Understanding Nation and Empire: Understanding the Literary Studies

Let me step fully the layer of superstructure: Fictional world, a layer where understanding taking its place. In the very beginning of critical theory class, the question being asked continuously is,” what is the use of literary studies? What is the function of discussing the fictional novel in this very world? Where is humanist place within the society?” All the questions suddenly came forth when I was trying to understand the issue related with Nation and Empire.

If the economy subjects being concerned in my previous post, the understanding on nation and empire will take my time during the history class. National pride as the crucial element in building the nation may appear when the people recall the past. It is parallel with the issue I judge as the ridicule one within the society. It was written in my textbook that the problem that usually occurs after the colonialism or after the independence day was drowning in all the mighty the people had ever had in the past: drowning in the past discourse. Thus, Said’s argument points out that if the exceptionalism is the base of the nationhood as well as colonialism, then the post-colonialism empire will only become a rerun of the previous colonialism by the difference of the hero and the villain.

What I understand now from those recall of the past, the recall of my history class literary, and Said’s arguments about the worldly text is the understanding of the questions on being an English Department student, on learning literary studies. By studying fictional novel, fictional works, I expect to learn how to filter the “make sense” plot, to indicate the logic sequences, to realize the odd within the story, and the character, then finally identify how all those effect being produced. Only by doing these processes we would realize the myths that have been integrated within our society that own the huge political, economical, and biological risk. Moreover we should be able to overcome, to resist, this myth by learning literary studies: by doing demythification. Literary studies help each of the students become immune to ignorance. As the contrary, we, as the scholars, will be able to, as Pary says, “show[s] [more] suspicion about the craft of representation” and structure the massive superstructure within the full consideration of its base.