Postcolonial Theory

Postcolonialism is an academic discipline that comprises methods of intellectual discourse that present analyses of, and responses to, the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism.

Commonwealth Literature 1960s – former colonies - produced literatures of their own in English English Literature – mutating into literatures in English Concentrated on ‘Meaning’ (Interpretation) Liberal Humanism

Postcolonial Literatures 1980s – the term ‘Commonwealth Literature’ was not desired anymore when the former British colonies found that writers of the Colonizer (England) did not form a part of this body of literature. Hence, a new term, Post-colonial literature was coined to suggest the decentring of colonial literature.

Postcolonialism - Focus Cultural displacement – its consequences for personal and communal identities How the displaced have defended themselves Employs a non-Eurocentric perspective Questions the values that supported Imperialism

Originating Texts The Wretched of the Earth (1961)-Frantz Fanon Orientalism (1978) – Edward Said The Empire Writes Back (1989)- Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin

Characteristics of Postcolonial Theory An awareness of representation of the non-European as exotic or immoral ‘other’ Linguistic deference Emphasis on identity as ‘doubled’ or ‘hybrid’ or unstable Cross-cultural interactions Special and distinctive regional characteristics

Three phases Adopt Phase Adapt Phase Adept Phase

The discourse of Postcolonialism is not about the former colonizer, but about the colonized Other. For the first time the non-West is placed at the centre of the dominant discourse of the western academy

Time and locale Ella Shohat’s question: “When exactly does the post-colonial begin?” Arif Dirlik’s answer: When Third world intellectuals have arrived in First World academe.

The Empire Writes Back “… the literature of African countries, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific island countries and Sri lanka are all postcolonial literatures.”

“The literature of the USA should also be placed in this category. Perhaps because of its current position of power, and neo- colonizing role it has played its postcolonial nature has not been generally recognized.’

Edward Said (1935-2003) A Palestinian-American literary theoretician Professor of English & Comparative Literature at Columbia University Founding figure of post-colonialism

Orientalism (1978) A critique of how through the ages, western texts have represented the East (Orient) Works of literature, political tracts, journalistic texts, travel books, religious and philosophical studies

These writings form a Foucaultian Discourse – a loose system of statements and claims that constitute a field of supposed knowledge Although seemingly interested in knowledge, such discourses always establish relationships of power Serving Hegemonic purposes

Hegemony (Cultural) Term adopted from Antonio Gramsci Domination by consent The way the ruling class oppresses other classes with their approval Velvet domination

Orientalism has served two purposes: It has legitimized western expansionism and imperialism in the eyes of western governments It has worked to convince the ‘natives’ that western culture represented universal civilization

West Orient 1.Centre 2.Superior 3.Masculine 4.Enlightened, rational, entrepreneurial, disciplined 5.Democratic, progressive Orient 1.Marginal ‘Other’ 2.Inferior 3.Feminine 4.Irrational, passive, undisciplined, sensual 5.Primitive

Homi K. Bhabha (1949- ) Indian Postcolonial theorist Professor of English and American Literature & Language at Harvard University

What happens in the cultural interaction between the colonizer and the colonized?

Aime Cesaire Discourse on Colonialism (1955) No human contact Relation of domination and submission

Colonizers’ Point of View: More benign They remain their civilized and disciplined European selves even in the most trying circumstances Their presence affects the natives (not the reverse)

Bhabha: The encounter affects both Colonialism- a radically unsettling, affective experience of marginality Indeterminacy and fragmentation Lacan’s views of the way in which identity gets constructed

Three Stages (proposed by Lacan) The Imaginary Stage The Mirror Stage The Symbolic Stage

Identity – inherently unstable The Colonizer partly constructs his identity through ‘his’ interaction with the Colonized Identity of the Colonizer cannot be separated from the identity of the Colonized The Colonizer’s identity – differential, a meaning generated by difference

Racial Stereotyping Construes not only those who are stereotyped but also the stereotyper Continuing uncertainty in the stereotyper Has to convince himself of the truthfulness of the stereotype

Mimicry The always slightly alien and distorted way in which the Colonized, either out of choice or duress, repeats the colonizer’s ways and discourse The Colonizer sees himself in a mirror that distorts his own identity Also a sly weapon of anti-colonial civility, a mixture of deference and disobedience

Colonizer’s language – always subject to the effects of Derridean ‘difference’, and is therefore never fully under his control Colonial power – always under the threat of destabilization

Bhabha sees movements in the interaction between the Colonizer and the Colonized going both ways It is not just the noisy command of colonial authority Nor the silent repression of native tradition But a colonial Hybrid

A fusion of cultural forms that Confirms the power of the colonial presence Also unsettles the mimetic or narcissistic demands of colonial power

Hybridity – a kind of negotiation (political and cultural) between the colonizer and the colonized

Marxist and Feminist critics: There cannot be a generalized encounter. The differences between the social classes and sex must be paid serious attention

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak(1942- ) Indian theorist, philosopher & Professor at Columbia University Famous Essay: Can the Subaltern Speak? Translator of Derrida’s De la grammatologie (Of Grammatology)

Spivak draws our attention to that large majority of the Colonized that has left no mark upon history because it could not, or was not allowed to, make itself heard Spivak – first postcolonial theorist with a fully feminist agenda

The Subaltern Literally, the category of those who are lower in position or who, in the military terms, are lower in rank Spivak employs the term to describe the lower layers of colonial and postcolonial society – the homeless, the unemployed, the subsistence farmers, the day labourers and so on

The Colonized Subaltern- irretrievably heterogeneous The Female Subaltern – doubly marginalized

Spivak combines a Marxist perspective with a deconstructionist approach to texts and to identity Analyses how colonial texts attain coherence by setting up false oppositions between a supposed centre and an equally fictive margin and how their language deconstructs the coherence they try to establish

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