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theacemachine:

Key Terms in Post-Colonial Theory

lightsandcamera:

colonialism: The imperialist expansion of Europe into the rest of the world during the last four hundred years in which a dominant imperium or center carried on a relationship of control and influence over its margins or colonies. This relationship tended to extend to social, pedagogical, economic, political, and broadly culturally exchanges often with a hierarchical European settler class and local, educated (compractor) elite class forming layers between the European “mother” nation and the various indigenous peoples who were controlled. Such a system carried within it inherent notions of racial inferiority and exotic otherness.

post-colonialism: Broadly a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. It is concerned with both how European nations conquered and controlled “Third World” cultures and how these groups have since responded to and resisted those encroachments. Post-colonialism, as both a body of theory and a study of political and cultural change, has gone and continues to go through three broad stages:

1. an initial awareness of the social, psychological, and cultural inferiority enforced by being in a colonized state
2. the struggle for ethnic, cultural, and political autonomy
3. a growing awareness of cultural overlap and hybridity

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ambivalence: the ambiguous way in which colonizer and colonized regard one another.  The colonizer often regards the colonized as both inferior yet exotically other, while the colonized regards the colonizer as both enviable yet corrupt.  In a context of hybridity, this often produces a mixed sense of blessing and curse.

alterity: “the state of being other or different”; the political, cultural, linguistic, or religious other. The study of the ways in which one group makes themselves different from others.

colonial education:  the process by which a colonizing power assimilates either a subaltern native elite or a larger population to its way of thinking and seeing the world.

diaspora: the voluntary or enforced migration of peoples from their native homelands.  Diaspora literature is often concerned with questions of maintaining or altering identity, language, and culture while  in another culture or country.

essentialism: the essence or “whatness” of something.  In the context of race, ethnicity, or culture, essentialism suggests the practice of various groups deciding what is and isn’t a particular identity.  As a practice, essentialism tends to overlook differences within groups often to maintain the status quo or obtain power.  Essentialist claims can be used by a colonizing power but also by the colonized as a way of resisting what is claimed about them.

ethnicity: a fusion of traits that belong to a group–shared values, beliefs, norms, tastes, behaviors, experiences, memories, and loyalties. Often deeply related to a person’s identity.

exoticism: the process by which a cultural practice is made stimulating and exciting in its difference from the colonializer’s normal perspective. Ironically, as European groups educated local, indigenous cultures, schoolchildren often began to see their native lifeways, plants, and animals as exotic and the European counterparts as “normal” or “typical.”

hegemony: the power of the ruling class to convince other classes that their interests are the interests of all, often not only through means of economic and political control but more subtly through the control of education and media.

hybridity: new transcultural forms that arise from cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity can be social, political, linguistic, religious, etc. It is not necessarily a peaceful mixture, for it can be contentious and disruptive in its experience.  Note the two related definitions:

catalysis: the (specifically New World) experience of several ethnic groups interacting and mixing with each other often in a contentious environment that gives way to new forms of identity and experience.

creolization: societies that arise from a mixture of ethnic and racial mixing to form a new material, psychological, and spiritual self-definition.

identity: the way in which an individual and/or group defines itself. Identity is important to self-concept, social mores, and national understanding.   It often involves both essentialism and othering.

ideology:“a system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently true” (Bordwell & Thompson 494)

language: In the context of colonialism and post-colonialism, language has often become a site for both colonization and resistance. In particular, a return to the original indigenous language is often advocated since the language was suppressed by colonizing forces.  The use of European languages is a much debated issue among postcolonial authors.

abrogation: a refusal to use the language of the colonizer in a correct or standard way.

appropriation: “the process by which the language is made to ‘bear the burden’ of one’s own cultural experience.”

magical realism: the adaptation of Western realist methods of literature in describing the imaginary life of indigenous cultures who experience the mythical, magical, and supernatural in a decidedly different fashion from Western ones. A weaving together elements we tend to associate with European realism and elements we associate with the fabulous, where these two worlds undergo a “closeness or near merging.”

