Bloodlust: a postcolonial sociology of childbirth

This paper examines intersections between ethnocentric and androcentric desire. To that end it employs a broadly postcolonial analysis of the medicalisation of birth and of women. The paper explores an ambivalence characterised by a simultaneous lust for and loathing of the other through engaging with postcolonial discourse analysis, and it ties those impulses to an imperative of control and to an administration of the other's affairs. That imperative and those impulses represent a point at which the logic of patriarchy and the logic of colonialism converge, and that point is one around which the social production of material disadvantage and negative outcomes can be explored. In the service of modern paradigms of progress and development, both colonial discourses and medical discourses underpin material relationships with the other. Whether that other is racialised or gendered, the manifest result of those relationships is the production of outcomes which are sub-optimal and pernicious in effect, and which result in a material insufficiency in the discursively produced other. The process of colonising childbirth reproduces the material effects of colonial subjectivity within a highly ambivalent and deeply imperialistic encounter. An exploration of that process demonstrates a link between power, paternalism and poor outcomes which highlights a space for self-determination in the optimisation of health and wellbeing amongst members of population groups which are vulnerable to the representations and interests of administrative power.     

‘Police On My Back’ and the postcolonial experience

‘Police On My Back’ was written in England by Eddy Grant and recorded by his group, The Equals, in 1967. Since then it has been covered by a number of artists. In this article I am concerned with the original and four covers. Over the 40 years between the Equals' version of the song and the final version with which I am concerned, the meaning of the lyrics has changed from being an expression of Jamaican rude boy culture to being a song that expresses the oppression of migrants from British and European colonies living in the metropoles of the colonisers. This article tracks the changes in musical and lyrical expression in the song against the increasingly oppressive circumstances of those migrants and their descendents. These are the circumstances that contributed to the British riots of 1981 and of 2011, and the French riots of 1981 and the many subsequent riots climaxing in those of 2005. ‘Police On My Back’ has always been hybrid. Grant's version placed rude boy lyrics with a British beat group sound. Later, as the lyrics came to reflect the circumstances of the migrants, so the musical backing came to include a variety of musical forms, many of which expressed the heritages of the performers and asserted the legitimacy of those heritages in a multicultural context.     

翻译生态视域下的后殖民翻译解读与建构

全球化背景下的翻译活动日益频繁,以强势国家为代表的强势文化对以弱势国家为代表的弱势文化的文化霸权日益凸显,这种文化霸权破坏了文化交流的平衡,对人类文明的多样性有极大的消极影响。因此,在这样一种严峻的形势下,有必要构建和谐翻译生态观,并在此指导下进行和谐的翻译活动。     

Noise

This essay develops a cultural materialist theory of listening through a historical ethnography of Gibraltarian men's contradictory sensitivity to the ‘noise’ of mass media and desensitization to the industrial soundscape of the state. I argue that this contradiction can be historicized through close attention to the social antagonisms embedded in the history of noise ordinances, and the ways in which British colonial officials structured an idealized form of masculinity premised on the sonic relationships between bodies and technologies. Gibraltarian men reproduce this masculine disposition, and through it colonial hierarchies, in the seemingly banal practice of listening to mass media, and ignoring the soundscape of the neoliberal, colonial state.     

后殖民视阈下的辜鸿铭《论语》译本研究

十九世纪末,随着《论语》英译本问世,辜鸿铭成为中国翻译史上对外译介儒家经典的第一人。辜译带有强烈的现实关怀和反文化殖民的色彩,他的"归化"并非完全意义上的归化,而带有很强的杂合性。在后殖民语境下,通过考察译本生成的社会文化环境、译者的目的与决策以及译作对译语文化的作用,证实杂合策略在反对文化殖民,确立弱势文化身份的过程中能起到有效作用。     

Education in the crucible of a postcolonial revolution: community reaction to the challenges of Zimbabwe’s crisis

