ABSTRACT
Othering has been presented to you already in this book (it was introduced in Unit A2.1). However, it is helpful to analyse the term again. ‘Othering’ is used to describe theprocess thatwe undertake inascribing identity to theSelf through the often negative attribution of characteristics to the Other. Othering is a ‘culture first’ view of individuals. It is seen to be problematic by the authors of this book in that it restricts the agency of other persons as a factor in their identity construction. It reduces the possibility of negotiation of identity between people. As such it is crudely reductive, and so it is typical of unskilled intercultural communication. As it does not allow for the true complexity of other people to be considered, it is fundamentally a dehumanising process. It is most obviously evident in the discourse of war, where the enemy is reduced to something uncomplicatedly and irredeemably evil, non-human and therefore not worthy of compassion. To illustrate this, the following piece of text comes from the British The War Illustrated, 19th May, 1917 published in the middle of the First World War. It is from an article written by a Mr. Frederic William Wile ‘Ten Years Berlin Correspondent of theDaily Mail: ‘. . . theGerman Armies intheField maintainCorpse Utilisation Establishments (Kadaver-Verwertungs-Anstalten), where soldiers dead are rendered down for lubricating oils, fats, and pig food.’ Another example is the Nationalist propaganda in the Spanish Civil War, which depicted in posters Republicans as having red tails. Current similar examples are all too easy to find.
