UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM

Ella Shohat / Robert Stam (Routledge, 1997)

Introduction
Both in the media and in the academy, recent years have itnessed energetic
debates about the interrelated issues o! Eurocentrism, racism, and multi"
culturalism# $isible in the historical %olemics about &olumbus, in the academic
'uarrels about the canon, and in the %edagogical controversies about (!rocentric
schools, these debates have invo)ed many bu**ords+ ,%olitical correctness,,
,identity %olitics,, ,%ostcoloniality#,
Unthinking Eurocentrism !ocusses on Eurocentrism and multiculturalism in %o%ular
culture# It is ritten in the %assionate belie! that an aareness o! the intellectually
debilitating e!!ects o! the Eurocentric legacy is indis%ensable !or com%rehending not
only contem%orary media re%resentations but even contem%orary sub-ectivities#
Endemic in %resent"day thought and education, Eurocentrism is naturali*ed as
,common sense#, .hiloso%hy and literature are assumed to be Euro%ean %hiloso%hy
and literature# /he ,best that is thought and ritten, is assumed to have been
thought and ritten by Euro%eans# (By Euro%eans, e re!er not only to Euro%e %er
se but also to the ,neo"Euro%eans, o! the (mericas, (ustralia, and elsehere#)
0istory is assumed to be Euro%ean history, everything else being reduced to hat
historian 0ugh /revor"Ro%er (in 19123) %atroni*ingly called the ,unrearding
gyrations o! barbarous tribes in %ictures'ue but irrelevant corners o! the globe#,1
Standard core courses in universities stress the history o! ,4estern, civili*ation,
ith the more liberal universities insisting on to)en study o! ,other, civili*ations#
(nd even ,4estern, civili*ation is usually taught ithout re!erence to the central
role o! Euro%ean colonialism ithin ca%italist modernity# So embedded is
Eurocentrism in everyday li!e, so %ervasive, that it o!ten goes unnoticed# /he
residual traces o! centuries o! a5iomatic Euro%ean domination in!orm the general
culture, the everyday language, and the media, engendering a !ictitious sense o!
the innate su%eriority o! Euro%ean"derived cultures and %eo%les#
(lthough neoconservatives caricature multiculturalism as calling !or the violent
-ettisoning o! Euro%ean classics and o! ,estern civili*ation as an area o! study,,6
multiculturalism is actually an assault not on Euro%e or Euro%eans but on
Eurocentrism " on the %rocrustean !orcing o! cultural heterogeneity into a single
%aradigmatic %ers%ective in hich Euro%e is seen as the uni'ue source o! meaning,
as the orld7s center o! gravity, as ontological ,reality, to the rest o! the orld7s
shado# Eurocentric thin)ing attributes to the ,4est, an almost %rovidential sense
o! historical destiny# Eurocentrism, li)e Renaissance %ers%ectives in %ainting,
envisions the orld !rom a single %rivileged %oint# It ma%s the orld in a
cartogra%hy that centrali*es and augments Euro%e hile literally ,belittling, (!rica#8
/he ,East, is divided into ,9ear,, ,:iddle,, and ,;ar,, ma)ing Euro%e the arbiter o!
s%atial evaluation, -ust as the establishment o! <reenich :ean /ime %roduces
England as the regulating center o! tem%oral measurement# Eurocentrism bi!urcates
the orld into the ,4est and the Rest,= and organi*es everyday language into
binaristic hierarchies im%licitly !lattering to Euro%e+ our ,nations,, their ,tribes,> our
,religions,, their ,su%erstitions,> our ,culture,, their ,!ol)lore,> our ,art,, their
,arti!acts,> our ,demonstrations,, their ,riots,> our ,de!ense,, their ,terrorism#,
Eurocentrism !irst emerged as a discursive rationale !or colonialism, the %rocess by
hich the Euro%ean %oers reached %ositions o! hegemony in much o! the orld#
Indeed, ?#:# Blaut calls Eurocentrism ,the coloni*er7s model o! the orld#,2 (s an
ideological substratum common to colonialist, im%erialist, and racist discourse,
Eurocentrism is a !orm o! vestigial thin)ing hich %ermeates and structures
contem%orary %ractices and re%resentations even a!ter the !ormal end o!
