.:Cultural Critique - Marxism, Feminism, Postcolonialism:.

Created By: Esther, Nick, Sherri, Cara W. & Kellie

.: Structural Marxism :.

Definition of Marxism: The economic and political theory that the state has been an apparatus for exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, class struggle is the impetus for historical change, and capitalism will eventually give way to a socialist order and classless society. (For a full definition please visit dictionary.com.)

Overview of Marxist Philosophy: Marxist philosophy is based largely on the work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, as well as their 1848 publication, The Communist Manifesto. While these two men originated many of the ideas of Marxism, there have been a number of schisms or emendations that have resulted in several sub-classes of Marxism. For Marxism, the basic arguments include the idea that the ruling class will control the means of production in society and therefore the society’s ideology will necessarily be that which is in the ruling class’s best interest. Also, there is a great divide between the value of the products workers make and the wage that the laborers receive, and, based on the labor theory of value, the value of a commodity can be measured by the number of labor-hours necessary to produce the commodity, regardless of the cost of the materials. A number of schools of Marxism have developed since Karl Marx’s time, including Structural Marxism, Neo-Marxism, Cultural Marxism, Analytical Marxism, and Marxist Humanism. Please click on the links for more information of these schools of Marxism.

Louis Althusser: Life History

Louis Althusser was born in 1918 in Algeria and spent most of his early years in Marseilles. During WWII, Althusser fought with French soldiers and was interned in a German POW camp, where he first encountered Communist ideas. After the war, he studied at a prominent school in Paris, known as the École Normale Supérieure, where he later became a Professor of Philosophy. In 1946, Althusser met Helene Rytman, who was his life partner until he strangled her in 1980. In ill health, Althusser underwent electroshock therapy in 1947 and suffered from periods of mental illness for the remainder of his life. Before his death at age 72 in 1990, Althusser spent the last few years of his life living reclusively in northern Paris and worked only on his autobiography.

Marxism as per Louis Althusser: Within the scope of Marxist philosophy, Louis Althusser’s greatest endeavor was to understand the way that ideology functions in society. In this endeavor, he explores how ideology represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to the reality of existence. For Althusser, while individuals may believe themselves to be self-determinant, they are inevitably shaped by the ideological processes of the system.

Althusser’s Theory: Main Points

• The wages earned by a laborer are not representative of his or her labors.(1484)
• “The reproduction of labour power requires not only a reproduction of its skills, but also, at the same time, a reproduction of its submission to the rules of the established order.” (1485) Cara W. provides a practical example of this by defining it in terms of our capitalist system of working and wages in her blog on Althusser. Her example helps us to see how we are all a part of the system and its cyclical pattern.
• There are Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs) responsible for maintaining the system, including religion, schools, family, laws, political system, trade-unions, communications outlets, and cultural fare. (1489)
• “The Repressive State Apparatus functions ‘by violence’, whereas the Ideological State Apparatuses function ‘by ideology.’” (1490)  In contrast to this idea, Aliya argues in her blog that the RSA and the ISA have a common function and work in a very similar manner.
• Control of both the RSA and ISA are necessary for the ruling class to maintain power. (1491) Ryan explains in his blog how the family and the educational system work together to do exactly this. He addresses the way in which the use of family and state apparatuses creates a vulnerability that allows for repression.
• Education is the leading ISA. (1494) Meaghan was able to pull a specific part of the text out in her blog that helps to solidify this point and provide a clear definition.
• Ideology is an imaginary construction, separate from reality, has no history, and is actually a representation of the individual’s relationship to his or her conditions of existence. (1496, 1499)
• Within the system that exists, we have already recognized ourselves as subjects and defined ourselves by our relationships. (1507)

.: Feminism :.

Definition of Feminism: Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines feminism as (1) “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes,” or (2) “organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests.”

