Maria's Entry
I have to say that I am grateful for this book. I have had a lot of trouble understanding post-colonialism theory, but somehow, Kapur writes about it in a way that I understand. After reading the section on Erotic Disruptions, I thought for a long time about imperialism, sexuality and the 'other'. No matter who 'we' are, 'we' are always good and chaste and moral, whereas the 'other' no matter who the 'other' is, is permiscuous, immoral, savage, etc. It is as if the colonized and the colonizer look at each other in the same way, just with the roles reversed. I also have to draw attention to a line that was both poignant and funny to me: "The 'Western white male' is cast as a sexual conqueror tearing through the cultural hymen and leaving in his wake strews of fallen women and a fallen culture" (70). I would have to say that I enjoy any book that can manage to use the term 'cultural hymen'.