Here are some of the key terms we discussed today in class.
geographical imaginary (see this pdf entry– geographicalimaginary –from the Encyclopedia of Human Geography)
de/re-territorialization
To this short list we could add an idea we discussed last week: the notion of “the Other.” See what you think about the following.
The colonized, as Albert Memmi notes, is wedded to the colonizer in that each in some sense is constitutive of the other. Moreover, she internalizes her abjection: “Willfully created and spread by the colonizer, this mythical and degrading portrait ends up being accepted and lived with to a certain extent by the colonized.” The colonizer produces the colonized by erasing him; the colonizer renders the colonized an object lacking any distinguishing features, with no individual worth or existence– the native is simply an amalgamation of negative traits. “They all look alike,” says the colonizer. “They’re lazy and impecunious. If you don’t watch them they’ll steal you blind.” Exploding this non-identity, this stereotyped subjectivity, is accomplished with destruction of the one who imposes it.
