Post-colonial theory
traductionne). Pet
sIstques et omrtement
nNmitteraire au littéraire. Poetique 44 (1980):
Ámes dinterterences de systèmes sémio
tiues" n Semietis UnfNding: Proceedings of the
Crrs f the.Internatienal Assxiatien for Se-
ioti Stxdis Ed. Tasso Barbé. Berlin: Mouton.
198. 671-8.
Post-colonial theory
Post-olonial theory is a term for a collection
ftheoretical and critical strategies used to ex
amine the culture (°literature, politics, history,
and so forth) of former colonies of the Euro
pean empires, and their relation to the rest of
the world. While it embraces no single method
or school, post-colonial theory- or, more ac
curately,theories - share many assumptions:
they question the salutary effects of empire
(visible in phrases such as the gift of civiliza
tion, the British literary heritage' or even 'the
Renaissance') and raise such issues as racism
and exploitation. Central to all, although not
always presented in such terms, is the position
of the colonial or post-colonial subject. (See
*subject/object.) Post-colonial criticism offers a
COunter-narrative to the long tradition of Euro
pean imperial narratives yet its pose' prefix is
not always easily worm. Whereas historically
these cultures are after the colony, many theo
rists would present the post-colonial, often
without a hyphen, as like poststructuralism
and postmodernism, a word best seen as pre
senting an almost completely different state of
Consciousness from the antecedent enclosed.
Methods
Post-colonial theorists use a variety of meth
ods and theories, and the bricolage so often ev
ident is usually presented as a positive move
away from totalizing European traditions. (See
"totalization.) Many aspects of the develop
ment of post-colonial theory can be particu
larly compared to the rise of cultural studies,
feminist studies and to the more political ver
sions of comparative literature. (See also
*deconstruction, *feminist criticism, "psychoan
alytic theory, "Marxist criticism, "cultural ma
terialism, New Historicism, "materialist
criticism.)
Major figures and history
As one of the leading practitioners of post-co
lonial theory, *Edward Said, has shown else
where, it is always difficult to find beginnings.
Presumably post-colonial theory could be said
to begin with the first colonial who discussed
his or her state. However, most present-day
commentators begin with Frantz Fanon's Black
Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the
Earth. Fanon's major contribution was his fo
cus on the colonial subject as colonized and as
subject, and his use of a psychoanalytic frame
work. His depiction of the colonized as always
situated as other and unable to assume the
necessary role as self has provided the central
terms for the post-colonial debate. (See "self/
other.)
In the Anglo-American critical tradition, the
colonial subject becomes prominent with the
publication of Said's Orientalism in 1978. Still
very influential, this work looks at European
representations of the Middle East to consider
how a mind-set of orientalism shaped aca
demic study. The political import of the work
lies in claiming that while the portraits of the
culture did not represent reality, their contours
were a product of real conditions of imperial
ism and racism. After Said, the most important
theorists are probably GayatriChakravorty
Spivak and Homi K. Bhabha. While Said has
made much use of Foucauldian theories, he re
mains in opposition to many of their elements.
(See *Michel Foucault.) On the other hand,
Spivak has creatively extended her own com
bination of Althusserian Marxism and Derri
dean deconstruction, while Bhabha has taken
up the work of those associated with British
Screen magazine on *semiotics and representa
tion. (See also *Louis Althusser.)
Recently a number of major European theo
rists have devoted attention to colonial prob
lems. Jacques Derrida and Tzvetan Todorov,
originally from Algeria and Bulgaria respec
tively, have become pillars of the French intel
ligentsia. Their emphasis has not been on their
own backgrounds, however, but in the case of
Derrida's 'Racism's Last Word,' South Africa,
and in Todorov's The Conquest of America,
Latin America.
Any consideration of post-colonial theory as
a general study must recognize the post-colon
ial critical traditions in each nation and region.
Definition of what is post-colonial is a prob
155
Post-colonial theory
with little connectionto the
lem here. For example, in
Cadence, Country,
