Table of Content

Table of Content ……………………………………………………..………………...i

Chapter I Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Poscolonial Theory ……………………..………………...2

Chapter II Discussion

2.1. Postcolonialism Theory …………………………….…………………….4

2.2. Edward Said…………………………………….………………………...5

2.3. Gayatri Spivak ……………….……………………….…………………..7

2.4. Sam Selvon ………………………………………….…………………...8

2.5. Aime Cesaire ………………………………………..……………………8

2.6. Frantz Fanon ……………………………………….…………………….9

2.7. Homi K. Bhabha ………………………………….……………………..10

Chapter III Conclusion

3.1. Conclusion ……………………………………….……………………...12

References …………………………………………………………………………...13

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Chapter I

Introduction

1.1. Introduction to Poscolonial Theory

Literary criticism is a term that used for any discourse about literature. It is the

study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism, also

known today as literary theory, can include book reviews as well as theoretical

discussion. Even though most of literary criticism available today was produced in the

20th century, literary criticism has a long history. It was began in 4th century BC and

continue to develop until now.

Nowadays, many theories and approaches could be used in analyzing the

literary text. For instance, each of the theory has the specific focus and limitation

during the process of analyzing the text. One of the theories that usually use by the

reader and the literary students to analyzing literary text is postcolonial theory.

Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of a

group people to another (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2006). It refers to the

practice by which a powerful country controls other countries. It means of a military,

economic, and cultural domination of one country to another country. Moreover,

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Colonialism aims to control and dominate the colonized country both mentally and

physically.

Postcolonial refers to the era after the colonial era ended. Colonized people's

life experienced very drastic and significant changes due to the occupation that lasted

for a very long time. Changes occur in all areas, ranging from economics, education,

language, culture, and the literary world. Along with these changes, writers and critics

emerged to examine the colonial era. Various literature works and critics on

colonization issues published and attracted the attention of the literary world.

Postcolonialism theory is an interesting critical concept since its attempts that

explains the development, conditions, and consequences of the experience of

colonialism. Postcolonial criticism usually involves the analysis of literary texts

produced in countries and cultures that have experienced being under the control of

colonial powers in the past. It refers to the analysis of texts written about colonized

places by writers who have experiences about the colonizing culture.

The purpose of this study is to present further explanation deals with the

theory of Postcolonial Criticism. Furthermore, this paper presents some important

terms and key ideas of postcolonial criticism, which usually arise in postcolonial text.

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Chapter II

Discussion

2.1. Introduction to Postcolonialism Theory

Colonization is an era in which the occurrence of imperialism. The term

imperialism means the action of a country to extend its control or the authority over

other countries or maintenance of empires, either through direct territorial or through

indirect methods of exerting control on the other countries. The term is also used to

describe the action of a country to maintain its colonies and dominance over distant

lands. So far, imperialism might be used to refer to an intellectual position, it would

imply the belief that the acquisition and maintenance of empires is a positive good,

. Postcolonialism is a critical concept characterized by attempts to explain the

development, conditions, and consequences of the experience of imperialism. The

imperialism raises many issues. It creates great suffer physically and psychologically,

especially in the colonized people. Linda L. Revie (2003) qualifies four major

subjects included in Postcolonialism criticism; Social and cultural change or erosion,

misuse of power and exploitation, colonial abandonment and alienation, and use of

English language. Guerin (2005, 303) said:

“Postcolonialism refrers to a historical phase undergone by Third World countries after the decline of colonialism: for example, when countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean separated from the European empires and were left to rebuild themselves.”

Based on the quotation above can be concluded that the result of this imperialism was

the creation of a dividing wall between the West or European (colonizers) and East or

occupied (colonized).

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2.2. Edward Said

The first important term that has to be noticed in the Postcolonial theory and

approaches is ‘Eurocentric’. Said (in Guerin, 2005) exposes Eurocentric in

postcolonial as the ideology which is take the Europe as the central or prime model of

cultures. In this case, the colonizer manipulates the colonized mind set and implants

that Europe is the best culture and should serve as a model for other cultures. All

things must be in accordance with the values, norms, and habits of Europeans.

