POSTCOLONIAL One of cultural
studies’ varying
ISM theories
Dr. haifa altwaijry
POSTCOLONIALISM:
“THE EMPIRE WRITES
BACK”
Postcolonialism consists of a set of theories in
philosophy and various approaches to literary analysis
that are concerned with literature written in English in
countries that were or still are colonies of other
countries.
It excludes literature that represents either British or
American viewpoints and concentrate on writings from
colonized cultures in Australia, New Zealand, Africa,
South America ..etc. that were once dominated by, but
remained outside, the white, male, European cultural,
political, and philosophical tradition.
Early in its development, postcolonialism was referred
to as “third world,” or “Commonwealth” literature.
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
British Empire
Colonial interests
Biologically and culturally superior
Early 20th century: Decolonization
India: third world studies or postcolonialism
Key texts:
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart(1958)
Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth/ Black SKIN, WHITE MASKS
Memmi’s The Colonizer and the Colonized
Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978)
Ashcroft et al. The Empire writes Back
BHABHA’S THE LOCATION OF CULTURE
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
Rooted in colonial power and prejudice postcolonialism
develops from a four-thousand-year history of strained
cultural relations between colonies in Africa and Asia
and the Western world. Throughout this long history,
the West became the colonizers, and many African and
Asian countries and their peoples became the colonized.
During the nineteenth century, Great Britain emerged
as the largest colonizer and imperial power, quickly
gaining control of almost one quarter of the earth’s
landmass. By the middle of the nineteenth century,
terms such as colonial interests and the British Empire were
widely used both in the media and in government
policies and international politics.
Many British people believed that Great Britain was
destined to rule the world. Likewise, the assumption
that Westerners were biologically superior to any other
race—a term for a class of people based on physical
and/or cultural distinctions— remained relatively
unquestioned.
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT
By the early 20th century, England’s political,
social, economic, and ideological domination of
its colonies began to disappear, a process
known as DECOLINIZATION. By Mid century,
India had gained her independence from British
colonial rule. Many scholars believe that this
event marks the beginning of postcolonialism
or third-world studies.
HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMANT
The beginnings of postcolonialism's theoretical and social concerns
can be traced to the 1950s. Along with India's independence, this
decade witnessed the ending of France’s long involvement in
Indochina; and the publication of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks
(1952) and Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart (1958).
The following decades witnessed the publication of additional key
texts that articulated the social, political, and economic conditions
of various subaltern groups. Fanon published The Wretched o f the Earth
(1961), a work that highlights the tensions or binary oppositions of
white versus black, good versus evil, and rich versus poor, to cite a
few. Other writers, philosophers, and critics such as Albert Memmi
continued publishing texts such as The Colonizer and the Colonized (1965,
English version) that would soon become the cornerstone of
postcolonial theory and writings.
In particular, postcolonialism gained the attention of the West with
the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) and Bill
Ashcroft. Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin’s the empire writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures (1989)
With the publication of these two texts, the voices and the
concerns of many subaltern cultures would soon be heard in both
academic and social arenas.
DOES POSTCOLONIAL THEORY COME INTO
EXISTENCE?
WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF POSTCOLONIALISM?
Only after colonization occurs and the colonized
people have had time to think and to write
about their oppression and loss of cultural
identity does postcolonial theory come into
existence. Postcolonial theory is born out of the
colonized people’s frustrations, their direct and
personal cultural clashes with the conquering
culture, and their fears, hopes and dreams
about the future and their own identities.
How the colonized respond to changes in
language, curricular matters in education, race
differences, economic issues, morals, ethics,
and many other concerns, including the act of
writing itself, becomes the context of
postcolonialism.
ASSUMPTIONS
postcolonialism’s Major concerns
European colonialism did occur.
The British Empire was at the center of this
colonialism.
The conquerors dominated not only the
physical land but also the ideology of the
colonized peoples.
The social, political, and economic effects of
such colonization are still being felt today.
