MANIFESTATIONS OF POSTCOLONIAL CRITICISM IN VISUAL ART

ПРОЯВЛЕНИЯ ПОСТКОЛОНИАЛЬНОГО КРИТИЦИЗМА В ВИЗУАЛЬНОМ ИСКУССТВЕ

Ляшко Ксения Владиславовна

студент, кафедра иноязычного образования, Московский педагогический государственный университет,

РФ, г. Москва

Фомичева Мария Александровна

научный руководитель, ассистент, кафедра иноязычного образования, Московский педагогический государственный университет,

РФ, г. Москва

ABSTRACT

The violation of rights and freedoms of people of the Third World countries under the pressure of the past colonization experience has existed for a long time. Nowadays writers, singers, and artists try to unify the global consciousness on the issue of race by using their art as a tool in the struggle for cultural independence. Critics joined the process and started analyzing not only the image of colonisers and colonised but the artistic legacy of the former colonies. The ethical and political concerns about nationality, race, ethnicity, and the power struggles between cultures, became the chief purpose of the postcolonial criticism. The main goal of this approach is to establish a mutually respectful relationship between people of different races in the modern world by analyzing mistakes of the colonial past. With this in mind, the main purpose of this work is to give a critical account of the goals and ideas of postcolonial literary criticism, on a comparison of the Henry Powell’s painting “Discovery of Mississippi” (1850) and Lubaina Himid’s art work “The carrot piece” (1985).

АННОТАЦИЯ

Нарушение прав и свобод людей стран Третьего мира под давлением прошлого опыта колонизации существует уже давно. В настоящее время писатели, певцы и художники пытаются объединить мировое сознание по вопросу расы, используя свое искусство в качестве инструмента в борьбе за культурную независимость. Критики присоединились к процессу и начали анализировать не только образ колонизаторов и колонизированных, но и художественное наследие бывших колоний. Этические и политические проблемы национальности, расы, этнической принадлежности и борьбы за власть между культурами стали главной целью постколониального критицизма. Основная цель этого подхода - установить уважительные отношения между людьми разных рас в современном мире путем анализа ошибок колониального прошлого. Имея это в виду, цель этой работы - дать критический обзор целей и идей постколониальной литературной критики на основе сравнения картины Генри Пауэлла "Открытие Миссисипи" (1850) и художественной работы Любайны Химид "Кусок моркови" (1985).

Keywords: postcolonial theory, colonizer, race.

Ключевые слова: постколониальная теория, колонизатор, раса.

The violation of rights and freedoms of people of the Third World countries under the pressure of the past colonization experience has existed for a long time. However, a racial awareness appeared in art and politics only in the second half of the 20th century. Nowadays writers, singers, and artists try to unify the global consciousness on the issue of race by using their art as a tool in the struggle for cultural independence. Critics joined the process and started analyzing not only the image of colonisers and colonised in creative works but the artistic legacy of the former colonies. The ethical and political concerns about nationality, race, ethnicity, and the power struggles between cultures, became the chief purpose of the postcolonial criticism [4, p.403]. The main goal of this approach is to establish a mutually respectful relationship between people of different races in the modern world by analyzing mistakes of the colonial past. With this in mind, the main purpose of this work is to give a critical account of the goals and ideas of postcolonial literary criticism, on a comparison of the Henry Powell’s painting Discovery of Mississippi (1850) and Lubaina Himid’s art work The carrot piece (1985). In both works, the authors reveal the relationships between people of different racial backgrounds. The painting by Henry Powell depicts the enslavery of defenseless natives by Spanish army, while Lubaina Himid gives a new vision on a colonizer and a colonized.

During the period of imperialism, Eurocentrism was the predominant standard for measuring and evaluating cultures. According to Tyson, Anglo-European culture that was considered to be the most developed, could only be metropolitan [4, p.400]. Which means that the colonizers considered themselves superior and better than the rest of the world. The reason for the deliberate underestimation of indigenous peoples may lie deep in the psychology of Europeans. Edward Said, in his Orientalism, notes that the East was “a kind of surrogate and even underground self” of European society [3, p.21]. Thus, the West projected negative qualities on “Others'' that they were afraid to recognize in themselves. This statement is clearly illustrated in Henry Powell's painting of well-armed Spaniards and defenseless Indians. The invaders perceive the natives as dangerous savages who understand only brute force. Thus, the Spaniards use weapons in order to dominate them. However, the inhabitants are depicted in a completely different way: they are defenseless and want to communicate. It can be stated since the headman of the settlement passes the pipe of peace to the leader of the Spaniards. With this gesture, he calls him to negotiate, hoping to avoid bloodshed. Such an attitude of the West to the non-European world is the unwillingness of the former to realize that the latter does not need to use the force to establish a contact.

