Post-colonialism: final blog task

Post-colonialism #2

1) Summarise the three theorists we have looked at: Alvarado, Fanon and Said.

• Alverado- shows the themes in racial representation such as, exotic, poverty, comedy and humorous

• Fanon- shows the impact of the race and what they were forced to commit to such as, infantilize, primitivize, decivilize and essentalize.

• Said- shows the representations across all texts regarding the conflict between East and West and how they are represented in modern media (across all platforms).

2) Watch the opening of Yasmin (2004) again. Does it offer a positive or negative view of British Muslims? To what extent does it reinforce or challenge Edward Said's theory of Orientalism - that the west is superior to the exotic or uncivilised east?

The opening 10 minutes shows a very negative representation of British Muslims. It reinforces Said's theory of orientation as the clashes between the east and the west is clearly evident throughout this clip. The police officers represent the west force and Yasmin herself represents the east force. Moreover, we even see racial discrimination against the family, evident when the father is clearing up the graffiti made to his garage. It really shows how British culture has created an uncivilised picture of the British Muslims in this video.

3) Finally, choose THREE clips for EACH of the theorists and explain how you could apply that theory to the clip. Pick a selection of clips on YouTube from TV, film, music video or advertising and embed them in your blog before writing your analysis under each clip. Note: this means you need NINE clips in total on this blogpost.

Said

The above scene is from the film Taken. The reason why I chose this film/scene for Said's theory is because the main idea between east and west, is a key part in this film. The main actor (played by Liam Neeson) presents an American force who goes and hunts down east force; Albanians. This film is classic film structure, making American characters the protagonist and the foreigners the villains, which follows Said's theory nicely. 

This scene is from the film West Is West and the reason why this clip follows Said's theory is because it shows the contrast between the west (shown in the young boy's nature), and the father (a modern eastern male). It shows how the west has dominated some peoples perceptions and has become their new identity.

This film is critically acclaimed for it ideologies and patriarchal perception of America. The main theme shown throughout this film is the positive perception of America (shown by the sniper) and how it stands for a sense of peace, and the east is a place that is corrupted and required the aid of the west in order to aid them in such conflict.

Alverado

The reason why I chose Top Boy for Alverdo is because of the sheer representation of the black community and how it follows the generic stereotype. We see people taking drugs and wearing hoodies which follow one of Averado's factor of dangerous. 

The reason why this film/scene is linked to Alverado's theory is because the Rush Hour franchise is very much a comedic and action-packed movie, and one of the factors in Alverado's theory is the use of 'comedy'. This factor is clearly evident in the character of James Carter (played by Chris Tucker) as he is clearly seen to be elevating the humour within the scene and follows this part of Alverado's theory.

This scene is similar to the Rush Hour scene as it shows a black character being used as a comedic element of the scene. We see Sergeant Epps (played Tyrese Gibson) use inappropriate language to bring a less serious tone to the scene as it contrasts with the scene that is happening; a war (which is meant to be a serious scene, but isn't).

Fanon

This music video presents the youth similar to Alverado, however taps in to one of Fanon's key points of 'decivilized' as the youth in the video above show the sheer horrors of the youth as well as being 'primitive' which is another one of Fanon's factors.

This film is very much associated with the rivalry that the black community had against police officers and their brutality. However, this scene shows a black police officer (juxtaposing the typical black male) and pretends to put on a 'white mask' as he treats other black people the same way white people would do.