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Edward Said Fourth Paradigm Summary

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3.4. The Fourth Paradigm: The Nomadic
The image of the nomad serves as the fourth postcolonial eco-poetic paradigm. This paradigm provides a concrete focus and reflection on postcolonial and ecological issues such as identity, hybridity, hegemony, domination, oppression, marginalization, agency, strategic relocation, migration, and ambivalence. Moreover, this paradigm shows the blurring of the boundaries between the anthropocentric centre and the non-human margins. This is indicated through the portrayal of non-human nomadic characters that change their positions by moving from the centre to the margins. The anthropocentric centre is not as strong and hegemonic as it presents itself to be. Exploring the relevance of postcolonial theory to nomadism, Edward Said introduces his theory of the exile and the nomad according to which he negotiates the space between binary oppositions emerged from hegemonic essentialist discourses. Said identifies "the nomadic" or "the exilic" figure who exerts “a conscious effort” to enter into the discourse of the anthropocentric hegemonic centre, “to mix with it, transform it, to make it acknowledge marginalised or suppressed or forgotten histories” (Culture and Imperialism 216). Accordingly, the humans and non-human are involved in one another, none is single and pure. All of them “are, heterogeneous, extraordinarily differentiated, and un-monolithic” (xxv); In order to express the nomadic identity of the postcolonial subject, Said sees the
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