This is a Costume, Fashion, and Cultural Studies class. -Discussion Board- Forum #8: You have to follow the following instructions:
1. Read the following readings to answers correctly in your discussion.
A).Mignolo, Walter. “Introduction” in The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011.
B).Banerjee, Mukulika and Daniel Miller. The Sari. Oxford: Berg, 2003.
C)Viegas, Savia. “The Family Archive: photo narratives from Goan villages” in Jyotindra Jain eds. India’s Popular Culture: Iconic Spaces and Fluid Images. Mumbai: Marg, 2007.
I am going to send them right now.
2.Then, write 300 words about:
In the reading Viegas and Banerjee, how does Mignolo come through? Does Miller (Material Culture) appear in Banerjee’s work? Read another colleague’s materials and respond in 30 words or so.
I’m going to send you 2 posts from my classmates just to serve as examples and choose one answering only 30 words. Please do not copy from these comments. Please you have to use MLA format for paraphrase and citations.
Laurel’s Post
Viegas and Banerjee
Mignolo’s writing is about the Western concept of modernity, and how it is inherently built on a colonial system. According to Mignolo, because the modern Western world was built on colonialism, the things we consider modern are almost invariably built on colonialist ideas or practices. This can be seen pretty clearly in Viegas’ discussion of photography from the Goan region of India. Photography, Viegas writes, was a symbol of Western modernity and high status, so many families commissioned portraits in the style of stiff Victorian family portraits. One case study Viegas highlights is that of a family whose slave is a prominent prop in their portrait; by presenting themselves as a modern family, they are also presenting themselves as a Western, colonizing family.
Mignolo’s writing on the inherent coloniality of modernity isn’t as visible to the surface of Banerjee’s writing as it is to Viegas’, but it is still present. Banerjee’s interview with Mina portrays the sari, a non-Western article of clothing, as beautiful and worth preserving but inherently old-fashioned. Mina seems to think of the sari as something that holds her back and something her conservative in-laws insist upon. While she doesn’t express longing for typically “Western” clothes like jeans and t-shirts, she also seems to want to dress in a more “modern” way.
I think material culture is present in Banerjee’s writing. The sari is being studied here as a physical object, and what that object means to the people who use it. It is given some inherent power and life outside of when it is being worn by a woman. The interview with Mina examines not only the sari’s cultural and traditional meanings, but also how it interacts with her everyday life–how her son pulls on it, how it makes her feel to wear it, the anxiety she feels if it’s not fastened properly.
