Readers may recall the Guardian‘s Emer O’Toole, a “postcolonial theorist” and assistant professor of Irish Performance Studies, for whom all cultures past and present are equally vibrant and noble, except of course the culture in which she currently flourishes, on which opprobrium must be heaped ostentatiously and often. Ms O’Toole famously bemoaned the colonial propagation of Shakespeare, whose works she denounced as “full of classism, sexism, racism and defunct social mores.” And worse, “a powerful tool of empire, transported to foreign climes along with the doctrine of European cultural superiority.” The possibility that at any given time one set of values and insights might be preferable to another, even objectively better, bothers her quite a bit.
Her article was accompanied by a photograph of New Zealand’s Ngakau Toa theatre company performing Troilus and Cressida in a distinctively Maori style. To me, it looked fun and worth the price of a ticket. But this cross-cultural fusion saddened Ms O’Toole, who dismissed notions of the Bard’s universality as “uncomfortably colonial.” She then presumed to take umbrage on behalf of all past colonial subjects, whose own views on Shakespeare and literature she chose not to relate. She did, however, get quite upset about “our sense of cultural superiority” – a sense of superiority that, she insisted, has long been “disavowed by all but the crazies.”
It may be a tad indelicate, even improper, but I can’t help wondering how Ms O’Toole might have felt had she been among the 19th century English colonists who encountered a Maori culture that was all but prehistoric, with no discernable literature or science, in which the average lifespan was about thirty years or so, and where cannibalism was not unknown. Faced with such things, I’m sure Ms O’Toole would have resisted the wicked urge to think herself a little more culturally advanced.
Perhaps it would be best for everyone if Mz. O’Toole simply changed her name to, Tool. Is hating herself her occupation…? or is it being an effing idiot…? It’s difficult to know. Next time Mz. Tool catches a bad case of the clap forget antibiotics and just call the local witch doctor to perform an exorcism. With any luck she’ll commit suicide and not have to worry about the big bag colonialists anymore, poor dear.
Interesting combo – Lenninism meets theater. Like their contemporaries, the post revolutionary revisionists in the Lenninist and Maoist camps, Shakespeare was widely denounced as the product of oppressive imperialism – the truth is that the cultural and technological accomplishment of even proto-capitalist (colonial) societies is an embarrassment to commie agit-prop overlords who must constantly obscure post revolutionary cultural mediocrity. The “post colonial” arts activist is just western progressive mediocrity wrapped in commie drag – in a blue snit about “post colonial” accomplishments in culture.
Well said.
To a progressive, history in all areas of human accomplishment starts in October 1917.
I wonder what we would think if the Iroquois were to gain the ascendancy and demand that we live according to
the period that they like best – revert, perhaps, to 1820 or whenever; insist that our lifestyles be those of our forefathers
in 1820. That is more or less what we demand of aboriginals in Canada.
I do have a simple metric by which to evaluate different cultures: achievements in mathematics and logic. Classical Greece,
and 19th C Europe come out very high by that criterion; mediaeval Islam and China, respectably. Modern Europe also does
well, and there are a few glimmers in North America. Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt also provide glimmers.
As for the rest ….
This pretty much says it all about higher education. Only today its more ridged & iconoclastic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO8x8eoU3L4
Civilization-al suicides the lot of them.
Being basher s of their own cultures have given them fame & riches.
The reality is if we hadn’t had the culture or society we did, her kind would be wearing hijabs or washing cloths in a polluted river, living in a thatched hut.
Another angry Irish who’s ancestors did nothing but kill each other for millennia in tribal wars. Another noble savage worshipper.
“Readers may recall the Guardian’s Emer O’Toole, a “postcolonial theorist”…
There’s a typo in this article. It should read “postcolonic theorist.”
Am I the only who is left wondering what kind of bs Irish Performance Studies is?