Eurocentricesm separate countries and nation into four different terms. They are; First

World includes Britain, Europe, and the United States. The second term is Second

World includes White populations of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and southern

Africa; former Soviet bloc. The next one is Third World includes Developing nations

such as India, Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, and the last

one is Fourth World includes indigenous populations subjugated by white settlers and

governed by the majority culture which surrounds them: Native Americans and

aboriginal Australians.

Edward Said used the term ‘Orient’ and ‘Occident’ to describe the invaders

and the occupied people. The term ‘Orient’ refers to the colonized, and the term

‘Occident’ refers to the colonizer. He insists the Orient is created by the Occident.

The Orient is viewed with prejudice and racism. They are backward and unaware of

their own history and culture. The West has created a culture, history, and future

promise for them. They made such a discourse about the East. The Western believes

that the East is strange, wild, uncivilized, and subservient.

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Edward said explained that the Occident describes the Orient by using four

terms. Firstly, the term Orient is regarded as ‘timeless’. The Orient has no any

concept of history. Secondly, the Orient is considered as ‘strange’. It means that they

are different, odd, and obviously contras to the Occident. Then, the Occident called

the Orient as ‘feminine’ means submissive, and the Occident itself is ‘masculine’

means active and dominant. The last one is the Occident regarded the Orient as

‘degenerate’. It means the Orient is lazy, weak, bad work ethic, criminals, and

immoral.

In the colonization process, the colonizer’s invasion focused on four major

sections. The first sectionis the power political. The power political refers to the

colonial or imperial establishment. Political power refers to the colonizer’s effort to

establish the colonization and to maintain it. The second section is the power

intellectual. The colonizer keep the colonized away of knowledge, education, or any

modern science. The colonizer is the only people who may achieve higher level of

education and knowledge. The third section is the power cultural. The colonizer a

asserted a perception that their culture is canonical, valuable, and high flavor. The last

section is the power moral. The colonizer is the one who responsible to decide what

things are can do and things that cannot do, while the colonizer was just follows the

rules of moral that have been made.

Those four dominant sections by Said lead to Barry’s explanation about how

the colonized responds to the colonization. Barry (2005: 196) asserts three kinds of

colonized responds to the colonizer’s culture, they are adopt, adapt, and adept. The

first one is adopt. It is the condition, the colonizer success to implant the new

stereotype in colonized mind-set; the colonized accept the colonizer models without

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questions. Therefore, the colonized try to imitate all things related to the colonizer, the

attitude, values and norm. The second one is adapt. It is the condition that the

colonized get used to the colonizer models. The colonized begin to consider the

positive and negative effect of the colonizer models. They just applied and take the

colonizer culture that gives positive contribution to their life and leave all the West

negative culture. The last one is adept. It means the colonized maintain their own

culture and the colonized totally refused the west culture.

2.3. Gayatri Spivak

Edward Said is not the only one who gives big contributions to the

development of Postcolonial theory. Similar to Said’s opinion of Orient, Spivak uses

different terminology to explain the Western way to identify the East. She used the

term 'Subaltern' to describe the views of the West to the East. In general, subaltern

means a sense refers to marginalized groups and the lower classes. Spivak use

subaltern to described the East as uncivilized, dominated, and submissive. She added

subaltern means everything that has limited or no access to the cultural imperialism.

However, Spivak tend to examine the effects of male domination to female in

Postcolonialism. She (in Guerin, 2005:305) said:

“…subaltern studies reveal how female subjects are silenced by the dialogue between the male-dominated West and the male-dominated East, offering little hope for subaltern woman’s voice to rise up amidst the global social institutions that oppress her.”

Spivak insist that in the colonial-experienced countries, women are considered as

submissive and easy to dominate. Ironically, the domination applied by both colonizer

male and colonized male.

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2.4. Sam Selvon

Other important figure in Postcolonialism is Sam Selvon who focused on the

process of colonization. He used the term ‘Diaspora’ and ‘Internalizing’ and.

Diaspora is an effort to bring a group of people from his homeland to a completely

new place to them. This is caused by two things: first, because their homeland is

controlled by the colonizer and they were considered no longer useful there. Second,

because the colonizer require additional workers to build the other colonized

territories. Based on the second point above, can be assumed that the diaspora can

also lead to slavery where people are forced to work for the colonizer without a

worthwhile benefit.

In the colonization context, internalizing means the process of implanting to

the colonized mind that the intension of colonization is create a better life for the

colonized as well as to the colonizer (Sam Selvon, 2006). It means that the West try to

make such ideology about the standard of West is the best for life. In the process of

colonialism, the colonizers also trying to maintain the colonized thought that the

colonizer is better than they are. The colonizers implants this idea in every aspects of

life from the colonized, such as political, educational, belief, moral, intellectual,

economical and cultural.

2.5. Aime Cesaire

Similar to Said’s Orient and Spivak’s Subaltern, Cesaire describe the

colonized by using the term submissive and permissive which both of them created by

the colonizer. Submissive refers the colonized. It means means colonized only group

of people that cannot do anything and can be constructeded easily. Based on

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Eurocentrism theory, which states that the west as a model, colonizer believes that the

colonized will accept everything that was brought by the colonizer. The colonizers

saw the colonized as an animal, without rules, culture and humanity. In contrary,

permissive refers to the colonizer. It means the colonizer is the only one who can

make rules and control the colonizer life; they are the only decision maker. The

colonizer puts themselves in the position as the leader in the colonization territory.

As Salvon works, Aime Cesaire also examined the process of imperialism. He

focused to the colonizer way to dominate the colonized. Aime Cesaire in his theory

used the term that calls ‘Hypocracy’ (Oxford Journal, 2010). The imperialism

implants its models through the religious approach. The domination achieved throught

the Christian missionary movement. Colonization through religious activities tend to

be more effective than by physical. Through religious, the process of hegemony and

brain washing are easier to do because for most people religion is considered as

something sacred, tend to teach a good thing. The colonizer gain the sympathy the

colonized easily of by using the missionary way. However, associating religious for

the purpose of occupation caused the distortion of religious doctrine itself. The

concept of hypocracy itself attempts to see anomalies and irregularities in the

missionary.

2.6. Frantz Fanon

The notion of imperialism, Eurocentric, and the gap between West and East

are rejected by the Postcolonialism. Frantz Fanon (in Barry, 2002: 193) uses the term

‘cultural resistance’ in his book The Wretched of the Earth to describe the rejection of

Western domination to the East. He argued that the first step to gain their dignity and

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maintain their identity is to reclaim their own past. The advanced life in the West

cannot be separated from the role of the East. Trace back to the West imperialism

history, can be seen that the East is the people who worked hard to build and construct

the Western world and gave a new color on Western culture such as music, art, and

various traditions. The other step is to erode the colonizer ideology.

In addition, Fanon also uses Foucault's idea ‘Knowledge Is Power’ (Lodge,

2000: 173) as the effort of colonized to gain their dignity and maintain their identity.

Education and knowledge is one thing that became crucial gap between east and west

for such a long period. By advancing education, improving quality of knowledge, the

colonized can voice their equality with the colonizer.

2.7. Homi K. Bhabha

Homi K. Bhabha is another expert in the Postcolonial theory who examines

the effect of colonialism to the colonized people. The first term of Bhabha is

‘mimicry’. Mimicry means the colonized try to emulate and apply the culture,

language, customs, and lifestyle of the colonizer. However, they cannot totally imitate

the colonizer. After all, their original culture, language, customs, and lifestyles remain

clearly visible.The second term is hybridity (Guerin, 2005:304-305).

