POSTCOLONIAL THEORY

POSTCOLONIAL THEORY

A theory on and lens for

life after foreign rule.
 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.
 It also refers to the establishment
and maintenance of colonies in one
territory by people from another
country.
 Colonialism is the process where
the sovereignty over the colony is
claimed by the colonizer.
 The social
structure, government, and
economics of the colony are
changed by the colonists.

 Colonialism also refers to the

period of history from the 15th to
the 20th century when European
nation established colonies in other
continents.

 Colonialism is the relationship

between an indigenous majority
 The fundamental decisions
affecting the lives of the colonized
people are made and implemented
by the colonial powers in pursuit of
interests that are often defined by
the imperial power.

 Rejecting cultural compromises

with the colonized population, the
colonizers are convinced of their
own superiority and their ordained
mandate to rule.
 Types of Colonialism
1. Pre-capitalist colonialism: Before
it, the Crusades in the 2nd
century; Genghis Khan's invasion
of Middle East as well as China in
the 13th century.
2. Modern Colonialism: European
invasion of Africa, Asia and the
Americas since the 16 century
onwards. Causes:
modernization, nationalization, ca
 The difference between
the two colonialism
 major differences: "Modern
colonialism did more than extract
tribute, goods and wealth from the
countries that it conquered -- it
restructured the economies of the
latter, drawing them into a complex
relationship with their own, so that
there was a flow of human and
natural resources between colonized
and colonial countries.
 Modern Colonialism
meaning and other
types
Modern colonialism --
military, economic, cultural
oppression & domination of one
country/race over another.
Kinds:
1. Invasion-colonization;
2. Settlement-colonization;
3. Internal Colonialism;
4. Neo-Colonialism
 internal colonialism

 1. Racial Domination within an

existing territory
 2. Uneven wave of industrialization
→ Inter-group differences in power
→ Ethnic division of labor → Ethnic
identities are forged and ethnic
colonies formed (ghettos, or
internal segregation). Related to minority
discourse or immigrant
culture/literature.
 Colonialism: Flows of
Natural Resources and People
1. Triangular
Trade

