A Theory of Empire

Waiting for the Barbarians What does the word theory imply? What are your expectations of a novel? What about this novel lends itself toward a theoretical position?

Novel and Questions of Empire How does fiction represent the operations of empire? How does it portray places under imperial domination? How does it represent people under the domination of an empire?

Representation

First Sentence I have never seen anything like it: two little discs of glass suspended in front of his eyes in loops of wire.

Magistrate / Narrator No name Functionary of the Empire Has power in the outpost BUT His position of power comes into question Aging Man Examines his life and compromises

Magistrate - Page 8 I did not mean to get embroiled in this. I am a country magistrate, a responsible official in the service of the Empire, serving out my days on this lazy frontier, waiting to retire. I collect the tithes and taxes, administer the communal lands, see that the garrison is provided for, supervise the junior officers who are the only officers we have here, keep an eye on trade, preside over the law-court twice a week. For the rest I watch the sun rise and set, eat and sleep and am content. When I pass away I hope to merit three lines of small print in the Imperial gazette. I have not asked for more than a quiet life in quiet times.

Novel’s theory of empire A Series of oppositions… Spatial Capital (City) vs rural Populations Of the Empire vs. barbarians Language English vs. barbarian

“Barbarians” (young woman) _______________________________________________________ Outpost (Magistrate) Capital (Joll)

Barbarian (etymology) Greek word = reference to all that are not Greek, including Persians Roman world adopts it = all that are not Roman or Greek 14th century = noun referring to people speaking language other than one’s own 17th century = rude and wild person

Appearance Behavior “She has the straight black eyebrows, the glossy black hair of the barbarians.” (25) “It is the same girl, the same black hair cut in a fringe across the forehead, the same broad mouth, the black eyes…” (26) “settlers’ litany of prejudice: that barbarians are lazy, immoral, filthy, stupid.” (38) “I tell myself that she submits because of her barbarian upbringing. But what do I know of barbarian upbringings?” (56)

Edward Said, Orientalism

Said’s work Professor of literature at Columbia University Major influence in literary studies and postcolonialism Culture and Imperialism (1993) Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (2000) Public intellectual and supporter of Palestinian statehood The Question of Palestine (1979) Covering Islam (1981)

Covering Islam “Islam’s role in hijackings and terrorism, descriptions of the way in which overtly Muslim countries like Iran threaten ‘us’ and our way of life, and speculations about the latest conspiracy to blow up buildings, sabotage commercial airliners, and poison water supplies seem to play increasingly on Western consciousness.” Said, 1993

Elements of Orientalism Academic field of inquiry (Interdisciplinary) Opposition between Orient and Occident Opposition is “man-made” Not a set of “lies” but a way of thinking A cultural and political fact Creates a relationship of power Situates the Occident as superior

Ways of Knowing “Orientalism can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” (3)

Discourse Said draws from the theorist Michel Foucault and presents Orientalism as a “discourse,” a system of thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and ways of perceiving and understanding the world. Discourse creates (constitutes) a relationship between the self and that which is being discussed. It is a theory of power and authority.

Imbalance in perception Orientalism West as modern, rational, democratic, and ultimately superior Orient as exotic and exaggerated (camels, belly dancers, sheiks, desert) Assumes an essential difference

Location and Exteriority “Strategic Location” – author’s position or starting point (20) “Orientalism is premised on exteriority” to what is described Not a question of accuracy but rather an emphasis on representation (style, figures of speech, setting, narrative devices, etc) (21)

Critiques of Orientalism Does not address what is actually there. The people? What do they say? Presents information as monolithic. What about specifics/breaks? The field of Orientalist studies was more varied than Said’s argument. Does not distinguish between academic work and popular culture.

Clash of Civilizations Relies on various oppositions: West vs. East Christian vs. Islam US/West vs. terrorists (enemies)

Orientalism and Waiting for the Barbarians SAID WAITING for the Barbarians Opposition between West and East creates a discourse that distinguishes self from other, that which is outside. This is done in the interest of domination. Opposition between the Empire and outer territories is sustained by a discourse of barbarians. This discourse is, in turn, sustained by military power and forms of violence. Novel as a whole challenges the opposition.

How does the Magistrate respond to a discourse of “barbarians”? PAGE 8: “But last year stories began to reach us from the capital of unrest among the barbarians…Of this unrest I myself saw nothing. In private I observed that once in every generation, without fail, there is an episode of hysteria about the barbarians. ..”