Introduction
In Unthinking Eurocentrism, Ella Shohat and Robert Stam (1994, p. 1) define Eurocentrism as “the procrustean forcing of cultural heterogeneity into a single perspective in which the world is envisioned from a single privileged point” – that of Europe. In their view,
Eurocentrism remains so embedded and endemic in present-day thought and education, so pervasive, that it often goes unnoticed, if not naturalized. Against that, they advance the idea of “polycentric multiculturalism” – a relational form of multiculturalism which sees all cultural history in relation to social power, disperses power by transforming subordinating institutions and discourses, sees and imagines from the margins and does not
epistemologically privilege any single community or part of the world, whatever its economic or political power. This follows from their view that communities, societies and nations, and even entire continents, exist not autonomously but rather in a densely woven web of relationality. In such a web, Shohat and Stam find all utterances inescapably taking place against the background of the possible responses of other social and ethnic points of view. Hence they present “polycentric multiculturalism” as a tool to dislodge persistent Eurocentrism.
This chapter is one such response. On the one hand, the chapter seeks to demonstrate embedded, naturalised Eurocentric affectations in Euro-American theories of cinematic narration. It analyses these theories by situating them in their originating cultural contexts, thereby interpreting their theoretical claims against the legacy of Euro-American cultural thoughts. On the other hand, the chapter interrogates the relevance of these theories in an African context to better explain their universalising tendencies.
- 31 -
I am aware of the terminological uncertainty that characterises hostility to the idea of ‘a’
Euro-American thought. Luther S. Luedtke (1998) confronted sceptics who deemed it futile to search for a palpable commonality among a population as large and ethnically diverse as the United States. In his introduction to Making America, an anthology that narrates the processes and evaluates the forces which have given shape to the reality of an American national identity, Luedtke shows an intimate relation between the histories of Euro-American philosophy and Western philosophy as well as its remarkable identification with
Protestant/Puritan theology. Considering the cultural diversity in both Europe and the USA, it would seem pointless, if not over-ambitious, to speak singularly of a Euro-American thought. In fact, it would appear antithetical to this dissertation, which advocates a culturally specific perspective to cinematic narration. However, if we consider the historical evidence, such scepticism becomes merely probable when we ignore the acculturation that never ceases to remind us of Western imperialism. It will require that we pretend Eurocentrism does not exist. We need not look further than O.R. Dathorne’s (1994)In Europe’s Image to find evidence of the singularity of Euro-American thought. Dathorne traces the prevalent definitions of being American back to the colonial historical legacy. He points out prevalent imperialistic strains that continue to define the American character. Among these strains, Dathorne reminds us that the USA is constructed in non-native American, non-African American, neo-Anglo terms, and laboriously defined with an Anglophile mythology. This mythology espoused rigid thought patterns that placed, and tacitly continue to place, the Native American, African American, Asian American and other descendants of non-Western Europe outside a humanity defined in total adherence to Western European cultural reference points. Dathorne call this “the Euro-American humanity” (Dathorne 1994, p. 20).
It is this sense of “Euro-America” of which I speak: the Euro-America whose Eurocentric affectations undermine the cultural diversity and cultural values of its inhabitants for the sake of conformity to European, and particularly English cultural reference. It is the
Euro-America whose thought owes so much to English and European thought (Commager 1950), whose distinctive style of thought remains faithful to its European ideological origins (Kohn 1957), a Euro-America formed by American colonial communities committed
- 32 -
to European values (Harris 1988). In this Euro-America, we find the thought legacy of English colonists who saw no need to develop original philosophers but looked to the motherland (England) for political as well as intellectual leadership (Murphey 1988).
It is in relation to some tenets of such thought that I deconstruct the universalising tendencies of selected Euro-American theories of cinematic narration with references to Puritanism, Idealism, Pragmatic Individualism and Social Darwinism. The choice of these thought patterns is informed by (1) their epistemological intersections and their Eurocentric
formulations, (2) by their continued relevance and prevalence in present-day Euro-American intellectual and cultural production and (3) by their remarkable manifestations in
Euro-American theories of cinematic narration and the cultural by-products epitomised in the dominant American cinematic texts.