tures in English or French, post-
Silence: Writing in Colonial Space,'
Dennis
Earl Fitz have produced although-colonicraitlics Cullik- e
difficulty of ov
Lee, a Canadian, examines the original voice,
ercoming colonialism to find an overlaid by
comparative studiesat of
'American' literatures. On the
other
when he studies a settler culture
experience
least until the recent
burgeoning
Indian subcontinent spurred inter
by Spivak
hand,
est in the
an English tradition. The Canadian Bhabha and their colleagues,
Anglo-American concern has the
account the fact that the
also must take into
French were the first major colonizers. This can literatures. been
The same has been with
of
Afr-
majority
fact has always complicated constitutional and French and German scholars. A true of
cultural debate in Canada. Canada is officially particular
bilingual, a political and economic construction phasis has been found in the United em-
of two of the most potent European powers, where much of African studies has
been cul.con-
Staates,
France and Britain. The increasingly multicul nected to the roots of African American
tural nature of the country also complicates ture. (See *Black criticism.) Recently, however
the relation between indigenous and settler an exploration of various aspects of what has
countries. In the francophone cultures of Af been termed the Third World, most notably
rica, various statements on negritude by Aimé through the work of Chandra Mohanty and
Cesaire can be seen as post-colonial. It is also Trinh T. Minh-ha, has become central to
too often the case that literary critics in West American post-colonial scholarship.
ern Europe and North America have over
looked Russian, Japanese, Chinese and other Issues
colonizations and their cultural consequences.
Since at least the early 1960s the field of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in
English literature has recognized a subset
called 'Commonwealth Literature, often asso Post-Colonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft, Gar
eth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin demonstrates the
ciated with two scholars, William Walsh, of
the University of Leeds, and Joseph Jones, of agenda for post-colonial studies in English.
the University of Texas. For the most part This book is of particular interest in that the
Commonwealth literature has consisted of authors are all representative of the younger
studies of individual national literatures, but generation of scholars of ommonwealth liter
there has always been some comparative ature, the descendants of'CWalsh and
work. Both early and notable is J.P. Matthews' However, unlike their forebears they Jones.
Iradition in Exile, an examination of Australian ly conversant with the work of are higt
and Canadian poetry. For the individual re Bhabha and Spivak ana
the poststructuralists in general.
gions, the first major commentators
were Their approach
ably creative writers from the Caribbe an - prob- from the
past, inrepresents
a major change
George Lamming and Wilson Harris - and showed which
little interest in the such as Spivak
figurescritical
from Africa - Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka of traditions
and Ngugi wa Thiongo. As well,
lesser known scholars have labouredgreat many
to nre.
Commonweal
monweal th literature th literature and the Com-
scholars even less in
serve and develop their national
literatures.
Most working on their national literatures postSalThemstanruEmpicturraelistWritestheoryBack. takes its title from
have done so with some
awareness of the
larger issues of Commonwealth pire Rushdie's
Strikes Back With polemical piece, a phrase The Em-
literature, al.
though this has generally been less
Canada. true in represent ative of the *ideology of the book.
ialSaid, Spivak and
a Vengeance,'
While all the cultures which
of European nations can be were colonies rialistcritivique,ews anof theBhabha havedissection
pursued colon-
treated as post oppositional of impe-
colonial there are many spedal cases and ex
ceptions. For example, Ireland is seldomn tthorshemsesuchlves as colonialthetextsproduct of areau-
ant i -c olo ni al,
which
considered in this context, nor is the United
States. Latin American literatures, at least emphas izes Rushdi e.
thwirothugh which termsThe'hybridization,"
whatit Empire Writes Back
partly because of the language of
writing,
usually considered only in their own context are imperenial reimnant
newlycalls n di g enous
s to traditions
combine

