There is one particular paragraph that I find a little bizarre in this week’s Stoler reading, the gist of which can be summarized in two sentences: Although novels and memoirs position European women as categorically absent from the sexual fantasies of European men, these very men imagined their women to be desired and seductive figures [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Ambreen Momin'
The grass is always sexier on the other side.
October 22, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Ann Stoler·Carnal knowledge and imperial power·Colonist vs. Colonized·control·Doris Lessing
Inclusion, History and Identity
October 14, 2009 · 3 Comments · Uncategorized
When I started reading the Stoler reading, I kept finding my mind wandering back to Orwell as the isolated intellectual, especially when Stoler began talking about national identity, education and inclusion. I guess I’m curious as to whether Orwell would have been quite so isolated in “Shooting an Elephant” if these educational measures had been [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Ann Stoler·Burmese Days·Crisis of identity·education·history·Nation·national identity·shooting an elephant
Writing Orwell: Falling into Modern English
October 9, 2009 · Comments Off · Uncategorized
I read an essay by Orwell in high school that had a profound impact on the way I view the English language. Written about a decade after “Shooting an Elephant,” “Politics and the English Language” is Orwell’s tirade of sorts against “modern english”: a new stage of the language that, to him, was ruining it. [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Crisis of Knowledge·george orwell·Language·modernism·Politics and the English Language·shooting an elephant
Savage Culture: Wallace’s Dyaks and Modern Sarawak
October 1, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
It was interesting reading about Wallace’s view of Sarawak’s indigenous people in light of the trip I made to Kuching some months ago. Although I’m not entirely sure exactly which tribe Wallace is talking about (my guess would be the Bidayuh “Land Dayaks”) he portrays them as honest, simple people with great potential. He laments [...]
Tags: Alfred Russel Wallace·Ambreen Momin·colonialism·Dyak·Sarawak
On an Errand of Faith: Portrayal of the Pilgrims on the Patna
September 17, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
In the spirit of Ramadan, I thought I’d have a look at the passage in which the Muslim pilgrims board the Patna, headed for Mecca. One of the concerns of Lord Jim is the “one of us” attitude that Marlow takes when relating Jim’s story. Apart from the practical uses in making a connection with [...]
Comparing Images of India and Africa
September 9, 2009 · 1 Comment · Uncategorized
I thought it was interesting that one of the first things that Achebe mentioned about Heart of Darkness is the projection of images of Africa as “the other world” and “the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization.” In comparison to images of India in Forster’s Passage, Africa is painted in a much less flattering light. [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Chandrapore·Chinua Achebe·Images of Africa
In Opposite Corners: Colonist vs Colonized in Fanon and Forster
September 2, 2009 · 2 Comments · Passage to India
In the beginning of Fanon’s chapter “On Violence,” he states that: …[t]he colonist is right when he says he “knows” them. It is the colonist who fabricated and continues to fabricate the colonized subject. The colonist derives his validity, i.e., his wealth, from the colonial system. The entire idea of “fabricating” the colonized subject made [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·colonialism·Edward Said·Frantz Fanon·Orientalism
Revisiting Chandrapore: Second Impressions and Sympathy
August 26, 2009 · 1 Comment · Passage to India
Since the first lecture, I’ve been churning that introductory excerpt from A Passage to India over in my mind. I thought it curious that the reader is introduced in such an apathetic, even disinterested manner, to a place that should be (given the period) and usually is made extremely exotic. I’m starting to think that perhaps it [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Chandrapore·characterization·forster·readership
British Fragments: the Empire and the Modernist Perception
August 20, 2009 · 1 Comment · General Thoughts on Modernism
Levine’s illustration of the British empire and Modernism’s stress on perception (more specifically, fragmentation, that particular technique of representation) have me thinking about the cause-and-effect relationship between history and the literary movement’s trademarks. After reading Levine’s chapter on “Ruling an Empire,” I’m starting to draw a few parallels between the strict stratification of the British [...]
Tags: Ambreen Momin·Fragmentation·perception·Philippa. The British empire: sunrise to sunset. Chapt. 7 Ruling an Empire. pp. 103-122.
