Postcolonial Theory

Presentation by Irene Jade

What is ‘Post-colonialism’?Colonialism

• control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people.

Post-colonialism• is an intellectual direction that exists since around the middle of the 20th

century. • It developed from and mainly refers to the time after colonialism. • The post-colonial direction was created as colonial countries became

independent. • Nowadays, aspects of post-colonialism can be found not only in sciences

concerning history, literature and politics, but also in approach to culture and identity

Themes that link to Postcolonial Theory

Postcolonial Theory

Power

Subjectivity

Identity

Race

Nations and nationalityLeadership

Control

Edward Said

• Professor at Columbus university • Revolutionized study of middle East and helped to

re-shape study of post-colonialism.• He wrote the book ‘Orientalism’ translated into 26

languages• Most controversial scholarly book of last 30 years• Said wants to question- Why do we have pre-

conceived notions and stereotypes of people we haven’t even met? And How can we come to understand different cultures and races?

• He thinks west, Europe and USA look at Middle East through a lens (orientalism) that distorts reality and makes people of the East seem threatening.

Gayatri Chakravorty SpivakWorks-• Translation and Introduction to Jacques Derrida's Of

Grammatology ( De la grammatologie, 1967) • "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)• "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism," (1988) "The Making of

Americans, the Teaching of English, and the Future of Culture Studies," New Literary History 21 (1990): 781-798.

• Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present (1998)

About• An Indian theorist, literary critic and lecturer at Columbus university• She describes herself as a "practical Marxist-feminist deconstructionist”• Best known for her contemporary cultural and critical theories to challenge

the "legacy of colonialism" and the way readers engage with literature and culture. She often focuses on the cultural texts of those who are marginalized by dominant western culture: the new immigrant; the working class; women; and other "postcolonial subjects".

Homi K Bhabha• Is a Harvard professor and one of the top post

colonialist thinkers. He wrote “Nation and Narration” (1990) and “The Location of Culture”

• Bhabha says: that white people ‘instead of seeing the world as a huge coat of many colours, they see it in terms of good/bad opposites, putting themselves always at the “good” end and everyone else who is different at the “bad” end: East/West, civilized/savage, First World/Third World, Western liberalism/Islamic fundamentalism and on and on.

• He studied the works of French post-structuralist thinkers like Derrida, Lacan and Foucault. He is also a follower of Edward Said