Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1999 10:41:41 -0500 (EST)
From: David Butz <dbmarley-AT-spartan.ac.BrockU.CA>
Subject: Re: Travel Writing and Postcolonialism?



I think Amitav Ghosh's, In an Antique Land, may be an example of the sort
of point you are making. David. 


On Tue, 16 Nov 1999, Nagesh Rao wrote:

> This is sort of after the fact, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents
> worth.  As I read one post after another that pointed out the complicity
> between travel/tourism and imperialism, I began to feel that something is
> missing.  It was only with Miriam's last posting that it hit me.  At one
> point, she wrote:
> 
> > I can problematize my
> >"imperial eyes," deconstruct them to a point, but I can't simply exchange
> >them for new ones.
> 
> See, I think that while the complicity between most Western travel
> narratives and imperialism is beyond doubt, surely, it isn't the case that
> one is simply "born" into imperialist dogma?  The problem with the
> "imperial eyes" metaphor is that if it is pushed too far, we get a static,
> almost biologistic notion of imperialism.  If you are a "Westerner"
> (whatever that means) you are, ipso facto, never free of imperialist
> prejudices....  Somehow I feel that's too simplistic.
> 
> I think of imperialism as a structural feature of the world system, and as
> a set of ideological/cultural practices.  As such, I believe that
> imperialism CAN be resisted successfully, and that such resistance can come
> equally from the centers of imperial power (the "West") and from the
> imperialized formations.  You can, in other words, "exchange" your
> "imperial eyes," if you had any, for new ones--it depends on where you look.
> 
> Perhaps we need to reintroduce the terms "ideology," "affiliation",
> "commitment."  Perhaps we need to look at travel writings of radicals or
> self-consciously anti-imperialist activists in order to achieve some kind
> of balance.  How about people like MN Roy, the Indian communist leader who
> went to Mexico and helped found the Mexican CP? Or perhaps the diaries of
> people like Trotsky?  Or Victor Serge?
> 
> 
> --Nagesh
> 
> 
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> 



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