Name: Goswami Gayatri Mahipatgiri
Paper: 5, MA –part -1-SEM -2
Topic: post colonial theory
Submitted to: department of English, maharaja Krishna
kumarsingji Bhavnagar University
Colonialism :
The imperialist Expansion of Europe into the rest of
the world during the last four hundred
years in which a dominant imperium or
center carried on a Relation .ship of central and influence aver its margins or
colonies .this relation tended to extend to social , pedologagical ,economic ,political,
and broadly culturally exchanges often with a hierarchical European setter
class and local ,educated elite class forming layers between the European
“mother nation and the various indigenous people who were controlled such a
system carried within it in inherent nations of racial inferiority and exotic
athemess.
Post-colonialism:
Broadly a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures
and societies it is concerned with both how European nation conquered and
controlled “third world” cultures and haw these groups have since responded to
and resisted those encroachments .post-colonialism, as both a body of
theory and a study of political and
cultural changes , as gene and continues to go through three broad stag
1. An initial awareness of the social,
psychological, and cultural inferiority enforced by being in a colonized state.
2. The struggle for
ethnic, cultural and political autonomy.
3. A growing awareness of
cultural overlap and hybridist.
Post-colonial is an
academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyzed
,explain ,and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism , to the human
consequences of country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation
of the native people and their land .drawing from post modern school of thought ,post- colonialism question and
reinvents modes of cultural perception , the way of viewing and of being viewed
.As Anthropology , post- colonialism
Records human relation among the colonial nation and the “subaltern” peoples exploited by colonial rule .as
critical theory ,post-colonial present , explain and illustrates the ideology
and the praxis of neo- colonialism ,with example drawn from the humanities history and political science,
philosophy and Marxist theory , sociology anthropology ,and human
geography ;the cinema , linguistics and post-colonial literature ,
of in which the antic – conquest narrative genre present the stories of colonial
subjection of the subaltern man and women . Colonialism was
presented as “the extension of civilization “ which
ideological justified the self –ascribed superiority of the non- western world
which josepherest rename espoused in do reformed intellectual moral , where by imperial
stewardship would affect the intellectual moral reformation of the colored
people of the lesser cultures of the
world. Post -colonial theory :
“A theory on end dons for life after foreign rule”
.
The obvious implication of the term post-colonial is that
Is refers to a period coming after the end of colonialism, such a commonsense
understanding has much to commend it ,
but that sense of an ending of the
completion of one period of history and the emergence of another , is as we shall see , hard to maintain in
any simple or unproblematic fashion on the era of the great European colonial
empires is over ,and that in itself is a fact of major significance
The Anglo-Irish
novelist j.G.farrell, a post-colonial chronicler of the British Empire’s moment
of crises and certainly chronicler of the on supporter of the system,
nevertheless singled out the decline and dissolution of the empire as the
important event of his lifetime.
The dismantling of
structures of colonial control, beginning in Ernest in the late 1950s constituted
a remarkable historical moment, as country after country gained independence
from the colonizing power. An introduction to post – colonial theory:
Sense in wich a
colonizing power may itself have once been a colony is one of the
starting-point for Joseph Conrad’s heart of darkness. I have seen articles in a
great many places,In the special issue of social text on postcoloniality, which
push the use of the term colonialism back to such a configuration as the Incas
,the Ottomans and the Chinese, well before the Europeans colonial empires began
:and than bring the term forward to cover all kind of national oppressions; as
,for example , the savagery of the Indonesian government in east timer.
“Colonialism” they becomes a trans-historical thing, always present and always
in process of dissolution in one pert of the world or another.
A major contention in post-colonial studies:
Post-colonial studies
is that the overlapping development of the ensemble of European colonial
empires, British, French, Duch, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgium, German- from the
sixteenth century onwards, and their dismantling in the second half of the
twentieth century .the critical analysis of the history, culture, literature, and
modes of discourse that are specific to the former colonies of England, spain,
france, and other European imperial powers.
Use in term “post-colonial”:-
However, to cover all the culture
effected by the imperial process from the moment of colonialism to the present
day .
Definition of the
“post-colonial”:
Of course vary wildly ,but
for me the concept proves most useful not when it is used synonymously with a
post –independence historical period in once –colonized nation ,but rather when
it locates a specifically anti or post colonial discursive purchase in culture,
one wich begins in the moment that colonial power inscribes itself into the
body and space of its others and wich naptimes .
|
Key Terms in Post-Colonial Theory
|
|
Colonialism:
The imperialist
expansion of Europe into the rest of the world during the last four hundred
years in which a dominant emporium or center carried on a relationship of
control and influence over its margins or colonies. This relationship tended
to extend to social, pedagogical, economic, political, and broadly culturally
exchanges often with a hierarchical European settler class and local,
educated (compactor) elite class forming layers between the European
"mother" nation and the various indigenous peoples who were
controlled. Such a system carried within it inherent notions of racial
inferiority and exotic otherness.
post-colonialism:
Broadly a study of
the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. It is concerned with
both how European nations conquered and controlled "Third World"
cultures and how these groups have since responded to and resisted those
encroachments. Post-colonialism, as both a body of theory and a study of
political and cultural change, has gone and continues to go through three
broad stages:
1.
an initial awareness of the
social, psychological, and cultural inferiority enforced by being in a
colonized state
2.
the struggle for ethnic, cultural,
and political autonomy
3.
a growing awareness of cultural
overlap and hybridity
ambivalence:
the ambiguous way in which
colonizer and colonized regard one another. The colonizer often regards
the colonized as both inferior yet exotically other, while the colonized
regards the colonizer as both enviable yet corrupt. In a context of hybridity,
this often produces a mixed sense of blessing and curse.