Overview of Feminist Theory: Feminist theory is primarily concerned with the liberation of women from the subordination of men. It is a movement and philosophy that is interested in the creation of genders and the socio-economic impact of gender roles and identities. Feminism often works to both empower women by advocating specific employment laws and to create equality between the sexes. While traditionally populated by women, “feminism is not grounded in the basis of one’s gender, but in rejecting and refuting sexist oppression politically, socially, privately, linguistically, and otherwise” (Wikipedia Entry “Feminism”). In feminist history, there were three specific waves of feminism. Today, feminism is often linked with gay/lesbian and transgendered studies, poscolonialism, and psychoanalytic studies. For more information, please click on the links provided.

Feminism as per Gayle Rubin: Writing during the 1970s, Gayle Rubin was certainly not the innovator of feminist theory. Rather, her criticisms stem from a tradition of feminist thought that extends much further in history than the feminist movement of the 1960s. Characteristic of much of the feminist criticism of the 1970s, Gayle Rubin’s 1975 article, “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex,” was written with the goal of exposing the “mechanisms of patriarchy” (Barry 122) and discovering historical social mechanisms by which gender and compulsory heterosexuality are produced, and women are consigned to a secondary position in human relations.

Feminism as per Gayle Rubin: Main Points

• Women are defined not by who they are, but by their roles and relationships to men. (1664) Nick grabs a hold of Rubin’s idea that women are defined by their relationships with others, and even goes so far as to pull in and compare to Saussure’s example of gold or money not having value except in the relationship we participate in with it as a society.
• The economic oppression of women is the result of a tradition of female subordination (1667) Annie addresses this in her blog by relating it to the essentials that women stereotypically provide- food, shelter ( as a homemaker, a women is ultimately responsible for the shelter) clothing, and fuel. Women traditionally are the gender responsible for sewing the family clothing and therefore, even as stereotypes, as Annie points out, women are of equal importance.
• “Sex” “Gender,” and the resulting relationships are a social product. (166 Marina provides us with a very clear and concise definition of the sex gender system and the way in which it cycles through, and how women are the “capital in capitalism”.
• Gift giving “creates a social link between the partners of an exchange,” and “confers upon its participants a special relationship of trust, solidarity, and mutual aid.” (1671) Kim gives an excellent real-life example of this with her experience of what marriage entails. She also addresses how the role of a woman in only defined in relation to the role of her husband. The application of this theory to an actual experience has made this concept much more tangible. Elizabeth also tackles this concept in her blog, by relating it to Disgrace and David’s method of basically buying his women.
• Women are the articles of exchange between men. (Rubin 1672)
• Men are oppressed by the traffic in women, too. (Rubin 1673)
• Kinship systems are a means of ordering the process of “Exchange of women” (Rubin 1673)
• Men have rights to their female kin and the women do not have the same rights to themselves.
• Subordination of women is a result of the structure of sex and gender relationships.
• “Gender” is created by an exacerbation of differences between the sexes, and exclusive gender identity suppresses natural similarities between the sexes. (Rubin 1674, 1675)
• The feminist movement should advocate delineation of sexuality and sex roles and promote a non-gendered society. (1680)

.: Postcolonialism :.

Definition of Postcolonialism: Postcolonial, as defined by Dictionary.com, is “of, relating to, or being the time following the establishment of independence in a colony.”

Overview of Postcolonial Theory: Postcolonialism is primarily concerned with the identity of individuals and groups that were once colonized but now independent. The challenges facing these individuals and groups include development of a national identity, how writers articulate their cultures in the wake of colonized rule, the challenge of reconciling subordinate positions as colonized peoples to the newly independent status, and the ways in which the literature of the colonial powers is used to justify colonialism through the perpetuation of images of the colonized as inferior. Currently, postcolonial studies focus primarily on cultural and gender issues. Joei provides us with a passionate depiction of how demeaning and vulgar the colonizers can be in relation to the colonized. She refutes the idea that black men should be described as such in her blog dedicated to Fanon.

Franz Fanon- Where It’s All Coming From:

Franz Fanon was born in 1925 to a middle-class family in Martinique (a French colony in the Caribbean). He left Martinique in 1943 to fight with the Free French forces. He remained in
France after WWII to study medicine and psychiatry. Fanon considered himself French, and after encountering French racism worked in a variety of countries, including Algeria, Ghana, Tunisia, and Rome. He passed away in Bethesda, Maryland in 1961 from complications of leukemia.

