POSTCOLONIALISM THEORY

What puts the post in Postcolonialism?

Considering post is a prefix meaning
after, we need to first discuss the history
behind colonialism.

What is colonialism?
An extension of a nations rule over
territory beyond its borders
a population that is subjected to the
political domination of another population

Two sides of colonialism

The militaristic side ( the physical conquest
and occupation of territories)
The civilizational side (the conquest and
occupation of minds, selves and cultures)
-- Colonialism does not end with the end of
colonial occupation
-- Resistance begins before the end of colonial
occupation

 the historical whereby the West attempts

systematically to cancel or negate the
cultural difference and value of the nonWest (Leela Gandhi,1998)
*colonial critique deals with imperialistic
views
*post-colonial criticism examines the
effects of imperialistic views in postcolonial
societies

Post colonial Criticism?

A set of theoretical and critical strategies used to
examine the culture, literature, politics, history, of
former colonies
Post-colonial theory deals with the reading and
writing of literature written in previously or currently
colonized countries, or literature written in
colonizing countries which deals with colonization or
colonized peoples
- it embraces no single method or school

Postcolonialism
Questions the effect of empire
Raises issues such as racism and exploitation
Assesses the position of the colonial or postcolonial subject
Offers a counter-narrative to the long tradition
of European imperial narratives

Why were people colonized?

Social Darwinism
* Eurocentrism
* Universalism
* Colonialism is nature
White Mans Burden
* What was thought to be an obligation to
civilize non-European people

How long did it last and why did it end?

15th century to 20th century (arguably,
it is still going on)
WWII
* right to sovereignty
* lack of resources
* Independence movements

Postcolonialism
Postcolonial theory attempts to focus
on the oppression of those who were
ruled under colonization.
Factors include:
*Political oppression
* Economic
* Social/cultural oppression
* Psychological oppression

Who are the oppressed?

Those who were formerly colonized
In postcolonial theory, the word colonized can
mean many things:
* Literal colonization
* More abstract colonization
African-American
Native Americans in the United States

How was the colonized oppressed?

Post colonial theorist believe that the colonizers
(generally Europeans):
Imposed their own values onto those colonized
so that they were internalized.
Social/ Cultural- Spanish language/Catholic
Religion in the Carribean
Political- Drew the boundaries of Africa based
on European politics rather than tribal
interests.

How did the oppressed escape?

Post colonial theorist also analyzed the
processes by which those who were colonized
resisted the colonizers
Examples:
Haiti
South Africa
India

When exactly does the postcolonial begin?

When third world intellectuals

have arrived in the first world
academe (Arif Dirlik)

Postcolonial Theorist
Edward Said
* moved colonial discourse into the first world
academy and into literary and cultural theory
Was also very influential in third world
universities (esp. in India)
Coined the term Orientalism
describing the binary between the Orient and the
Occident

Edward Said
Power and knowledge are
inseparable(following Foucalts belief
Orientalism is the 1978 book that has been
highly influential in postcolonial studies.
Attempted to explain how European/Western
colonizers looked upon the Orient
What is the Orient?
A mystical plane that was stereotyped due to
lack of knowledge and imagination
A lumping together of Asia
)

Example of Orientalism

Homi K.Bhabha
Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is an Indian
postcolonial theorist.
Feels the post colonial world should valorize spaces
of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move
aside for ambiguity.
This space of hybridity, he argues, offers the most
profound challenge to colonialism.

Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 December 6,
1961) was a psychiatrist, philosopher,
revolutionary, and author from Martinique. He
was influential in the field of post-colonial
studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent
thinker of the 20th century on the issue of
decolonization and the psychopathology of
colonization. His works have inspired anticolonial liberation movements for more than
four decades.

 Frantz Fanon's relatively short life yielded two

potent and influential statements of anticolonial revolutionary thought, Black Skin,
White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the
Earth (1961), works which have made Fanon a
prominent contributor to postcolonial studies.

The aftermath
What happens after colonization?
* What language do you speak?
* what culture do you follow?
Hybridization and Double Consciousness
Two terms to describe the results of colonization on
those colonized
Awareness of culture before colonized and during
colonization and what emerged as a result.

 Unhomeliness/Exile
What is home to you?
- a state of limbo, without a certain or definite
identity.
Being caught between cultures.
Being literally moved as a result of colonialism
( On Exile- Edward Said)

Postcolonialism: The Critical Lens

Examining colonizers/colonized relationship in
literature
Is the work pro/anti colonialist? Why?
Does the text reinforce or resist colonialist
ideology?
Explore the dynamics of colonization through
literary works
How did it come about?
How did it end?
How does the text explain this?

Type of Questions:
How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent
various aspects of colonial oppression?
What does the text reveal about the problematics of postcolonial identity, including the relationship between personal
and cultural identity and such issues as double consciousness
and hybridity?
What person(s) or groups does the work identify as "other" or
stranger? How are such persons/groups described and
treated?
What does the text reveal about the politics and/or
psychology of anti-colonialist resistance?

 What does the text reveal about the operations of

cultural difference - the ways in which race, religion,
class, gender, sexual orientation, cultural beliefs, and
customs combine to form individual identity - in
shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the
world in which we live?
How does the text respond to or comment upon the
characters, themes, or assumptions of a canonized
(colonialist) work?

 Are there meaningful similarities among the

literatures of different post-colonial
populations?
How does a literary text in the Western canon
reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology
through its representation of colonialization
and/or its inappropriate silence about
colonized peoples? (Tyson 378-379)

 Prof Paul Frys Lecture

THE END