A Woefully Brief and Limited Intro to Post-Colonial Theory And Catch Up From Last Week

Announcements: Reminder that Homework Assignments (The Reading Responses) have a HUGE impact on your grade. Essay 2 is on its way. If you turned in Essay 1 late, your essay will be graded AFTER the on-time Essay 2 essays are graded. Don’t forget, you should finish reading The Hunger Games by next week. Quiz on Tuesday!

Postcolonialism: Postcolonialism (post-colonial theory or post- oriental) is a term that applies to more than just the study of literature—it also refers the theoretical and critical observations of former colonies of the Western powers and how they relate to, and interact with, the rest of the world. When discussing it as a literary theory, it focuses on the reading and writing of literature written in previously or currently colonized countries. These theories are reactions to the cultural legacy of colonialism.

PostColonial Theory [Briefly read selections from the Intro in Textbook] Greatly interested in the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized, postcolonial theory seeks to critically investigate what happens when two cultures clash and one of them ideologically fashions itself as superior and assumes dominance and control over the other. The field of postcolonial studies has itself been hotly contested ever since its rise in the 1970s.

Post Colonial Theory Continued It investigates the literature written in colonial countries and by their citizens—especially when it has colonized people as its subject matter. Similar to the ways in which feminist critics often focus on writing by women that has been historically ignored or thought unimportant, postcolonial critics often focus on writing by people from colonized cultures—either during or after colonization—and examine the (often destructive) ways in which the colonizing or dominating culture influenced or erased the colonized culture.

Colonized people who managed to gain access to education and “upward mobility”— especially from colonies in the British Empire—often attended British universities. Their access to education, still unavailable in the colonies, created a new criticism - mostly literary, and especially in novels. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union during the late 20th century, its former republics became the subject of this study as well.

Post-Colonial/Postcolonial The hyphenated term (-) Postcolonial implies the effects of colonialism on cultures after the end of colonialism, such as the legacy of Eurocentric modernity. Gandhi, Leela Postcolonial Theory: An Introduction The run-on term Postcolonial refers to the effects of colonialism on cultures from the beginning of colonialism to the present date. Ashcroft et. al (1989) Empire Writes Back

Key Terms Alterity-lack of identification with some part of one’s community, differentness, otherness. Diaspora-refer to any people or ethnic population forced or induce to leave their homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world.

Imperialism-extending the control or authority over foreign entities as a means of acquisition and maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial control or through cultural control.

Eurocentrism-the practice, conscious or otherwise, of placing emphasis on European concerns, culture and values at the expense of those of other cultures. Hybridity-referring to the integration of cultural signs and practices from the colonizing and colonized cultures.

The 3 Major Foundational Authors in Postcolonial Theory 1.Edward W. Said 2.Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 3.Homi K. Bhabha

Edward Said Probably the most important figure for the rise of postcolonial studies and theory. Born in 1935 in Jerusalem and died in 2003 Palestinian-American scholar, critic, and writer Said, raised as an Anglican (Church of England), attended a British school in Cairo then at Princeton and Harvard, he became an academic literary critic. From 1963 until his death he was a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University in New York.

Edward Said continued His 1978 book Orientalism reevaluated an entire historical tradition of European-American thought, examining the relation of political power to the representation of the world, and generated an entire field of cultural and postcolonial studies as well as informing the thinking of scholars in every area of cultural, social and historical work. It describes the academic and cultural discourse about the East constructed by the West and the problems inherent in that. Other significant books include The Question of Palestine (1979), Covering Islam (1981), The World, the Text and the Critic (1983), Culture and Imperialism (1993), The Politics of Dispossession (1994), Representations of the Intellectual (1994), Peace and Its Discontents (1995), The End of the Peace Process (2000), Reflections on Exile (2000) and Humanism and Democratic Criticism (2004).

Orientalism Illustrates Asian and Islamic Cultures during European imperialism and Europe’s goals of maintaining power and domination of non-Europeans He argued that Europe used the Orient and imperialism as a symbol of its strength and superiority. “Said suggested that Orientalists are treated as others—in this case, Muslims and Asians—and as objects defined not in terms of their own discourses, but solely in terms of standards and definitions imposed on them from outside. Among the influences underlying these definitions was, in Said's view, a long-standing Western concern with presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was born in 1942 Is thought of as one of the three co-founders of postcolonial theory. Her main work on the postcolonial theory was her Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (1999) Her work combines Marxism, feminism, and deconstruction.

Homi K. Bhabha He wrote the Nation and Narration (1990) This considers how to conceptualize the nation under colonialism and, by default, in postcoloniality. Here he takes issue with the anthropologist Benedict Anderson's view of the relationship between imperialism and its resistance in Imagined Communities (1991).

Places that produce literature often examined in Postcolonial Studies Latin America Africa East and Southeast Asia South Asia Caribbean Polynesia United States

Postcolonial Examples: Books: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart Wole Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea Giannina Braschi, United States of Banana Films: Gandhi (1982) --India (colonized by the British) Sugar Cane Alley (1984) –Martinique (colonized by the French) Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) –Australia, colonized by the British Whale Rider (2004) –New Zealand, colonized by the British The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) –Ireland, colonized by the British

From Last Week: If you are interested in Queer Theory, I can send you a power point to supplement what you have read in your textbook and what we discussed last week I can also send you a queer theory student example research discussing the film: “Fried Green Tomatoes”

For Thursday: Thursday, May 14 Topics: Cultural Theory: American Multiculturalism Homework Due: · Read “American Multiculturalism” p · Read Short Story: “Pilon” p. 77 · Read Poem: Sherman Alexie “Evolution” p. 452