1. POSTCOLONIALISM
THEORY

2. What puts the “post” in
Postcolonialism?
 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

3. Two sides of colonialism
 The militaristic side ( the physical
conquest and occupation of territories)
 The civilizational side (the conquest and
occupation of minds, selves and cultures)
-- Colonialism does not end with the end of
colonial occupation
-- Resistance begins before the end of
colonial occupation

4. ¤ the historical whereby the “West” attempts
systematically to cancel or negate the cultural
difference and value of the “non-West” (Leela
Gandhi,1998)
*colonial critique – deals with imperialistic views
*post-colonial criticism – examines the effects of
imperialistic views in postcolonial societies

5. Post colonial Criticism?
¤ A set of theoretical and critical strategies used
to examine the culture, literature, politics,
history, of former colonies
¤ Post-colonial theory deals with the reading and
writing of literature written in previously or
currently colonized countries, or literature written
in colonizing countries which deals with
colonization or colonized peoples
- it embraces no single method or school

6. Postcolonialism
 Questions the effect of empire
 Raises issues such as racism and
exploitation
 Assesses the position of the colonial or
post-colonial subject
 Offers a counter-narrative to the long
tradition of European imperial narratives

7. Why were people colonized?
Social Darwinism
* Eurocentrism
* Universalism
* Colonialism is nature
White Man’s Burden
* What was thought to be an obligation to
“civilize” non-European people

8. How long did it last and why did it
end?
¤ 15th century to 20th century (arguably, it is
still going on)
¤ WWII
* right to sovereignty
* lack of resources
* Independence movements

9. OK, so what is Postcolonialism?
¤ Postcolonial theory attempts to focus on
the oppression of those who were ruled
under colonization.
¤ Factors include:
*Political oppression
* Economic
* Social/cultural oppression
* Psychological oppression

10. Who are the oppressed?
 Those who were formerly colonized
 In postcolonial theory, the word colonized
can mean many things:
* Literal colonization
* More abstract “colonization”
African-American
Native Americans in the United States

11. How was the colonized oppressed?
Post colonial theorist believe that the
colonizers (generally Europeans):
Imposed their own values onto those
colonized so that they were internalized.
Social/ Cultural- Spanish language/Catholic
Religion in the Carribean
Political- Drew the boundaries of Africa
based on European politics rather than
tribal interests.

12. How did the oppressed escape?
 Post colonial theorist also analyzed the
processes by which those who were
colonized resisted the colonizers
 Examples:
Haiti
South Africa
India

13. When exactly does the postcolonial
begin?
 “When third world intellectuals
have arrived in the first world
academe” (Arif Dirlik)

14. Postcolonial Theorist
Edward Said
* moved colonial discourse into the first world
academy and into literary and cultural theory
• Was also very influential in third world
universities (esp. in India)
• Coined the term “Orientalism”
describing the binary between the Orient and the
Occident

15. Edward Said
 “Power and knowledge are
inseparable”(following Foucalt’s belief
 Orientalism is the 1978 book that has been
highly influential in postcolonial studies. E
 Attempted to explain how European/Western
colonizers looked upon the ‘’Orient”
What is the Orient?
• A mystical plane that was stereotyped due to
lack of knowledge and imagination
• A’’ lumping’’ together of Asia
)

16. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
 Introduced terms such as “Essentialism” and
“Strategic Essentialism”
 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born February 24,
1942) is an Indian literary critic and theorist. She
is best known for the article "Can the Subaltern
Speak?", considered a founding text of
postcolonialism, and for her translation of
Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology. Spivak
teaches at Columbia University, where she was
tenured as University Professor—Columbia's
highest rank—in March 2007. A prolific scholar,
she travels widely and gives lectures around the
world. She is also a visiting faculty member at the
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

17.  Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
* “ Can the Subaltern Speak”
(1988)
“My position is generally a reactive one. I
am viewed by Marxists as too codic, by
feminists as too male identified, by
indigenous theorists as too committed to
Western Theory. I am uneasily pleased
about this.

18. Example of Orientalism

19. Homi K.Bhabha
 Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is an Indian
postcolonial theorist.
 Feels the post colonial world should valorize
spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and
authenticity move aside for ambiguity.
 This space of hybridity, he argues, offers the
most profound challenge to colonialism.
 He ignores Spivak’s stated usefulness of
essentialism have been put forward. Reference
is made to essentialisms’ potential usefulness.

20. Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 – December 6,
1961) was a psychiatrist, philosopher,
revolutionary, and author from Martinique.
He was influential in the field of
post-colonial studies and was perhaps the
pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on
the issue of decolonization and the
psychopathology of colonization. His
works have inspired anti-colonial liberation
movements for more than four decades.

21.  Frantz Fanon's relatively short life yielded
two potent and influential statements of
anti-colonial revolutionary thought, Black
Skin, White Masks (1952) and The
Wretched of the Earth (1961), works which
have made Fanon a prominent contributor
to postcolonial studies.

22. The aftermath
■ What happens after colonization?
* What language do you speak?
* what culture do you follow?
■ Hybridization and Double Consciousness
■ Two terms to describe the results of colonization
on those colonized
■ Awareness of culture before colonized and
during colonization and what emerged as a
result.

23. ¤ Unhomeliness/Exile
What is home to you?
- a state of limbo, without a certain or definite
identity.
¤ Being caught between cultures.
¤ Being literally moved as a result of colonialism
( On Exile- Edward Said)

24. Postcolonialism: The Critical Lens
►Examining colonizers/colonized relationship in
literature
■ Is the work pro/anti colonialist? Why?
■ Does the text reinforce or resist colonialist
ideology?
► Explore the dynamics of colonization through
literary works
■ How did it come about?
How did it end?
How does the text explain this?

25. Type of Questions:
 How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically,
represent various aspects of colonial oppression?
 What does the text reveal about the problematics of
post-colonial identity, including the relationship between
personal and cultural identity and such issues as double
consciousness and hybridity?
 What person(s) or groups does the work identify as
"other" or stranger? How are such persons/groups
described and treated?
 What does the text reveal about the politics and/or
psychology of anti-colonialist resistance?

26.  What does the text reveal about the operations
of cultural difference - the ways in which race,
religion, class, gender, sexual orientation,
cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form
individual identity - in shaping our perceptions of
ourselves, others, and the world in which we
live?
 How does the text respond to or comment upon
the characters, themes, or assumptions of a
canonized (colonialist) work?

27.  Are there meaningful similarities among
the literatures of different post-colonial
populations?
 How does a literary text in the Western
canon reinforce or undermine colonialist
ideology through its representation of
colonialization and/or its inappropriate
silence about colonized peoples? (Tyson
378-379)

28. References:
 http://www.scribd.com/search?
cat=solr&q=post+colonial+theory+present
ation
 http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Spiva
k.html (retrieved January 19,2010)