This article is excerpted from my final assignment of the course (After reading "Oriental Studies", the original title is "How should we treat Orientalism today - from the perspective of "must be heaven" to see the deconstruction strategy of contemporary literary works on Orientalism". The professional course "Intercultural Communication" Learning", taught by Che Zhixin). The first part is part of the discussion of "Orientalism", and the second part mainly focuses on "Must Be Paradise", and analyzes its deconstruction of "Orientalism".
What exactly is "Orientalism" trying to tell us?
Through Said's long exposition, we first know what the so-called "Orientalism" is: it is a science, a way of thinking, and a discourse. But it is limited and degenerate. It is closely connected with the historical context that formed it, and it is a dualistic frame of opposition poisoned by Western colonialism and imperialism. Therefore, we realize that "Orientalism" is a rigid thinking mode that needs to be vigilant and avoided.
So Said said: "[Orientalism] pointed out to people the sinister intentions of Orientalists, and to some extent freed Islam from their clutches." But what Said said " "Liberation" does not simply mean that Eastern countries (such as Islamic countries) are freed from the discourse hegemony of the West, or that the East is able to express itself (or even the West) - in his view, these are all a "reaction to a state of hopelessness". Self-confirmation of the antagonistic state of medicine”—should get out of the dualistic thinking framework such as “East/West”, this is the real meaning of “liberation”. In academic terms, anti-essentialism.
Therefore, what "Orientalism" wants to tell us is nothing more than the following facts: Orientalism is a way of thinking; Orientalism has serious problems; Orientalism should be denied, but fighting against the West along the lines of Orientalism is not the solution road.
So how should we treat Orientalism? Said did not offer specific and effective strategies. He repeatedly stressed that his meaning was to "challenge this whole set of opposites." When faced with the question of whether "Oriental Studies" can only be broken but not established, he only tried to list some achievements in the academic field.
But he at least told us that we can't solve Orientalism with "Westernism", but to get rid of that "racist, ideological, imperialist stereotype" - we should deconstruct Orientalism instead of Anti-westernism).
Orientalism still occupies every aspect of social life today. One of the hallmarks of this electronic, postmodern society in which we live is a growing tendency to stereotype the image of the East. Standardization and cultural stereotyping intensified the tendency to "demonize the East" in 19th century academic research and the public imagination . [1] "but even in the Iran issue once again become the focus of the era, with a strong" anti-standardization "and" counter-cultural types of "flavor of the Palestinian movie reached the 72nd Cannes film Festival main competition, And won the Fabisi Award in one fell swoop. The film, "It Must Be Heaven," offers some exciting strategies and ideas for "deconstructing Orientalism."
"It Must Be Paradise": "Middle East Peace Comedy" Challenges Orientalism
Said describes his original motivation for studying Orientalism this way: "No one has ever devised any way to separate the scholar from the environment in which he lives, from the classes, belief systems, and social positions into which he is (intentionally or not) involved. , because he was born to be a member of society.” As a Palestinian Arab scholar living in the West (US), Said finds his life “defeating.” The special identity endows him with sensitivity to special issues - this is the reason for his study of Orientalism.
The same goes for director Ilya Suleiman. As a Palestinian director living in Paris, New York, and Nazareth, he also feels that his identity has become special and sensitive in the context of Orientalism, full of fallacies. Therefore, in Must Be Heaven, we see his efforts to deconstruct Orientalism.
"It Must Be Paradise" tells an unremarkable trip: Palestinian director Suleiman (whose name is the same as the director of the film, played by the director himself) went to Paris to find a production project with his newly created "Middle East Peace Comedy" script But he was rejected, and then went to New York to participate in some meetings, and finally returned to Nazareth to live his original life. He observed around the street and found that whether it was Paris or New York, he could find the shadow of his hometown of Palestine.
The deconstruction of the film is first reflected in the subject matter. This is a veritable "Middle East Peace Comedy" (both inside and outside the play), and the combination of "Middle East" and "peace" itself is a kind of resistance to the discourse of Orientalism - traditional Orientalism discourse Palestine is often associated with regional conflicts and wars. At the same time, as the carrier of the film, comedy itself has strong deconstruction characteristics. Suleiman also makes full use of this point to hide political issues in the film, mocking and satirizing various materialized and symbolic landscapes.
Interestingly, Suleiman in the plot hits the wall everywhere. His script was rejected by French producers, and he failed to arouse the interest of female producers in the United States. The reason given by French producers was that "there is no specific nationality". Conflict, too cosmopolitan (because there is no film source here, if I am wrong, I hope my neighbors will point out)" - this kind of deconstructed text is challenged by typical Orientalist thinking. In the real world, however, Suleiman's "Must Be Paradise" won the approval of film critics - a Palestinian director who, by himself, tried to reverse Western prejudice. (Of course, the film does not end up with a "Westernist" counterattack.)