As Per Franz Fanon: Postcolonialism was not fully recognized as a valid form of criticism until the 1990s (Barry 192), making Franz Fanon and his book, Black Skins, White Masks, published in 1952, an example of fore thinking at the time of its introduction. Fanon, and Postcolonialism in general, is concerned with colonized individuals recognizing themselves and defining their existences free from the white language that has oppressed them (Barry 193).

As Per Franz Fanon: Main Points

• “Black men are black in relation to the white man” (Fanon 110). Kellie addresses this idea in detail in her blog on “Black Skin, White Masks” by explaining how a black man’s soul and his history is defined not only by self, but by what others think.
• Black men only experience inferiority through interaction with white men. (Fanon 109)
• As both are suffering from oppression, the black man is similar to the Jew (Fanon 115), except the Jew is able to hide the outward appearance of his ‘Jewishness’ (Fanon 116). Cara G. develops this point further by relating it to interracial arguments about what defines a race, as well as the external arguments that are made about that race.
• The black man is pre-judged based on his color and regardless of his individual identity. (Fanon 11 John addresses this topic in his blog and provides us with some interesting questions about the application of Fanon’s theory. While he agrees with Fanon about the lack of identity that black men have, he questions Fanon’s theory in response to reverse racism. Aliya also touches upon this subject. In her blog, she observes that non-whites are quickly labeled according to what the white race sees, and their sense of self all but vanishes. Aliya also touches upon this topic. In her blog, she observes that non-whites are quickly labeled according to what the whites see, and their sense of self is all but gone.
• Black history has been written by the dominant (white) culture, as Fanon has described it, it is “the history that the others have compiled for me” (Fanon 120).
• White men have reduced black culture to being basically primitive, animalistic, and low on the evolutionary scale. (Fanon 126)
• Negritude promotes a clear distinction between blacks and whites. (Fanon 133)
• The modern black man must contend with his tribal past and uncertain future. (Fanon 13

.: Implications & Blind Spots :.

.: Althusser :.

• Althusser, in his essay “From Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” fails to identify the role of women in the Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses, especially in the family ISA. Althusser mentions that the working class is the base which holds up the “upper floors” (1486). Women, in the home and in the capitalist system, make up a huge portion of the infrastructure. Rubin has to cover this later on. She mentions what Althusser leaves out—that the system, the ISA and RSA, use the ideology of patriarchy to give women fewer wages and to coerce them into reproducing the means of production.
• Althusser condemns the educational ISA, but his piece is clearly meant to be read in an academic setting. If he is adamant about what he writes, then he would want his readers to disregard the points he makes, since “it drums into them…a certain amount of ‘know-how’ wrapped in the ruling ideology” (Althusser 1494). Esther addresses this in her blog, where she argues that there is no feasible solution to Althusser’s problem. She also discusses a previously mentioned limitation of the theory by stating that reading his article in a classroom setting is part of the repression. Subjects of this system, or students, are “practically provided with the ideology which suits the role it has to fulfill in class society” (Althusser 1495).
• He seems to think there is no escape from these ideologies. Members of the ISAs and the RSA will always believe in something that the Apparatuses use to keep production going in the capitalist system. He does not address the rebels of the system and the consequences they may have to face.

.: Rubin :.

