Culture Hegemony: A Tactical Study On Post-Colonial Criticism

This dissertation has traced back the development of wesern culture hegemony to explore the main principle strategy of Gramsci, Frankfurt School, Foucault, Said etc.on culture hegemony. With representative theoreticians in different periods as latitude and the course of development as longitude, this dissertation has elaborated the problems such as method, nature, content and the origin of culture hegemony fairly systematicaly from the angle of dynamic development, not only by clarifying some mistakes on traditional research,but making some new discoveries on the theory,content and method of culture hegemony. At the same time,the dissertation discusses the Indian literature, Afro-American literature and Chinese images under the influence of culture hegemony .In the last part of the dissertation, the author offers the strategy on how China deals with culture hegemony and gives a new visual angle to culture hegemony study.The whole dissertation is composed of four parts.The introduction part has generally been stated the survey of culture hegemony of post-colonial criticism and told the viewpoints of representive theorists on culture hegemnoy as prepartion for further discussion. The author also summarize the domestic and international research in this field and give his innovation.In the first chapter, the dissertation discusses the origin of culture hegemony .The author thinks the theory of Gramsci,Fanon and Frankfurt school are composed of the origin of culture hegemony. The author talk about Gramsci's theory of culture hegemony from three aspects: 1.Pragmatic philosophy is the foundation of Gramsci's culture hegemony.2.The theory of nation compsoition is the logical premise.3. Political power is the core. As the early representative of post-colonialism,Fanon opens culture visual angel to criticize colonialism. He thinks that the white dominance, cultural aggression and racial discrimination brought by colonial dominance give Blacks especially the black intellectuals serious cultural alienation, and there are astonishing psychological wound and twisted psychology that is hard to speak in their hearts,so he puts forward struggle strategy on colonialism. Frankfurt school cultural industrial criticism thinks: Cultural industry satisfies the needs of "the masses" controlled by commercial strength,and people are taking amusement pastime as purpose and lost the essence as art negate and surmount spirit, artistic skill relies on mechanical technology, and has no artistic value. Relying on the monopoly for medium,cultural industry controls popular daily life till heart consciousness, canceles the criticism spiritual and negative consciousness of individual, and makes it become " one dimensionac man ",modern capitalist nations carry out ideology control and solid self dominance through cultural industry.In section two, the author analyses Foucult'power discourse from his two works: Folie et deraison and HistoiredelaSexualitéto explore how power shapes different main bodies. Said's Orientalism is the peak representative work of post-colonial criticism. I go on discussing the coninuing development of culture hegemony through Said's Orientalism, Spibak' Canthe SubalternSpeak? and Homi Bhabha's The Location of Culture.With many nations'independence, the traditional colonial situation has ended,however, the colonialism of imperialism is still in central location in world political, economical and cultural communication,it dominates the world, the eastern countries are in the edge of world. Culture hegemony can be produced when the stronger imposes his ideological cultural consciousness on the weaker. Here the author lists Tomlinson's Cultrual Imperialism,Francis Fukuyama's The End of History? and Huntington's Clash of Civilizations to discuss their advantages and disadvantages.In the second chapter,the author sums up the main featuresof culture hegemony .First culture has the feature of ideology. Ideology can help to form different class and group, and has the function of imagining, writing and depicting. The second feature of culture hegemony is the double construction of "other ". The "other"is a very important concept in the theory of post-colonialism. It comes from the philosophy of Hegel and that of Sartre. The culture identitiy of "other"is actually a double construction process, which originated from the influence of the Western centralism and from the "other"of non-Western culture's participation,like China. Therefore, we should emphasize an equality dialogue attitude for the communion and development of both sides. Intellectuals play an important role in building culture and resisting culture hegemony,and their double role lies in defending ideal and clearing up authority. Cultural identification denotes the confirmation of common culture among people or groups. With the expansionism of the strong culture and culture hegemony, it has caused the damage of culture and the unbanlance of culture ecology .The monopoly of strong culture imposed on weak culture and the unequal relation between them has made original culture reconstrcution and unprecedented challenge, Cultural identification is the resistance to culture hegemony, the maintenance of survival right for weak culture and the call for multi-cultures.In the third chapter,the author discusses the Indian literature and Afro-American literature and Chinese images under the influence of culture hegemony. The system of western colonial discourse is going along with western colonial expansion, European centralism, western advanced idea and WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) etc. are the important content of colonial discourse. Western colonialists regared the people in colony as"other"without the ability of thinking and self consciousness,they often measure eastern people with the western measure of value as: original, backward, ignorant, dirty etc. This kind of eastern visual angle is the production of cultural hegemony,it has deep background of colonial aggression and expansion. In global times, as the change of writer identity,the popularization of English and the development of modernism, the traditional culture of India is dying out day by day and has even been regarded as a kind of culture that is inferior to the West. In America, western culture takes leading position, Afro-American culture and literature can only be wondering on edge for a long time, it can not ascend the academic circle of main stream. This situation and the political economic position of Black in American society is connected with the influence of slave system as well as the academic dominance of western cultural superior theory. China is accepted as different culture. No matter how Chinese images in the western eyes is positive or negative, it is not the truth about Chinese images, it is adulterated imaginary composition, it is the production of western desire and fear.In the fourth chapter,the dissertation discusses how China deals with culture hegemony .China is a developing country, it is also a socialist country,it has become the main target of culture infiltration and subversion carried by western great nations, because of relatively obvious bifurcation such as culture, ideology, social system and national benefit. This has decided that China will inevitably be faced with stern cultural safe challenge in new century. Facing the input of advertisement, merchandise, internet, language and news information etc., we should have clear mind. First, we should insist the guidance position of Marxism , widely absorb different cultures, promote good national cultural tradition,keep the national cultural characteristic and carry cultural innovation forward.The last part presents the conclusions and main arguments of this dissertation,it also have stated the end and influence of colonialism.The innovation of this dissertation lies in the comprehensive and analysis of culture hegemony in combination with the images of "other"in literature study of culture hegemony . Conclusions and main arguments are as follows:1. The origin of cultural hegemony is a organic course, it orginated from Gramsci's culture hegemony, Fanon and Frankfurt school pour it into vigour. Foucault'power discourse and the theory of "three sacred swordsmen" are the peak stage of culture hegemony. Tomlinson's Cultrual Imperialism, Francis Fukuyama's The End of History? and Huntington's Clash of Civilizations have further deepened cultural hegemony theory. From this, it can be distinct to see the travel of the development of cultural hegemony. 2.With the foundation for cultural hegemony thorough research, the dissertation has summarized some major features of cultural hegemony: ideology, other , intellectual and culture identification. 3.Through the literature research for Indian literature, Afro-American literature and Chinese images, the author has pointed out that with many nations' independence, the traditional colonial situation has ended,however, the colonialism of imperialism is still in central location in world political, economical and cultural contact,it dominates the world, the eastern countries are in the edge of world. The western colonists often measure eastern people with the western measure of value,this kind of eastern visual angle is the production of cultural hegemony.4. Facing the culture infiltration and subversion carried by western great nations, the disssertation has analysed the colonial various forms of western culture, and have put forward the countermeasure of keeping Chinese culture safe.