News: Gilroy - Postcolonialism

Gilroy - The Black Atlantic

• Afrocentrism. Eurocentrism. Caribbean studies. British studies. To the forces of cultural nationalism hunkered down in their camps, this bold book sounds like a liberating call. There is, Gilroy tells us, a culture that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but all of these at once, a black Atlantic culture whose themes and techniques transcend ethnicity and nationality to produce something new and, until now, unremarked. Challenging the practices and assumptions of cultural studies, The Black Atlantic also complicated and enriches our understanding of modernism.
• Debates about postmodernism have cast an unfashionable pall over questions of historical periodization. Gilroy bucks this trend by arguing that the development of black culture in the Americas arid Europe is a historical experience which can be called modern for several clear and particular reasons. For Hegel, the dialectic of master and slave was integral to modernity, and Gilroy considers the implications of this idea for a transatlantic culture. In search of a poetics reflecting the politics and history of this culture, he takes us on a transatlantic tour of the music that, for centuries, has transmitted racial messages and feeling around the world, from the Jubilee Singers in the 19th century to Jimi Hendrix to rap. He also explores this internationalism as it is manifested in black writing from the "double consciousness" of W.E.B. Du Bois to the "double vision" of Richard Wright to the compelling voice of Toni Morrison.
• In a final tour de force, Gilroy exposes the shared contours of black and Jewish concepts of diaspora in order both to establish a theoretical basis for healing rifts between blacks and Jews in contemporary culture and to further define the central theme of his book: that blacks have shaped a nationalism, if not a nation, with the sacred culture of the black Atlantic.

Gilroy - Postcolonial Melancholia

In an effort to deny the ongoing effect of colonialism and imperialism on contemporary political life, the death knell for a multicultural society has been sounded from all sides. That's the provocative argument Paul Gilroy makes in this unorthodox defence of multiculturalism.

The melancholic reactions that have obstructed the process of working through the legacy of colonialism are implicated not only in hostility and violence directed at blacks, immigrants, and aliens, but in an inability to value the ordinary, unruly multiculturalism that has evolved organically and unnoticed in urban centres.

Gilroy Overview

Gilroy believes that ethnic minorities are often shown as powerless, weak, dehumanised, marginalised, and 'other.'

He believes that white western people are often shown as more powerful. successful and important.

How the theory is USEFUL when exploring News

• Can be applied to any media product, including newspapers especially representations of race, ethnicity, and the post-colonial world.
• The concepts of the 'Black Atlantic' draws attention to continuities in the culture created by the African diaspora across boundaries.
• The concept of 'postcolonial melancholia' draws attention to the continuing role of colonial ideology - of the superiority of White Western culture across newspapers representations.

How the theory is LIMITED when exploring News

• Does not explain anything specific to newspapers as it is a general theory of representation.
• In prioritising race and post-colonial experience, may not aid analysis of other forms of inequality in representations of newspapers.
• In stressing the influence of social conflict on representations, may underestimate the influence of social consensus on representations.

"I too am Black and a Feminist: On the importance of Black British Feminism" by Siana Bangura

https://mediadiversified.org/2015/03/13/i-too-am-black-and-a-feminist-on-the-importance-of-black-british-feminism/

'Sisterhood empowers women by respecting, protecting, encouraging, and loving [them],' bell hooks declared in 1982 in her exploration of black women and Feminism.

• Bangura brings to light in her article that the Black British female experience is not was largely studied and as documented as that of the African-American woman's.
• The main message is that she wishes for these women to have more safe spaces in which to share experiences and organise for action.
• Her article links to bell hooks' idea that not all women are prejudiced under one same category; there are levels of oppression that need to be acknowledged and taught, and ethnicity and class are a critical factor within this.
• I also believe it links to Gilroy's 'Black Atlantic' idea that a culture is not simply American, African, Caribbean or British, but all of these at once together. Bangura is showing her readers that it is not just one culture; all of the voices need to be heard and respected.

Analyse the representations in Sources A and B. Use Gilroy's Postcolonial theory in your answer

 Source A, The Daily Mail, can be affiliated with Gilroy's postcolonial theory, as this article shows that 

In this article, The Daily Mail appear to portray Gilroy's Postcolonial theory, as the m

defo in daily mail postcolonial theory.

daily mirror - kind of what gilroy wants - people facing up to colonialism. facing up to what britain did in the past.