• Rubin refutes the theories of Derrida, Levi-Strauss, and Marx, but fails to incorporate female theorists or feminist or anti-gender works. This would have made her argument more plausible and effective; feminism did not begin with Rubin, and, much like she stood on the back of male theorists to make an opposing argument, she could have drawn upon the work of female theorists and writers to strengthen her points. She wrote The Traffic of Women: Notes on the “Political Economy of Sex” in 1975 during the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement, during which numerous essays were written by women on their history of oppression.
• Rubin needs to focus on the oppression of men in the gender system more thoroughly. The restrictions placed on society by gender roles are not exclusive to women, as Rubin herself mentions: “Gender identity is the suppression of natural similarities. It requires repression: in men, of whatever is feminine; in women, of masculine traits” (1675). Men are trapped by these expectations, too—for example, it’s less common for men to stay home, do housework, and fill the role of main caretaker for the family’s children than it is for women.
• She fails to mention women of color. She does glance at the workings of other cultured, showing how similar their sex/gender systems are to ours. But she does not take a postcolonial stance. What about the black women?
  Latina women or Asian women? They carry a whole other set of burdens. White women have been colonized by men, in a sense, by patriarchy and the “gift-giving” system. Women of color, then, are doubly colonized due to their physical appearance as well as their sex.

.: Fanon :.

• Fanon, in Black Skin, White Masks, needs to recognize the plight of the black woman and not just the black man. How is the black woman being fabricated through the eyes of others? She is defined by how the white man sees her, but also by her relationships with black men. Again, she is doubly colonized, and if the black man, as W.E.B. DuBois says, deals with a double-consciousness, then the black woman lives with a triple-consciousness. She sees herself through her own eyes, through the eyes of another race, and through the eyes of the black man. Michael raises an excellent question that helps to support this flaw in Fanon’s theory by using the novel Disgrace and the idea that people become “fixed.”
• Keva asks in her blog: How can Fanon fail to take into account people of mixed race? To him, blacks and whites are so separated and whites are so intent of keeping it that way that people of mixed descent, since to whites, aren’t purely white, get lumped into the category of “black.” Fanon relishes the idea of the black man embracing his blackness, his history, his “negritude,” but will not allow people of mixed race to embrace their own histories—black and white. Sherri argues against Fanon’s position on interracial marriages, stating that they should be seen as a step towards racial equality and interracial acceptance, not as a way of creating a whiter child.
• Fanon says that blacks are always seen in relation to whites, but whites are not seen in relation to blacks. He wants to make the separation between the races and to distinguish black culture as something that can stand on its own. He doesn’t want a raceless society. “[Sartre] was reminding me that my blackness was only a minor term…without a Negro past, without a Negro future, it was impossible for me to live my Negrohood” (Fanon 138). Fanon wants recognition and separation, but that separation (segregation) is a source of humility and pain. As Brett notes in his blog, there is still a painful seperation between the black and white cultures in South Africa, as illustrated by the anger that Disgrace created within the African National Congress when it was first published. We could recognize our differences and still have a raceless society; however, he never entertains this notion.
• Fanon uses the word “Negro” to define himself, which is contradictory to his argument. It is a name designated to the black man by the whites, and is sometimes used interchangeably with “nigger.” Why would Fanon be proud to keep a name not made by his own culture? This is the same as being defined by the white man; language is a powerful means of ownership.

.: Practical Applications :.

.:Disgrace:.

The relationships between men and women in Disgrace enforces Rubin’s idea that women are gifts and men are the debt collectors. (Coetzee 15 The idea that Lucy’s rapists are also debt collectors is illustrated when she says, “Why should I live here without paying?” (Coetzee 158). Lucy is furthermore defined by men after she is raped and becomes a mother. Beforehand she felt that she was defined by who she was and not her relationship with men. Another Rubin idea enforced in Disgrace is that a wife is necessary for a worker to be successful in the system (Rubin 1667) through the portrayal of Petrus’s wife.

The ideas of Rubin and Fanon cross when Lucy recognizes she is not only a means of exchange between men but also socially between races. Lucy mentions that her rape is the price that she has to pay for living in Africa by herself. The black men are asserting their power over the white race just as the white race asserted their power over them during the apartheid. During apartheid blacks were segregated from whites. The segregation implied that whites felt that they were superior to blacks. Lucy is in a position where she is not a part of the majority yet is part of the minority.

