An Age of Empires

 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

 This is the world at what is considered the height of colonialism. What do you notice?

 15th Century to 20th century (arguably, it is still going on).  WWII Right to sovereignty Lack of resources Independence movements

 At its peak, the British Empire ruled roughly one-quarter of the earth’s land and population. Economically and culturally, British power fed off of British conquest Yet, until the last few decades, the study of British history and literature ignored the implications of this  Westerners had a stake, however unconscious, in not owning up to colonialism and not thinking about it critically  As Americans, how often do we think about what we did to the Indians?  Erasure – Do we even acknowledge a people’s history before we got there?

 Settler Colonies Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States Settlers move in permanently, their descendents usually grow up more numerous than the people they’ve colonized  Occupation Colonies – Exploitation colonies or colonies of conquest Colonial India and Nigeria Colonist remain a small proportion of the population. Just want the locals labor or stuff

 Social Darwinism Eurocentrism Universalism Colonialism is nature  “White Man’s Burden” What was thought to be an obligation to “civilize” non-European peoples  “Great White Father”  At one point it was even the title of Peter Pan

 Following the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, the wave of newly independent nations inspired excitement and hope across south Asia, southeast Asia, Africa and the middle east. Some colonies fought for independence Some got it peacefully Some set up successful democracies Some shift back and forth between elected and imposed governments

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 In many countries local oligarchs and dictators betrayed the promise of independence by exploiting the divisions and disarray left by colonialism Including the concentration of capital and resources in a few privileged hands we call this neocolonialism

 Developed out of two earlier branches of study Commonwealth literature  Commonwealth - an association of self-governing autonomous states more or less loosely associated in a common allegiance (as to the British crown) Third world studies  Became a major theoretical force in the 1990’s Spivak’s In Other Worlds (1987) Ashcroft’s The Empire Writes Back (1989) Bhaba’s Nation and Narration (1990)

 That post-colonialism and multiculturalism emerged at the same time is probably not a coincidence Your English lit textbooks (1994) are so multicultural they barely have any English lit in them.  Must have been the cultural Zeitgeist

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

 Those who were formerly colonized.  In postcolonial theory, the word colonized can mean many things. Literal colonization  India, Australia  More abstract “colonization” African-Americans

 Postcolonial theorists believe that the colonizers (generally Europeans): Imposed their own values onto those colonized so that they were internalized  Examples Social/ Cultural - Spanish language/ Catholic religion in the Caribbean Political – Drew the boundaries of Africa based on European politics rather than tribal interests

 Analyze the global effects of European colonialism  postcolonial criticism defines formerly colonized peoples as any population that has been subjected to the political domination of another population African Americans Aboriginal Australians the formerly colonized population of India The United States  Nineteenth century American lit was marked by an attempt to build a cannon that was not dominated by British Literature Children?  All cultures affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day

A field of theory concerning itself with the fallout of colonialism and the relationship between colonizers and colonized.  How colonized people maintain or fail to maintain their cultural identity while under colonial rule  How a people reestablish or create their national after the colonizers leave

post colonialism fills the need to seek and understand the operations – politically, socially, culturally, and psychologically – of colonialist and anti-colonialist ideologies.  The forces that pressed the colonized to internalized the colonizers values  Resistance, to understand the antagonism between colonizer and colonized  To understand the cultural colonization that remains long after the colonizers are gone  Denigration of the native culture, morals, appearance  Colonialism erases pre-colonialist history, history starts with “us”  “America” was here for thousands of years before the pilgrims got here, what was going on?  Exactly  Postcolonial nations need to rediscover their identity

Post-Colonialist

 Other – looking at the colonized subject as essentially different from the colonizer Almost the same but not quite Almost the same but not white  The colonized other is never seen as equal to the colonizer  Colonizer and Colonized, white and other, is the core binary dissected by Post colonialism  Othering – The process of creating that artificial difference.

 Colonial conquests resulted in an attempt to know and administer colonial subjects which inaugurated an “othering” generating the pervasive images of effeminate Indians (from India), savage Africans, and inscrutably sinister Orientals that are common in the literature of the British empire.  Frankenstein has a diabolical turk.

Colonizers assumed their own superiority and the inferiority of natives  That they (the colonizers) are the embodiment of civilization  The “white man’s burden”  Technology helps to naturalize the illusion of superiority Natives are considered other, less human  Divides world between us and them, establishing a binary white and not quite  savage typically evil  sometimes assumes a primitive beauty or nobility (the exotic other or noble savage)  Indians in TEWWG

 Precursor to “the other”  A concept introduced by Edward Said (1978) Attempted to explain how the European/ Western colonizers looked upon the “Orient”  What is the Orient? A mystical place that was stereotyped due to lack of knowledge and imagination Sensual, lazy, exotic, irrational, cruel, promiscuous, seductive, dishonest, mystical, superstitious, primitive, ruled by emotion, despotic  All people think alike, and their actions are determined by the national or racial category that they belong to  A “lumping” together of Asian cultures Examples?

binary

 The notion of otherness has helped to build the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd, world hierarchy, worlding  Homi Bhabha later deconstructs this binary with his notion of hybridity which focuses on the mutual influence the cultures of the colonized and colonizers had on each other.

The colonialist ideology was a part of established colony schools, locals were indoctrinated into the culture, made to feel almost equal but forever inferior  hegemony The practice of othering has the unfortunate effect of making a reality of the often contrived (fake) differences it depends on

 The modern face of orientalism and othering

 Deconstructing the binary between colonizer/colonized  Colonized people and colonizers have taken on many of each others ways of living and thinking  Colonized peoples move to the lands of their colonizers

Mimicry, the attempt of the colonized to become the colonizer. This only reinforces notions of natural superiorly and the imposters realize they will never quite be those that they impersonate.  Desire and shame  Bhabha initially defines this as “almost the same but not white” and later problematizes this with “almost the same but not quite”  When the powerful mimic the weak, it reinforces ideas of superiority, consider black face in early 20 th century America  When the weak mimic the strong, it may demonstrate ambivalence, reinforce the colonizers assumption of their superiority, or even challenge it if the mimicry demonstrates complete enough mastery of the factors that initially provided the colonizers with their illusion of superiority

 Double Consciousness – Perceiving the world both in terms of the colonizers and the indigenous population. Leads to unstable identity.  Diaspora – multigenerational exile  Pre nation of Israel Jews  Post nation of Israel Palestinians  The former Cuban Bourgeoisie after Castro  Africans  Overcharging – emphasizing the constructedness of ethnic identity

 Examining colonizer/colonized relationships in literature Is the work pro/ anti colonialist? Why? Does the text reinforce or resist colonialist ideology?  Tries to introduce/ expose “otherized” works Works by the colonized Resisting/ Revising the canon

 Explore the dynamics of colonization through literary works How did it come about? How did it end? How does the text explain this?  Looking at the “otherized” characters Example? Frankenstein’s “monster”