Superior Occident: British Hegemony over Orients in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Journal Title: International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences - Year 2014, Vol 8, Issue 1
Abstract
Superiority of Occident and inferiority of Orient were and are the place of challenge for many centuries till now. The superiority of British people resulted in a form of British hegemony. In this paper, Orlando: A Biography (1928) by Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) is investigated based on the theories of Ian Boucam, Edward Said and Homi. K. Bhabha regarding superiority of Occident versus Orient. By using post-colonial and cultural studies, this paper interprets the events which occur for the main character, Orlando. Specifically, this paper concentrates on the way in which Woolf portrays Orlando’s Britishness through British national identity, history, literature and race. It represents Woolf’s nationalistic desire which constructs Britishness and her xenophobia toward the ‘Others’ and Orients. This paper also demonstrates how Woolf recreates three and half centuries of British National history and its culture through the life of an aristocrat. Through the main character, in Orlando, Woolf shows her nationalistic desires which portray the superiority of the Occident over the Orient/the ‘Others.’ Additionally this paper indicates Britain’s cultural supremacy in comparison to the other cultures. It puts emphasis on the west’s claim regarding their own centrality and supremacy versus marginality and inferiority of East. It describes how Woolf’s desire for Britain glorifies British culture, nation and civilization and criticizes the ‘Others’.
Authors and Affiliations
Sara Bakhshandeh Farajpour *| M.A Student of English Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd Branch, Iran, Leila Baradaran Jamili| Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, Islamic Azad University, Boroujerd Branch, Iran
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP6522
- DOI -
- Views 421
- Downloads 13
An investigation of the relationship between senior line and staff managers’ development in Ministry of Education and organizational effectiveness in the Educational System of Iran
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between the top executives in different provinces and the managers’ development of Education Ministry with the effectiveness of educational organizations. T...
Evaluation of mercury pollution in breast milk and Iranian infants’ hair
Breast milk is the main nutrition for the children of 4-6 months old. The mercury of mother’s body may be transferred to infant via milk. Mercury is a neural toxic metal and endangers the proper growth of infants. This p...
The Estimation of FDI capacity in Iran
According to the role of FDI in technology transfer and attraction of foreign capital to developing countries, these countries have been considered it in their plans. Planning to take advantage of this process requires t...
Influence of vermicompost and plant density on some morphological traits and biological yield of mungbean (Vigna radiata)
The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of vermicompost and plant density on morphological traits and biomass production of mung bean (Vigna radiata). The experiment was conducted during the growing...
The relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Iran)
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social capital and knowledge sharing is the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. They are descriptive correlation study. The study sample consisted o...