In Disgrace David is alienated from his labor, an idea in which Althussuer proposes. He is disconnected from the benefit of his work because he doesn’t like teaching. David is in the middle of what Althussuer calls the dominant ideological state apparatus which is the education system. The ideological state apparatus is not motivated purely by ideology. This is illustrated when the University forced David to resign from his position for becoming sexually involved with a student.

.:Marxism:.

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, or Life in the Woods is a prime example to look at through a Marxist lens. As Louis Althusser focused a good deal on the role of the school to reproduce the condition of reproduction, Thoreau talks similarly of the college near where he resides. As Althusser stated:

“What do the children learn at school? They go varying distances in their studies, but at any rate they learn to read, to write and to add […] which are directly useful in the different jobs in production” (Althusser 1485).

Thoreau similarly states:

“I cannot but think that if we had more true wisdom in these respects, not only less education would be needed, because, forsooth, more would already have been acquired, but the pecuniary expense of getting an education would in a great measure vanish. Those conveniences which the student requires at Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great a sacrifice of life as they would with proper management on both sides” (Thoreau).

Thoreau sees the school as an ideological apparatus that works to mask the source of labor and alienate one from his own work. Two other examples of Marxist theory from Walden are:

“…Men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon ploughed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fat, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before” (Thoreau).

“…they have designs on us four our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an institution, in which the life of the individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the race” (Thoreau).

Thoreau’s book is a perfect example to be looked at through Marxist theory because he issues a plea that people change the ways in which they are living their lives, mainly the fact that they are owned by their money and that it is all that drives them, and that they need to revolt against such a system. By looking at the work of Althusser and using to examine Walden, one can interpret many things about the book and also its author. The book is a manifesto in its own right, telling how one can live unaffected by the role of state apparatuses by avoiding them and by understanding what they are. This is the idea Althusser brings up, that we must stop being alienated from the means, and also from the ideologies. Thoreau very much believed that if a person understood where things came from, how they were produced, and how they affected the population as a whole that there could be a cultural enlightenment, or as Althusser would call it, a revolution. The idea of alienation plays a large role in both texts. The idea of interpolation can be seen in Walden as well, in the sense that people in general accept the idea that they are machines, or workhorses, and that is how it is supposed to be. They do not question this theory or ideology, and therefore they further their alienation.Another way the Marxist theory could be used is to analyze the lyrics in music, especially Bob Dylan’s song, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. The song deals with cultural critique and prophesizes a “hard rain,” which could very likely be the revolution that the Marxist theorists believe needs to happen to overthrow current ideological apparatuses.

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains,
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways,
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests,
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans,
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’,
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’,
I saw a white ladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son?

And what did you hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’,
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,
Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son?

Who did you meet, my darling young one?
I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one?
I’m a-goin’ back out ‘fore the rain starts a-fallin’,
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters,
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the color, where none is the number,
And I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’,
But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’,
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall (Bob Dylan).

Live Performance of the Song!!

The lines “I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’,” can be linked to Thoreau’s idea of man as machine, and also can be an example of the working class of the Marxist theory. Also the lines “Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin’ / Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter,” are good examples of the class struggle that is present in Marxist theory. The song is riddled with lines that also can be representations of the struggle between classes and also the struggle between ideologies or apparatuses, in fact almost every line could be used as an example for one of those two. Also the chorus, as you could call it, is the prophecy of revolution. The hard rain is the revolution, or rather an “event” that is much like the Marxists idea of a necessary revolution.

.:Further Texts that could be viewed with the Marxist lens:.

• 1984, by George Orwell
• Animal Farm, by George Orwell
• Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau

.: Feminism :.

An example of a novel that could be looked at with Feminist theory is Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson. The novel is about a young woman, Sylvie, who “adopts,” in a broad sense of the word, her deceased sister’s two daughters. She is constantly under pressure from society and her surrounding culture to conform to what a true woman, and true mother, is. The novel addresses Rubin’s idea that “a ‘sex/gender system’ is the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and in which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied” (Rubin 1665). And also Rubin’s idea that “A woman is a woman. She only becomes a domestic, a wife, a chattel, a playboy bunny, a prostitute, or a human dictaphone in certain relations. Torn from these relationships, she is no more the helpmate of man than gold in itself is money…”(Rubin 1664).