Hybridity means the blending of two different cultures and create a new

culture. In this case, the colonizer do not represents their original culture nor the

colonizer culture. They created new culture that quiet different to the colonizer and

the colonizer culture. Language is one of the most noticeable examples of this

hibrydity. Talib (2002: 1005) said that some multilingual colonial-experienced

countries regard English as neutral language that can be used as channel of

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nationalistic anti-colonialism. However, they cannot use English fluently; their

English is still influenced by their mother tongue language. As the result, their create

new language called creole and pidgin.

The major impact of Bhabha’s theory (mimicry and hybridity) and Barry’s

theory (adopt, adapt, adept) are related to Freud’s theory of floating identity and

double identity (Barry, 2002:196-197). Generally, those are experienced by the

colonized. Floating identity means a condition where a person or group of people does

not represent any specific culture. They failed to become like the colonizer because

the colonizer refused and did not acknowledge their existence, but they also cannot

completely eliminate the existing west culture in themselves or back to the original

culture. Meanwhile, double identity refers to the condition that people represent both

colonizer and colonized culture.

Postcolonialism theory becomes an interesting and used widely due to the

impact of colonization itself is never ends, even until now. Furthermore, since it is

part of cultural studies, Postcolonial theory then can be associated, developed and

reviewed with other theories such as Feminism, Psychoanalysis, New Historicism,

Ecocriticism, Marxist and Capitalist.

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Chapter III

Conclusion

3.1. Conclusion

Each of the experts has their own specific focus during their analyzing through

the Postcolonial theory. Actually all those argument and opinion are related and

supporting each other. The connection is about the definitions, the process, the

respond, and the effects of colonization itself.

Postcolonial criticism analyze the literary texts produced in countries and

cultures that have experiences of imperialism or colonization. The readers have to

notice all the aspect that has already explains above are the crucial characteristic that.

Eurocentric, internalization, diaspora, colonizers, colonized, subaltern, hybridity,

mimicry, hybridity, hypocracy, adopt, adapt and adept, and cultural resistant are the

common theme found in the Postcolonial text. Those terms are the most important

aspects that must be analyzing in the Postcolonial criticism.

Actually, many critics gave a great contribution to Postcolonial theory.

However, figures discussed in the previous chapter are considered as most influential

figures who introduced most important key terms to Poscolonial theory. Postcolonial

theory, as part of cultural study, then can be associated, developed and reviewed with

other theories such as Feminism, Psychoanalysis, New Historicism, Ecocriticism,

Marxist and Capitalist.

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References

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Bedford St. Martins. 2010. Critical approaches. Retrieved on December 3rd, 2010. http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/poetry/critical_define/crit_post.html.

Boeree , Dr. C. George. 2006. Personalities Theory. SIGMUND FREUD 1856 –

1939. Retrieved on January 2nd, 2010.

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html

Cesaire, Aime. 2009. BAOAB SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF NEW WRITING. Retrieved on December 3rd, 2010. http://www.baobabjournal.co.za/search/node/Aime+Cesaire

Guerin, Wilfred L. 2005. A Hand Book Of Critical Approaches To Literature: Fifth Edition. Oxford University Press, New York.

Lodge, David and Nigel Wood. 2000. MODERN Criticism and Theory. Longman, Singapore.

Oxfor Journal. 2010. Beyond Postcolonial Césaire: Reading Cahier d'un retour au pays natal Historically1. Retrieved on November 27th, 2010. http://fmls.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/3/258.full

Revie, Linda L. 2003. The Niagara Companion: Explorers, Artists and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. pp. 95. http://books.google.com/books?id=X8J3zgXVq_MC&dq=%22anti+conquest+narrative%22.

Selvon , Sam. 2006. Black Diaspora Artists in Britain: Three 'Moments' in Post-war History,History Workshop Journal - Issue 61, Spring. Retrieved on December 3rd, 2010. http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/history_workshop_journal/v061/61.1hall.html

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006. Colonialism. Retrived on November 27th, 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/

Talib, Ismail S. 2002. The Language of Postcolonial Literatures an Introduction.

Routledge, New York.

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