POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM

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

2. Post… what? Colonialism: An extension of a nation’s rule over territory beyond its borders Apopulation 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)

3. Scramble for Africa • Slave trade ended 1805, replaced by other trade • Late 1880s, European countries suddenly wanted colonies in Africa: • To build national prestige • To gain raw materials for factories • To gain markets for manufactured goods • To gain mineral wealth and prevent other European countries from acquiring such wealth • Europeans cooperated among themselves and divided Africa up: • Better medicines • Better guns

5. Postcolonial Literary Theory • Postcolonial Literature – body of literature written by authors with roots in countries once occupied by European nations • Postcolonial Theory – intellectual inquiry exploring and interrogating the situation of colonized people during and after colonization.

6. Characteristics of Postcolonialism • Anti-imperialist in character • Post (prefix) implies opposition and chronological sequence • Denotes period after colony has become independent • Connotes political and moral attitudes opposing colonization

7. Cultural Roots of Postcolonial Literature • South Asia • Africa • The Carribbean • Australia • New Zealand • Canada • Ireland

8. Postcolonial Theory • Raises and explores historical, cultural, political, and moral issues surrounding the establishment and disintegration of colonies and the empires they fueled.

9. Most classical literaturecomes from the voices of DWG’s (dead white guys), and that means it’s usually written from the perspective of colonialism.

10. The ugly reality of colonialist 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!

11. 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’.

12. Topics and terms for the postcolonial scholar -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

13. Postcolonialist Criticism: The Literary Lens ►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 aftermath are the colonized people left with? ■ Considering the present as well as the past ■ Is the author using the language of a colonizer?

14. Questions to prompt 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?

15. Questions to prompt postcolonial analysis: • 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)

16. Warnings for the amateur • 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.