colonialism# (lthough colonialist discourse and Eurocentric discourse are intimately
intertined, the terms have a distinct em%hasis# 4hile the !ormer e5%licitly -usti!ies
colonialist %ractices, the latter embeds, ta)es !or granted, and ,normali*es, the
hierarchical %oer relations generated by colonialism and im%erialism, ithout
necessarily even themati*ing those issues directly#
(lthough generated by the coloni*ing %rocess, Eurocentrism7s lin)s to that %rocess
are obscured in a )ind o! buried e%istemology#
Eurocentric discourse is com%le5, contradictory, historically unstable# But in a )ind
o! com%osite %ortrait, Eurocentrism as a mode o! thought might be seen as
engaging in a number o! mutually rein!orcing intellectual tendencies or o%erations+
1# Eurocentric discourse %ro-ects a linear historical tra-ectory leading !rom
classical <reece (constructed as ,%ure,, ,4estern,, and ,democratic,) to im%erial
Rome and then to the metro%olitan ca%itals o! Euro%e and the @S# It renders history
as a se'uence o! em%ires+ .a5 Romana, .a5 0is%anica, .a5 Britannica# .a5
(mericana# In all cases, Euro%e, alone and unaided, is seen as the ,motor, !or
%rogressive historical change+ it invents class society, !eudalism, ca%italism, the
industrial revolution#
6# Eurocentrism attributes to the ,4est, an inherent %rogress toard democratic
institutions (/or'uemada, :ussolini, and 0itler must be seen as aberrations ithin
this logic o! historical amnesia and selective legitimation)#
8# Eurocentrism elides non"Euro%ean democratic traditions, hile obscuring the
mani%ulations embedded in 4estern !ormal democracy and mas)ing the 4est7s %art
in subverting democracies abroad#
Eurocentrism minimi*es the 4est7s o%%ressive %ractices by regarding them as
contingent, accidental, e5ce%tional# &olonialism, slave"trading, and im%erialism are
not seen as !undamental catalysts o! the 4est7s dis%ro%ortionate %oer#
Eurocentrism a%%ro%riates the cultural and material %roduction o! non"Euro%eans
hile denying both their achievements and its on a%%ro%riation, thus consolidating
its sense o! sel! and glori!ying its on cultural anthro%o%hagy# /he 4est, as Barbara
Airshenblatt"<imblett %uts it, ,se%arates !orms !rom their %er!ormers, converts
those !orms into in!luences, brings those in!luences into the center, leaves the living
sources on the margin, and %ats itsel! on the bac) !or being so cosmo%olitan#,1
In sum, Eurocentrism saniti*es 4estern history hile %atroni*ing and even
demoni*ing the non"4est> it thin)s o! itsel! in terms o! its noblest achievements "
science, %rogress, humanism " but o! the non"4est in terms o! its de!iciencies, real
or imagined#
(s a or) o! adversary scholarshi%, Unthinking Eurocentrism criti'ues the
universali*ation o! Eurocentric norms, the idea that any race, in (imB &Bsaire7s
ords, ,holds a mono%oly on beauty, intelligence, and strength#, Cur criti'ue o!
Eurocentrism is addressed not to Euro%eans as individuals but rather to dominant
Euro%eDs historically o%%ressive relation to its internal and e5ternal ,others#, 4e are
in no ay suggesting, obviously, that non"Euro%ean %eo%le are someho EbetterF
than Euro%eans, or that /hird 4orld and minoritarian cultures are inherently
su%erior# /here is no inborn tendency among Euro%eans to commit genocide, as
some ,ice %eo%le, theorists ould suggest " such theories merely colonialist
demoni*ations " nor are indigenous or /hird 4orld %eo%les
innately noble and generous# 9or do e believe in the inverted Euro%ean narcissism
that %osits Euro%e as the source o! all social evils in the orld# Such an a%%roach
remains Eurocentric (,Euro%e e5hibiting its on unacce%tability in !ront o! an anti"
ethnocentric mirror,, in Gerrida7s ords) and also e5em%ts /hird orld %atriarchal
elites !rom all res%onsibility#7 Such ,victimology, reduces non"Euro%ean li!e to a
%athological res%onse to 4estern %enetration# It merely turns colonilialist claims
u%side don# Rather than saying that ,e, (that is, the 4est) have brought ,them,
civili*ation, it claims instead that everyhere ,e, have brought diabolical evil, and
everyhere ,their, en!eebled societies have succumbed to ,our, insidious in!luence#
/he vision remains .romethean, but here .rometheus has brought not !ire but the
0olocaust, re%roducing hat Barbara &hristian calls the ,4est7s outlandish claim to
have invented everything, including Evil#,H Cur !ocus here, in any case, is less on
intentions than on institutional discourses, less on ,goodness, and ,badness, than
on historically con!igured relations o! %oer# /he 'uestion, as /alal (sad %uts it, is
not ,ho !ar Euro%eans have been guilty and /hird 4orld inhabitants innocent but,
rather, ho !ar the criteria by hich guilt and innocence are determined have been
historically constituted#,9
/he ord ,Eurocentric, sometimes %rovo)es a%o%lectic reactions because it is ta)en
as a synonym !or ,racist#, But although Eurocentrism and racism are historically
intertined " !or e5am%le, the erasure o! (!rica as historical sub-ect rein!orces
racism against (!rican"(mericans " they are in no ay e'uatable, !or the sim%le
reason that Eurocentrism is the ,normal, consensus vie o! history that most ;irst
4orlders and even many /hird 4orlders learn at school and imbibe !rom the media#
(s a result o! this normali*ing o%eration, it is 'uite %ossible to be antiracist at both
a conscious and a %ractical level, and still be Eurocentric# Eurocentrism is an im%licit
%ositioning rather than a conscious %olitical stance> %eo%le do not announce
themselves as Eurocentric any more than se5ist men go around saying+ ,0i# I7m
