represented identities - university of arizona

Represented Identities

South Asian Diaspora in movies & media

Dr. Manisha Sharma University of Arizona

Identity is a social construct

• Contemporary paradigms* of social sciences suggest that human identities are a result of human action (rather than a “natural” or God-given thing).

• Thus, one may understand that people’s sense of self, as social beings, is deeply influenced by their social situations.

• This includes how they choose to represent themselves to others, and how they see others represent them in the communities to which they feel they belong.

• Thus, how people are represented can affect their feeling of belonging (inclusion/ exclusion) within the societies where they live and to which they identify.

*paradigm: way of thinking; underlying scientific assumption

Identity is a social construct

• Given this hypothesis, we may understand that individual, racial, ethnic, religious and national identities are socially constructed.

• Thus, as people move from nation to nation through migrations, both voluntary and forced, their sense of self and belonging - their very identities can be deeply impacted.

• According to visual culture theories, this sense of self (identity) is mediated by if, and how, they are represented in that society’s media (movies, TV, advertisements etc)

*paradigm: way of thinking; underlying scientific assumption

Representations of South Asian diaspora in visual culture

• The term “diaspora” describes people who live in places other than their country of origin.

• In this module, we will look at some forms and issues of how the North American diaspora of South Asia are represented in visual culture and how it may affect their sense of belonging and identity .

• We will look at some examples of how a sense of identity is constructed in South Asian art in Pakistan (in the Mirza reading).

• Then we will focus on representations of South Asian diaspora in North American film, TV, & commercials (in the Dave readings) .

here’s a quick video showing the dispersion of south asian diaspora across the globe

DIASPORA: People living in places other than their country of origin

http://www.southasian.org.uk/intro_diaspora.html

studying diasporic experiences helps us to understand the challenges and

achievements of a nation’s communities

Think about what representations of south asians you have seen in movies, in TV, in your local communities.. do you see them at all? are they visible or invisible?

what do you think representations in american pop culture say about south asianS in the USA? How do you think people in south asia feel about the ways they are represented in American

media?

CURATING SELF: MIRZAThis text is primarily about how contemporary

Pakistani artists are responding to 1) how the media in the West is (visually)

representing Pakistanis, and muslims in general as terrorists, &

2) How Pakistanis themselves might represent their own experiences of living with terrorism while

being depicted as terrorists.

READING SYNOPSISQuddus Mirza: Miniature, Monster, and Modernism: Curating terror or terror of curating.

APA citation: Mirza, Q (2013). Miniature, monster, and modernism: Curating terror or terror of curating. In In Flux, Contemporary Art in Asia. pp 83-91.

• Mirza writes this article as a curator of art and ideas. In the arts, a curator is someone who selects themes and artwork for exhibitions and collections in museums and art galleries. As such, a curator is a creator and narrator of stories based on their reading of artists’ works. These “stories” are the underlying form of the exhibitions you see in museums & galleries.

• Mirza notes that curatorship as a formally recognized profession is about as old as “terrorism” as a formally recognized global phenomenon, though both have been around for a long time as a part of human history.

• Mirza adds that one might think of the acts of curating and terrorizing as akin in that they both often “thrive on spectacle and the shock value of spectacle”, and that their causes and affects transcend national boundaries.

• Mirza says that the media, like the curator, has power of writing and showing people selected truths that creates a narrative/ story that people may read as truth. Images and written stories have the power to direct and affect peoples’ current and future lives. Mirza says this is especially true for people of countries like Pakistan where an entire nations’ identity are created as “terrorist”, to the exclusion of their own experiences and stories (contd. on next page)s



• A “certain image” of Pakistan is created in the world and especially in the west, without any inclusion of a Pakistani point of view.

• In such a situations, when Pakistani artists and curators do have an opportunity to showcase and present their art especially in international exhibitions, they have a pressure to respond to these specific types of images to defend or counter them. In this way other images that may tell other “authentic” stories of Pakistani life, art, culture get sidelined.

• Thus, Mirza contends, it is the media and the Western image that is creating a forced narrative of Pakistan, rather than Pakistanis themselves. It becomes a stereotypical representation of Pakistan, a monster that cannot be controlled.

• Mirza compares this stereotypical representation to the proliferation (rapid and large growth) of the popularity of miniature painting in Pakistan and in the west. (contd. on next page)



• In Pakistan in recent decades, the art and appreciation of miniature painting has been used to revive a nationalistic pride in the region’s Mughal history and culture. It has been used by religious heads in the country to promote a singular point of view of what constitutes (makes) Pakistani culture.

• Like the image of terrorism is curated and exhibited in the media as a picture of an Evil Pakistan, image of miniature painting is curated and exhibited as a picture of a Glorious and Noble Pakistan.

• Mirza says that neither of these capture the true stories of contemporary Pakistan and Pakistanis. Rather they create a Single identity of an entire Nation of people, both with a particular obsession with presenting particular types of Islamic identity as the primary identity of Pakistani people. (contd. on next page)

Quddus Mirza: Miniature, Monster, and Modernism: Curating terror or terror of curating. APA citation: Mirza, Q (2013). Miniature, monster, and modernism: Curating terror or terror of

curating. In In Flux, Contemporary Art in Asia. pp 83-91.

• Mirza presents the work of contemporary Pakistani artists such as Bani Abidi, Mahbub Shah, Rashid Rana, Farida Batool, Jamil Baloch, and Daivd Alesworth, who resist these singular narratives perspectives, from within and outside of the Pakistani community.

• Mirza warns that it is important, both for Pakistanis themselves, and for non-Pakistanis, to remember the complexity and diversity of people and history of Pakistan. They should not buy into the singular image sold by media and curators to believe in a one-dimensional society.

• Mirza says that it is tempting to think of socieites and nations in terms of binaries (as either this or that: as modern/ traditional; terrorist/noble, etc). However, we must resist this temptation if we want to acknowledge the truth of everyday, ordinary peoples’s lives, experiences and values, rather than political, politicized versions of them.

• Mirza cautions that we must resist the reducing of entire countries and peoples to stereotypes and to a single, narrow identity, be it in understanding our own selves, or others. It is this that creates monsters that haunt the lives and identities of normal people living ordinary lives.

READING SYNOPSIS

Quddus Mirza: Miniature, Monster, and Modernism: Curating terror or terror of curating. APA citation: Mirza, Q (2012). Miniature, monster, and modernism: Curating terror or terror of

curating. In In Flux, Contemporary Art in Asia. pp 83-91.

• Questions for critical thought:

• Think about the images you have seen in the media about Pakistan. How have these helped you create an image of the region and your perception about its people?

• Can you think of ANY images that create another image of Pakistan and Pakistani people that do not have a connection with terrorism? What are these? if you can’t think of any, what do you think about this?

• What images do you think people in Pakistan see about America?

• What do think about Mirza’s comparison of how creating singular stories in art and media can be acts of terrorism, akin to physical violence of terrorist acts?

• What do you think about the idea that the ordinary people of countries that are labeled “terrorist” are equally victims of terrorism? (especially given the recent issue of migrating refugees fleeing countries suffering from terrorism).

• How do the artworks presented by Mirza help you re-think Pakistani identity?

READING SYNOPSIS

represented identities - university of arizona

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