Szilvia Simai

In the Shadow of the Oppressor: a Psychopolitical Study of Subordination and Resistance Szilvia Simai

This book is a theoretical exploration of contemporary forms of resistance, which portrays different ways in which people react to oppression and either resist or consent to hegemonic forces. Responses to repressive dominant ideologies were studied in the context of forms of postcolonial oppression. The analysis contains critical explorations of various cultural phenomena as manifestations of resistance, conformity or subordination, and reconstructs different states of resistance. The opening question from which the analysis sets out is whether or not people resist the dominant ideology in oppressive systems. It is argued that there are cases in which people do not resist, but, ironically, internalize their own oppression. The book then goes on to emphasize the richness of human courage and the infinite creativity of oppressed groups by means of a backstage analysis of human resistance. In this way this book represents a psychopolitical portrayal of contemporary forms and practices of resistance by bringing together illustrative materials from European, Bedouin and Latin American cultures, most significantly from Brazil and Venezuela.