?oe# I7m a %hallocrat#, /his %oint is o!ten misunderstood, as in Gavid Rie!! s
breathless claim that ,there is no business establishment any more that is
committed ### to notions o! Euro%ean su%eriority#,1I But cor%orate e5ecutives are
the last %eo%le ho need consciously to orry about Euro%ean su%eriority> it is
enough that they inherit the structures and %ers%ectives be'ueathed by centuries
o! Euro%ean domination#
Rather than attac)ing Euro%e %er se, an anti"Eurocentric multiculturalism, in our
vie, relativi*es Euro%e, seeing it as a geogra%hical !iction that !lattens the cultural
diversity even o! Euro%e itsel!# Euro%e has alays had its on %eri%herali*ed
regions and stigmati*ed communities (?es, Irish, <y%sies, 0uguenots, :uslims,
%easants, omen, gays/lesbians)# 9or do e endorse a Euro%hobic attitude> our
on te5t invo)es Euro%ean thin)ers and conce%ts# /hat e em%hasi*e the
,underside, o! Euro%ean history does not mean e do not recogni*e an ,overside,
o! scienti!ic, artistic, and %olitical achievement# (nd since Eurocentrism is a
historically situated discourse and not a genetic inheritance, Euro%eans can be anti"
Eurocentric, -ust as non"Euro%eans can be Eurocentric# Euro%e has alays s%aned
its on critics o! em%ire# Some o! the Euro%ean cultural !igures most revered by
today7s neoconservatives, ironically, themselves condemned colonialism# Samuel
?ohnson, the very archety%e o! the neoclassical conservative, rote in 1729 that
,Euro%eans have scarcely visited any coast but to grati!y avarice, and e5tend
corru%tion> to arrogate dominion ithout right and %ractice cruelty ithout
incentive#,11 Even (dam Smith, the %atron saint o! ca%italism, rote in his Wealth
of Nations (1771) that !or the natives o! the East and 4est Indies, all the
commercial bene!its resulting !rom the discovery o! (merica ,have been sun) and
lost in the dread!ul mis!ortunes hich they have occasioned#,16 Jet hen
contem%orary multiculturalists ma)e the same %oints, they are accused o! ,Euro%e"
bashing#,18 Cr the criti'ues are ac)noledged, but then turned into a com%liment
to Euro%e, in a )ind o! ,!allbac) %osition, !or Euro"narcissism+ ,Jes, Euro%e did all
those cruel things, but then, only Euro%e has the virtue o! being sel!"critical#,
Eurocentric thin)ing, in our vie, is !undamentally unre%resentative o! a orld
hich has long been multicultural# (t times, even multiculturalists glim%se the
issues through a narroly national and e5ce%tionalist grid, as hen ell"meaning
curriculum committees call !or courses about the ,contributions, o! the orld7s
diverse cultures to the ,develo%ment o! (merican society,, unaare o! the
nationalistic teleology underlying such a !ormulation# ,:ulticulturedness, is not a
,@nited Statesian, mono%oly, nor is multiculturalism the ,handmaiden, o! @S
identity %olitics#1= $irtually all countries and regions are multicultural in a %urely
descri%tive sense# Egy%t melds .haraonic, (rab, :uslim, ?eish, &hristian/&o%tic,
and :editerranean in!luences> India is riotously %lural in language and religion> and
:e5ico7s ,cosmic race, mingles at least three ma-or constellations o! cultures# 9or is
9orth (merican multiculturalism o! recent date# ,(merica, began as %olyglot and
multicultural, s%ea)ing a myriad o! languages+ Euro%ean, and 9ative (merican#
4hile the !ashionability o! the ord multiculturalism might soon %ass, the to hich
it %oints ill not soon !ade, !or these contem%orary 'uarrels are l the sur!ace
mani!estations o! a dee%er ,seismological shi!t, " the decoloni*ation o! global
culture " hose im%lications e have barely begun to register# Cnly an aareness o!
the inertia o! the colonialist legacy, and o! the crucial role o! the in %rolonging it,
can clari!y the dee%"seated -ustice o! the call !or culturalism# ;or us,
multiculturalism means seeing orld history and contem%orary social li!e !rom the
%ers%ective o! the radical e'uality o! %eo%les l status, %otential, and rights#
:ulticulturalism decoloni*es re%resentation not 7 in terms o! cultural arti!acts "
literary canons, museum e5hibits, !ilm series "but also in terms o! %oer relations
beteen communities#
Cur %ur%ose here is, above all, to ma)e connections# 4e ma)e connections, !irst, in
tem%oral terms# 4hile the media treat multiculturalism as a recent bandagon
%henomenon unrelated to colonialism, e ground our discussion in a longer history
o! multi%ly located o%%ressions# (nd here many literary studies o! culture and
em%ire %rivilege the nineteenth and tentieth centuries, e trace colonialist
discourse bac) to 1=96, lin)ing re%resentations o! ,ancient history, contem%orary
re%resentations, moving !rom discourses about classical or (!rica, !or e5am%le, to
%resent"day /$ commercials# 4e ma)e connections, second, in s%atial/geogra%hical
terms, %lacing debates about re%resentation in a broader conte5t hich embraces
the (mericas, (sia, and (!rica# , e ma)e connections in disci%linary terms, !orging
lin)s beteen usually com%artmentali*ed !ields (media studies, literary theory,
re!le5ive and e5%erimental ethnogra%hy, /hird 4orld !eminism, %ostcolonial studies,
the diverse lie and ,area studies,)> and !ourth, in inter"te5tual terms, envisioning
the media > %art o! a broader discursive netor) ranging !rom the erudite (%oems,
novels, history, %er!ormance art, cultural theory) to the %o%ular (commercial
television, %o% music, -ournalism, theme %ar)s, tourist ads)# (lthough %rogressive
literary intellectuals sometimes disdain the loer reaches o! %o%ular culture, it is
%recisely at the %o%ular level that Eurocentrism generates its mass base in
