This paper explores conscious and unconscious thought trends in O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones” through an equivalence to a clash between two opposite cultural sensibilities. The Emperor being a black faces a conflict between dialectical strains of conscious and unconscious i.e. conscious is powerful whereas unconscious is suppressed and silenced. But the course of the dramatic action shows how the unconscious is foregrounded i.e. the powerless overtake the powerful in both psychological and political term. Post-colonial theory and Locanian concept of psycho-analysis provide a base for analysis of the subject. The main strain in the text is the conflict between the colonial and post-colonial discourses. The colonial discourse stands for power
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I create a sense of racism i.e. the white and the black: one being superior while the other inferior. Fanon, in his book “Black Skin White Mask” writes “The feeling of inferiority of the colonized is correlative to the European’s feeling of superiority. Let us have the courage to say it outright: it is the racist who creates his inferior”(69). This makes it clear that the racist has the power to manipulate the existing conditions to his own interest. This is the characteristic feature of power that it not only brings corruption to society but to the powerful individual as well. Buruma and et al write “Too much power is not good for a person, or for a nation. It leads to hubris, to the childish illusion of omnipotence, and even when driven by good intentions, to abuse”(65). Westpal writes “First, me designate our enemies as evil. Then we conclude that since “they” are evil and “we” are not “they” are must be good. Good by default, as it were, and regardless of our behavior. We become spiritually arrogant. We are the embodiment of Good, and God is automatically on our …show more content…
But it is observed that this is the result of the organized efforts made by imperialist powers who, with their covert designs, break a social structure, target its cultural soul and attain their financial ends by draining the resources of the overpowered territories. Fanon writes, “War is a gigantic business and every approach must be governed by this datum … The social panorama is destructed, valued are flaunted, crushed, emptied”(33). He further states, “In an initial phase the occupant establishes his domination, massively affirms his superiority. The social group, militarily and economically subjugated, is dehumanized in accordance with a poly-dimensional method”(35). J. C. Robert Young maintains “The globalization of the imperial capitalist powers, of a single integrated economic and colonial system … was achieved at the price of the dislocation of its peoples and cultures”(4). It is quite evident that behind the amalgamation of cultures and races there have been certain powers who not only dismantled the cultural harmony and composure of the other areas but also staged and experimented the imposition of their own ideologies and values. But about the result of this dislocation of people and culture, Young writes, “This … characteristics became visible to Europeans in two ways: in the disruption of domestic culture, and in the increasing anxiety about racial difference and the
I create a sense of racism i.e. the white and the black: one being superior while the other inferior. Fanon, in his book “Black Skin White Mask” writes “The feeling of inferiority of the colonized is correlative to the European’s feeling of superiority. Let us have the courage to say it outright: it is the racist who creates his inferior”(69). This makes it clear that the racist has the power to manipulate the existing conditions to his own interest. This is the characteristic feature of power that it not only brings corruption to society but to the powerful individual as well. Buruma and et al write “Too much power is not good for a person, or for a nation. It leads to hubris, to the childish illusion of omnipotence, and even when driven by good intentions, to abuse”(65). Westpal writes “First, me designate our enemies as evil. Then we conclude that since “they” are evil and “we” are not “they” are must be good. Good by default, as it were, and regardless of our behavior. We become spiritually arrogant. We are the embodiment of Good, and God is automatically on our …show more content…
But it is observed that this is the result of the organized efforts made by imperialist powers who, with their covert designs, break a social structure, target its cultural soul and attain their financial ends by draining the resources of the overpowered territories. Fanon writes, “War is a gigantic business and every approach must be governed by this datum … The social panorama is destructed, valued are flaunted, crushed, emptied”(33). He further states, “In an initial phase the occupant establishes his domination, massively affirms his superiority. The social group, militarily and economically subjugated, is dehumanized in accordance with a poly-dimensional method”(35). J. C. Robert Young maintains “The globalization of the imperial capitalist powers, of a single integrated economic and colonial system … was achieved at the price of the dislocation of its peoples and cultures”(4). It is quite evident that behind the amalgamation of cultures and races there have been certain powers who not only dismantled the cultural harmony and composure of the other areas but also staged and experimented the imposition of their own ideologies and values. But about the result of this dislocation of people and culture, Young writes, “This … characteristics became visible to Europeans in two ways: in the disruption of domestic culture, and in the increasing anxiety about racial difference and the