2. Middle
Passage
 Colonialism: flows of
migration
 Flows of Migrants
1st World Colonial “Third World”:
powers:
Adventurers, Army, Slaves,
Contract laborers,
travelers, missionar
ies, immigrants 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 the colonized
West/Self as subjects and the as
The Oriental/Other
colonizing
civilised, masters.
just, moral, savage, lewd, lazy,
industrious, rational, superstitious,
Masculine feminine
 Cultural Imperialism (2):
Theories
 Decoration
and support
for building
the Empire
 Biological
Differences:
Justification
of Racism
 Edward Said’s theory of
Orientalism
 A concept introduced by Edward Said
(1978)
 Attempted to explain how the
European/Western colonizers looked
upon the ―Orient‖
 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
 The concept of the ―East‖ i.e the
―orient‖ was created by the ―West
suppressing the ability of the
―Orient‖ to express themselves.
 ―Western depiction of the ―Orient‖
construct an inferior world, a place
of backwardness and
irrationality, and wildness.
 This allows the ―West‖ to identify
themselves as the opposite of
these characteristics: as a superior
world that was
progressive, rational, and civil.
 Neo Colonialism
 The term neocolonialism has been
used to refer to a variety of things
since the decolonization efforts
after World War II
 It refers to the accusation that the
relationship between stronger and
weaker countries is similar to
exploitation colonialism, without
the stronger country having to
build or maintain colonies.
 Such relationship typically focuses
on the economic relationships and
interference in the politics of the
weaker countries by the stronger
countries.
 Early European
exploration of Asia
 started in ancient Roman times
 Knowledge of lands as distant as
China were held by the Romans
 Trade with India through the
Roman Egyptian Red Sea ports
was significant in the first
centuries of the Common Era.
 Medieval European
exploration of Asia
 13th and 14th centuries: Christian
missionaries - sought to penetrate China
Marco Polo
 little permanent effect on
East-West trade: of a series
of political developments in
Asia in the last decades of
the fourteenth century,
which put an end to further European
exploration of Asia
 Yuan dynasty in China: receptive to
European missionaries and
merchants, was overthrown
 new Ming rulers were found to be
inward oriented and unreceptive to
foreign religious proselytism
 Turks consolidated control over the
eastern Mediterranean, closing off key
overland trade routes
 15TH century, only minor trade and
cultural exchanges between Europe and
Asia continued at certain terminals
controlled by Muslim traders.
Oceanic voyages to Asia
 new trade routes : oceanic routes between
East and West began with the
unprecedented voyages of Portuguese and
Spanish sea captains
 cheaper and easier access to South and
East Asian goods
 influenced by medieval European
adventurers, who had journeyed overland
to the Far East and contributed to
geographical knowledge of parts of Asia
upon their return.
 1488 Bartholomeu Dias: southern tip of
Africa under the sponsorship of Portugal's
John II --- swung northeast, soon finding a
sea route to India and named the tip as the
Cape of Good Hope
 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da
Gama made the first open voyage
from Europe to India
 1520, Ferdinand Magellan, a
Portuguese navigator in the service
of Spain, found a sea route into the
Pacific Ocean
 Portuguese and Spanish trade
and colonization in Asia
 Portuguese monopoly over trade in the
Indian Ocean
 16th century Alfonso de Albuquerque
 emerged as the Portuguese colonial
viceroys most instrumental in
consolidating Portugal's holdings in Africa
and in Asia
---understood that Portugal could wrest
commercial supremacy from the Arabs
only by force
---devised a plan to establish forts at
strategic sites which would dominate the
trade routes and also protect Portuguese interests
on land
 1510, he seized Goa in India, which
enabled him to gradually consolidate
control of most of the commercial
traffic between Europe and Asia
 Europeans started to carry on trade
from forts, acting as foreign merchants
rather than as settlers. In
contrast, early European expansion in
the "West Indies
 1492 voyage of Christopher
Columbus, involved heavy settlement
in colonies that were treated as political
extensions of the mother countries.
 WHY WERE PEOPLE
COLONIZED?
 Social Darwinism
 Eurocentrism
 Universalism
 Colonialism is nature
 White man’s burden- What was
thought to be the obligation of the
Europeans to ―civilize‖ the non
European people.
 SUBALTERN THEORY by
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
 Subaltern is a term that commonly
refers to persons who are socially,
politically, and geographically outside of
the hegemonic power structure
 The term subaltern was used in
Postcolonial theory.
 Some thinkers refer to marginalized
groups and the lower classes—a person
rendered without agency by his or her
social status.
 Subaltern according to
Spivak:
―not just a classy word for oppressed, for Other, for
somebody who's not getting a piece of the pie....In
postcolonial terms, everything that has limited or no
access to the cultural imperialism is subaltern—a space
of difference. Now who would say that's just the
oppressed? The working class is oppressed. It's not
subaltern....Many people want to claim subalternity.
They are the least interesting and the most dangerous. I
mean, just by being a discriminated-against minority on
the university campus, they don't need the word
'subaltern'...They should see what the mechanics of the
discrimination are. They're within the hegemonic
discourse wanting a piece of the pie and not being
allowed, so let them speak, use the hegemonic
discourse. They should not call themselves subaltern.‖
 Theory of the Subaltern
 Postcolonial theory tries to understand the power
and continued dominance of Western ways of
knowing. Joanne Sharp, following Spivak, argues
that other forms of knowing are marginalized by
Western thinkers reforming them as myth or
folklore. In order to be heard the subaltern must
adopt Western thought, reasoning and language.
Because of this, Sharp and Spivak argue that the
subaltern can never express their own
reasoning, forms of knowledge or logic, they must
instead form their knowledge to Western ways of
knowing
 Frantz Fanon
 Fanon analyzed the nature of
colonialism and those subjugated
by it.
 He describes colonialism as a
source of violence rather than
reacting violently against the
resistors which had been the
common view.
 His portrayal of the systematic
relationship between colonialism
and its attempt to deny all
―attributes of humanity‖ it
suppressed laid the groundwork
for related critiques of colonial and
postcolonial systems.
Postcolonial theory attempts to focus on
the oppression of those who were ruled
under colonization.

