In A Passage to India, life in Chandrapore, and indeed throughout the British Empire, is deeply fissured along racial lines, with the white Europeans on one side, and everyone else on the other. Indians are referred to as "Orientals," an out-dated racial term that was applied to everyone living east of Europe, from Turkey all the way out to China. Orientals were stereotypically considered to be exotic, sensual, passive, and backward, as opposed to the intellectual, civilized, progressive Westerner (source). Thus Orientals, such as the Indians in A Passage to India, were considered unable to rule themselves, essentially needing the British Empire to help them toward civilization (despite the fact that they had civilizations of their own). Even as the novel criticizes this stereotyping of Orientals – or "Orientalism" – it is itself not entirely free of the Orientalist attitude. The narrator makes broad generalizations about Orientals, about their psychology and their sexuality, that shows how entrenched the Orientalist attitude is even in a novel that is sympathetic to them.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the main function of the fool in "King Lear"? What is the secondly function?
The fool as a character is confusing, but part of this is the difference between the 1600s and today, as well as the difference in place. If...
-
Ann Beattie, an American Author, captures little moments of truth and significance in upper-middle-class American life usually occurring in ...
-
Jem and Scout find the medal in the knot hole of the tree on the Radley property. They ask Atticus about it, and he explains that it's ...
-
Jimmy is an angry young man because of personal tragedy and the social era. He also blames his personal tragedy on the social era. Jimmy'...
No comments:
Post a Comment