Postcolonial studies

Name         :                 Jumani pooja k

Roll   no      :                          07                

Sem            :                      2

Part            :                      1

Paper No   :              E-C- 205: Cultural studies  

Topic          :            postcolonial studies

Year           :                2011-12                   

                                                      

                                                                       Submitted by

                                                                       Dr Dilip barad

                                                                       Department of English

                                                  Bhavnagar University

Postcolonial    studies

Introduction to postcolonial studies:

The field of postcolonial studies has been going prominence since the 1970s. some world date its rise in the western academy from the publication of Edward sad’s influential critique of western constructivism. The growing currency within the academy of the term “postcolonial”(some times hyphenated)was consolidated by the appearance in 1989 of the Empire writes Back; theory and practs in postcolonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, an   Helen Tiffin. Since then the use of cognate terms “commonwealth” and third world” that were used to describe the Literature of Europe’s former colonies has become rarer.

Postcolonilism refers to a historical phase undergone by third world worries after decline of colonialism: for example, when countries in Asia, separated from the European empires and they left to rebuild themselves. Sometime other many third world writers focus on cloth colonialism and changes create in postcolonial culture.

Among the many challenges facing postcolonial writers are the attempts both to resurrect their culture and to combat the preconceptions about their culture.

Postcolonial is very general since, it is study of the interaction between European nations and the societies they are colonized in the modern period. They are deli eve of the 85%of the rest of the global by the time of the First World War, having consolidated its control over several centuries.

The list former colonies of European power are a long one. They are livider into settle and non settle countries (Indian, Jamaica, Nigeria, Senegal, sir Lanka). Countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe which were partially settle by colonial populations complicate even this sampled division between settle and non settle.

Post-colonial adds of relating to or being the time following the establishment of independence or a colony: postcolonial economics.

The formation of the colony through various mechanisms of control and the various stages in the development of anti colonial nationalism interest many scholars in the field.

Major issues:

Despite the reservations and debates, research in postcolonial studies is growing because postcolonial critique allows for a wide- ranging investigation into power relation in various contexts. The formation of empire, the impact of colonization on postcolonial history, economy, science, and culture. The cultural productions of colonized societies, feminism and Postcolonilism agency for-marginalized people, and the state of the post colony in contemporary economic and cultural contexts are some broad topic in the field.

The following questions suggest some of the major issues in the field

How did the experience of colonization affect those who were colonize while also influencing the colonizers?

How were colonial powers able to gain control over so large a portion of the non- western world?

What traces have been left by colonial education, science and technology in postcolonial societies?

Which writers should be included in the postcolonial canon?

Has the preponderance of the postcolonial novel led to a neglect of the other genres?

Major Figures  

Some of best know names in postcolonial literature and theory are those of Chinua Achebe, Homi Bhabha, buchi Emechete, Frontz Fanon, Jamalca Kincaid, salman Rushdies. A more compreche nsive although by no means exhaustive list follows.

Post- colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlie the “logic” of colonialism are still active forces today.

Above all major figures but Among the most important figures in postcolonial feminism is Gayatri Chakravorty spivak, who examines the effects of political independence upon “subaltern’s subproletarian woman studies by the dialogue between the male- dominated west and the male- dominated East, offering little hope for the subaltern woman’s voice to rise up amidst the global social institutions that oppress her.

Postcolonilism

(postcolonial theory, postcolonial studies, post-colonial theory) is a specifically postmodern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism Postcolonilism is dentinal in anthropology as the relations between European nations and areas they colonized and once ruled Postcolonilism comprises a set of theories founded amongst story, anthology, philosophy, linguistics, film, political science, architecture, human geography, soclogy, Marxist theory, feminidm, religious and theological studies, and literature.

Subject matters

“The find hour of colonialism has struck and millions of inhabitants of Africa, Asia and Latin America rise to mead a new life and demand their unrestricted right to self- determination.”

The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing western ways of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the Postcolonilism is taken literary, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This however is problematic because the once-colonized world is full of”contfusions, of hybridist, and liminalities.” In other world, it is important to accept the pleural nature of the world post colonialism as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era.

Criticism  of focusing on national identity:  

Scholars criticize and question the recent postcolonial focus on national identity. The Moroccan scholar Bin Abd al- Ali arwes. That what is seen in contemporary Middle Eastern  studies is a pathological obsession with identity Nevertheless kumaraswamy and sadiki argue that the  problem of the lack of Middle Eastern identity formative is widespread, and that identity is an important aspect of understanding the politics of the contemporary Middle East whether the countries are Islamic regimes, republican regimes, quasi- liberal monarchies democracies, or evolving democracies ‘the Middle Eastern region suffers from the inability to recognize, integrate and reflect its ethno- cultural diversity.

Postcolonial literature 

Postcolonial literature is a body of literary writing that readers to the discourse of colonization.

Founding works on post colonialism

Edward said:      Orientalism (1978)

Aime  cesaire:    Discourse on colonialism (1950)

Frantz Fanon:     Black skin, white marks (1952)

Frantz fanon:      The wretched of the Earth (1961)

Albert Memmi:   The colonizer and the colonized (1965)

In Postcolonilism and related fields, subaltern refersa to persons social politically, and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure.