Post-Colonialism (1):
Colonialism Defined
Starting Questions
 What
are the examples of colonialism? Is
KMT’s regime an example?
 What are the examples of colonial thinking
(e.g. the racial/cultural prejudices and
stereotypes) in “English” Literature?
 Is de-colonization possible?
 How do we or the colonized resist
colonialism in life and through literature?
Post-Colonialism: Major Issues
1.
Colonialisms
– Definition
– cultural Imperialism: Theories &
Examples
2. Post-Colonialism: Resistance and Immigration
A. Resisting colonialism/Constructing postcolonial identities
through
»
Language, History and Identity Construction
»
Strategies: Separatism (Nativism), Re-Creation, Cultural
Syncreticism, Mimicry, Active participation, Assimilation.
»
examples
B. Diaspora and Globalization
Colonialism: Definition and
Kinds


Definition: colonialism --military,
economic, cultural oppression &
domination of one country over another.
Kinds:
1. Invasion-colonization;
2. Settlement-colonization;
3. Internal Colonialism;
4. Neo-Colonialism
Colonialism: Flows of Natural
Resources and People
Triangular
Trade
1.
2. Middle Passage
Colonialism: flows of migration

Flows of Migrants
1st World Colonial
powers:
Adventurers, Army,
travelers,
missionaries,
immigrants
“Third World”:
Slaves,
Contract laborers,
Students,
businessmen, etc.
cultural imperialism (1): Theories
1. Culture (e.g. literature, language, popular
culture) supports imperialism and is one way to
spread it.
 2. The definition of the self and others are
based upon representations rather than reality;
 3. a series of binary oppositions (exact
opposites) were employed to at once define the
colonised subjects and the colonising masters.
The West as civilised, The Oriental as savage,
just, moral,
lewd, lazy,
industrious, rational, superstitious, feminine
Masculine

cultural imperialism (1): Theories
 Justifica-
tion of
Racism
cultural imperialism (1):
Examples of “White Man’s burden”
1. Africa:
"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the
taking it away from those who have a different
complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,
is not a pretty thing when you look at it too much.
What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the
back of it: not a sentimental pretence but an idea;
an unselfish belief in the idea something you can
set up, and bow down before, and offer sacrifice
to…“ (Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness)
Others: Out of Africa, Sheltering Sky, The English
Patient.

cultural imperialism (1):
Examples of “White Man’s burden”
 1. Africa:
cultural imperialism (1):
cultural imperialism (2):
Examples
2. The Caribbean:
 The Tempest– Caliban
 Robinson Crusoe– Friday
 Jane Eyre –the madwoman Bertha
 Mansfield Park– dependant on the business
from the West Indian Estate (in Antigua)
 And many other Victorian novels.
cultural imperialism (2):
Examples
2. The Orient:
 Orientalism –presenting the East as “the Other”
(weaker, less civilized, inscrutable, wicked), or as
“the exotic” e.g. Arabian Nights, Madame
Butterfly and all the images of Oriental women as
sumissive, sexual and sweet.
 English Studies in India
 Taiwan: Popularity of translations of American
novels such as those of Hemingway and Jack
London.
 Taiwan: Un-self-reflective absorption of English
literary canon/values
cultural imperialism (3): Ethnic
Colors
Furniture
from
Artikeln
Cultural Imperialism: Effects
 self-hatred[inferiority
 Split

complex] or
Subject (e.g. Black Skin, White Mask)
Resistance