Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Young Robert J. C

Author:Young, Robert J. C. [Young, Robert J. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2003-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

Or is it we as viewers who assume this? Does this representation of a woman give us what the artist wanted us to see, a certain image of ‘the Arab woman’, an exotic oriental woman who can stand for all Arab women, as opposed to the reality of what this particular woman was really like? The image never asks us to think of her as a living human being in a social environment. It is constructed for a certain kind of western viewer who already knows from many other representations what an ‘Arab woman’ ought to look like – modest, pining, above all veiled. The European knows her instantly, just as today we recognize a picture of a cosy snow-covered scene as an image of Christmas. A representation of Christmas has to show us a snow-covered scene if it is going to evoke Christmas properly. This is the case even though in many, if not most, places of the world, Christmas actually never looks like that. In England, for example, it is generally a mild day with a bit of sunshine and drizzle. There is very rarely any snow. To show a drizzly day on a card, however, would not evoke ‘Christmas’ in the way a snow-scene does – even when we know that, in terms of our experience, the mythical White Christmas is completely untrue.

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