Othering and Stereotype
Othering and stereotype are the representational practices by which dominant cultures mark difference and fix the colonized as fundamentally other.
Definition
The study of representational practices that construct social and cultural groups as fundamentally different and inferior, especially through stereotype.
Scope
This topic examines how representation constructs the 'other' through stereotype, essentializing and naturalizing difference. It draws on Hall's account of the spectacle of the other, Bhabha's analysis of the stereotype's ambivalence, and Said's account of Orientalist othering.
Core questions
- How is the 'other' constructed in representation?
- Why are stereotypes both repetitive and anxious?
- How does othering relate to colonial and racial power?
Key theories
- The spectacle of the other
- Hall analyzed how visual and textual representation produces racialized difference through stereotyping, binary opposition, and fetishization.
- The ambivalence of the stereotype
- Bhabha argued that the colonial stereotype is anxiously repeated because it must constantly reassert a difference it cannot finally secure.
History
Analysis of othering and stereotype developed from Said's account of Orientalist representation, Bhabha's psychoanalytic rereading of the stereotype in the early 1980s, and Hall's influential cultural-studies treatment of representation in the 1990s.
Debates
- Fixity versus ambivalence of stereotypes
- Scholars debate whether stereotypes simply impose fixed images or, as Bhabha argues, betray an underlying instability and anxiety.
Key figures
- Stuart Hall
- Homi K. Bhabha
- Edward Said
Related topics
Seminal works
- hall1997
- bhabha1983
Frequently asked questions
- What is 'othering'?
- Othering is the process of representing a person or group as fundamentally different and usually inferior, defining 'us' against a constructed 'them'.