Summary of Introduction to Culture and Imperialism Culture, according to Edward Said, means two things in particular. Culture consists of the aesthetic practices whose principal aim is pleasure, like art of description, communication and represe representa ntatio tion n which which are indepe independe ndent nt of econom economic, ic, social social and politi political cal influe influence nce.. Secondly, it is a concept that has an element of refinement and elevation and it is the reservoir of the best ideas and practices of a society. Edward Said sees novel as a cultural form which plays an important part in the formation of imperial attitudes, references and experiences. The connection of discourses to the empire is very interesting to study. He thinks that fricanist and !ndianist discourses are a part of the general European effort to rule distant lands and peoples. !t is the coloni"er#s special way of representing these lands and the orientalist description of the !slamic world. $hat explorers and novelists say about the strange regions of the world is based on stories rather than facts. These discourses describe the %mysterious East# and stereotype frican, !ndian or !rish mind. The distinction between %they# and %us# is clear in these discourses. The idea of bringing civili civili"ati "ation on to barbar barbaric ic people people,, of punish punishmen mentt or death death when when %they %they## misbeh misbehave ave or rebel rebel because %they# only understood violence is &uite clear in these discourses. The coloni"er always feel a difference between themselves and native' %they# are not like %us# and %they# deserve to be ruled. The coming of $hite man in non(European world brought resistance. long with armed resistance the coloni"ed people made considerable efforts of cultural resistance, they tried to assert their national identity. They also create political parties and associations with the common goal of self( determination and independence. The main battle of imperialism is over land but the issues like liberty, right, identity, who owned the land who has the right to settle and work on it, who kept it going, who won it back and to whom it belongs in future were contested and reflected and even decided in narratives. )ovels were used by the coloni"er to establish the idea of its cultural dominance in the minds of the natives. They also become the method coloni"ed people use to assert their own identity and the existence of their own history. The The powe powerr to narra narrate te or to bloc block k othe otherr narra narrati tive vess from from form formin ing g and and emer emergi ging ng is very very impo import rtan antt to cult cultur uree and and impe imperi rial alis ism. m. The The gran grand d narr narrat ativ ives es of eman emanci cipa pati tion on and and enlightenment mobili"ed the coloni"ed people to rise and overthrow imperial sub*ection. Culture Culture comes to be associated associated with nation nation and this differentiates differentiates %us# from %them# and with some degree of hatred for foreign nations. Culture in this sense is a source of identity. The coloni"er not only invades the foreign territory but also tries to intrude in the culture of the natives. natives. !t is the only way through through which they can coloni"e coloni"e the mind of the natives. natives. The coloni"ed people put resistance to this cultural intrusion and %return# to their culture to assert their identity and these returns produce religious or national fundamentalism.
)arrative becomes a battle ground where the ideologies contend with each other because it represents the culture of the respective people. Every nation appreciates %its# own narrative loyally and uncritically while fighting with %others#. Culture becomes a protective enclosure and politics is very crucial to it. The novel is connected to the imperial process manifestly or implicitly. +reat Expectations is a novel in which the English attitude towards ustralia is presented. ustralia was a penal colony where irredeemable and unwanted excess population of culprits was sent. The people sent to ustralia could succeed but they could hardly %return# and if they return they are not accepted by the society as agwitch was unacceptable to -hilip whom he supported financially. They could expiate their crimes but their stay in an outside world makes them permanent outsiders. They are capable of redemption as long as they stayed in ustralia. The prohibition placed on agwitch#s return is not penal but imperial. Sub*ects can be taken to ustralia but they cannot %return# to metropolitan space. n the other hand -hilip#s childhood friend Herbert returns as a hardworking business man and he is accepted by -hilip. The relation of /ritain with other empires is normal which ustralia could never en*oy. This is because of the interest of empire in the colonies other than ustralia where no profit is possible. The generation of scholars and critics of the coloni"ed world have seen, in texts of the $est, an interest of the coloni"er in what was considered a lesser world, populated with people of lesser color. The resources of the coloni"ed land attract the coloni"er. fter the Cold $ar, merica hatched the idea of )ew $orld rder and conceived the notion that0 %we# are number one, %we# are bound to lead, %we# stand for freedom and order and so on. merica is self(congratulatory and proclaims responsibility. Conrad writes as a man whose $estern view of the non($estern world is so ingrained as to blind him to other histories, other cultures and other aspirations. Conrad is both an imperialist and anti(imperialist. He fails to understand that !ndia, frica and South merica also have lives and cultures with integrities. He does not see that the natives were not totally controlled by the imperialists and that the anti(imperialist movements were not all corrupt. )ostromo embodies the imperial arrogance and Conrad seems to be saying, %we# westerners will decide who is a good or a bad native because natives have existence by virtue of %our# recognition. %$e# created them, %we# taught them to think and speak and when a native rebels it confirms %our# idea that all natives are silly. This is in fact what mericans felt about their Southern neighbors. Conrad could not understand that the natives had a sense of identity and this made them to cling to the basics of their culture and moved them to offer resistance and rise against the un*ust rule of the coloni"er. 1ife in one subordinate realm is imprinted in fiction by the dominant realm. ll these narrative argue that the source of world#s significant action is Europe whose representatives are free to visit the third world. These narratives depict the world outside $est as having no life, no history, no culture, no integrity and no ideology and they are dependent upon $est for
their representation. Conrad#s novels confirm the habitual $estern suspicion about the %others#. The world now has changed. The metropolitans of Europe and merica now have large non( white populations who are powered enough to ask for their narratives to be heard. The narratives of the coloni"ed people have posed a threat to the western point of view about the overseas territories and have energy to animate the wish for independence and to speak freely without unfair domination. They represent their own culture and their own history reducing the western claims as mere propaganda or misrepresentation. Culture and imperialism are closely related. The imperialists think that %their# culture is superior to the culture of %others# and so the %others# need to be enlightened and to be ruled because %they# don#t have enough knowledge and intellect to rule their own land properly. The novel is a part of relationship between culture and empire. The authors do not intend to pro*ect their own culture as superior but they are influenced by the history of their societies and they are shaped by their societies. !t is in the imperialist attitude of their societies which is pro*ected in their discourses. Culture and its aesthetic forms are derived from historical experience. The novel was ma*or form of literature in England and 2rance. merica, emerged as an empire during the nineteenth century, followed these two empires in producing novels after decoloni"ation of England and 2rance. The idea of ruling the overseas territories has a privileged status in these three cultures. These empires pro*ect and propagate their cultures through novel and use it as a tool to establish their intellectual superiority over the natives. Their novels differentiate between %us# and %others#. There is always the idea of power and national interest behind running the affairs of lesser peoples with a "eal that %we# are exceptional and not imperial. The intellectuals, artists and *ournalists collaborated to this idea of empire. The Europeans have always thought that there is a settled difference between %us# and %others#. They think their identity and culture as superior to %others#. new group of intellectuals among the coloni"ed lands has now emerged and they are presenting their point of view from a perspective very different from the coloni"er#s perspective. /inary opposition has lost its ground. !dentity is no longer a static entity as it was thought by the imperialist culture. ll cultures are now involved in one another, no pure culture remains. hybrid culture has evolved.
