UESDAY, MARCH 25, 2008

Cultural Identity and Diaspora (Stuart Hall)

Hall is trying to theorize identity as constituted not outside but

within representation and hence of cinema, not as a second-order
mirror held up to reflect what already exists, but as that form of
representation which is able to constitute us as new finds of
subjects, and thereby enable us to discover places from which to
speak. (245)

Stuart Hall’s essay speaks of cultural identities and representations

which in this context he speaks of through "Third" cinemas
produced within the Carribean culture. Hall begins his essay by
describing two types of cultural identities. The first is a collective
identity which implies a shared history by race or ethnicity and that
it is stable. It symbolizes ‘one people’ which is assumed to the truth
and the essence. This first type of identity is often seen through
visual arts and cinemas which he calls ‘resources of resistance and
identity, with which to confront the garmented and pathological
ways in which that experience has been reconstructed withing the
dominant regimes of cinematic and visual representation of the
West.’(236) He is implying that they (the other) needs to take back
their identity and make their own as it has been for too long told
through dominant discourses. This is something I have often
reflected on during the time of my undergraduate degree in
History. I made two observations. The first was that what was told
in the articles and text books that were assigned for a course was
often reflective of the views or background of the professor.
Secondly and most important, were the uneasiness I felt when I
read a history textbook about the British Empire for example. The
book was to tell the history of the British Empire and colonialism
from the British or dominant perspective and the voices of those
who were colonialised were silenced as it too often the case. This
specific text book was even published by a prestigious British
university press. Why couldn’t we have read something written
from the perspective of the marginalised. Why the subjectivity? In
hindsight, I think this uneasiness contributed to my decreasing
interest for the field of history as I completed my academic terms.
The second identity that Hall speaks of is one that is unstable, that
implies sameness but difference at the same time. It recognized
that "there are also critical points of deep and significant difference
which constitute ‘what we really are’; or rather – since history has
intervened – what we have become."(236) In this sense, I think this
type of identity encourages the recognition that identities are not
fixed, there are not eternal as Hall states. When I read this section I
kept coming back to my thoughts on Troubling Women’s Studies
and how the authors were arguing against the founding mothers’
fear of letting go of the past as this might jeopardize Women’s
Studies true identity; so a burning desire to keep its true and first
identity.
To come back to Hall’s discussion, when speaking of this similar yet
different identity he states that identity is something, that it has a
history but is not fixed, that difference matters. He also notes that
language depends on difference as Derrida spoke of. So identity
can be different and differ basically. This theory helps disturb the
"classical economy of language and representation" and to Hall it
helps them (Caribbeans) to "rethink the positioning and
repositioning of Caribbean cultural identities in relation to at least
three ‘presences’."

Those three types of dominant presences he refers to are as such:

1) Presence Africaine which is the site of the repressed. This

presence implies that what once was is no longer as it has changed.
Therefore it is important to acknowledge the past but understand
that they cannot do as the West has and is doing, that is,
representing Africa as the same as it was years ago.

2) Presence Europeene which is the site of colonialist. This

presence includes issues of power and how the Europeans have
positioned black in visual representation in dominant discourse.
When I took Women Racism and Power in my undergrad, I
remember our professor bringing in products from the supermarket
such as sauces and couscous boxes. I wasn’t too sure why at first
but she made us realize the power that we (dominant) have in
representing the "other" in visual images. The products she
brought were from the President’s Choice line called Memories of...
As we can tell from the images below, those who have designed the
packaging have chosen to use a woman who appears to be of Asian
descent to represent memories of Shanghai and then we find a man
on a camel to represent Kashmir. Not only do we the dominant have
the power to represent the other’s identity through these
constructed images but we are putting them out there to be
consumed. If you put this sauce on your food, you will have
experienced Shanghai for example. Just as I am writing this, I
realize how absurd it is.

3)Presence Americaine also known as the New World which is the

site of cultural confrontation. Hall describes this presence as an
empty place where many cultures meet and collide. This is seen in
America and here in Canada. We have a melting pot in the USA and
here in Canada the so-called mosaic of cultures which is said to be
more focused on integration rather than assimilation - this could be
a whole other debate as I think we are just as guilty of assimilation
as the USA. We claim to welcome and include all cultures yet we
have displaced First Nations of their land and have tried to
assimilate everyone.

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Cultural Identity and Diaspora- Stuart Hall
the following write up on 'Cultural Identity and Diaspora' is by
Inchara BR
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Stuart Hall beings his discussion on Cultural Identity and Diaspora
with a discussion on the emerging new cinema in the Caribbean
which is known as Third Cinema. This new form of cinema is
considered as the visual representation of the Afro-Caribbean
subjects- “blacks” of the diasporas of the west- the new post
colonial subjects. Using this discussion as a starting point Hall
addresses the issues of identity, cultural practices, and cultural
production.

There is a new cinema emerging in the Caribbean known as the

Third Cinema. It is considered as the visual representation of the
Afro-Caribbean in the post colonial context. In this visual medium
“Blacks” are represented as the new postcolonial subjects. In the
context of cultural identity hall questions regarding the identity of
this emerging new subjects. From where does he speak? Very often
identity is represented as a finished product. Hall argues that
instead of considering cultural identity as a finished product we
should think of it a production which is never complete and is
always in process.

He discusses two ways of reflecting on cultural identity. Firstly,

identity understood as a collective, shared history among
individuals affiliated by race or ethnicity that is considered to be
fixed or stable. According to this understanding our cultural
identity reflects the common historical experiences and shared
cultural codes which provide us as “one people.” This is known as
the oneness of cultural identity, beneath the shifting divisions and
changes of our actual history. From the perspective of the
Caribbean’s this would be the Caribbeanness of the black
experience. This is the identity the Black diaspora must discover.
This understanding did play a crucial role in the Negritude
movements. It was a creative mode of representing the true
identity of the marginalised people. Indeed this act of rediscovery
has played crucial role in the emergence of many of the important
social movements of our time like feminist, ani-colonial and anti-
racist.
Stuart Hall also explores a second form of cultural identity that
exist among the Caribbean, this is an identity understood as
unstable, metamorphic, and even contradictory which signifies an
identity marked by multiple points of similarities as well as
differences. This cultural identity refers to “what they really are”,
or rather “what they have become.” Without understanding this
new identity one cannot speak of Caribbean identity as “one
identity or on experience.” There are ruptures and discontinuities
that constitute the Caribbean’s uniqueness. Based on this second
understanding of identity as an unstable Hall discusses Caribbean
cultural identity as one of heterogeneous composites. It is this
second notion of identity that offers a proper understanding of the
traumatic character of the colonial experience of the Caribbean
people.

To explain the process of identity formation, Hall uses Derrida's

theory ‘differance’ as support, and Hall sees the temporary
positioning of identity as "strategic" and arbitrary. He then uses the
three presences--African, European, and American--in the
Caribbean to illustrate the idea of "traces" in our identity. A
Caribbean experiences three kinds of cultural identities. Firstly, the
cultural identity of the Africans which is considered as site of the
repressed, secondly, the cultural identity of the Europeans which is
the site of the colonialist, and thirdly, the cultural identity of the
Americans which is a new world- a site of cultural confrontation.
Thus the presence of these three cultural identities offers the
possibility of creolization and points of new becoming. Finally, he
defines the Caribbean identity as diaspora identity.

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