Proizvodnja znanja o koloniziranima - kritika dominantnog, zapadnog diskursa

Mijatović, Andrea. (2016). Proizvodnja znanja o koloniziranima - kritika dominantnog, zapadnog diskursa. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Sociology. [mentor Matić, Davorka].

Preview

PDF (Croatian) Download (642kB) | Preview

Abstract

The use of the ideas of progress in the enlightenment movement has historically enabled imperialistic policy of the western civilisation as well as establishing certain social hierarchies. In such conceived hierarchies exist cultural, material and intellectual relations between the West and the Others as two geopolitical and cultural extremes. Colonialism has served as a way of confirming and is merely one of many aspects of oppressing imperialistic polities, and due to the colonial heritage in the course of several centuries, the West has built its superior identity upon socially and politically supported views of the Others. This paper provides an attempt of introducing the critique of western discourse and the essentialist discourse of the Other throughout the myths of the underdeveloped, pogan and inferior cultures, which is a problem addressed by numerous authors, representatives of the postcolonial discourse. In addition to E. Said, other postcolonial authors who are likewise members of numerous 65 activist groups, also point out that there is a crisis of academic representation of the subaltern, such as G. C. Spivak, who is representing a postmodern deconstruction theory and feminism. The paper is also going to treat the issue of representation of indigenous peoples and their cultures, where theorist and researches who have gained their education on the West (L. T. Smith), are using their academic position to socially engage in institutionalising decolonizing methodologies, which are currently considered as an incommensurable and incompatible system of knowledge with regard to dominant discourse. This paper will also analyse social and historical context of the emergence of postcolonial discourse and its function in confirmation of the uneven distribution of power and knowledge, using which we'll confirm, once again, the Foucault's thesis about knowledge being in service of power, with which we are going to start our analysis of artificially made division to significant and insignificant knowledge. At the end of the paper and in its conclusion we will adress the issue of the possible deconstruction of the dominant discourse in a form of multicultural knowledge and also the reformed postmodern social theory combined with a more complex postcolonial discourse, using the thesis of deconstruction theorists who claim that the dominant system of knowledge must be reformed. That is, the academic representations and generalizations must be modified because the dominant discourse rests upon an ideology that encourages the oppression of one culture towards another which leads to not only epistemic, but also political violence over marginalizied.

Actions (login required)

View Item