Homibhabha’s Postcolonialism Theory ‘The Location of Culture’、
- Hybridity：Emergence of New Cultural Forms in Multiculturalism
- Contradictory State: Contradictory State in Hybridity
- The contradictory state makes the hybridity of intrinsic cultural identity and colonizer’s cultural identity possible.
- Colonial Signifiers (Colonial Symbols), contradictory because the image is not ‘original’ due to the repetitive actions constructing the symbol; nor can it be congruent because it defines its differences.
- Development of Colonial Symbols
- Colonial differences, traumatic scenes of culture or race, make the eye of power return to ancient images or identities to regain their meaning.
- The presence of colonialism remains contradictory, creating a split between its original and authoritative appearance and the expression of repetition and difference. （Characteristics of the Third Space）
Hybridity, Iteration, and Translation:
- Hybridity shows how culture is manifested through the processes of iteration and translation, where the meaning of culture is handed over to the other through these processes.
Scope of Hybridity:
- Hybridity is a dual, concealing imagination, simultaneously existing in at least two places. Hybridity is no longer only related to immigrant populations and border towns but is also used in the flow and interaction of culture.
Cultural Differences, Interpretation, and Stereotypes
Cultural Differences
- Definition of Cultural Differences (not accurate enough): Viewing culture as the meeting place of two or more cultures, where most issues arise, is an inferential construction, not, and is a process of constructing “knowledgeable” inference.
- Interestingly, cultural differences are discovered and recognized through expression. Cultural differences are an identity process. The possibility of this difference and expression can reflect/liberate cultural symbols from the confinement of racial typology because obstruct the circulation and expression of “racial” signifiers.
- Signifier: A sign with a specific meaning that can evoke associations with specific objects or concepts.
- Stereotype: An essential aspect of colonial and postcolonial discourse is its reliance on the concept of “fixity” in constructing the Other.
- Fixity implies repetition, rigidity, and an unchanging order, stereotypes rely on this fixed concept, creating an “identity.”
Enunciation:
- Definition of Enunciation: A cultural expression that occurs in the third space, an act of expression.
- Characteristics of Enunciation: Since culture is never @pre-given, it must be spoken out. Moreover, this also refers to the transmission of culture mentioned in post-structuralism, which is dynamic and even changes around the viewer’s perspective. Thus, it can be understood that this subtly influences the audience, whether it is the ‘original’ story or the retranslation of the interpreter.
- Role of Enunciation: Culture is not fixed, and even the same symbols can be appropriated, translated, historicized, and reread.
- Examples of Enunciation: The Aladdin myth has been translated into multiple versions, remade, and retold. The narrative, tone of expression, and multiple cross-language translations show the varied results of cultural transmission (whether subtle or significantly changed).
- Two Dimensions of Colonial Discourse Evident in Enunciation: The dimension featuring invention and mastery, and the dimension featuring replacement and fantasy. This “identity” created is an author-driven narrative.
The Third Space
- Definition of the Third Space: The third space is a fuzzy area that develops when two or more people, two or more cultures interact.
- Homogenization, Unifying Forces, and Maintaining Vitality of the Third Space: The third space challenges our historical sense of cultural identity, assuming it is homogenous, a unifying force, authenticated from a primitive past, and maintained in the national traditions of the people.
- Characteristics of the Third Space: This contradictory discourse area, as a place of interpretative discourse conditions, “replaces homogenous, sequentially written Western narratives” by “disrupting temporal interpretations.” (This point is not yet well understood. It means the third space is a non-cohesive, non-temporal space.)
- Association Between the Third Space and Enunciation: “The system of cultural narrative is constructed in the antagonistic and contradictory interpretative space.” Cultural differences that occur in the expression of film narratives also manifest in the third space, where differences between viewers and “interpreters” become apparent.
This blog, analysis terms from Homi Bhabha’s “The Location of Culture,” elucidates that the content of postcolonialism features hybridity, a state of multicultural amalgamation arising from the hybridity of inherent identity and colonizer’s cultural identity. Hybridity encompasses the processes of iteration and translation, elucidating how cultural meaning is substituted and conveyed. Moreover, postcolonial discourse includes cultural differences, interpretation, and stereotypes, influencing the constitution of postcolonialism. Cultural differences occur within the third space, a blurred area emerging when two or more cultures interact, and through enunciation (translation, appropriation, historicization), cultural differences are discovered and recognized through expression. The contextualization of postcolonialism, especially in describing how hybridity is presented, will contribute to the analysis of the 1992 and 2019 versions of Aladdin, interpreted and presented in the third space.