What was Colonialism?

Colonialism was not an identical process in different parts of the

world. It is the conquest and control of other people’s land and
goods which witnessed a wide range of practices including trade,
plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, enslavement and
rebellion. . . (Loomba) Colonialism/Postcolonialism
POST-COLONIALISM - Definition & Features

 The term post-colonial means post, or, after, the colonial

period.

 Widely accepted term, to indicate those literatures which

emerged after the end of formal colonisation.

 Covers all the literatures from countries which were affected

by colonial culture.
 Definition & Features

 In simple terms it is the antithesis (critique) of European literatures.

 Its implication is a historical phenomena.

 Shifting of power relationship of the coloniser/ colonised

 Umbrella term, covers Commonwealth Literatures and New Literatures

When did post-colonialism begin?

“We use the term ‘post-colonial’. . . to cover all the culture affected by the
imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is
because there is a continuity of preoccupation throughout the historical process
initiated by European imperial aggression. . .”

(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin: The Empire Writes Back)

The term ‘post-colonial’ . . . addresses all aspects of the colonial process
from the beginning of colonial contact. Post-colonial critics and theorists
should consider the full implications of restricting the meaning of the term to
‘after-colonialism’ or after-Independence. . .

(Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin: The Post-Colonial Studies Reader)

What is Post-colonial criticism?

Postcolonialism deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and

societies. It examines
(I) the processes
(2) the effects of
(3) the reaction to
(European) colonization
Major Issues in Postcolonial theory:
▪ Universalism/Eurocentrism
▪ Representation & Resistance
▪ Orientalism
▪ Language
▪ Diaspora
▪ Canon (subverting the canon)
▪ Hybridity & Ambivalence
▪ Subalternity-Class, race, gender, caste, ethnicity
 Orientalism
In his pioneering 1978 book Orientalism, postcolonial
studies scholar Edward Said defined Orientalism as “a style
of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological
distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and … ‘the
Occident.’”

Put simply, the “Orient” is a colonial invention. Orientalism

is a collection of binaries — between “East” and “West,”
foreign and familiar, civilized and uncivilized, primitive and
progressive, colonizer and colonized, self and Other. It is a
system of representation through which the West produced
the East as its opposite, its “surrogate and underground self”
— a strange, backward, barbaric land, steeped in mysticism
and danger.
 Black Skin, White Masks

 The introduction to Black Skin, White Masks contains key

conclusions and foundational pieces of analysis summed up
Fanon’s simple declaration: that Black people are locked in
blackness and white people are locked in whiteness. As
well, Fanon offers a sketch of the relationship between
ontology and sociological structures, asserting that the latter
generate the former, which, in turn, lock subjectivities into
their racial categories
 Hybridity by Bhabha

 It is significant that the productive capacities of this Third

Space have a colonial or postcolonial provenance. For a
willingness to descend into that alien territory . . . may
open the way to conceptualizing an international culture,
based not on the exoticism of multiculturalism or the
diversity of cultures,but on the inscription and articulation
of culture’s hybridity. (Bhabha 1994: 38)
Postcolonial ways of engaging with the Text

❑Critique and subvert canonical texts (promote oppositional

readings)
❑Promote regional literatures in translation (revise the
curriculum)
❑Critique internal colonisation

❑Promote englishes rather than English

❑Promote mini/little narratives (internal colonisation)
 Postcolonial Literature

• African countries,
Native Indian, First Nations of
America & Canada,
Literatures Bangladesh, Srilanka

• America, Canada, Australia,

Settler NewZealand, African American
(Black Writing), Caribbean
Countries, South Pacific Island
Literatures Countries.
Major themes of Native
Literatures
 Themes of suppression and slavery.
 Dispossession
 Search for Roots
 Cultural Fragmentation
 Colonial and Neo-colonial domination
 Post colonial corruption
 Crisis of identity
Major Themes of Settler
Literatures
 Exile
 Alienation
 Survival
 Defining “Home”
 Physical and emotional confrontation with
“New” land.
Language

NATIVE WRITERS’ USE OF ENGLISH

 English is an imported language. (bilingual
creativity)
 Appropriating English to fit their culture.
(Adopt, Adapt, Adept, )

SETTLER WRITERS’ USE OF ENGLISH

➢ English is a native language.
➢ Appropriate English to fit an alien atmosphere.