الهيمنة والتمثيل في النقد الثقافي: دراسة في تمثيلات المركز والهامش

Abstract

This study examines the role of cultural hegemony and representation in cultural criticism by analysing the relationship between the centre and the periphery. It focuses on how cultural representations are used to reinforce the power of the centre, which possesses political, economic, and military strength, thereby imposing standards and ideologies that dominate other cultural identities. Drawing on Edward Said's theory of Orientalism, the study explores how the West shapes a distorted image of the East as "the Other," contributing to its cultural dominance. The study also addresses the challenges faced by the periphery in constructing an independent cultural representation, especially when the available intellectual tools are limited to hegemonic discourses. According to Gayatri Spivak's contributions, the periphery remains subject to the representations of stronger powers, making its self-representation complex and difficult. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of counter-representation as a resistance tool against cultural hegemony, highlighting the need to amplify marginalized voices and rethink the linguistic and cultural tools used to represent peripheral identities.