In the last couple of months, a plethora of protesters were marching arm in arm in a solidarity with the people of Gaza, calling for the end of the inhumane massacre inflicted upon the people there, which shows how human beings are humanely binded together. This, of course, teased some to dehumanise these mass protesters across the streets of the West labelling them, " the Barbarians and their supporters are unfortunately inside the gates " using the exact words of Ben Shapiro who is a Jewish-American conservative talk show host. Now, engendering stereotypes about non- westerns is millennia in the making; it dates back to the twilight of Western thinking and philosophy where people outside the walls of Greece were labelled barbarian. We can find not only an echo and glimpses in the writings of Greek intellectuals, rather there's what is so orientally conspicuous to the eyes in Plato's and Aristotle's oeuvres. In fact, the very meaning of the Word " Barbarian" is used to frame people who do not speak Greek. Needless to say, that the smeary anathema was highly intensified with rise of Islam.
Return back to the coeval days, some of those protesters are calling for the end of the genocide and some are calling for a violent revolution against the colonisers ; something which was theorised by Frantz Fanon in his 1961 treatise "The Wretched of the Earth". This violent revolution will usher in the " new" who is free from the evils of the West. Decolonisation, he says, is always violent phenomenon.
"When the colonised hear a speech on western culture, they draw the machete". At any rate, Frantz Fanon called for a violent revolution outside Europe, but the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre called for a revolution inside the gates of Europe:
"To shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, doing away with oppressor and oppressed at the same time," leaving one man dead and the other is free. He dwells on "You, who are so liberal and so humane, who have such an exaggerated adoration of culture that it verges on affectation, you pretend to forget that you own colonies and that in them men are massacred in your name." Especially, if we to bear in mind that the west is dominant, hegemonic and reached what Francis Fukayama calls " The end of human history".
Nevertheless, what's so pivotally significant about these mass uprisings and the counter- discourse is that with them the people of the West are now keenly aware and acquainted with the full situation in Gaza. Thus, ushering a new era of knowledge production which is articulated by the mouths of non- Westerns: something which is framed in literary criticism as " Post-Orientalism". Under this umbrella, literary frameworks are no longer demarcated to literary texts, but in fact, are geared into other cultural discourses, inaugurating the pulverisation of literary criticism and the rise of the so-called cultural criticism!
Literary criticism as a practical process, and literary theory as applicable theoretical framework for reading, evaluating, interpreting, and explaining literature shall never do without culture. They shall not come to an end as their relationship is irrevocable. Nothing, including literary criticism or literary theory, go beyond the scope of Culture. All the critical approaches to literature, in one way or another, are just forms or aspects of the most inclusive term “CULTURE”. Every time I teach the concept of Culture, I remember the saying of the pioneer of “Cultural Materialism” Raymond William “I did not remember how many times I wished I have never heard of the word culture.” Culture hierarchically starts from the level of subculture on the level one ethnic race or group to the national, regional, and universal level such those values of Humanity, mercy, and love, which pushing the peoples of the world to call upon ceasefire to stop genocide against the people with whom the world shares humanity. Don’t worry, Culture and literary criticism shall go hand in hand for ever.
When we keep on talking about universal humanism we ha have to appreciate respecting to what we need from other people to do to us in such a way that we do the same to others. This is the only way to avoid performative contradiction.
The debate over the evolution of literary criticism into cultural criticism has intensified in recent years. Traditionally, literary criticism focused on analyzing texts, exploring themes, structures, and the use of language to uncover deeper meanings. However, with the rise of cultural studies, there has been a shift towards examining literature within broader cultural contexts, considering factors such as social, political, and economic influences. This transition reflects a growing recognition of the interconnectedness of literature and culture, where texts are not seen in isolation but as part of a larger cultural discourse. As a result, some argue that literary criticism is being subsumed by cultural criticism, which offers a more holistic approach to understanding the impact and significance of literature in contemporary society. This shift raises questions about the future of literary studies and whether the traditional boundaries of literary criticism will continue to hold relevance in an increasingly interdisciplinary academic landscape.
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