1. Postcolonialism

3. Some vocab
Colonialism: the practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.
Imperialism: A policy of extending a nation’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force.
Colonized Peoples: any population that has been subjected to the political domination of another population

4. Some assumptions Colonizers made
Colonialist ideology: the belief in their own superiority in all areas, contrasted with the alleged inferiority, “savagery,” and lack of sophistication of the colonized peoples.
Colonizers saw themselves at the centre of the world; they were the embodiment of what humans should be, while native peoples were considered “other” or different (read: inferior).
Two types of other: the demonic (savage) and the exotic (“primitive beauty” and/or closeness to nature)

5. Watch this clip What do you see happening here in terms of othering?

6. How about here?

7. Colonial Subjects
Colonized people who didn’t object to being subjugated because they were taught to believe in their cultural inferiority and to accept the colonizers as “superior.”
When colonized people try to imitate the colonizers to gain favour or protection, theorists call this ‘mimicry.’

8. Double Consciousness/Double Vision
Double consciousness or double vision: a colonized person’s ability to navigate between the two worlds, while being aware of the shifts and balances he/she must constantly make.
Watch this clip – what do you see?

9. Eurocentrism
Measuring all other cultures against European (Western) culture and finding other cultures lacking
Universalism: the belief that to qualify as literature, it had to be “universal” in character and theme.
But what universal meant was “resembled European/Western literature”

10. What does PC theory look at?
Literature produced by the colonized peoples as well as by the colonizers.
It looks at the tension between the ideologies that pushed colonized peoples to accept the colonizers’ values, and also promoted the resistance of colonized peoples against their oppressors.

11. What are some tensions to look for?
What ex-colonized people consider their indigenous, pre-colonial culture and the culture that was imposed on them by colonizers.
Even though colonization might be over (e.g. Hong Kong is no longer a British colony), what cultural colonization remains? E.g education system, government, military structure, religion, arts/culture, etc

12. What are some ways we could apply this theory to Canada?

13. Why look at things through this lens?
Postcolonial criticism helps us see connections between all the types of our experience (psychological, ideological, social, political, intellectual, aesthetic) in ways that show us how inseparable these categories are in our lives and in our world.

14. Questions PC Theorists Ask
How does the text represent aspects of colonial oppression?
What does text reveal about relationship of personal and cultural identity, and double vision/consciousness?
What does text show about anti-colonialist resistance?
What does text reveal about how race, religion, class, gender, sexual orientation, customs, combine to form individual identity?
Are there similarities between various colonized peoples’ works?
How does text respond to canonized colonialist work?
How do canonized texts reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology?