between Culture and Imperialism.
English Summary
So we can know the summary of this complete essay very easily through only 5 points.
1. Ideas about Culture
2. Ideas about Imperialism
3. Biography of the author
4. How does culture help imperialism?
5. References of Books Supporting Imperialism
So let’s get started,
1. Ideas about Culture
Culture refers to the beliefs, customs, arts, institutions and ways of life of a particular population. This is how culture is passed down from generation to generation. It is basically a way of life of a society. Its elements are clothing, food, language, religion, customs etc.
2. Ideas about Imperialism
The word imperialism means control over other countries. When a state controls the politics, economy, and everything of another state and imposes everything on that state, then it is called imperialism.
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3. Biography of the author
This essay is so much related to the author’s own life. So first of all we have to get some idea about the biography of the author.
Edward Wadie Said is a Palestinian Christian. He was born in 1935 in Talbiya, Jerusalem. But he did not stay there. As the Jews entered Palestine, his family was forced to move to Egypt. In 1948, the occupying terrorist state of Israel was born and the 750,000 Palestinians who had sought refuge in Arab countries (countries involved in the Arab-Israeli war) during the war Palestines were barred from entering their homeland, according to Israel’s declaration. It is known as the ‘Absentee Property Act’ of 1950. As Edward Said’s family took refuge in Egypt, they became incorporated and lost their homeland forever. Said studied in Egypt, then moved to the United States and spent the rest of his life there. He teaches at Columbia University in New York.
He observes closely how the Western world portrays Arabs and Muslims negatively. He started writing about Western propaganda. He published a book called Orientalism, due to which he was criticized in the Western world. He then published Culture and Imperialism. He threw stones at occupying Israel from the Lebanese border in 1999 and was photographed. This caused widespread discussion in the Western world and the ‘Freud Institute’ withdrew its invitation to lecture in 2001. This Palestinian American fought alone for the oppressed Palestinians. Yasser Arafat was invited to the White House when he made the ‘Oslo Accords, but he turned it down.
4. How does culture help imperialism?
In this essay, Edward Said writes about how culture and imperialism developed and how literature helped imperialism. Said also discusses how imperialist countries indirectly helped their literature to sustain their imperialism in other countries.
- Books as tools of imperialism
Imperialist states get ideas about the culture of the people of different countries through books, especially novels written by their country’s authors. After that, they went to that country and established their own culture on top of that country’s culture. Now the question may arise, how can the imperialists establish their own culture on the culture of the other country? European countries looked down on the culture of other countries. Find out the faults of their culture. And thus they indirectly called the people of that culture as lower and uncivilized. Then they told to accept their own culture. Detailed ideas about the culture of different countries were available only from Novels. And this is how books or various novels helped the imperialist countries to expand their empire, especially the European countries. And this is how culture and imperialism grew.
5. References of Books Supporting Imperialism
Said criticizes the imperialist countries (France, Britain, America), especially the indirect imperialism of America that developed in the 20th century. He gives examples of a few literary works in which the image of imperialism emerges. He brings up Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. Here Conrad portrays the imperialist character of Belgium. But here Conrad presents himself as both imperialist and anti-imperialist. He showed the naked view of imperialism and also expressed the necessity of imperialism. Said praised Conrad. Said then discusses EM Forster’s “A Passage to India” as literature written on behalf of the victims of imperialism. He shows how literature in imperialist cultures is written in support of imperialism, and how imperialism is thought of from the perspective of its victims. Novels of the 19th century advocated the continuation of imperialism. The authors never directly advocate establishing colonies, nor do they advocate leaving colonies. Then Said talks about the novels “Robinson Crusoe”, “The Great Expectations” written based on imperialism. He discussed how imperialism was presented there. Then Said criticizes Jane Austen’s “Mansfield Park” and highlights the imperial image that emerges in Mansfield Park.
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