everyday !eeling# ;i!th, in conce%tual terms, e lin) issues o! colonialism,
im%erialism, and /hird 4orld nationalism on the one hand, and o! race, ethnicity,
and multiculturalism on the other, attem%ting to %lace o!ten ghettoi*ed histories
and discourses in %roductive relation# (;or e5am%le, e do not !ollo
theconventional %ractice o! delin)ing issues o! racism !rom issues o! anti"Semitism#)
Rather than segregating historical %eriods and geogra%hical regions into neatly
!enced"o!! areas o! e5%ertise, e e5%lore their interconnectedness# Rather than
s%ea)ing o! cultural/racial grou%s in isolation, e s%ea) o! them ,in relation,,
ithout ever suggesting that their %ositionings are identical# Rather than %itting a
rotating chain o! o%%ositional communities against a 4hite Euro%ean dominant (a
strategy that %rivileges 4hiteness i! only as constant antagonist), e stress the
hori*ontal and vertical lin)s threading communities together in a con!lictual
netor)# Rather than recreating neat binarisms (Blac)/4hite, 9ative (merican/
4hite) that ironically recenter 4hiteness, hile the ,rest, ho !it only a)ardly
into such neat categories stand by as mere s%ectators, e try to address
overla%%ing multi%licities o! identity and a!!iliation#
Cur larger goal is to ,multiculturali*e, a cultural studies !ield o!ten devoid o!
substantive multicultural content# 4hile many authors de!end multiculturalism
against neoconservative attac), the or) itsel! is o!ten not multicultural at all# 4hile
innumerable essays reshu!!le or augment the ,mantra, (Aobena :ercer7s term) o!
race, class, gender, and se5uality, or e5%lore di**yingly abstract notions o!
,di!!erence, and ,alterity, in virtuoso !lights o! %oststructuralese, !e o!!er a
%artici%atory )noledge o! non"Euro%ean cultures# 4hile !oregrounding minor"
itarian ,star, intellectuals, the te5ts largely ignore the or) carried on decades or
even centuries earlier by anticolonialist thin)ers, along ith that o! non",stars, and
o! non"English"s%ea)ing /hird 4orld scholars# /he %rivileging o! the (nglo"(merican
cultural orld, and the tracing o! cultural studies7 %edigree only to Kondon or
Birmingham, %revents dialog ith Katin (merican, (sian, and (!rican studies>
hatever does not belong to the (nglo"4estern orld is %eri%herali*ed as ,area
studies#,
/he global nature o! the coloni*ing %rocess, and the global reach o! the
contem%orary media, virtually oblige the cultural critic to move beyond the
restrictive !rameor) o! the nation"state# But although e try to set multicultural
issues in a global conte5t, e ma)e no claim to ,cover, the globe in a lordly
im%erial see%# Cur call to ,thin) globally, is not a demand that individual scholars
become omniscient %olymaths, but rather the designation o! a collective %ro-ect#
Indeed, Unthinking Eurocentrism con!igures an interdisci%linary !ield hich has
been gaining momentum but has barely been named, and hich e ould call
,multicultural media studies#, $arious subcurrents mingle in the larger stream o!
multicultural media studies+ the analysis o! ,minority, re%resentation> the criti'ue
o! im%erialist media> the or) on colonial and %ostcolonial discourse> the theori*ing
o! ,/hird 4orld, and ,/hird &inema,> the histories and analyses o! (!rican, (sian,
Katin (merican, ;irst 4orld ,minority,, ,dias%oric,, and ,indigenous, media> the
or) on antiracist and multicultural media %edagogy#
Since all %olitical struggle in the %ostmodern era necessarily %asses through the
simulacral realm o! a mass culture, the media are absolutely central to any
discussion o! multiculturalism# /he contem%orary media sha%e identity> indeed,
many argue that they no e5ist close to the very core o! identity %roduction# In a
transnational orld ty%i!ied by the global circulation o! images and sounds, goods
and %eo%les, media s%ectatorshi% im%acts com%le5ly on national identity and
communal belonging# By !acilitating an engagement ith distant %eo%les, the media
,deterritoriali*e, the %rocess o! imagining communities# (nd hile the media can
destroy community and !ashion solitude by turning s%ectators into atomi*ed
consumers or sel!"entertaining monads, they can also !ashion community and
alternative a!!iliations# ?ust as the media can ,etheri*e, cultures (the em%hasis in
our earlier cha%ters), they can also %romote multicultural coalitions (the em%hasis
in our later cha%ters)# (nd i! dominant cinema has historically caricatured distant
civili*ations, the media today are more multicentered, ith the %oer not only to
o!!er countervailing re%resentations but also to o%en u% %arallel s%aces !or
symbiotic multicultural trans!ormation#
4e are %ro%osing a theori*ed and historici*ed discussion o! Eurocentrism as sha%ed
and challenged by the media# 4hat narrative and cinematic strategies have
%rivileged Eurocentric %ers%ectives, and ho have these %ers%ectives been
interrogatedL (lthough e em%hasi*e alternative te5ts and %ractices, Unthinking
Eurocentrism does not ta)e a monolithic ally hostile attitude toard dominant
media# 4e do not ma)e a blan)et indictment o! 0ollyood " li)e every cultural
%ra5is, 0ollyood is the site o! tensions and contradictions " nor do e see the
avant"garde as a re!uge !rom Eurocentrism# 4e do suggest, hoever, that there is
,more in heaven and earth, than is dreamed o! in the orld o! 0ollyoodcen"trism#
(9eedless to say, e use the term ,0ollyood, not to convey a )nee-er) re-ection
o! all commercial cinema, but rather as a )ind o! shorthand !or a massively
industrial, ideologically reactionary, and stylistically conservative !orm o!