Suleiman in the film is often troubled by deep-rooted views of Orientalism during his travels in "Western" society. A black driver he met in New York would excitedly call his wife and say, "I have a Palestinian in my car!" He went around in circles; the enthusiastic applause of the patriots at the Palestine Association in the United States prevented the meeting from proceeding normally. These excesses of zeal and sensitivities essentially continue to underscore a duality between East and West, and Suleiman playfully mocks and deconstructs them.
Secondly, the deconstruction of the film is reflected in the deconstruction of "discourse". Said believes that Orientalism is "a way for the West to control, rebuild and dominate the East", and this control is achieved through a set of discourses. There are two ways to confront discourse, one is to construct a set of more powerful discourses to suppress (but not escape the essence of Orientalism), and the other is to directly deconstruct discourse. "It Must Be Heaven" adopts the latter, but its strategy of deconstructing discourse is extremely crude: replacing expression with viewing, and deconstructing discourse with silence. In the film, Suleiman barely speaks, and most of the time, he watches non-stop. He is a bystander, but he participates in the event by watching. He listens to the narration of the other, but does not define, judge, or express. The only thing that can reflect the inner activity is his constantly dancing eyebrows. As a result, almost all the satires and metaphors in the film cannot point to an exact ontology, and the lack of discourse creates a rich ambiguity in the text, which is entirely up to the audience to interpret it. But also from this, "a Palestinian does not easily define the 'West'" itself constitutes a mockery of Orientalism.
The third deconstruction of the film is reflected through the "dislocation and collage" of the archetypal concept. "In my previous works, Palestine could be seen as a microcosm of the world, but my new work, Must Be Paradise, attempts to shift the status of the two and treat the world as a microcosm of Palestine. [2] " The bundled issues are forcibly placed in "Western" society by the director, but at the same time they are carried out peacefully. This attempt to smash and reorganize the "East/West" stereotypes essentially contains a desire to deconstruct Orientalism. Here are some misplaced moments and personal interpretations that I have compiled (it may have a strong purpose, but this film deconstructs the discourse in silence, and there is no right or wrong interpretation):
Everyday with a gun. In the film, the director once dreamed in New York that everyone on the street was carrying all kinds of ordnance, but people were accustomed to it like carrying a bag.
French police everywhere. "The state of exception, the police state and violence have become the norm. In fact, tension and anxiety are not limited to local conflicts, but are everywhere. [2]" The director has seen orderly police officers on the streets of France many times. They scrutinized the car on the side of the road, as if there was a bomb under the car, but in fact there was only a bunch of flowers under the car. Another time, the director drank coffee at the entrance of the cafe, and four policemen routinely measured the size of the street occupied by the cafe, as if to block the place.
French military parade. The director sees tanks and planes driving through the deserted city of Paris, and doesn't know who these military forces are going to show.
Restrictions on free speech. An "angel" dressed in the color of the Palestinian flag appeared in a park in New York. She may have expressed her appeal for the establishment of a Palestinian state in a peaceful way, but she was chased and stopped by the police in this country that advocates freedom of speech - but the police No violence was used.
Competition for scarce resources. The chairs in a fountain square in Paris were occupied by citizens. In order to occupy the seats, everyone showed their abilities, and some people even snatched the seats from the eyes of the old man. The seat at the moment becomes a metaphor for "land/oil/water".
Finally, the deconstruction of breaking and not standing is not complete. What will the world look like after the eastern school is broken? Suleiman gave an answer: a citizen of the world. This coincides with the multiculturalism mentioned in Said's book, which is the fourth deconstruction strategy for the film.
An international director who studied in New York and lives in Paris and Nazareth (both on and off stage), Suleiman is a veritable citizen of the world. In the film, he was invited to a university in New York to conduct an academic exchange on "world citizenship". He was asked by the host about his feelings as a world citizen, and the audience was all acting students who had just finished the stage play. , they dress up as various animals and sit under the stage, just like the ideal country in "Zootopia" - across "things", across countries, and even across species.
Multiculturalism can be illustrated by this fragment: Two English-speaking Japanese misidentify a Palestinian on the streets of France. Ha, how interesting.
At the end of the film, director Suleiman returned to his hometown of Nazareth. In the bar, he watched local young people dance on the dance floor-although Arab folk songs were played, the rhythm and drum beats of the remixed version of the nightclub had already given the folk songs a universal soul, and young people also danced the same kind of dance.
Although as a comedy, "It Must Be Heaven" has a strong artificial construct, and its arbitrary interpretability reduces the persuasiveness of the analysis, it is undeniable that it still provides many lessons for contemporary art to draw on from the deconstruction of Orientalism. Strategies: Comedy deconstructs politics, watching (silent) deconstructing discourse, dislocation and collage of archetypal ideas, and repeated affirmations of multiculturalism.
【references】
[1] Said, Oriental Studies [M], Life·Reading·Xinzhi Sanlian Publishing House, 2007.
[2] Eugénie Malinjod, Ilya Suleiman's Finding a Place to Live in It Must Be Heaven [EB/OL], Cannes Film Festival. https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/actualites /articles/yi-li-ya-su-lei-man-elia-suleiman-tong-guo-it-must-be-heaven-xun-zhao-rong-shen-zhi-di
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