New criticism and post-colonial theory 

Asad Khan

New Criticism was a product of a post-colonial USA

intent on establishing thelegitimacy of its literary canon

against the persistent domination of the

English tradition

 

Asad Khan

New Criticism was almost immediatelyassimilated as Anglo-American, its roots were

post-colonial, and incertain ways it served to allow the passage

of post-colonial writers,whose traditions were by European definitions ‘childish’, ‘immature’,

or ‘tributary’

 

Asad Khan

New Criticism had a profoundly negative impact, too, rendering

its effects on post-colonial culture deeply ambiguous

 

Asad Khan

New Criticism drew attention to features of individual

texts which, when considered nationally and collectively, could

bestyled as unique, distinctive, or

characteristic

 

Asad Khan

POST COLONIALISM AS A READING STRATEGY

The subversion of a canon is not simply a matter of replacing one set of text with another

A Canon is not a body of texts but a set of reading practices ( genre,lit,writing ) The Motherland and her dependent colonial

offspring. (William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1883)Abdul latif

Caliban is no longer seen as the creature outside civilization on whose his nature but as a human ( the west indian )whose human status was denied by the EUROPE

Prosperos assertion that in exchange he has given Caliban the gift of language . . . Caliban response , and my profit on it is I know how to curse

Tempest, Shakespeare was doing stereotyping the Races and Religion

Structure of the Tempest as a general metaphor for imperial margin relations ( mananni1950 )OR it characterizes some specific as fact of post colonial reality

Tempest by Shakespeare

Abdul latif

Prospero places himself over nature and seeks to subdue it by a massive exercise of his will(krikby1985)

It is a impact of a lettered culture on an unlettered one(greenblatt1976)

Hogarths Black(1985b) says that from 18th C we found Black Americans in paintings but in a socially inferior and oppressed position

Tempest Cont…

Abdul latif

Imperial stewardship was thought to effect the intellectual and moral reformation of the colored peoples of the lesser cultures of the world Abdul latif

Two major paths1. Reading of specific post colonial

texts+Effects of their production2. The revising of received modes as

Allegory ,irony,metaphor and re reading of colonial texts in the light of post colonial discursive practices

Fanon… Front de liberation national… Algerian war(1954-62)…independence from France.

Post colonial criticism

Abdul latif

Re-thinking the Post-Colonial: Post-colonialism or post-colonial studies is an academic

discipline that analyzes, explains, and responds to the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Post-

colonialism speaks about the human consequences of external control and economic exploitation of a native

people and its lands. (Wikipedia) Post-colonial studies are the most diverse and

contentious fields of literary and cultural studies (Empire Writes Back).

Re-thinking the post-colonial on four following grounds. The term Post-colonial/ postcolonial. Definition of post-colonial. Who are post-colonialists? Who are the intellectuals of post-colonials? Zia ur Rehman

Post-colonial/Postcolonial Post-colonial: The most disputed term. The Hyphenated ( - ) Post-colonial. Why use hyphen ( - ) in post-colonial. Hyphenated Post-colonial is an issue of whom? Whereas the term postcolonialism marks history as “a series of

stages along as epochal road from ‘the precolonial’, to ‘the colonial’, to ‘the postcolonial’”. (Readers guide)

The term “postcolonial” designates liberatory and oppositional responses to colonialism more broadly than the hyphenated term “post-colonial”. Thus the term postcolonial refers to the unpresentable in the colonial: racial difference, legal inequality, subalternity and all of the submerged or suppressed contradictions within the colonial social order itself.

(Rajesh James)Zia ur Rehman

Definition of Post-colonial “All the cultures affected by the imperial process from the moment of

colonization to the present day”. (Empire writes back)Opposition to this definition: Limit the era. The affecties of colonization. Those who are not colonized.Further theoretical concerns like. Focused on local studies involving discourse analysis (Barker at al.