mapping: the mapping of global space in the context of colonialism was as much prescriptive as it was descriptive.  Maps were used to assist in the process of aggression, and they were also used to establish claims.  Maps claims the boundaries of a nation, for example.

metanarrative: (“grand narratives,” “master narratives.”) a large cultural story that seeks to explain within its borders all the little, local narratives.  A metanarrative claims to be a big truth concerning the world and the way it works.  Some charge that all metanarratives are inherently oppressive because they decide whether other narratives are allowed or not.

mimicry: the means by which the colonized adapt the culture (language, education, clothing, etc.) of the colonizer but always in the process changing it in important ways.  Such an approach always contains it in the ambivalence of hybridity.

nation/nation-state: an aggregation of people organized under a single government. National interest is associated both with a struggle for independent ethnic and cultural identity, and ironically an opposite belief in universal rights, often multicultural, with a basis in geo-economic interests. Thus, the move for national independence is just as often associated with region as it is with ethnicity or culture, and the two are often at odds when new nations are formed.

orientalism: the process (from the late eighteenth century to the present) by which “the Orient” was constructed as an exotic other by European studies and culture. Orientalism is not so much a true study of other cultures as it is broad Western generalization about Oriental, Islamic, and/or Asian cultures that tends to erode and ignore their substantial differences.

other: the social and/or psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalizes another group. By declaring someone “Other,” persons tend to stress what makes them dissimilar from or opposite of another, and this carries over into the way they represent others, especially through stereotypical images.

race:the division and classification of human beings by physical and biological characteristics.  Race often is used by various groups to either maintain power or to stress solidarity. In the 18th and19th centuries, it was often used as a pretext by European colonial powers for slavery and/or the “white man’s burden.”

semiotics: a system of signs which one knows what something is. Cultural semiotics often provide the means by which a group defines itself or by which a colonializing power attempts to control and assimilate another group.

space/place:space represents a geographic locale, one empty in not being designated. Place, on the other hand, is what happens when a space is made or owned.  Place involves landscape, language, environment, culture, etc.

subaltern: the lower or colonized classes who have little access to their own means of expression and are thus dependent upon the language and methods of the ruling class to express themselves.

worlding: the process by which a person, family, culture, or people is brought into the dominant Eurocentric/Western global society.

(via beemill)

notquitethatmad asked: Hi, I was wondering if you have any advice on writing a good villain? Like one that people hate to love/love to hate? Someone really twisted and horrible

characterandwritinghelp:

Welcome to Villain Theory, You Will Be Here A While

I AM SO IMMEASURABLY GLAD YOU CAME HERE. If there is one thing in this universe that I have love for in whatever blackened shreds remain of my soul, it is a great villain. As evidenced by the size of this post, I have a lot of thoughts on the matter.

Everyone has a different idea of what makes a great villain, and there is no formula for making a villain that people hate to love or love to hate. Just a cursory look around Tumblr will show you that everyone has different taste in villains. Sometimes they are loved because of their physical attractiveness, other times their backstory is what makes them lovable/hatable. That is a largely subjective part of villainy that I do not think I can definitively cover.

So, rather than giving you my opinion on what makes a great villain, I intend to talk about antagonists and villains as concepts. I invite you to take from it what you will. I believe that making a villain and making a twisted villain involve different things, but I’ll get to that. (And I WILL get to that. I promise. I am just long-winded.)

Come with me. I will explain some things. You might even find them useful.

[Content warning: Spoilers. Lord of the Rings (Frodo and the Ring are spoken of), Finding Nemo (ish), Avatar: The Last Airbender (ish), Flowers for Algernon (COMPLETELY), Batman (The Joker is spoken of).] 

Let’s Consider: Antagonism vs. Villainy

Let me go into semantics once again, so we can break this down even further. A villain is a character or thing that swears by bad or evil, and who is generally the opposite of the protagonist in goal and moral. An antagonist is someone or something who works against the protagonist to impede or halt their progress. A villain can absolutely be a protagonist, but an antagonist cannot. These terms are not always interchangeable and do not always overlap. Not every story needs both and some stories succeed with neither, but that is a post for a different day.