Alterity:
"the state of being other or different"; the
political, cultural, linguistic, or religious other. The study of the ways in
which one group makes themselves different from others.
education:
the
process by which a colonizing power assimilates either a subaltern native elite colonial or
a larger population to its way of thinking and seeing the world.
Diaspora:
the voluntary or enforced migration of peoples from their
native homelands. Diaspora literature is often concerned with questions
of maintaining or altering identity, language, and culture while in
another culture or country.
essentialism:
the essence or "whiteness" of something.
In the context of race, ethnicity, or culture, essentialism suggests the
practice of various groups deciding what is and isn't a particular
identity. As a practice, essentialism tends to overlook differences
within groups often to maintain the status quo or obtain power.
Essentialist claims can be used by a colonizing power but also by the
colonized as a way of resisting what is claimed about them.
ethnicity:
a fusion of traits that belong to a group–shared values,
beliefs, norms, tastes, behaviors, experiences, memories, and loyalties.
Often deeply related to a person’s identity.
exoticism:
the process by which a cultural practice is made
stimulating and exciting in its difference from the colonializer’s normal
perspective. Ironically, as European groups educated local, indigenous
cultures, schoolchildren often began to see their native lifeways, plants,
and animals as exotic and the European counterparts as "normal" or
"typical."
hegemony:
the power of the ruling class to convince other classes
that their interests are the interests of all, often not only through means
of economic and political control but more subtly through the control of
education and media
.
Hybridity: new
transcultural forms that arise from cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity can be
social, political, linguistic, religious, etc. It is not necessarily a
peaceful mixture, for it can be contentious and disruptive in its
experience. Note the two related definitions: catalysis:
the (specifically New World) experience of several ethnic groups interacting
and mixing with each other often in a contentious environment that gives way
to new forms of identity and experience. creolization:
societies that arise from a mixture of ethnic and racial nixing to form a new
material, psychological, and spiritual self-definition. identity:
the
way in which an individual and/or group defines itself. Identity is important
to self-concept, social mores, and national understanding. It often
involves both essentialism and othering.
ideology:
"a
system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often
taken for granted as natural or inherently true" (Bordwell
& Thompson 494)
language:
In
the context of colonialism and post-colonialism, language has often become a
site for both colonization and resistance. In particular, a return to the
original indigenous language is often advocated since the language was
suppressed by colonizing forces. The use of European languages is a
much debated issue among postcolonial authors.
abrogation: a refusal to
use the language of the colonizer in a correct or standard way.
appropriation: "the process by which the language is made to 'bear the burden' of one's own cultural experience." magical realism:
the
adaptation of Western realist methods of literature in describing the
imaginary life of indigenous cultures who experience the mythical, magical,
and supernatural in a decidedly different fashion from Western ones. A
weaving together elements we tend to associate with European realism and
elements we associate with the fabulous, where these two worlds undergo a
"closeness or near merging."
mapping:
the
mapping of global space in the context of colonialism was as much
prescriptive as it was descriptive. Maps were used to assist in the
process of aggression, and they were also used to establish claims.
Maps claims the boundaries of a nation, for example.
metanarrative:
("grand
narratives," "master narratives.") a large cultural story that
seeks to explain within its borders all the little, local narratives. A
metanarrative claims to be a big truth concerning the world and the way it
works. Some charge that all metanarratives are inherently oppressive
because they decide whether other narratives are allowed or not.
mimicry:
the
means by which the colonized adapt the culture (language, education,
clothing, etc.) of the colonizer but always in the process changing it in
important ways. Such an approach always contains it in the ambivalence
of hybridist.
nation/nation-state:
an
aggregation of people organized under a single government. National interest
is associated both with a struggle for independent ethnic and cultural
identity, and ironically an opposite belief in universal rights, often
multicultural, with a basis in geo-economic interests. Thus, the move for
national independence is just as often associated with region as it is with
ethnicity or culture, and the two are often at odds when new nations are
formed.
oirientalism:
the
process (from the late eighteenth century to the present) by which "the
Orient" was constructed as an exotic other by European studies and
culture. Orientalism is not so much a true study of other cultures as it is
broad Western generalization about Oriental, Islamic, and/or Asian cultures
that tends to erode and ignore their substantial differences.
other:
the
social and/or psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalizes
another group. By declaring someone "Other," persons tend to stress
what makes them dissimilar from or opposite of another, and this carries over
into the way they represent others, especially through stereotypical images.
race:
the
division and classification of human beings by physical and biological
characteristics. Race often is used by various groups to either
maintain power or to stress solidarity. In the 18th and19th centuries, it was
often used as a pretext by European colonial powers for slavery and/or the
"white man's burden."
semiotics:
a
system of signs which one knows what something is. Cultural semiotics often
provide the means by which a group defines itself or by which a colonial zing
power attempts to control and assimilate another group.
space/place:
space
represents a geographic locale, one empty in not being designated. Place, on
the other hand, is what happens when a space is made or owned. Place
involves landscape, language, environment, culture, etc.
subaltern:
the lower or
colonized classes who have little access to their own means of expression and
are thus dependent upon the language and methods of the ruling class to
express themselves.
wording:
the process by
which a person, family, culture, or people is brought into the dominant
Eurocentric/Western global society.
|