It is paradoxical that when Zimbabwe was experiencing the worst economic situation in its recorded history and the highest inflation rate ever experienced worldwide by any nation at peace, its educational achievements were unprecedented. The economy had untold negative effects on the education system causing mass exodus of teachers, dilapidation of infrastructure, shortage of library books and even lack of food. However, against this backdrop, the country scored major successes in education. In 2010, Zimbabwe became the highest ranked in terms of literacy on the continent. University enrolment was ninefold by 2006, and technical and vocational education has achieved similar developments. How and by what means? Research on education has so far mainly focused on the institutions of higher learning with little or no concern at all about community activities and efforts to sustain education at various levels. In fact until recently university education in Zimbabwe has had little community participation. This had to change during the last decade when the state could not afford to fund its own army, let alone education. Donor, bilateral and multilateral funding were withdrawn as the sanctions screw tightened. This research explores the community (students and parents) efforts in sustaining education from secondary to tertiary institutions. How did parents and students react to the deteriorating conditions of education and with what effect? The study findings indicate parents responded by supporting teachers with money and food, engaging in economic activities such as cross-border trading, and were involved in teaching the students. The students also responded by engaging in peer education and sharing resources such as books. This study could widen our understanding of community participation in education particularly at university level.     

《他这辈子》及其所反映的澳大利亚囚犯流放制度

本文着重探讨了19世纪澳大利亚著名小说<他这辈子>中所反映的英帝国囚犯流放制度的弊病,揭示了囚犯流放制度对人性的摧残与扭曲、尤其是对小说主人公德文/道斯造成的精神和肉体伤害,文章力图从后殖民主义视角解读囚犯流放制度的残暴和腐败,审视资产阶级功利主义的影响,认识德文/道斯身份的异化和边缘化,以及遮亡所起到的颠覆意义等问题.     

LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

This article draws on theories of colonial discourse, cultural representation, subjectivity, feminist studies, cultural studies, and historical analysis to examine how the representations of American Indians in 1990s television fiction are constructed, especially in the American television fictions Northern Exposure, Twin Peaks and Paradise. Central to this analysis is the discussion of colonial discourse and representations of American Indians as Other on popular American television and, more generally, in mainstream American discourse. This examination is set in the context of the issues surrounding the treatment of Indian people in mainstream history, in film, and in contemporary television fiction. It is the authors' position that in the easy acceptance of a stereotyped cultural construction, mainstream America has come to little knowledge or understanding of American Indian nations, their contemporary concerns, or their discrete identities. For the mass market, their contemporary concerns, or their discrete identities. For the mass market, the Indian is either the Vanishing Race of Edward Curtis's photographs or the savage of the captivity narratives, and the process by which that imaginary functions to contain American Indian identity continues in our most popular narrative today: television fiction.     

Transcending Borders,Bridging Gaps: Opening a Dialogue Between the U. S. A. and Italy’s Migration Turn

ABSTRACT

This essay discusses recent theoretical engagements in the fields of migration and postcolonial studies in Italy by examining their contribution to American and transatlantic studies. It focuses on cultural critiques and manifestations which seek an interrogation or revitalization of Italy’s cultural identity. The analysis draws on the many links between past and present, a confrontation of the histories of migration from and to the country. For instance, the Italian/American influence is remarkable on transforming views of Italian identity, particularly regarding (im)migration. The objective of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, it examines how artistic productions compel the Italian society to come to terms with the past. This phenomenon attests to a unique social and cultural transition in Italy, and represents a breeding research ground within Italian studies and the Anglo-dominated area of postcolonial and diaspora studies. On the other hand, the essay investigates how these changes enhance to the role of transatlantic migrations. In doing so, the significance of such cultural productions is framed within ongoing epistemological and scholarly endeavours. This is exemplified by the abundant number of publications, seminars, conferences and new curricula challenging, as well as advancing, contemporary debates on migration, multiculturalism, identity (Italian-ness) and memory.     

Waiting in motion: mapping postcolonial fiction,new mobilities,and migration through Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

ABSTRACT

While mobilities studies have often drawn on postcolonial theory, few studies draw on the unique contributions of postcolonial literature. This article charts new directions for mobilities studies and postcolonial literature through an analysis of Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 novel Exit West. The novel shows how the ‘new mobilities paradigm’ could be usefully extended by paying more attention to migration as an expression of the way that mobility and immobility exist in complex relation to one another, especially with regard to the affective and existential experiences of waiting that persist even after arrival. I suggest that contemporary fiction, such as Exit West, interacts with and shapes cultural imaginaries around mobilities and migrancy; Hamid’s use of irrealist and fantastic modes challenges readers to entertain normative claims about the world. In addition to outlining the potential contributions of postcolonial fiction to mobilities studies, I conclude with an overview of the new directions that mobilities studies offer for postcolonial studies as well.