Post Colonialism

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POSTCOLONIALIST POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM CRITICISM *Material gratefully adapted from Gemma Costa’s 2010 “Postcolonialism” via Slideshare

Transcript of Post Colonialism

Page 1: Post Colonialism

POSTCOLONIALISPOSTCOLONIALISTT

CRITICISM CRITICISM

*Material gratefully adapted from Gemma Costa’s 2010 “Postcolonialism” via Slideshare

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Post… what?Post… what?Colonialism:¤ An extension of a nation’s rule over

territory beyond its borders¤ a population that is subjected to the

political domination of another population• Militaristic ( the physical conquest and

occupation of territories)• Civilizational (the conquest and

occupation of minds, selves, and cultures)

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Most classical Most classical literatureliterature

comes from the voices comes from the voices of DWG’s (dead white of DWG’s (dead white guys), and that means guys), and that means

it’s usually written it’s usually written from the perspective from the perspective

of colonialism.of colonialism.

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The ugly reality of colonialist The ugly reality of colonialist views…views…

¤ the historical story whereby the “West” attempts systematically to cancel or negate the cultural difference and value of the “non-West” (Leela Gandhi,1998)

This makes it “okay” to colonize!

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Postcolonialism?Postcolonialism? ¤ Acknowledges an evolution in

academia to consider the untold stories of the oppressed.

¤ Postcolonialism = a literary lens! The focus of this lens is upon exposing the injustices suffered by oppressed groups and the contrast between their worldviews/the oppressors’.

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Topics and terms for Topics and terms for the postcolonial the postcolonial scholarscholar

-Social Darwinism-Eurocentrism-White Man’s Burden * What was thought to be an obligation to

“civilize” non-European people-Racism-Hegemony-Exploitation-Counter-narrative-Cultural borderlands

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Postcolonialist Criticism: The Literary Postcolonialist Criticism: The Literary LensLens

►Examining colonizers/colonized relationship in literature ■ Is the work pro/anti colonialist? Why? ■ Does the text reinforce or resist colonialist ideology?

► Types of oppression ■ What tools do the colonizers use to demean or oppress the colonized?■ What psychological aftermathare the colonized people leftwith?■ Considering the present as well as the past■ Is the author using the language of a colonizer?

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Questions to prompt Questions to prompt postcolonial analysis:postcolonial analysis:

• How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent various aspects of colonial oppression?

• What does the text reveal about the problematics of post-colonial identity, including the relationship between personal and cultural identity within cultural borderlands?

• What person(s) or groups does the work identify as "other" or stranger? How are such persons/groups described and treated?

• What does the text reveal about the politics and/or

psychology of anti-colonialist resistance?

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• What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference - the ways in which race, religion, class, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form individual identity - in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live?

• How does a literary text in the Western canon reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology through its representation of colonization and/or its inappropriate silence about colonized peoples? (Tyson 378-379)

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Warnings for the Warnings for the amateuramateur

• Don’t be afraid to be critical of an author’s portrayal of race. If it makes you uncomfortable, there’s probably something wrong with it.

• Do not get sucked in to “positive stereotyping.” Casting the colonized person as a purely innocent, angelic culture to be pitied is almost as bad as demonizing. That’s not acknowledging complexity.

• If you are white, this legacy can be difficult to accept. But it’s the history you inherited, so learn to deal with it now.

• Any text, even one that doesn’t seem to be “about” race/culture, can be examined from a postcolonial lens.

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