What makes a villain a villain is action. What makes an antagonist an antagonist is force against the protagonist. Again, these things can overlap, but do not always do so. I would like you to disregard the notion that villains and antagonists must be characters. They can be, but they do not always have to be.

Antagonism as a Force Against the Protagonist

Antagonists work against the protagonist, be it directly or indirectly, active or passive. 

A direct antagonist works against the protagonist with full knowledge of the protagonist’s existence. This is probably what you think of when you think “antagonist:” someone who sees the hero coming and starts putting things in the hero’s way. Direct antagonists are more likely to be active than passive, as they do things like send henchmen, enact plans, fight the heroes, etc.

An indirect antagonist usually has their own goals that happen to coincide with the protagonist’s journey. Non-evil antagonists can easily fall into this category as a rival to the hero, providing tension without needing to be a “bad guy.” Indirect antagonists can easily be active or passive, since any activity they take part in does not have to include the hero. A passive antagonist has an effect on the plot without actually doing very much. Passive antagonists can (and are probably statistically more likely to) be objects as opposed to characters.

Consider Lord of the Rings. While yes, there is Sauron and Saruman and the Nazgul and such, hobbit Frodo’s personal antagonist is almost exclusively found in the One Ring. The Ring is a passive antagonist, which corrupts Frodo by simply existing in his possession. It attempts to corrupt him and prevent him from destroying it, thereby affecting his progress to the goal.

Antagonism as Conflict

The antagonist can be an agent of conflict, and depends on the protagonist in order to exist. Remember, antagonism is not (necessarily) villainy. Antagonism is only something that opposes the protagonist. A character can have conflicting morals and goals to your protagonist and qualify as a more-or-less good person while still being the antagonist to the story.

The antagonist serves to bring about negative progress in the protagonist’s journey to the goal, however they choose to do this. They can bring about conflict just by virtue of making the journey harder for the protagonist, just as well as they can by actively pestering, obstructing, and outright harming the protagonist. The link between conflict and antagonism is that the protagonist is navigating the maze of the plot through the conflict to reach the end goal, and the antagonist is either causing the conflict or adding new walls to the maze.

Villainy as a Reflection of the Hero

Let’s leave antagonism behind for a moment while we talk about villainy.

Villains are separate from antagonists in that not all antagonists are evil, and not all villains are antagonists. Villains oppose heroes in a number of ways, sometimes multiple ways in one story. They can stand in their way, send flocks of doom-legion troops after them, work to subvert them, ignore them while they carry out evil plots, any number of things make a villain villainous. What makes a great villain is largely up for debate, but let me start here.

A villain can be a reflection or shadow of whatever the hero stands for and loves. A villain who is good at their job might be this because they represent whatever the hero fears, loathes, or is scared of. A reflective villain is more than not-the-hero, a villain is the essence of not-the-hero.

Consider another plot in which the villain is not a physical thing, but a concept. Finding Nemo is a Pixar film about fish and fishbowls. Again, Finding Nemo has no personifiable villain, as even the sharks are friends (albeit unwanted ones). Marlin’s villain in finding his son is not the dentist who took him, the sharks, the birds, or any of that. Those are obstacles. Marlin’s real villain is the concept of bigness: His fear of everything has made him feel small (which, incidentally, he is), and he must take on the entire ocean to track down his son.

Villainy as Reverse Heroism

Then you have the less metaphorical and more literal interpretation of villainy in the reversal of heroism. After all, an interpretation of evil is that it is the diametrical opposite of good.

Consider Avatar: The Last Airbender. The villain at the end of the line is Fire Lord Ozai, is a destructive megalomaniac bent on domination and assuredly lacking in empathy from his first appearance onscreen. Meanwhile, hero Aang was raised a peaceful monk and throughout the series struggles to come to grips with the idea of having to kill someone, even if that someone is as ruthless and tyrannical as Ozai. The two of them are directly opposed in a multitude of ways: where Aang concerns himself with the nature of right and wrong and morality, Ozai views right and wrong as concepts that are beneath him as the world’s most powerful Firebender. Ozai is pride against Aang’s humility.

