Cultural intercommunication : the inbetweeness of the self and other

Abstract

The thesis addresses the pragmatic failure of discourse in realizing cultural intercommunication within the realms of the colonizer and colonized. Cultural intercommunication is an enriching and important experience. It plays a vital role in cultures evolution and perpetuation. It also widens our horizons through the exchange of knowledge about other peoples culture, traditions, customs and ways of thinking. Due to the importance of cultural intercommunication, it is my purpose to suggest literature as a solution to the cultural intercommunication problem. Literature is the medium that opens up the symbolic realm where negotiation between the colonizer and colonized is possible. In an approach to find a solution, the thesis investigates the reasons behind the failure of communication between these contending cultures. The investigation reveals that colonial discourse in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness excludes the colonized from the communication equation. It misrepresents, marginalizes, and silences the colonized to dominate them. This finding signifies that the possibility of cultural intercommunication lies outside the colonial medium. The same finding also applies on the colonized discourse in Louise Erdrichs Tracks. Though the colonized and colonizer are put face to face, their relationship proves to be antagonistic rather than dialogical. As a result, the thesis shows that neither domination nor confrontation can enable cultural intercommunication. It reveals that communication cannot take place in either the realm of the colonizer nor the colonized but in the space between them. It also reveals that a third person position as a mediating term is needed between these opposite poles. The thesis proposes literature as a solution to cultural intercommunication between contending cultures. It is literatures translatability that resists the colonial domination, displaces its powers and gives us the freedom of interpreting within our own contexts of time, space, and cultural values. It is the relationship that literature establishes between the text and readers from different times and spaces that bridges the gaps between them.