The Development of Postcolonial Theory (original) (raw)

THE STUDY OF POST – COLONIAL THEORY

Post Colonial is the study of the history ,culture ,literature and that was the main concern in the former colonies of England ,Spain ,France and other powers .Post-Colonial study reveals the exploitation done on the colonized country by the colonized powers .Here, the aim of this study is to analyses the theoretical approach in various colonies that is concerned with the impact of colonization in various countries .Post-colonialism represents an ideological response to colonial thought describing a system that comes after colonialism.

Colonial and Post Colonial Theory

Without colonialism there would be no post-colonialism. Colonialism is about the dominance of a strong nation over another weaker one. Colonialism happens when a strong nation sees that its material interest and affluence require that it expand outside its borders. Colonialism is the acquisition of the colonialist, by brute force, of extra markets, extra resources of raw material and manpower from the colonies. The colonialist, while committing these atrocities against the natives and territories of the colonies, convinces himself that he stands on high moral grounds. His basic assumptions in defense of his actions are: The colonized are savages in need of education and rehabilitation The culture of the colonized is not up to the standard of the colonizer, and it's the moral duty of the colonizer to do something about polishing it. The colonized nation is unable to manage and run itself properly, and thus it needs the wisdom and expertise of the colonizer. The colonized nation embraces a set of religious beliefs incongruent and incompatible with those of the colonizer, and consequently, it is God's given duty of the colonizer to bring those stray people to the right path. The colonized people pose dangerous threat to themselves and to the civilized world if left alone; and thus it is in the interest of the civilized world to bring those people under control. As a result of this the white Europeans ventured adventurously into the so called underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia and dominated a lot of geographical spaces

Postcolonialism and Postcolonial Historiography

With the collective retreat of colonialism on a global scale, people were beginning to celebrate their entry into a world that had been formally "decolonized." However, the disappearance of the colonizers and the colonized did not alter the original contradictions, and the consequences of colonialism continue to be felt in the political, economic, cultural institutions, and even in the popular mentality of all former colonies and all countries that emphasize the tension between themselves and Western hegemony. Colonies that were originally mere colonies in Western cartography, although they have been regarded as independent modern nation-states, are in many ways nothing more than imitations and copies of their former conquerors. That national identity, which was used to define the self, not only did not become stronger with the departure of the colonizers but was also somewhat confused by the onslaught of ethnicism. 1 Even those countries that had never been colonized, faced with the impact of the "second colonization" within the global capitalist system, had to embrace it with a certain sense of redemption and regret. Postcolonialism is a response to this situation, emphasizing the urgency and relevance of the continued "decolonization" of formerly colonized countries, or the Third World in general, and seeking to dismantle the Westerncentric cultural and political landscape and redefine the cultural identity of the Third World and its national cultural outlook. Postcolonialism's clear sense of practice and its strong "counter-discourse" characteristic make it one of the most influential and rapidly expanding fields of academic research, 2 spanning Note: Translation from the Chinese text "Houzhimin zhuyi yu houzhimin shixue" by Q. Edward Wang.

The Praxis of Colonialism and Postcolonialism: An Outline

IJRAR - International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews, 2019

Postcolonial is a period of freedom and exemption from European colonial clutches and grasping. It is quite necessary to define the word 'colonialism' before understanding 'postcolonialism.' P K Nayar in his seminal book Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction projects light upon the etymology of the word as thus "The term 'colony' once meant something very different. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the fourteenth-century term, 'colonye,' derived from the Latin 'colon-us,' meaning farmer, cultivator, planter, or settler in a new country, was used to describe the Roman settlements in the fourteenth century" (1-2). Colonialism is a gradual process of settling down Europeans in various corners of the world and considering themselves superior to those where they settled down. They migrated to non-European countries and started forming colonies and began to establish their own rules and regulation and imposed upon the colonized. Sometimes it was quite harsh and, most of the time, inhuman. The process of migration is continued since the existence of the earth and human beings kept on moving in quest of a better life and safe places. But the eighteenth and nineteenth-century scenario is extremely awful and consternation where the colonizers moved to exploit the colonized places and contaminated the previously established social cultures and introduce their own. Let's see what OED reads, "Colonialism is an alleged policy of exploitation of backward, or weak peoples by a large power." Colonialism is a derogatory word and it is a sort of stigma on colonizers. It is the second name of cruelty, oppression, exploitation, hate, servitude, racism and inequality. Colonization is dreadful for native races, cultures and spaces. Their intention at the beginning of these settlers was just to trade and later, seeing the gullible and hospitable nature of the people, their cunningness came out and they invited several people from their country and gradually tried to control and train the native people in their own way. They came to trade with the permission of local Nawabs and rulers, but with the passage of time, these traders conquered those local nawabs and rulers and became the ruler of those areas and started subjugating the people of the area. Colonialism brought destruction for the native knowledge, culture, art and understanding. Colonizers started to command the economy, politics and society as per their crafty intention. They introduced massive changes by demoralizing Indian values, customs and practices. Native people began to see their own customs and rituals with susceptible eyes in which they used to believe firmly. In India, they replace dhoti, kurta, turban, saree with shirts, pants, coats, ties and gowns. The products of colonialism are hybrid; they oscillate between their native culture and colonial culture. The colonization process started forcefully but later on it impacted on the mentality of the native people. They began to subjugate mentally, making the natives considered inferior, uncivilized, illiterate and so on. P K Nayar, quoting the most famous Orientalist scholar Edward Said, says, "Colonialism cannot be seen merely as a political or economic 'condition': it was a powerful cultural and epistemological conquest of the native populations" (Postcolonial Literature: An Introduction 3).

Post Colonialism and Culture

Colonialism has a great impact on the colonized culture, culture that is subjugated by the colonizers. Colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition, and expansion of colony in one territory by a political power from another territory. Ronald J. Harvath in his essay A definition of colonialism says, “Colonialism is a form of domination-the control by individuals or groups over the territory and/or behavior of other individuals or groups. (3)” Invasion towards culture by the colonizer was always prominent as it domination of this was a great tool for them to hegemonize the colonized. Even though the colonizers left, they burdened us with their culture’s impact on ours for which we have seen the birth of a mimic man, rise of language debate, identity crisis, etc. Post colonialism is an academic discipline featuring methods of intellectual discourse that analyze, explain, and respond to the cultural legacies of colonialism and imperialism, to the human consequences of controlling a country and establishing settlers for the economic exploitation of the native people and their land. Through post colonial analysis the role of a mimic man to social change, language debate and identity crisis of the colonized can be re discovered.

Colonialism and Post-Colonialism

unizar.es

from. A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology. http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia\_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html by José Ángel García Landa. (University of Zaragoza, Spain). Colonialism and Post-Colonialism. Top ten. Early works. ...