It is said that many people hate what they do not understand. This statement became very clear while reading this assingment. History has shown us what whoever is in the majority with the most power often can and will dominate the minority. This goes beyond skin color and crosses into specific segments of individual's idiosyncrasies. My question is..does this form of thinking derive from our essence or is this a learned behavior? It is instinctual to fear what is different from you? Why do we so often define ourselves through others? Why do we give other's impressions so much weight? While working at a charter school, I was responsible for chracter education for fifth grade girls. I asked them to call out adjectives of how they felt the media depicted them. The class was all African American and things were called out like agressive, attitude, mean, over-sexual. The list did not contain one positive word to represent this group of girls. I watched how many of them justified the examples and argued why most of them were true. I believe in instances, those in the minority begin to birth those attributes and own them without uniting and proving to the opressing force that they are in fact more than the label.
Post-Colonial Theory
When I hear the phrase post-colonial theory, I conclude a set of ideas, assumptions or conclusions of the affect of colonization on a group of people. Theatre and performance pieces often merge or show the contradictions in the origin and contemporary lifestyle as it results from colonialism. When a group becomes aware of what it has become, what individual actions are replaced to restore history? Is it easier to assimilate into a new way of living? What mentally transpires to embrace and accept a new found culture? My knowledge of this topic is limited and I am highly interested in obtaining further research to gain a clearer and better understanding.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Taking on the negative attributes from an oppressive majority is a sad but all too real phenomenon. It is all the more exacerbated by the economic and political structures created in this country at the expense of Africans and their descendents. Their cultural, religious and national identities were essentially erased from the collective remembrance. I don’t know how this phenomenon manifested in the Tsusis or the Koreans but it is certainly ongoing for all people in America. We all have to be constantly vigilant against the effects of the media on our thinking when it comes to so-called “minorities.”
This, of course, extends to not only so-called “non-western” theatre but, I submit, western theatre styles as well. Being (as I often have said) trained in European physiological realism it is easy for us to see this as the best and brightest path to theatrical artistry. On the other side of the coin we are truth seeking, open hearted and, hopefully, open-minded artists. We are not taking much for granted and we ask questions of our art and of history as well. “What in this art form can I use in my art?” is one primary question.
For me another is always, what is the story being told and how does yhe form help tell the story. I am often challenged by what we read because scripts, as the venerable Russ Vandenbrouke tells us, are meant to be heard…to which I add plays are meant to be seen. My hope is that, when all is said and done at the end of the semester, we will have at least planted some seeds in our minds for discerning a theatrical tradition’s aesthetic characteristics which we can mine without devaluing or disrespecting the cultural and even spiritual intent behind that aesthetic.
Post a Comment