,dominant, cinema#) Cur goal is not only to loo) at 0ollyood through multicultural
eyes but also to decenter the discussion by calling attention to other traditions,
other cinemas, other audio"visual !orms# (lthough the ord ,multi"culturalism,
sometimes %rovo)es %ro!essional an5iety in %rivileged educators because they thin)
they are being as)ed to ,begin !rom scratch,, in !act e are less interested in
,throing everything out, than in seeing everything ane#
(lthough e s%ea) o! !ilms o! diverse ty%es (!rom 0ollyood entertainment to
militant avant"garde) and o! very diverse national origins, it is not our goal to
survey orld cinema# (/he %roli!ic and innovative cinemas o! East (sia, !or
e5am%le, are not a ma-or %resence here#) 4e !ocus on those !ilms hich engage
ith multiculturalism, not ith those hich by%ass, ignore, or transcend it# 4e
e5%lore %rogressive audio"visual %o%ular culture along a ide s%ectrum hich
includes critical 0ollyood !ilms, /hird 4orld and minoritarian !ilms, ra% music
video, the %olitici*ed avant"garde, didactic documentaries, and the camcorder
militancy o! community activists# But rather than scanning the orld7s media as a
hole, e invo)e cultural %ractices and te5tual e5am%les !or their methodological,
theoretical, or %olitical value#
:ingling discursive history ith te5tual analysis, s%eculative theoretical essay ith
critical survey, Unthinking Eurocentrism addresses diverse disci%linary
constituencies# 4hile recogni*ing the s%eci!icity o! !ilm/media, e also grant
ourselves a ,cultural studies,"style !reedom to ander among diverse disci%lines,
te5ts, and discourses, ancient and contem%orary, lo and high# (s a disci%linary
hybrid, the boo) develo%s a syncretic, even cannibalistic methodology# Its overall
architectonics move !rom %ast to !uture, !rom didacticism to s%eculation, !rom
hegemony to resistance, and !rom criti'ue to a!!irmation# (4ithin ,criti'ue,, e
ould add, there is also ,celebration,, -ust as ithin ,celebration, there is buried a
,criti'ue#,) Cur %ur%ose is not globally to endorse, or globally condemn, any
s%eci!ic body o! te5ts> the %oint is only to become more historically in!ormed and
artistically nuanced readers o! cultural %ractices# Unthinking Eurocentrism is
there!ore not structured as an ine5orable linear movement toard a %rescri%tive
conclusion# /he overall ,argument, concerning Eurocentrism is not stated baldly
and e5%licitly, but or)ed out sloly, over the course o! the boo)# Giverse leitmoti!s
are oven into the various cha%ters, creating a )ind o! musical echo e!!ect hereby
the same theme emerges in di!!erent conte5ts# I! ,/he Im%erial Imaginary,
(cha%ter 8) stresses the colonialist riting o! history, ,/he /hird 4orldist ;ilm,
(cha%ter 7) stresses the ,riting bac), %er!ormed by the e5"coloni*ed# Such themes
as the criti'ue o! Eurocentric %aradigms, the elaboration o! a relational
methodology, the search !or alternative esthetics, and the interrogation o! the
diverse ,%osts,, meanhile, structure the te5t throughout# Some themes that
a%%ear !irst in a colonialist register " hybridity, syncretism, mesti*a-e, cannibalism,
magic " later rea%%ear in a liberatory, anticolonialist register, so that the diverse
sections reverberate together thematically#
/he introductory cha%ter o! Unthinking Eurocentrism, ,;rom Eurocentrism to
.olycentrism,, synthesi*es the crucial debates concerning ,Eurocentrism,, ,racism,,
the ,/hird, and ,;ourth, 4orlds, and ,%ostcoloniality, in order to %rovide conce%tual
groundor) !or subse'uent discussion# 0ere e %ro%ose the conce%t o! ,%olycentric
multiculturalism, as an alternative to liberal %luralism#
/he second cha%ter, ,;ormations o! &olonialist Giscourse,, e5amines, in a
telesco%ed !ashion, the nature, origins, and rami!ications o! colonialist"Eurocentric
discourse, seen as an in!orming interte5t !or %resent"day re%resentations# /he
media, e argue, absorb and retool the same colonialist discourse that %ermeates
such idely divergent !ields as %hiloso%hy, literature, and history# Rather than
surveying an im%ossibly long history, e !ocus on landmar) struggles over the
inscri%tion o! ,<reece/Egy%t,, the ,voyages o! discovery,, the discourses o! %rogress
and the antinomies o! ,the Enlightenment,, em%hasi*ing less the historical events
themselves than their discursive !allout# By ay o! illustration, e call attention to
the media te5ts that ta)e %ositions on these debates, !or e5am%le the many !ilms
about &olumbus and the con'uistadors#
/he third cha%ter, ,/he Im%erial Imaginary,, e5%lores the shado cast by em%ire
over the cinema as an institution hose very origins coincided ith the giddy
