The prevalence of these diamonds on Western markets and the association with Western companies continues to show how cultural images can help fuel the continuing conflict between old colonial rivals. Appendix A (Busby Jewelry
The modern correlation of diamonds and oppression can be linked to the ongoing struggle in Africa, where African people and lands are being exploited in order to produce what are known as blood diamonds or conflict diamonds. These are diamonds that are illegally exported into the international market in order to raise money and fuel local conflicts, where rebels and corrupt politicians were exploiting African laborers for selfish gains in local politics (Chabal & Birmingham, 2002)
Colonial influences can be expressed in the luxury items a culture praises, such as jewelry. In this regard, "these cultural artifacts represent a composite kaleidoscope of unique historical significance that transcends the temporal boundaries of not only the individual race but all of mankind" (Ghoshray, 2007, 742)
Here, the research presents a notable example of the Land Rover ad. This is more specifically the Himba advertisement which ran in late 2000 (Van Eeden, 2006)
Novels such as Things Fall Apart depict how internal power structures and constructions of masculinity left the native African population vulnerable to infighting and colonization and that the act of colonization is an intellectual as well as a physical one. "Postcolonial theory has brought fresh perspectives to the role of colonial peoples -- their wealth, labor, and culture -- in the development of modern European nation states" (Brewton 7)
"In it, she describes the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a young Bengali woman that indicates a failed attempt at self-representation. Because her attempt at 'speaking' outside normal patriarchal channels was not understood or supported, Spivak concluded that 'the subaltern cannot speak'" ("Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty," Postcolonial Studies @ Emory)
Additionally, the more sympathetic character is in fact the one who profits most heavily from racial injustice. As such, Orwell displays his tendency for irony (Rovere)
Puccini's Madama Butterfly -- Puccini's Madama Butterfly was a 1906 opera that had five permutations before its final form. It is one of the most oft performed operas in the world, and Number 1 in Opera America's list of the 20 most-performed operas in North America (Groos, 154-201)
He is unable to accept the truth that his "perfect woman" was actually a man, and a spy, and goes quietly insane and retreats back into the past, to a time when life was perfect. Finally, unable to face any sort of reconciliation of the facts with his view, he commits seppuku while Song quietly watches, smoking a cigarette (Hwang)
Butterfly and numerous other treatments. Sadly, neither story has a happy ending, nor the tension that percolates throughout the dramas is almost Greek in tragedy -- the audience knows all is doomed; we just wait for the knife (Kebede)
See: (Riley). We have not focused on the theme of sexuality in this essay, but for an interesting look at that aspect, see "Sexuality as Masquerade" (Levin)
Madama Butterfly (1898) was a story from John Luther Long, an American lawyer who wrote novels based on the recollections from his sister, Jennie, who had been to Japan with her missionary husband. Butterfly was published by Century magazine, and did indeed deal with the relationship between an American Naval Officer and a Nagasaki Geisha (Long)
Loti was quite a prolific popular novelist, and the theme of West/East interaction was something that attracted Puccini and his librettist, David Belasco. See: (Loti)
Pinkerton admitws this is true, but says, "Do you know why? So that she'll not fly away." He embraces her and says, "I have caught you, you are mind…" to which Butterfly replies, "Yes, for life" (Puccini)
Often a traditional Chinese Opera will be a "play within a play," making it the ideal symbol for both intrigue and deceit. See: (Riley)
Heart of Darkness -- Postcolonial Images The most vicious postcolonial literary attack on Conrad's Heart of Darkness was launched by the well-known and prize-winning Nigerian author Chinua Achebe. The noted author called Conrad "a thoroughgoing racist" who has written a book that is "offensive and totally deplorable" (Clendinnen, 2007)
Ultimately, the survivors were reduced to throwing the wounded overboard, and only after they had been reduced to fifteen men, "almost naked; their bodies and faces disfigured by the scorching beams of the sun," were they finally rescued by the Argus, which had set sail six days earlier to search for the raft and the wreck of the Medusa (Savigny & Correard 203). Theodore Gericault's the Raft of the Medusa captures the moment on the 17th of July when the Argus first became visible to the survivors, and his choice to reflect upon this moment in particular reveals something about his intentions (Alhadeff 70)
However, well before the Bourbon monarchy was again "overthrown by a popular insurrection, and vanquished in a street fight," an event occurred which seemed to serve as an omen for the ruin to come and laid bare the impotency of the monarchy and its supporters just as it was seeking to reestablish its legitimacy. In the summer of 1816, just a year after Napoleon's decisive defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and the "second chance" for the recently reascended Bourbon monarchy, the "low moment in French history" that was the Bourbon restoration was marred by the crash of a French naval frigate, the Medusa, carrying the newly-appointed governor of Senegal (Athanassoglou-Kallmyer 811)
Baron John Benn Walsh Ormathwaite's book on the French Revolution offered useful insights into the political context of the time, especially because it was written within a generation of the actual events. In addition to actual research, this study required a careful consideration of the proper analytical methodology, because while after researching the subject it seems clear that Gericault's painting contains a political message, "many works of art that convey a message, that communicate points-of-view, emotions or attitudes, do not provide or constitute arguments" (Blair 27)
In the summer of 1816, just a year after Napoleon's decisive defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and the "second chance" for the recently reascended Bourbon monarchy, the "low moment in French history" that was the Bourbon restoration was marred by the crash of a French naval frigate, the Medusa, carrying the newly-appointed governor of Senegal (Athanassoglou-Kallmyer 811). "France had only just reacquired its West African territories in the treaty that finally ended the Napoleonic Wars," and so the rapid installation of a new governor was paramount in demonstrating the new regime's control over its empire (Brandt 171)