trast pos t -co lo ni al

pire in create
something
empire senttheengl. upper
ish, language
to a
a which n-
156 -casloewerEngl-caseish which
blend in con-
the

Points of debate with Empire demonstrate
primaryproblems of the field in general. Em-
for authors, such as
presents little support
pire who write in an indige- phen Slemon, is that disparate cultures such as
Ngugi na Thìongo,
nNuslanguage and reject english as but part of India and Canada begin to look alike, both
rather
Engish. Second. Empire seems to have the in
less interest in a text which speaks for
digenousthan that which speaks against the
imperial. Third. its desire to establish the im-
leads
ortance of the post-colonial statement
to some questionable emphases and evalua
tions, as in the claim that Wilson Harris came
to the same conclusions before Derrida or the
statement that what appears to be postmodern
in contemporary texts from the post-colonial
word is just post-olonial.
kis diffñcult to subsume post-colonial theory
under any one topic but the question of sub
ject pusitions comes closest. This is at least the
Constant subtext of Robert Young's White My
thalogies: INriting History and the West, to date
the best encursion through the central theorists
and central concepts in the debate, from Hegel
and Marx to Bhabha and Spivak. A considera
tion of the titles of some recent central texts is
revealing of preoccupations: Trinh's Woman,
Native, Other, Spivak's In Other Worlds, and
two collections, Bhabha's Nation and Narration
and Third World Women and the Politics of Fem
irism, edited by Mohanty et al. The issue of
subject positions, in all their manifestations,
has led post-colonial scholars to make signifi
cant use of African American critics, especially
bel hooks and "Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Since the early 19gos post-colonial studies
seem to be growing rapidly. (For significant
COmments since 1990 besides the above, in a
wide variety of methods and regions, see Beni
tez-Rojo, Ftz and Miller.) Many major scholars
who work primarily in other areas have re
cently turned to or made comments on coloni
alism, such as TerTy Eagleton and Fredric
Jameson. With this turn comes a variety of im
portant new insights but also a variety of dan
gers. A number of commentators have claimed
that 'post-colonialism' threatens to become one
more totalizing method. The Commonwealth
is often seen as a political anachronism, a view
which in part explains the gradual shift in the
universities of the former British realm from
courses in 'Commonwealth to courses in
´post-colonial. Yet the post-colonial seems
simpBy to regroup under a dilferent heading. A
Post-colonial theory
difficulty in the work of those like Ashcroft,
Griffiths and Tiffin, especially when most im
aginative and creative, as in the work of Ste
exemplars of the post-colonial imagination.
Moreover, cultures such as the indigenous
peoples of Canada, New Zealand and Aus
tralia are designated post-colonial while still
colonies within settler nations (Narogin, Gol
die). However, some indigenous writers, such
as Thomas King, have deemed settler cultures
colonial, because indigenous peoples of allthe
colonized nations had their own developed
cultures before their encounter with Europe
ans. Divergent views on these topics, as on
other theoretical problems, are likely to persist
(see Hart).
JONATHAN HART and TERRY GOLDIE
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 ststruturalisn

Artiis t - E Hettu Meseine Aar Poststructuralism

The term pstsTtr
IWest;et Comn: eenw tus theoretical sge i the
ACative Iuralis The Het
Hart nathan
Methxts an the Case f
engeneity of
Fktinal cois Lvotard) pOstoinis
and deronstution Bandlar
tructuralism
(tuSS
nent in the erterr al
Rst Suth Etr, t . thors ost
Jamesn Fti Thint ilortLiterature in the Era
requentiy labeled
((acques Derrida
of Multinational Capitalis Sra Text i5 land Barthes) seliom"Mictel Foaaut
Nori Li as such., and confess
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Narogin, Mudrooroo. Writing frem the Fringe: A very malaise it illuminates the s
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pstder
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Seuil, 1982. Trans. as The de l'Amrique, Paris: rative, thus exposing their
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another
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(See

Routledge, 199o. History

and the West. London: ent.) theoretic turt
Art also takes the in
the assault on reality already
theory and culture in the ra!
ofthe
While this weakening