Exoticism

Today, when the country of Dominican Republic comes to mind, some ideas that are commonly associated with the country consist of vibrancy, festiveness, beaches, and exoticism. What many do not realize is that the Dominican Republic was once a disastrous place to live in. In Before We Were Free, Julia Alvarez explores this world and the harsh circumstances that the characters deal with. It is a captivating piece of historical fiction in which the author focuses on the three themes of freedom,…

This concert was performed by Flutist Laurel Zucker and Pianist John Cozza. This concert included works by Paul Taffanel, Olivier Messiaen, Eric Ewazen, Germaine Tailleferre, and Charles Griffes. Laurel Zucker is a flutist who left home at the age of 14 to study at the North Carolina School for the arts. She grew up with her brother and sister in Washington Heights, in Manhattan. Zucker begged her parents for a flute after hearing recordings and graduated high school at the age of 16 and studied…

In The Colonial Harem, Algerian author Malek Alloula analyzes the French colonial gaze on his native country and particularly its women through the historical record of postcards made from 1900 to 1930. Alloula argues that the postcards were a form of symbolic assault on the veiled and private women of Algeria, who were played in them by paid models, as denizens of the colonial fantasy of the harem, as created by Orientalism. In the first chapter “The Orient as Stereotype and Phantasm,” Alloula…

Dance, Theatre and Religion: A Balinese Case Study Southeast Asia is a highly diverse region, home to myriad ethnicities, religions, practices, beliefs, values, languages, cultures and traditions. The variety of performance art, dance and theatre found in Southeast Asia “is almost staggering” (Brandon, 1967, p. 1). Some examples of performance art, dance and theatre found in Southeast Asia include “shadow plays in Java, dramatic folk rituals in Bali, masked pantomime in Thailand, spirit…

HIV/AIDS (Farmer 2006:211). The inclusion of Haiti was based solely on nationality and race; this aided in the formation of the external cultural model of HIV/AIDS, which blamed Haitians for being the source of HIV/AIDS in America, due the their “exoticism”, “American scientists repeatedly speculated that AIDS might be transmitted between Haitians by voodoo rites, the ingestion of sacrificial animal blood, the eating of cats, ritualized homosexuality, and so on…” (Farmer 2006:224). Farmer…

Once the story progressed, the readers were presented with the character, Mr. Thaddeus Sholto, that represents the extremes of oriental obsessions. When the readers were introduced to Thaddeus Sholto and his home, there was immediate a sense of exoticism and luxury, because that was how Doyle illustrated the Indian artifacts, parallel to the colonies, to be: "The richest and glossiest of curtains and tapestries draped the walls, looped back here and there to expose some richly mounted painting…

Migrants and the question of hybrid identity in Jalla! Jalla! and One Eye Red The critic Elizabeth Alexander speaks of 'hybrid identity', suggesting that migrant cinema pays attention to “...the ways in which second-generation individuals retain and respect their families' native customs while also assimilating into mainstream Scandinavian society, focusing in particular on the complicated ways they construct hybrid identity.”1 In this light, Josef Fares and Daniel Wallentin explore the ideas…

Summary Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare. The plot centers on the young woman Hero and her would-be marriage to the brave soldier Claudio, and Hero’s cousin Beatrice who has a love/hate relationship with Claudio’s friend Benedick. The story begins when the two officers Don Pedro and Don John return victorious from war. They, and their two best soldiers Claudio and Benedick, are invited by Leonato (the governor of the town Messina) to stay at his residence.…

The 1987 film Cry Freedom is based two of Donald Woods’ books, Asking for Trouble and Biko. It tells the friendship between Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko and White liberal newspaper editor, Donald Woods. The film’s director, Richard Attenborough presents the first half as Woods’ education on the struggle on Black consciousness movement and it fight against apartheid, and the latter features the plight of Woods’ and his family escape from South Africa in order for him to publish a book…

On Postcolonial Theory/ists And Beyond The history of colonialism has been one of turning points in today’s cultural discussion. One major criticism is directed to modernism. Within its history, eurocentric perspective becomes major narrative rejecting that of the third world countries as part its progression. This is linked to the power that narrates the history through colonialism. Furthermore, this issue relates to the idea of representation. How the non-European cultures connoted.…