heights o! im%erialism# 4hat as the role o! cinema vis"a"vis the novel and %rint
media in creating a masculinist im%erial imaginaryL (!ter addressing the early
im%erialist %roductions o! the @S, Britain, and ;rance, including in the
%mto"cinematic !orm o! colonial e5hibitions, e e5amine the 0ollyood estern as
a %aradigm !or 0ollyood treatments o! ;irst 4orld//hird 4orld encounters# /hat
the coloni*ing interte5t o! the im%erial adventure !ilm and the estern subliminally
structures even contem%orary re%resentations, e suggest, becomes obvious in
!ilms li)e the Indiana ?ones series o! the 19HIs, in ,colonial nostalgia, !ilms li)e Cut
o! (!rica (19H2) or .assage to India (19H=), and even in the media coverage o! the
.ersian <ul! ar o! 1991# /hroughout the cha%ter e em%hasi*e not only the
content o! these stories/histories but also their mediation through genre and
through s%eci!ically cinematic and televisual means o! mani%ulating %oint"o!"vie,
!ocali*ation, identi!ication#
/he !ourth cha%ter, ,/ro%es o! Em%ire,, concentrates on the tro%ological o%erations
o! Eurocentrism as a !igurative substratum ithin the discourse o! em%ire#
Eurocentric discourse, e suggest, o!ten o%erates through meta%hors, tro%es, and
!igures such as animali*ation, in!antili*ation, and so !orth# 0ere e !ocus s%eci!ically
on the visual embodiments o! gendered and erotici*ed tro%es o! ,virgin lands, and
,dar), continents, o! ,veiled, territories and imaginary harems, and o! !antasies o!
ra%e and rescue# /hese embedded to%oi, e argue, convey Eurocentric attitudes
toard land, ecology, and non"Euro%ean cultures, and e5ercise orldly e!!ectivity
through institutional discourses such as those o! archeology and %sychoanalysis#
/he !i!th cha%ter, ,Stereoty%e, Realism, and the Struggle over Re%resentation,,
intervenes in the debates about ,realism, and ,%ositive images,, critically assessing
the methodological !ield )non as ,image studies#, /o hat e5tent has
,stereoty%es"and"distortions, analysis been use!ul in relation to a medium still
massively associated ith the real, and to hat e5tent has it led us into theoretical
blind alleysL 4hile such or) has been !undamental !or identity mobili*ation and !or
the criti'ue o! the dominant media, e argue, it is also im%ortant to move !rom
character"based a%%roaches to more multidimensional methods that ta)e into
account such issues as institutional setting, the %olitics o! language and casting,
generic mediation, and cultural variation#
/he si5th cha%ter, ,Ethnicities"in"Relation,, argues !or a relational a%%roach to
media re%resentation, one that o%erates at once ithin, beteen, and beyond the
nation"state !rameor)# ( relational methodology, e argue, enables the
e5cavation o! a submerged racial %resence even in !ilms, such as ,lily"hite,
0ollyood musicals, that do not themati*e race %er se# /he com%le5 relational
%resence o! indigenous and (!ro"dias%oric %eo%les in all the (mericas, e !urther
suggest, re'uires a transnational a%%roach that !oregrounds the con!lictual inter%lay
o! cultural communities and identities ithin and across borders#
/he seventh cha%ter, ,/he /hird 4orldist ;ilm,, discusses the cinematic counter"
telling o! the history o! colonialism and neocolonialism ithin /hird 4orld cinema#
0ere e ,sam%le, s%eci!ic !ilms, largely !rom the 191Is and 197Is, in order to
demonstrate a s%ectrum o! revolutionary nationalist strategies+ ,/hird &inema,,
,esthetics o! hunger,, ,allegories o! underdevelo%ment#, /he !ilms discussed
e5em%li!y a to"!ronted struggle to !use revisionist historiogra%hy
ith !ormal innovation# Battaglia de (lgeria (Battle o! (lgiers, 1911) )idna%s the
techni'ues associated ith /$ re%ortage to tell the story o! (lgerian inde%endence#
$idas Secas (Barren Kives, 1918) embodies an ,esthetic o! hunger, by !ilming
hunger in a style and %roduction method a%%ro%riate to a /hird 4orld country# Ka
0orn de los 0omos (0our o! the ;urnaces, 191H) !uses !ormal and %olitical avant"
gardism in an incendiary !ashion, hile such !ilms as /erra em /ranse (Kand in
(nguish, 1917), Mala (197=), and @rs bil<alil ( 4edding in <alilee, 19H7) o!!er
modernist ,allegories o! im%otence#, Re!le5ive !ilms such as Is)andariya Keh ###L
((le5andria 4hy ###L, 1979), (a)aler Sandhane (In Search o! ;amine, 19HI), and
&abra :arcado %ara :orrer (/enty Jears (!ter, 19H=), !inally, !ocali*e the
s%eci!icities o! the !ilmma)ing %rocess in the /hird 4orld#
&ha%ter H, ,Esthetics o! Resistance,, !ocusses on the attem%ts to synthesi*e radical
%olitics ith alternative esthetics, in a double and com%lementary movement
embracing both !orm and content# /he !ilms discussed here go ,beyond, many o!