1998). Widening exploration of English, French and Spanish Post-colonial

literature (Lionnet and Scharfman 1993). Feminist analysis of post-colonial experiences; and various marriages

of literary and cultural studies (Reader’s Guide). Ngugi’s define post-colonial studies as, “The total and absolute

decolonization of societies in psychological as well as political terms, involving massive and powerful recuperation of the pre-colonial cultures”.

Zia ur Rehman

Who is post-colonial?

The boundaries are designed to include or exclude various groups among the Post-colonials.

Critics who have post-colonial experience is, in a sense, only perceivable when such boundaries are brought into conscious and critical scrutiny (Slemon 1990).

Could ever the ‘Rest’ will free from the ‘West’. Neo-colonialism is the geopolitical practice of using

capitalism, business globalization, and cultural imperialism to influence a country, in lieu of either direct military control (imperialism) or indirect political control (hegemony). (Kwame Nkrumah)

Zia ur Rehman

Who are the intellectuals of Post-colonials?

Arif Dirlik regards ‘post-colonial’ as a discourse used to “regroup intellectuals of uncertain location under the banner of postcolonial discourse, but it is participation in the discourse that defines them as postcolonial intellectuals”

The leading figures of post-colonial (Edward said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha) continues to provide useful theoretical stimulus to the work of later post-colonial theorists, whether by a positive use of the insights or by the use of their ideas as critical ‘stalking horses’.

(Readers’ Guide).Zia ur Rehman

Theoretical Issues Post Colonial Theory.... Literature of currently or previously

colonized country that deals with colonized people or colonization. Focus. a. Literature of Colonizing culture -- distorts the realities

and experience of colonized people. b. Literature of colonized people – secure identity, present and past. Relationship between Western Academies and Post colonial peoples? Issue of Language … Ngugi wa Thiongo writes novel in Gikuyu.

Preferring local language for identity in world. Translation Issue from local to world languages. Controversial features of Ambivalence and Hybridism. Status of women -- Patriarchy or Imperialism? QADIR

Racial Issues QADIR

Relevancy of race to post-colonial theory… a. main point of imperial discourse. b. it is fact of modern society that race is key point of daily prejudice and discrimination.

Race always elevate the issue of representation which is central point of colonial studies.

Transculturation is very important concept of postcolonial theory.

Post-Colonial Futures Post-Colonialism and Cultural Studies. Culture and post-colonial theories developed by the

development of English. Criticism to William’s concept of culture as ‘art’ or ‘way of life’. Literature is a massive structure of cultural power. Post-Colonialism and the local. Future of post-colonial studies depends upon the future of

institution and disciplines. The studies of Local condition was always important (cultural

and political relation) and it should be in future. Post- colonial theory ought to be discussed --- against and

favor. QADIR

Post-Colonialism and the Sacred Debate about Sacred and traditional beliefs of

colonized and marginalized peoples have importance. Conflicts between Sacred and post-colonialism. Different theological concept. QADIR

Post-Colonialism, animals and the environment. Sacred vs. Environmental issues. QADIR Material and global issues Destruction of environment and western industrialization. Modernization, slavery and ivory Issues between human and place, land and language. Contemporary food scarcity and animal species damage might be due to

colonial effects. Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa--- tried to prevent oil company--- example of

multinational damage.

Post-colonialism and Globalization Future of post-colonialism lies in its globalization…

materiality of local experience and colonial significance. What is globalization? To understand the cultural,

economic and political legacy of imperialism and post-colonial literature and postcolonial theory. QADIR

Diaspora Diaspora can not be analyzed without examining the deep effects of

colonialism. Disparity in wealth, gap between colonizers and colonized. Movement of refugees re-ignited racism. Diaspora is not only geographical but identity, home and memory too Diaspora is of areas, film, dance, music and theatre. Fast development of post-colonial theories, 10000 entries in Library

of Congress, post-colonial is powerful means of re-examining the historical past and re-figuring contemporary world-wide cultural concerns

QADIR