The Others :: essays research papers

The OtherGananath Obeyesekere argues that one cannot escape the politics, ethics, and quandaries of representation withal as we turn in to describe the Other. This argument has lead to a peachy debate between him and other anthropologist, Marshal Sahlins. Obeyesekere believes that rase though we try to give an objective portrayal of another, we cannot help judging them by our testify standards. Sahlins on the other hand, says that it is possible to describe other people in an objective way, as long as you have evidence. These anthropologists arguments were cogitate around the apotheosis of Captain Cook. The major debate between the ii resides in the idea of representation, and an outsiders ability to understand another culture. This debate on the concept of representation can be utilize to the picture show, My Son the Fanatic, in which two cultures are represented- western and Muslim.In the movie My Son the Fanatic, we see two cultures being represented. The first is that of a Hesperian Capitalist, racist- acted out by the acknowledgment, Schitz, who was a German businessman. The other culture was that of violent, Muslim fundamentalists- acted out by Farid, the news of Parvez. This movie was written by Hanif Kureishi who was the son of a Pakistani father and an English mother. Because Hanif was a Pakistani, it is expected that he would be able to objectively portray the Muslims in the movie. I appreciate that he did a good job at doing so. He showed that about of the Muslims were violent fundamentalists such as Farid, and he also showed examples of Muslims that were not so extreme such as Parvez. Farid led violent riots to destroy the prostitutes, burned-out down their house and attacked Bettina, a prostitute that was also Parvez friend. If this was the only reference of Muslim portray throughout the movie, it would have been a stereotypical contract however, Hanif also showed that there were Muslims such as Parvez that were not violent fun damentalists- Parvez even befriended a prostitute. Unlike his un-bias representation of Muslims, Hanif lacked objectivity in the representation of the Western culture within the film. This culture had only one character that was portrayed as being evil it seemed actu onlyy stereotypical on this behalf. The character of Schitz was portrayed as a Western Capitalistic, racist. Schitz was personified as being very selfish, only thinking about his on pleasures and money. The idea of Westerners being all about money is a major stereotype.