THREE CATEGORIES OF
POST-COLONIALISTS
At the center of postcolonial theory
exists an inherent tension among three
categories of postcolonialists:
(1) those who have been academically
trained and are living in the West,
(2) those who were raised in non-WesteN
cultures but now reside in the West, and
(3) those subaltern writers living and
writing in non-Western cultures
FRANZ FANON
Historically one of the earliest
postcolonial theorists is Franz Fanon.
Born in the French colony of
Martinique, fanon fought with the
French in world war ii.
Fanon provides postcolonialism with
two influential texts: black skin,
white masks and the wretched of
the earth. In these works, fanon
examines the condition of blacks
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
under French colonial rule.
EDWARD SAID
Another key text in the establishment of postcolonial theory is Orientalism (1978), authored by Edward Said (1935
—2003). A Palestinian-American theorist and critic, Said was born in Jerusalem, where he lived with his family until
the 1948 Arab-israeli War, at which time his family became refugees in Egypt and then Lebanon. Educated at
Princeton and Harvard Universities. Said authored a variety of texts, including Orientalism, his most influential. In
this work Said chastises the literary world for not investigating and taking seriously the study of colonization or
imperialism. He then develops several concepts that are central to postcolonial theory.
According to Said, nineteenth-century Europeans tried to justify their conquests by propagating a belief called
Orientalism.
Orientalism is the creation of non-European stereotypes that suggested Orientals were indolent, thoughtless,
unreliable…etc. In effect what the colonizers ere revealing was their unconscious desire for power, wealth, and
domination, not the nature of the colonized subjects.
In Culture and Imperialism , Said captures the basic thought behind colonization and imperialism: "They’re not like
us,’ and for that reason deserve to be ruled." The colonized, Said maintains, becomes the other, the not me.
Hence, the established binary opposition of ”the west”/”the other’ must be abolished.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
HOMI BHABHA
Homi K. Bhabha , one of the leading postcolonial theorists and critics
builds on Said's concept of the Other and Orientalism. Born into a Parsi
family in Mumbai, India, Bhabha received his undergraduate degree in
India and his master's and doctoral degrees from Oxford University.
Having taught at several prestigious universities, including Princeton,
Dartmouth, and the University of Chicago, Bhabha is currently a
professor at Harvard University. I
In works such as The Location of Culture (1994), Bhabha empha
sizes the concerns of the colonized. What of the individual who has
been colonized? On the one hand, the colonized observes two
somewhat distinct views of the world: that of the colonizer (the
conqueror) and that of himself or herself, the colonized (the one who
has been conquered) To what culture does this person belong?
Seemingly, neither culture feels like home. This feeling of
homelessness, of being caught between two clashing cultures Bhabha
calls unhomliness.
When two cultures commingle, the nature and the characteristics of
the newly created culture changes each of the cultures. This dynamic,
interactive, and tension packed process Bhabha names hybridity.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-
Although Fanon , Said, and Bhabha lay
much of the theortical framework of
postcolonialism, many others have joined
them in continuing the dialogue bwtween
what Bhabha calls “the occident” and
“the orient.” as such, these critics
maintain that colonialism was and is a
cause of suffering and oppression, a
cause that is inherently unjust.
METHODOLOGY
1. Who am I?
2. How did I develop into the In asking and answering the
The person living and writing in a
person I am? first question, the colonized
colonized culture poses three signifi
3. To what country or author is connecting himself
cant questions:
countries or to what cultures or herself to historical roots.
am I forever linked?
Whatever the result, the text
will certainly be a message
By asking and answering the By asking and answering the sent back to the empire,
second question, the writer is third question, the writer telling the imperialists the
admitting a tension between confronts the fact that he or effects of their colonization
these historical roots and the she is both an individual and a and how their Western
new culture or hegemony social construct created and hegemony has damaged and
imposed on the writer by the shaped primarily by the suppressed the ideologies of
conquerors. dominant culture. those who were conquered.
Questions pg. 208
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