Dissertation

Dissertation

1. ORIENTALISM

   • Edward Said (1978)
   • a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and…’the Occident’
     • Orient
       • savage
       • uncivilised
     • Occident
       • advanced
       • civilised
     • the East is the direct antithesis of the West
       • the Orient is to be feared or controlled
   • the Western perception of the East
     • making statements about it
     • authorising views of it
     • describing it
     • teaching it
     • settling it
     • ruling over it
     • a complex relationship of power, domination, and hegemony

2. REPRESENTATIONS

   • Stuart Hall (1997)
     • 'stereotypes get hold of the few simple, vivid, memorable, easily grasped and widely recognised characteristics about a person, reduce everything about the person to those traits, exaggerate and simplify them, and fix them without change or development'
   • Gottschlich (2017)
     • looks into stereotypes surrounding Indians within the media
       • 'model minority'
         • smart and timid in nature
       • greed and materialism
       • 'brown voice'
         • accents act as important indicators of regions and social characteristics for Indians
           • Lippi-Green, 1997
         • attribution of non-American accents amongst American accents
           • constructing them with negative characteristics
             • Dobrow et al., 1998
         • process of 'othering'
           • subjugate minorities and propagate white American supremacy
             • fear or being equated with a 'lower race'
               • Simla, 2014

3. AGAINST OFFENCE

   • Bakhtin
     • Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics (1963)
       • Rabelais and His World (1965)
     • carnivalesque
       • In the carnival, social hierarchies of everyday life are profaned and overturned by normally suppressed voices and energies
         • fools become kings
         • kings become beggars
         • opposites are mingled
           • heaven and hell
           • fact and fantasy
         • ‘‘the people in power don’t always have your best interests in mind’’
           • Matt Groening (Cantor, p.745)
     • grotesque realism
   • Carl Matheson
     • hyper-irony
       • putting forward positions only in order to undercut them
         • an extension of cynicism which undercuts its own cynicism
         • the audience is pilloried for assuming something is offensive
     • the cult of knowingness
       • no person is free from ridicule and challenges audience members to identify an avalanche of allusions
         • Thirty Minutes over Tokyo (S10 Ep23)
           • use of a haiku on the plane
             • Fasten seatbelts tight | Your seat cushions float gently | Headsets five dollars
               • skilful Western stereotype of how a Japanese airline might operate
           • reference to Akira Kurosawa
             • Marge: Come on, Homer! Japan will be fun. You liked Rashomon. Homer: That’s not how I remember it.
               • illustrates a degree of knowledge about Japan

4. KEY EXAMPLE

   • Apu Nahasapeemapetilon
     • voiced by Hank Azaria
       • developed from Peter Sellers' performance in The Party (1968)
       • a white man doing an impression of a white man doing an Indian accent
     • 'Sanskrit for bullshit'
     • acts as a signifier for his race
       • used as an ethnic slur
         • falls prey to stereotypes
         • 'thank you, come again!'
     • the characters' comedy comes from their flaws
       • Smithers = closeted
       • Barney = drunk
       • Apu = nationality?
         • greed?
         • un-American?
   • The Problem with Apu (2017)
     • No Good Read Goes Unpunished (S29 Ep15)
       • Marge discovers that a favourite book from her childhood is now politically incorrect and offensive
       • Lisa comments on how something from decades ago can be applauded as inoffensive only to be seen as politically incorrect in the modern day. She turns to a framed photo of Apu and says "What can you do?"
         • received backlash as Apu was never truly 'celebrated'

5. other examples

   • Archer (2009 - )
     • 'phrasing!'
       • way to get around making sexist and inappropriate comments
   • British TV
     • Come Fly with Me (2010 - 2011)
     • Little Britain (2003 - 2006)
   • South Park (1997 - )
     • The Problem with a Poo (S22 Ep3)
       • South Park's response to the backlash against Apu
       • at the end of the episode, the racist character Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo gets sent to live with the characters of Springfield as he's more welcome there
         • hypocritical?
         • telling The Simpsons to own up to their racist tendencies like South Park does?