Factors include:

 Political oppression
 Economic oppression
 Social/cultural oppression
 Psychological oppression
Of those who were formerly
colonized.
In postcolonial theory, the word
colonized can mean many things.

 Literal colonization
 More abstract ―colonization‖
 African-Americans
 Native Americans in the United
States
 Postcolonial theorists
believe that the
colonizers:
 Imposed their own values onto
those colonized so that they were
internalized
Example:
 Social/Cultural - Spanish
language/Catholic religion among
the formerly colonized like the
Philippines
 Political – Drew the boundaries of
Africa based on European politics
rather than tribal interests
 Postcolonial theorists also analyze
the processes by which those who
were colonized resisted the
colonizers.
Example:
Haiti
South Africa
India
 Post Colonial Literature
 Sometimes called ―New English
Literature(s), is a body of literary
writings that reacts to the
discourse of colonization.
 Postcolonial literature often
involves writings that deals with
the issue of de-colonization or the
political and cultural independence
of people formerly subjugated to
colonial rule.
 It is also a literary critique to texts
that carry racists or colonial
undertones.
 In its most recent form, it also
attempts to critique the
postcolonial discourse that has
been shaped over recent times.
 It attempts to re-read this very
emergence of postcolonialism and
its literary expression itself.
 The three subjects of
postcolonial literature
1. Social and cultural change or
erosion: It seems that after
independence is achieved, one
question arises; what is the new
cultural identity?
2. Misuse of power and exploitation:
even though the large power
ceases to control them as
colony, the settlers still seem to
continue
Imposing power over the native. The
question here; who really is the
power here, why, and how does an
independence day really mean
independence?
3. Colonial abandonment and
alienation: This topic is generally
brought up to examine individuals
and not the ex-colony as a whole.
The individuals tend to ask
themselves: in this new
country, where do I fit in and how
do I make a living?
4. Use of English language
literature: it may be asked if the
target of post-colonial studies, i.e.
the analysis of post-colonial
literature and culture, can be
reached neglecting literary works
in the original languages of post-
colonial nations.
 What happens after
colonization?
 What language do you speak?
 What culture do you follow?
 Hybridization and Double
Consciousness
 Awareness of culture before
colonized and during colonization
and what emerged as a result
Examining colonizer/colonized
relationships in literature
 Is the work pro/anti colonialist?
Why?
 Does the text reinforce or resist
colonialist ideology?
 Tries to introduce/expose
―otherized‖ works.
 What is the prevalent culture in
the work?
 Resisting/Revising the canon.
TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
Wole Soyinka
The price seemed
reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore
she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. "Madam," I
warned,
"I hate a wasted journey—I am
African."
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding.
Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I
was foully.
"HOW DARK?" . . . I had not
misheard . . . "ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK?" Button B, Button
A.* Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-
and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-
tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real!
Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg
simplification.
Considerate she was, varying the
emphasis--
"ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?"
Revelation came.
"You mean--like plain or milk
chocolate?"
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its
light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length
adjusted,
I chose. "West African sepia"--and as
afterthought,
"Down in my passport." Silence for
spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged
her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. "WHAT'S
THAT?" conceding
"DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS." "Like
brunette."
"THAT'S DARK, ISN'T IT?" "Not
altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you
should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of
my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused--
Foolishly, madam--by sitting down, has
turned
My bottom raven black--One
moment, madam!"--sensing
Her receiver rearing on the
thunderclap
About my ears--"Madam," I
pleaded, "wouldn't you rather
See for yourself?"