Postcolonial Literary Theory
What is Colonialism?
What Happened during
Colonialism?
• During the colonial era
white Europeans
ventured into the socalled underdeveloped
countries in Africa and
Asia and dominated a lot
of geographical spaces
there.
Impact of Colonialism
• White Europeans:
How do Colonial Powers Justify
their Actions?
Justifying Colonialism
• The colonized are
savages
Justifying Colonialism
• The culture of the
colonized is not up to
the standard of the
colonizer
Justifying Colonialism
• The colonized nation
is unable to manage
and run itself properly
Justifying Colonialism
• The colonized nation
embraces a set of
heathen religious
beliefs
How did the Colonists Stay in
Power?
OPPRESSION
Oppressions
• Oppression is a basic
ingredient of colonialism.
• Oppression dehumanizes
• Colonialism spawned national
movements
Response to Oppression
• Thus in the thickness
of colonialism,
national movements,
and most of them
were radical and
violent in their
approaches, emerged
to encounter the
aggression of
colonialism.
 Che Guavara
What was the Impact of
Colonialism?
Impact of Colonialism
• The total or partial
erosion of the
colonized culture
Impact of Colonialism
• The total rejection by
some elements
among the colonized
Impact of Colonialism
• The categorization of
the world into ranks
Impact of Colonialism
• The emergence of
different forms of
fundamentalism
Impact of Colonialism
• The emergence of
bourgeoisie classes
Impact of Colonialism
• The emergence of
societies with a lot of
contradictions and
split loyalties.
So What is Postcolonialism?
• To put it simply,
postcolonialism
examines what
happens socially,
economically,
politically, and
culturally to former
colonies once they
become
independent.
What are the Assumptions of Postcolonialism?
Cultural Relativism
Ambivalence towards Authority
Alienation
• Colonialism and
Postcolonialism leads
to the alienation of the
native in his own land.
Resurrecting Culture
• Among the many
challenges facing
postcolonial writers
are the attempt to
both resurrect their
culture and to combat
the preconceptions
about their culture.
So What is Postcolonial Literary
Theory?
• Postcolonial literary
theory involves the
analysis of literary
texts
So What is Postcolonial Literary
Theory?
• Alternatively, it
can refer to the
analysis of texts
What does Postcolonial
Theory Focus On?
Cultural Distortion
•
The way in which
literature by the
colonizing culture
distorts the
experience and
realities, and
inscribes the
inferiority, of the
colonized people.
Literature of the Colonized
•
On literature by
colonized peoples
which attempts to
articulate their
identity and reclaim
their past in the face
of that past's
inevitable otherness.
Impact on the Colonizers
•
It can also deal with
the way in which
literature in
colonizing countries
appropriates the
language, images,
scenes, traditions
and so forth of
colonized countries.
Mixing of Cultures
• This mixing of
cultures is another
principal theme in
postcolonial fiction,
and it is often
developed in the
broader context of
establishing identity.
Important
Figures in
Postcolonial
Literary
Theory
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961)
• Most Important Works:
 Black Skin, White
Masks
 The Wretched of the
Earth
Edward Said (1935-2003)
• Most Important Works:
 Orientalism
 Culture and
Imperialism
Homi Bhabha (1949-present)
• In his essay
"Postcolonial Criticism"
(1992), Bhabha has
shown how certain
cultures (mis)represent
other cultures, thereby
extending their political
and social domination in
the modern world order.
Gayatri Spivak (1942-present)
• In her article "Can the
Subaltern
Speak?“ Spivak
reveals the tendency
of institutional and
cultural practices to
exclude and
marginalize the
subaltern, especially
subaltern women.
Important
Colonial and
Postcolonial
Novelists
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
• Defoe's famous novel
Robinson Crusoe
(1719), tells of a
man's shipwreck on a
desert island and his
subsequent
adventures.
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
• In his novella, Heart
of Darkness, tells the
story of a man named
Marlow who details a
visit he took up the
Congo River to
investigate the work
of Kurtz, a Belgian
trader in ivory in the
Congo Free State.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
• In his novel, A Passage
to India, Forster tells
the story of a British
woman who accuses
an Indian doctor of
sexually assaulting her.
The ensuing court trial
increases the racial
tension between the
Indians and the British
and foreshadows the
end of the British Raj.
Salman Rushdie (1947-present)
• Important Works:
 Midnight's Children
 The Satanic Verses
 The Moor's Last
Sigh
 Shalimar the Clown
V. S. Naipaul (1932-present)
• Important Works
 The Mystic Masseur
 A House for Mr.
Biswas
 The Mimic Men
 A Bend in the River
Chinua Achebe (1930-present)
• Important Works
 Things Fall Apart
 Arrow of God
 A Man of the People
 Anthills of the
Savannah
Zadie Smith (1975-present)
• Important Works
 White Teeth
 The Autograph Man
 On Beauty
Arundhati Roy
• Important Works
 The God of Small
Things
 The Greater Common
Good
 The Algebra of Infinite
Justice
Postcolonial Themes
• Struggle towards independence
(both by an individual and/or a
community)
• Dominating influence of foreign
culture in postcolonial society
• Construction/demolition of a
house an attempt to build a
new place/new identity or
eradicate the past
Themes continued
• Journey of a
European through
unfamiliar landscape
with a guide
• Theme of exile and
displacement
Questions Postcolonial Critics
Ask about Literature
Postcolonial Questions
•
How did the
experience of
colonization affect
the colonizers and
the colonized in the
story?
Postcolonial Questions
•
How are the
colonialists and their
cohorts presented in
the narratives? Are
they tolerant,
oppressive, violent,
charitable, cute,
white, brave,
religious, hypocrites,
etc?
Postcolonial Questions
•
Are there
stereotypes
presented in the
narratives? For
example are the
local inhabitants
seen as savages,
cannibals,
polygamous, dirty,
violent, irrational,
etc.?
Postcolonial Questions
•
What are the forms of resistance against
colonial control?
Postcolonial Questions
•
What were the
emergent forms of
postcolonial identity
after the departure
of the colonizers?
Postcolonial Questions
•
Do the narratives
depict natives
versus settlers, vice
versa? How?
Postcolonial Questions
•
Have new forms of
imperialism replaced
colonization in this
story?
Postcolonial Questions
•
What does the
narrative reveal
about the
problematics of
postcolonial identity,
including such
issues as double
consciousness and
hybridity?
Postcolonial Questions
•
What does the text
reveal about the
politics and/or
psychology of anticolonialist
resistance?
• Are there stereotypes
presented in the
narratives? For
example are the local
inhabitants seen as
savages, cannibals,
polygamous, dirty,
violent, irrational,
etc.?
• How are the
colonialists and their
cohorts presented in
the narratives? Are
they tolerant,
oppressive, violent,
charitable, cute,
white, brave,
religious, hypocrites,
etc?