Postcolonial Theory

Postcolonial Literature

Identity

Major Postcolonial Theorists

Edward Said

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Mary Louise Pratt

Franz Fanon

The Hungry Tide
# # # # # # #

Cambridge # # # #

Homi Bhabha

Abeng # #

Americanah # # #

Disgrace # #

Colonial Literature

Heart of Darkness # #

Subaltern # #

Hybridity: the amalgamation of two cultures, that of the colonizer and that of the colonized, into one unique identity

Mimicry: occurs when colonized people copy and assume the culture of the colonizers, and is both a way for the colonized people to camouflage themselves and to assert their own power

Assimilation

Appropriation #

Resistance # #

Rejection #

Politics

Sati #

Orientalism: The patronizing and romanticized way the Occident represents the "East" # #

Occident: Western countries

Representation #

Colonialism

Pre

Post # #

During #

Local #

National #

Global #

Independence # #

Imperialism # # # # #

# # #

click to edit

Creole Self-Fashioning: occurs when the colonizer knows that their downfall is coming and therefore attempts to reinvent themselves so that new identities can emerge from the shared space

Contact Zone #

Autoethnography: the representation of a culture by that culture #

Disgrace takes place in post-apartheid South Africa

The character Kusum is subaltern because we never hear her perspective in her own voice in the novel

Heart of Darkness contains many racist descriptions of Africans, especially during the "first-contact" moments

The tiger conservation efforts involves the Indian government and Western NGO's

The West Bengal government evicted Hindu Bengalis from the Sundarbans and created a refugee crisis which culminated with the Morichjhanpi massacre. The incident is the backdrop for this novel.

The refugee crisis creates a moral crisis in Lusibari when Nilima and Nirmal disagree on what is best for the village

British imperialists misconstrued the widow sacrifice practice of sati into "suttee" and did not bother to actually learn about the ritual before they abolished it in 1829

Conrad uses Heart of Darkness as a medium on which to critique imperialism, but he generally does not offer his own opinions

Ifemelu does not feel represented in America or in Nigeria

Fokir refuses to assimilate to modern life in Luisibari, and continues to violate new laws against crabbing in conservation areas in order to make a living, and also wants his son to follow in his footsteps and become a fisherman

Religion #

Cambridge completely identifies as a Christian, even though he is no longer a free preacher in England, but now a slave in the West Indies. His Christianity inhibits his understanding of his own enslavement, which prevents him from rebelling against his masters.

Emily's father owns the sugar plantation where Cambridge is a slave

Cambridge takes place in the West Indies in the 19th Century, after the slave trade was abolished in England, but before the institution of slavery was abolished in England

Americanah takes place about fifty years after Nigeria gained independence from Great Britain

Christiania is subaltern because we never get to hear her perspective and is therefore completely misunderstood

National Culture: must be recreated by formerly colonized countries in order to achieve national liberation after the country has already regained independence # #

Petrus and his family are working together to try and rebuild South Africa's national culture by literally going back to their roots and establishing themselves as successful farmers

Americans, like Piya, refuse to understand how their personal conservation efforts, and the general policies they support, place human rights below animal rights

Aunty Uju instructs Ifemelu on how to assimilate to American life, for example by relaxing her hair just as she does, in order to survive

Acceptance #

Abeng attempts to demonstrate how imperialism has repressed Jamaica both historically and culturally

Michelle Cliff, the author of Abeng, uses the novel as her own way of reclaiming her culture's history and reminding Jamaicans of what they were taught to forget

The Hungry Tide takes place over fifty years after India gained independence from Great Britain