Cultural Identity and Diaspora (Stuart Hall)

Hall is trying to theorize identity as constituted not outside but within representation and hence of cinema, not as a second-order mirror held up to reflect what already exists, but as that form of representation which is able to constitute us as new finds of subjects, and thereby enable us to discover places from which to speak. (245)

Stuart Hall’s essay speaks of cultural identities and representations which in this context he speaks of through "Third" cinemas produced within the Carribean culture. Hall begins his essay by describing two types of cultural identities. The first is a collective identity which implies a shared history by race or ethnicity and that it is stable. It symbolizes ‘one people’ which is assumed to the truth and the essence. This first type of identity is often seen through visual arts and cinemas which he calls ‘resources of resistance and identity, with which to confront the garmented and pathological ways in which that experience has been reconstructed withing the dominant regimes of cinematic and visual representation of the West.’(236) He is implying that they (the other) needs to take back their identity and make their own as it has been for too long told through dominant discourses. This is something I have often reflected on during the time of my undergraduate degree in History. I made two observations. The first was that what was told in the articles and text books that were assigned for a course was often reflective of the views or background of the professor. Secondly and most important, were the uneasiness I felt when I read a history textbook about the British Empire for example. The book was to tell the history of the British Empire and colonialism from the British or dominant perspective and the voices of those who were colonialised were silenced as it too often the case. This specific text book was even published by a prestigious British university press. Why couldn’t we have read something written from the perspective of the marginalised. Why the subjectivity? In hindsight, I think this uneasiness contributed to my decreasing interest for the field of history as I completed my academic terms.

The second identity that Hall speaks of is one that is unstable, that implies sameness but difference at the same time. It recognized that "there are also critical points of deep and significant difference which constitute ‘what we really are’; or rather – since history has intervened – what we have become."(236) In this sense, I think this type of identity encourages the recognition that identities are not fixed, there are not eternal as Hall states. When I read this section I kept coming back to my thoughts on Troubling Women’s Studies and how the authors were arguing against the founding mothers’ fear of letting go of the past as this might jeopardize Women’s Studies true identity; so a burning desire to keep its true and first identity.
To come back to Hall’s discussion, when speaking of this similar yet different identity he states that identity is something, that it has a history but is not fixed, that difference matters. He also notes that language depends on difference as Derrida spoke of. So identity can be different and differ basically. This theory helps disturb the "classical economy of language and representation" and to Hall it helps them (Caribbeans) to "rethink the positioning and repositioning of Caribbean cultural identities in relation to at least three ‘presences’."

Those three types of dominant presences he refers to are as such:

1) Presence Africaine which is the site of the repressed. This presence implies that what once was is no longer as it has changed. Therefore it is important to acknowledge the past but understand that they cannot do as the West has and is doing, that is, representing Africa as the same as it was years ago.

2) Presence Europeene which is the site of colonialist. This presence includes issues of power and how the Europeans have positioned black in visual representation in dominant discourse. When I took Women Racism and Power in my undergrad, I remember our professor bringing in products from the supermarket such as sauces and couscous boxes. I wasn’t too sure why at first but she made us realize the power that we (dominant) have in representing the "other" in visual images. The products she brought were from the President’s Choice line called Memories of... As we can tell from the images below, those who have designed the packaging have chosen to use a woman who appears to be of Asian descent to represent memories of Shanghai and then we find a man on a camel to represent Kashmir. Not only do we the dominant have the power to represent the other’s identity through these constructed images but we are putting them out there to be consumed. If you put this sauce on your food, you will have experienced Shanghai for example. Just as I am writing this, I realize how absurd it is.

3)Presence Americaine also known as the New World which is the site of cultural confrontation. Hall describes this presence as an empty place where many cultures meet and collide. This is seen in America and here in Canada. We have a melting pot in the USA and here in Canada the so-called mosaic of cultures which is said to be more focused on integration rather than assimilation - this could be a whole other debate as I think we are just as guilty of assimilation as the USA. We claim to welcome and include all cultures yet we have displaced First Nations of their land and have tried to assimilate everyone.