the !ilms discussed in the %revious cha%ter, !irst in that they re-ect realist esthetics
in !avor o! anthro%o%hagic, %arodic"carnivales'ue, and media"-u-itsu strategies> and
second, in that they transcend an e5clusive concern ith nation, interrogating
nationalist discourse also !rom the stand%oint o! class, gender, se5uality, and
dias%oric identity# In hat e call ,%ost"/hird 4orldist, !ilms, %aramodern ,archaic,
cultural traditions such as orality and carnival become the tram%olin !or
moderni*ing or %ostmoderni*ing esthetics# Rather than %ro%osing a monolithically
correct esthetic, here e evo)e a varied constellation o! o%%ositional strategies,
hich ta)en together have the %otential o! revolutioni*ing audio"visual %roduction
and %edagogy#
/he ninth and !inal cha%ter, ,/he .olitics o! :ulticulturalism in the .ostmodern (ge,,
theori*es media %edagogy, rece%tion, and s%ectatorshi%# 0ere e e5amine issues o!
,%olitical correctness,, cross"cultural s%ectatorshi%, inter"communal coalitions, and
the %olitics o! %o%ular culture in the %ostmodern age# 0o does s%ectatorshi%
im%act on communal belonging and %olitical a!!iliation in an increasingly
transnational orldL 4e develo% notions o! ,racially resistant readings,, ,analogical
structures o! !eeling,, and ,multicultural s%ectatorshi%#, 4e e5%lore, !inally, the
o%%ortunities o%ened u% by anti"Eurocentric, multicultural, audio"visual %edagogy#
Cur title, Unthinking Eurocentrism, has a double thrust that structures the boo) as
a hole# Cn the one hand, e aim to e5%ose the unthin)ing, ta)en"!or"granted
'uality o! Eurocentrism as an unac)noledged current, a )ind o! bad e%istemic
habit, both in mass"mediated culture and in intellectual re!lection on that culture#
In this sense, e ant to clear Eurocentric rubble !rom the collective brain# Cn the
other, e ant to ,unthin), Eurocentric discourse, to move beyond it toard a
relational theory and %ractice# Rather than striving !or ,balance,, e ho%e to ,right
the balance#, Eurocentric criticism, e ill argue, is not only %olitically retrograde
but also esthetically stale, !lat, and un%ro!itable# /here are many cognitive, %olitical,
and esthetic alternatives to Eurocentrism> our ho%e is to de!ine and illuminate
them#
Unthinking Eurocentrism is not a %olitically correct boo)# /he very ord,
,correctness,, in our vie, comes ith a bad odor# Cn the one (right) hand, it
smells o! &rusoe7s ledger boo), o! manuals o! eti'uette and table manners, and
even o! the boo))ee%ing o! the In'uisition and the 0olocaust# Cn the other (le!t)
hand, it has the odor o! Stalinist %urism, no trans!erred to a largely verbal
register# /he %hrase ,%olitical correctness, (.&) evo)es not only the
neoconservative caricature o! socialist, !eminist, gay, lesbian, and multiculturalist
%olitics but also a real tendency ithin the le!t " hence its e!!ectiveness#
(m%li!ying the %ree5isting association o! the le!t ith moralistic sel!"righteousness
and %uritanical antisensuality, the right ing has %ortrayed all %olitici*ed criti'ue as
the neurotic e!!luvium o! hiny malcontents, the %roduct o! an u%tight subculture o!
morbid guilt"tri%%ing# But i! ,%olitical correctness, evo)es a %reachy, humorless
austerity, the %hrase ,%o%ular culture, evo)es a sense o! %leasure# /hus an
underlying 'uestion in Unthinking Eurocentrism is the !olloing+ given the ecli%se o!
revolutionary metanarratives in the %ostmodern era, ho do e criti'ue the
dominant Eurocentric media hile harnessing its undeniable %leasuresL ;or our
%art, e are not interested in im%eccably correct te5ts %roduced by irre%roachable
revolutionary sub-ects# Indeed, a dee% 'uasi"religious substratum underlies the
search !or %er!ectly correct %olitical te5ts# In this sense, e ould orry less about
incorrectness (a ord suggesting a %ositivist u%dating o! ,sin,), sto% searching !or
%er!ectly correct te5ts (%atterned a!ter the model o! the ?anonical sacred ord),
sto% loo)ing !or %er!ect characters (modeled on im%eccable divinities and in!allible
%o%es), and assume instead im%er!ection and contradiction#
&ongruent ith our double thrust, e ill de%loy a double o%eration o! criti'ue and
celebration, o! dismantling and rebuilding, o! criti'uing Eurocentric tendencies
ithin dominant discourse hile celebrating the transgressive uto%ianism o!
