postcolonialist criticism

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

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POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM . *Material gratefully adapted from Gemma Costa’s 2010 “ Postcolonialism ” via Slideshare. 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 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Page 1: POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM

POSTCOLONIALIST

CRITICISM

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

Page 2: POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM

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

territory beyond its bordersA population that is subjected to the

political domination of another populationoMilitaristic ( the physical conquest and

occupation of territories)oCivilizational (the conquest and occupation

of minds, selves, and cultures)

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Scramble for Africa• Slave trade ended 1805, replaced by other trade• Late 1880s, European countries suddenly wanted colonies

in Africa:o To build national prestigeo To gain raw materials for factorieso To gain markets for manufactured goodso To gain mineral wealth and prevent other European

countries from acquiring such wealth

• Europeans cooperated among themselves and divided Africa up:o Better medicineso Better guns

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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.

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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

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Cultural Roots of Postcolonial Literature

• South Asia• Africa• The Carribbean• Australia• New Zealand• Canada• Ireland

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Postcolonial Theory• Raises and explores historical, cultural, political,

and moral issues surrounding the establishment and disintegration of colonies and the empires they fueled.

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Most classical literature

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

it’s usually written from the perspective

of colonialism.

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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!

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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 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

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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 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 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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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)

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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.

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