It should be noted that my analysis is contingently historical but primarily ideological. The historical aspect of it consists in contextualising the developments of certain theoretical positions, but it remains ideologically vocal by paying particular attention to cultural epistemological affectations which seem to support, but instead challenge, aspirations to universality of the examined Euro-American theories. This aspect is essential in as much as it highlights the ways in which culturally specific thought patterns permeate the theoretical paradigms informing the predominant modes of intellectual and cultural production in the field of cinema.
In no particular order, here are brief descriptions of thought patterns which form the contextual framework of the analysis in this chapter.
Puritanism
With its origin in English Calvinism, Puritanism holds that people were conceived and born in sin; they were hopelessly depraved and had no hope of redemption except for those few whom God elected to save. In America, says Murphy (1998), the Puritan thought was modified to institute the doctrine of visible sainthood originally absent from the original
- 33 -
English Puritanism. Based on the belief that the reception of grace so altered the
individual’s nature that other gracious individuals can validate the individual’s salvation, the social validation of a person as a saint depended upon peer acceptance. In Commager’s (1950) view, such modification was dictated by the need to conform to the realities of the American experience and become reconciled with the idiosyncrasies of the American character. This resulted in a world view grounded in theology combined with logical, rhetorical and mathematical theories, according to which God was the only true efficient cause in the universe. Hence, human and natural events were interpreted as expressions of God’s will (Murphy 1988). In both the American and English versions of Puritanism, we find the roots of contemporary patterns of thought in the perception of human nature as sinful, and in the view that humans, as the purposed end of creation, had within them some portion of divinity that predetermined them for moral improvement and ultimate perfection (Commager 1988).
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophy according to which the truth of an idea is determined by its results and most philosophical topics are therefore best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes (Lundin2006; Rescher 2000).In Hofstadter’s (1945) explanation, the
pragmatist views the environment as something that an individual can manipulate, making the active human effort essential in the bettering of life. Consequently, Pragmatism assumes that men and women can direct their spiritual and political destinies alike. Pragmatism is therefore an individualistic philosophy which denies unconditional reliance on God or on nature and decrees that human beings succeed or fail through their own effort. According to Robert Bellah (1985), an American psychologist, this continues to define the Euro-American individualism which lies at the core of Euro-American culture. For Luedtke (1988),
individualism has become a moral obligation bound to American’s highest and noblest aspirations for their society and the world.
- 34 - Social Darwinism
Derived from Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory of Natural Selection, social Darwinism advances the idea that human beings are products of the environment: only the fittest survive to exploit it through adaptation. Falsely held up as scientific, Social Darwinism set out certain presuppositions upon which social theory attempted to link biological ideas about human society to the theory of human character (Hofstadter 1945; Jones 1980). In Richard Hofstadter’s account, social Darwinism attempted to reconcile scientific observations with notions of order and design in nature. It therefore popularised the view that the predatory nature of the human species demanded brutal self-assertion; adaptation enabled the human race to develop a new moral constitution fitted to the needs of civilised life.
Idealism
Also linked to Calvinist Puritanism, absolute Idealism conceives of the Absolute as a
community of selves bound together in voluntary harmony, the ideal. The self in this sense is a series of signs or ideas of life bound together by a goal-directed plan. Loyalty to the Absolute is not a matter of choice; it comes as a call from above that compels an individual’s will (Murphey 1988). Consequently, the absolute takes the form of the universal to which different selves must account. Idealism, says Murphey, further differentiated itself in a philosophy of cognition, advocated by John Dewey, who preached that a finite organism is a creature energetic by nature that seeks goods and satisfaction in its experience. In so doing it is guided by habits of action, conceived as energy channelled into a particular mode of behaviour to achieve desired goods (Murphey 1988). The idealist thus remains a construct of the imagination fixated on what reality ought to be.
From their historical formation, it is clear that these Euro-American patterns of thoughts exhibit culturally specific foundations. In the following section, I reveal the influence of these thoughts on theories of cinematic narration in order to challenge assumptions of a universal applicability of such theories in a diversity of cultures.
- 35 -