A few examples from the text of Housekeeping are:

• “If I had one particular complaint, it was that my life seemed composed entirely of expectation” (Robinson 166). The character is under expectation from society to be a ‘proper’ woman; she is being defined, as Rubin would say in a certain ‘relationship’.
• “Those days she cast about constantly for ways to conform our lives to the expectations of others, or to what she guessed their expectations might be, and she was full of purpose, which sometimes seemed like hope” (Robinson 201). Yet again an example of the defining aspect society, or rather the idea that a woman becomes something else when it is in the relationship of having to be that something else. Here we have the example once again of society setting standards of what a real woman is. Rubin would say that a “woman is a woman” and that it is in this relationship with society or the people in this society that cause her to be something else.
• “If there had been snow I would have made a statue, a woman to stand along the path, among the trees. The children would have come close, to look at her.
  Lot’s wife was salt and barren, because she was full of loss and mourning, and looked back. But here rare flowers would gleam in her hair, and on her breast, and in her hands, and there would be children all around her, to love and marvel at her for her beauty, and to laugh at her extravagant adornments, as if they had set the flowers at her feet, and they would forgive her, eagerly and lavishly, for turning away, though she never asked to be forgiven. Though her hands were ice and did not touch them, she would be more than mother to them, she so calm, so still, and they such wild and orphan things” (Robinson 153). This is a bit more complicated than the other two quotes. The snow-woman here, who is a representation of an actual woman, is defined by certain characteristics. She has children running about her, she is beautiful, has “extravagant adornments,” and so on. These descriptions could be taken as the fitting into the mold of the sex/gender system and even that of being defined by a “relationship.” However we also see the “full of loss and mourning,” “turning away,” “hands were ice,” and “salt and barren;” all of which are not society acceptable terms of what a mother (or woman) should be. By using Rubin’s theory to examine this novel we can come to the conclusion that Sylvie is not a bad mother, not an improper woman, but rather someone who goes against the norm of society and someone who will not be defined in a relationship with that society, and will not fit into the roles that have been made for her.

.:Further Texts that could be viewed with the Feminist lens:. ·

- Runaway, by Alice Munro

- Sexing the Cherry, Jeanette Winterson

.: Postcolonialism :.

Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, can easily be looked at through the theories of Postcolonialism, especially the ideas of Franz Fanon. While Fanon deals mainly with the male end of the spectrum, his theory can still be used while looking at the character Paul D from Beloved. There is a perfect example in the novel that can be used to illustrate Fanon’s idea that “For not only must the black man be black; he must be black in relation to the white man” (Fanon 110).This idea can be seen in the following passage from Beloved.

“White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way, he thought, they were right. The more coloredpeople spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread. In, through and after life, it spread, until it invaded the whites who had made it. Touched them every one. Changed and altered them. Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared where they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own” (Morrison 234).

Morrison describes this idea of blackness as being created by whites, and that ultimately in creating this idea they have destroyed the ability for Paul D to make his own idea of who he is. This furthers Fanon’s idea that a black man can’t define himself as a black man solely, for he must compare that blackness to a white man. However, using Morrison’s quote we can take this even one step over Fanon and suggest that a black man can’t define himself as a black man at all, because that definition has been invented by the white race. Therefore Morrison seems to be suggesting that a whole new definition must be created and that it actually goes against what Fanon is suggesting. There needs to be a definition that is not in comparison with the white man, because the white man has created the original definition. Also let us not forget that there is no mention of the black woman here, or the white woman for that instance. I think Rubin would have words, as she should.

.:Further Texts that could be viewed with the Post-colonialism lens:.

- Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (this text works mainly for the reason that it deals with colonialism and also the definition of race and what it means to belong to that race)

.:Works Cited:.

Althusser, Louis. “From Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.“ The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch, New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2001. 1483-1509.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1952.

Rubin, Gayle. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” Toward an Anthology of Women. Ed. Rayna Reiter, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1975.