POST-CO LO NI A L I S M

COLONIALISM
• THE LEGITIMIZED MODERN INVASION, OCCUPATION AND EXPLOITATION OF AN
INHABITED LAND BY A FOREIGN MILITARY POWER.

• IMPOSITION OF ALIEN RULES AND THE UNIMPEDED USE OF NATURAL

RESOURCES AND MANPOWER.

• INDIGENOUS/NATIVE INHABITANTS' CULTURE AND TRADITIONS ARE

ELIMINATED.
POST-COLONIALISM
•EMERGED AS A CHALLENGE TO TRADITION AND LEGACY OF COLONIALISM

•IT ATTEMPTS TO
MOVE AWAY FROM THE IDEA OF AN ESTABLISHED POWER
THROUGH CONQUEST

•DEALS WITH THE EFFECTS OF COLONIZATION ON CULTURES AND SOCIETIES

OF THE COLONIAL AND THE COLONIZER
POST COLONIAL LITERATURE
• THIS IS THE BODY OF LITERATURE WRITING THAT REACTS TO THE
DISCUSSION ON COLONIZATION

• IT INVOLVES WRITINGS THAT DEAL WITH ISSUES OF DECOLONIZATION

• A LITERARY CRITIQUE TO TEXTS THAT CARRY RACIST OR COLONIAL

UNDERTONES
THE POST COLONIAL WRITER

• TAKES BASIC ASSUMPTIONS OF BRITISH TEXTS AND REVEALS THESE

ASSUMPTIONS

• E.G. ( CHINUA ACHEBE’S THINGS FALL APART )

POST-COLONIAL CONCEPTS/ISSUES

• ABROGATION
• AGENCY
• EXILE
• DEPENDENCY THEORY
ABROGATION
• THE REJECTION BY POST COLONIAL WRITERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CONCEPT
OF A ‘CORRECT’ OR ‘STANDARD’ ENGLISH USED BY CERTAIN CLASSES OR
GROUPS AND OF THE CORRESPONDING CONCEPTS OF INFERIOR DIALECTS

• OFTEN USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE TERM APPROPRIATION

• ABROGATION IS THE STANCE FROM WHICH APPROPRIATION OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE CAN TAKE PLACE
AGENCY
• REFERS TO THE ABILITY TO ACT OR PERFORM AN ACTION

• IN POST COLONIAL THEORY IT REFERS TO THE ABILITY OF POST COLONIAL

SUBJECTS TO INDICATE ACTION IN ENGAGING OR RESISTING IMPERIAL POWER

• ARE THE FORCES THAT CONSTRUCTED OUR SOCIETY BEFORE INDEPENDENCE

STILL AFFECTING US TODAY?
EXILE
• THE IDEA OF SEPARATION/DISTANCING FROM EITHER A LITERAL HOMELAND
OR FROM A CULTURAL AND ETHNIC ORIGIN.

• CREATES A CONFLICT OF RACE AND ETHNICITY FOR THE ‘NATIVE-

BORN’COLONIZER WHO WISHES TO CLAIM INSIDER KNOWLEDGE AND YET
RETAIN ‘RACIAL’ DISTINCTION.

• COLONIZED PEOPLE PRESSURED TO EXILE THEMSELVES FROM THEIR OWN

CULTURES, LANGUAGES AND TRADITIONS. ALONG WITH THE PRODUCTION OF
THE ‘IN-BETWEEN’CLASS OF ‘WHITE BUT NOT QUITE’.
DEPENDENCY THEORY
• THE CONTINUED IMPOVERISHMENT OF ‘THIRD WORLD’ COUNTRIES IS NOT
INTERNALLY GENERATED BUT A STRUCTURAL CONDITION OF GLOBAL
CAPITALISM.

• MOST ‘UNDERDEVELOPED’ COUNTRIES ARE USUALLY FORMALLY COLONIZED

STATES THAT ARE PREVENTED FROM INDEPENDENT DEVELOPMENT BY
GLOBAL CAPITALISM.
GLOBALIZATION

• THE PROCESS WHEREBY INDIVIDUAL LIVES AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES ARE

AFFECTED BY CULTURAL FORCES THAT OPERATE WORLD-WIDE.

• THE PROCESS OF MAKING THE WORLD ONE PLACE.

POST COLONIALISM AND GLOBALIZATION

• POST COLONIAL THEORIST SEE GLOBALIZATION AS SOMETHING WHICH GOES

BEYOND MODERNISM AND CONTAINS POST COLONIAL CONTENTS

• GLOBALIZATION IS SEEN MORE AS A BREAK AWAY FROM OR A

TRANSCENDENCE OF MODERNITY THAN ITS CONTINUATION

• POST COLONIAL THEORIST ALSO CHALLENGED THE DEPENDENCY THEORIES

OF WESTERN CULTURAL IMPERIALISM
POST-COLONIAL THEORISTS
DEEPIKA BAHRI

• GAYATRI SPIVAK