multicultural te5ts and %ractices# 4e do not mean ,uto%ia, in the sense o!
scientistic ,blue%rint, @to%ias or totali*ing metanarratives o! %rogress, but rather in
the sense o! ,critical @to%ias, hich see) hat /om :oylan calls ,seditious
re%ression o! social change, carried on in a ,%ermanently o%en %rocess o!
envisioning hat is not yet#,12 Rather than constructing a %urist notion o! correct
te5ts or immaculate sites o! resistance, e ould %ro%ose a %ositively %redatory
attitude hich sei*es esthetic and %edagogic %otentialities in a ide variety o!
cultural %ractices, !inding in them germs o! subversion that can ,s%rout, in an
altered conte5t# Rather than engaging in a moralistic, hectoring criti'ue, our ho%e is
to %oint to the e5uberant %ossibilities o%ened u% by critical and %olycentric
multiculturalism#
9C/ES
1 0ugh /revor"Ro%er, /he Rise o! &hristian Euro%e (9e Jor)+ 0arcourt Brace
?ovanovich, 1912), %# 9#
6 ;or Roger Aimball, multiculturalism im%lies+
11
@19 1 :1?9R#1I9@ t,@A@K?t,9 1 A1S:
an attac) on the### idea that, des%ite our many di!!erences, e hold in common an
intellectual, artistic, and moral legacy, descending largely !rom the <ree)s and the
Bible NhichO %reserves us !rom chaos and barbarism# (nd it is %recisely this legacy
that the multiculturalist ishes to dis%ense ith#
See Roger Aimball, /enured Radicals+ 0o .olitics 0as &orru%ted 0igher
Education (9e Jor)+ 0ar%er&ollins, 199I), %ostscri%t#
8 /he orld ma% designed by <erman historian (rno .eters corrects the
distortions o! traditional ma%s# /he te5t on the ma%, distributed by the @9
Gevelo%ment .rogramme, ;riendshi% .ress, 9e Jor), %oints out that traditional
ma%s %rivilege the northern hemis%here (hich occu%ies to"thirds o! the ma%),
that they ma)e (las)a loo) larger than :e5ico (hen in !act :e5ico is bigger),
<reenland larger than &hina (although &hina is !our times the si*e), Scandinavia
larger than India (hich is three times as big as Scandinavia)#
= /he %hrase ,the 4est and the Rest,, to the best o! our )noledge, goes bac) to
&hinei*u7s /he 4est and the Rest o! @s+ 4hite .redators, Blac) Slaves and the
(!rican Elite (9e Jor)+ Random 0ouse, 1972)# It is also used in Stuart 0all and
Bram <ieben, eds, ;ormations o! :odernity (&ambridge+ .olity .ress, 1996)#
2 i#:# Blaut, /he &oloni*er7s :odel o! the 4orld+ <eogra%hical Gi!!usionism and
Eurocentric 0istory (9e Jor)+ <uil!ord .ress, 1998), %# 1I#
1 See Barbara Airshenblatt"<imblett, ,:a)ing Gi!!erence+ :a%%ing the Giscursive
/errain o! :ulticulturalism,, dra!t o! a %a%er given us by the author#
7 See ?ac'ues Gerrida, Ge la <rammatologie (.aris+ :inuit, 1917), %# 11H#
H Barbara &hristian, !rom a %a%er %resented at the <ender and &olonialism
&on!erence at the @niversity o! &ali!ornia, Ber)eley (Cctober 19H9)#
9 /alad (sad, ,( &omment on (i-a* (hmad7s In /heory, .ublic &ulture, $ol# 1, 9o#
1 (;all 1998)#
1I See Gavid Rie!!, ,:ulticulturalism7s Silent .artner,, 0ar%er7s, $ol# 6H7, 9o#
1719 ((ugust 1998)#
11 Samuel ?ohnson, /he 4orld Gis%layed, 'uoted in the Jale edition o! /he 4or)s
o! Samuel ?ohnson, $ol# 1I+ /he .olitical 4ritings, ed# Gonald ?# <reene (9e
0aven, &onn#+ Jale @niversity .ress, 1977), %# =61#
16 (dam Smith, /he 4ealth o! 9ations (9e Jor)+ Random 0ouse, 1987), %#
29I#
18 /homas ?e!!erson, similarly, called in his on time !or the study o! 9ative
(merican culture and languages in schools, yet the multiculturalist call !or a
,curriculum o! inclusion, is caricatured as ,thera%y !or minorities#, Cn ?e!!erson7s
interest in 9ative (mericans, see Gonald (# <rinde ?r and Bruce E# ?ohansen,
E5em%lar o! Kiberty+ 9ative (merica and the Evolution o! Gemocracy (Kos (ngeles+
(merican Indian Studies &enter, 1991)#
1= ;or a criti'ue o! ethnocentric multiculturalism, see <eorge Judice, ,4e (re 9ot
the 4orld,, Social /e5t, 9o# 81/86 (1996)#
12 /om :oylan, Gemand the Im%ossible+ Science ;iction and the @to%ian
Imagination (9e Jor)+ :ethuen, 19H1), %# 618#