Postcolonialism By Antolin Bonnett and Olivia Rushin

What Is Post Colonialism? Defines formerly colonised peoples as any population that has been subjected to political domination of another population Tends to focus on global issues, comparisons and contrasts between various people “By definition, post colonialism is a period of time after colonialism, and postcolonial literature is typically characterized by its opposition to the colonial.” “…any literature that expresses an opposition to colonialism, even if it is produced during a colonial period, may be defined as postcolonial, primarily due to its oppositional nature.”

Post Colonial Criticism/Literature “Postcolonial criticism is particularly effective at helping us see connections among all the domains of our experience – the psychological, ideological, social, political, intellectual, and the aesthetic – in ways that show us just how inseparable these categories are in our lived experience of ourselves and our world.” “Postcolonial literature is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonisation.” Analyses literature produced by cultures that developed in response to colonial domination Became major in the early 1990s Seeks to understand the operations – politically, socially, culturally and psychologically – of colonialist and anti-colonialist ideologies Addresses the problem of cultural identity Recognition of the close relationship between psychology and ideology or between individual identity and cultural beliefs Ways in which text reinforces or resists colonialism’s oppressive ideology Might be studied with regards to historical terms

Representations of people and evens Represents aspects of colonial oppression Postcolonial identity – double consciousness and hybridity Offers framework for examining the similarities among all critical theories that deal with human oppression – Marxism – Feminism – Queer – African-American Operations of cultural difference in shaping perceptions of worlds Often deals with issues of de-colonisation or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to coonial rule A literary critique to texts that carry racist or colonial undertones Focus on the social ‘discourse’ that shaped literature Explores how authors were influenced “Protagonists in post-colonial writings are often found to be struggling with questions of identity, experiencing the conflict of living between the old, native and the invasive forces of hegemony from new, dominant cultures.”

Consider Politics and/or psychology of anti colonialist resistance Social and cultural change or erosion: What is the new cultural identity? Misuse of power and exploitation: How did that affect the author? Colonial abandonment and alienation: Where do individuals fit in the new country? How do they make a living?

Theorists Edward Said Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Frantz Fanon

Edward Said “Said took the term Orientalism, which was used in the West neutrally to describe the study and artistic depiction of the Orient, and subverted it to mean a constructed binary division of the world into the Orient and the Occident. This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is key in postcolonial theory. Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the Orient, and vice versa; in other words, they are mutually constitutive.” “Notably, the concept of the ‘East’ (i.e. the Orient), was created by the ‘West’, suppressing the ability of the ‘Orient’ to express themselves. Western depictions of the ‘Orient’ construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness. This allowed the ‘West’ to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics; as a superior world that was progressive, rational, and civil.”

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak “Spivak’s main contribution to Postcolonial theory cam with her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak also introduced terms such as ‘essentialism’, ‘strategic essentialism’. Essentialism refers to the dangers of reviving subaltern voices in ways that might simplify heterogeneous groups, creating stereotyped impressions of their diverse group. Spivak believes that essentialism can sometimes be used strategically to make it easier for the subaltern to be heard and understood Criticises those who ignore the “cultural others” Suggests that ‘strategic essentialism’ – speaking on behalf of a group while using a clear image of identity to fight opposition – as the only solution to presenting the subaltern voice

Frantz Fanon One of the earliest writers associated with postcolonialism Analysed the nature of colonialism and those subjugated by it Describes colonialism as a source of violence Promoted violence as a cathartic practice aimed at “cleansing” the male colonized psyche from the effects of the epistemic violence of colonialism

Critical Theory Today (2006) A User Friendly Guide. 2 nd Edition. Lois Tyson. Routledge, London.