The reversal of heroism does not necessarily mean that the hero came first and that the villain built themselves around that, but that the hero and villain are truly opposing forces, opposite each other in a multitude of ways.

Villainy as Conflict

Villainy is a phenomenal method to bring about conflict. If a burning village isn’t inciting enough an incident, then what is? Remember, though, that not all villainy is evil in so many words.

Flowers for Algernon is a story about a man who undergoes surgery to boost his incredibly low intellect. Charlie and the original lab subject, a mouse named Algernon, become wildly intelligent as a result of the medical procedure, and all seems well until Algernon’s brainpower begins deteriorating. Charlie must come to terms with the fact that his newfound intellectual capacity is also short-lived, and as the story moves forward his mind also declines to the point of its origin. Charlie’s villain in his journey to genius is not physical but entirely mental; he will always know that he used to be intelligent. His villain is the idea of knowing, and once he knows, his struggle is no longer about the decline, but remaining at the bottom with little (if any) hope of return.

Conflict and villainy can easily coincide. Conflict is the basis of the story, the thing that drives the plot and spurs on the characters. Bear in mind, if your villain is a part of the conflict, I expect you to deal with the villain somehow before resolving the plot in its entirety.

Some Final Thoughts

Now let’s put them together. An antagonistic villain is something that brings about negative progress in the protagonist’s journey by way of villainy. From here, you can go in any number of directions. Are they trying to usurp the throne from an unsuspecting monarch by way of subterfuge and policy? Are they a conniving, manipulative type, working to some nebulous goal that the protagonists happen to stumble into? Are they an inexplicable force of chaos that enjoys villainy for the sake of villainy?

Not all antagonists and villains are driven by clearly defined goals and motives. The Joker throughout his illustrious history is shown to cause chaos solely for the sake of causing chaos. An interesting dynamic of the goalless villain is the mystery of how to gain the upper hand on them. How do you prevent a villain from reaching their goal if they do not have one?

Something to think about when your protagonist/hero begins locking horns with your antagonist/villain: At what point in the story do they gain the upper hand? Remember, plot is born of conflict, and there is no real conflict if the protagonist/hero has all the pieces of the antagonist’s/villain’s demise and chooses not to use them.

Defining the conditions of success or failure can also help you overcome plot blocks when you feel your protagonists/heroes have gotten stuck in a corner. What are the conditions of defeat? How about victory? Do they change at any point in the story? Do we always know what they are, or do learn them as the story goes on?

Twisted Villainy

As to the other part of your question. What defines twisted, sick villainy more than anything is the limitations of your world, and therefore twisted villainy depends on what your genre is. This type of villain goes above and beyond what is already unacceptable in the world, which varies by genre and setting. Twisted for fantasy middle-grade fiction is going to look very different than twisted in R-rated sci-horror.

In order to create a villain who is perceived as twisted and disturbed, you will have to think far outside the box of “normal” villainy. Figure out what your world perceives as bad, then double it up. Make it worse. Go further and further outside the lines of what nauseates and and horrifies your world, and set your villain loose.

……..So, that wraps up that question, I think. Let us know if you have other questions.

-Headless

Oh! Y’all! Although I had discussed this with a good friend already, I forgot to talk about it here. Two nights ago, I had my first out-of-body experience (excluding the time I tried DMT).

Keep reading

Well, I’m officially setting my last day of work: July 28. It’s the last day of our pay period, so I can make sure to get a full paycheck before I’m out of work for a bit (especially since I’m bailing a month early on rent so I’m paying for that ahead of time, which I’m not used to financially).

Maybe if I hear back from a job before then, I’ll leave earlier. But I think the 28th is a good date; I could leave a couple of days afterwards, and still be able to enjoy a month of summer back in Ohio.