The dominance of one culture over another in works of art was emphasized by the presence of certain attributes of power.  In the past colonizers had armies and weapons that they were ready to use at the first sign of disobedience. In the picture The Carrot Piece the author found an elegant solution for the representation of that dominance. Here, the white man is holding a stick, which as he thinks, controls a person of colour. However, a carrot on that stick is an allegorical representation of the useless gifts that the European race offered to the colonized. By the look at a person of colour, it can be understood that he does not need such a present at all. He gets his own food without help, holding a basket of vegetables in his hands. Himid satirizes how in the past colonizers believed that they educate people of colour, while in reality the latter had their own unique knowledge about the world and did not need help.

Supremacy in the same artwork is also depicted through the postures of people in the picture. The white man is positioned higher than his opponent, since he is drawn on the podium. It is not stated who put him on that pedestal but his status visually elevates him above the representative of another race. However, looking closely, it is possible to notice arrows. They, metaphorically, question the idea of Western superiority. The movement of the wheel goes backwards, which lowers the European from the first place of the pedestal to the ground. It shows that the white man has to be on the same level with another person on the painting.         Even though Europeans relied on the brutal force in their actions, their main aim was to help less developed countries. Ideas for providing assistance guided Spanish conquerors, who were led by “enlightenment mission” [2, p.243]. In the right-left corner of the painting Discovery of Mississippi, the soldiers are erecting a crucifix on the land they conquered as a manifestation of the enlightenment activity. Marquis de Condorcet, a French philosopher, interpreted evangelization as an inevitable process and a necessary aid to the needy, since from their perspective colonized peoples wanted to become educated and "find brothers among West" [1, p.269]. Therefore, Europeans believed that they were guided by God who wanted them to help illiterate natives to find the true faith. They did not consider their own armed invasions harmful, but rather useful in terms of the social, cultural and economic development of the indigenous settlers. However, in fact, the conquerors destroyed millions of people and their culture, eventually creating various types of discrimination.     Another crucial point, which is necessary to focus on, is how indigenous peoples are depicted in the pictures. On the one hand, the image of subalterns is formed by signs of external mimicry of the colonizers indicating the loss of the individual cultural and social image of the nation. Due to the fact that clothing is an object of identification and distinguishes cultures. Evidence of this can be seen in the lower-left corner of Henry Powell’s drawing, where two men push the cannon. Their clothes have the similarity with the colonialists, their hairstyles and beards also emphasize the adoption of the features of the dominant culture. Despite this mimicry, they are naked to the waist and do the hard work. It might be assumed that in this way the author depicts the natives who are gradually losing their cultural identity without getting any benefits.

On the other hand, colors are extremely important for understanding racial differences. L. Himid illustrates a man of European appearance who is dressed in light and bright colors. He is wearing a blue blouse, light purple trousers, and bright yellow shoes. His face shows contentment, and his golden hair and blush attract attention. Meanwhile the colonized is dressed up in a dark maroon dark shirt. He stands barefoot on the ground and his face is full of sadness. By doing that the artist reflects the skin tone through the colors of clothing. Himid does not accidentally choose such a contrasting color scheme since there is another form of this humiliating segregation such as colorism. According to Alice Walker, who firstly introduced this term in her book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose, 1983, it denotes a form of prejudice that discriminates people based on skin color [5]. It is emphasized that people with light skin have a social superiority over people who have a darker skin tone. The author ironically shows an ambivalent attitude towards people who do not look Caucasian this by placing such on the wheel. It has an association with the circus, where we usually observe clowns. They ride high wheel bicycles, making a mockery of themselves, which makes the audience laugh.

All in all, it can be stated that Lubaina Himid’s work is aimed at the self-determination of people of colour in the mass consciousness. Her picture is permeated with themes of racism, the difficult past and the situation of a race that is experiencing infringement of rights in the present. She emphasizes that, despite the ideas of tolerance in modern society, prejudice and contempt still exist. At the same time William Henry Powell in his Discovery of Mississippi pays attention to the relationship between Others and the Europeans. The author focuses on the forcible imposition of another culture and visualizes the loss of cultural identity, representing white conquest as something inevitable.

 

References:

1. Condorcet, Marquis. “Esquisse d'un tableau historique des progrès historique de l'esprit humain”, Paris: GF Flammarion, 1988. — P. 269.
2. Perwez, Shahid. “Female Infanticide and the Civilizing Mission in Postcolonial India: A Case Study from Tamil Nadu c. 1980–2006.” Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia: From Improvement to Development, edited by Carey A. Watt and Michael Mann, Anthem Press, London; New York; Delhi, 2011. — P. 243.
3. Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London:Penguin, 1978. — P.21.
4. Tyson, L. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2015.— P.400, 403.
5. Walker, Alice. In Search of our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose. New York: Harcourt Inc, 1983