1. POSTCOLONIALIST CRITICISM
*Material gratefully adapted from Gemma Costa’s 2010 “Postcolonialism” via Slideshare

2. Colonialism: Post… what?
¤ An extension of a nation’s rule over territory beyond its borders
¤ a population that is subjected to the political domination of another population
Militaristic ( the physical conquest and occupation of territories)
Civilizational (the conquest and occupation of minds, selves, and cultures)

3. Most classical literature comes from the voices of DWG’s (dead white guys), and that means it’s usually written from the perspective of colonialism.

4. The ugly reality of colonialist views…
¤ the historical story whereby the “West” attempts systematically to cancel or negate the cultural difference and value of the “non-West” (Leela Gandhi,1998) This makes it “okay” to colonize!

5. Postcolonialism?
¤ Acknowledges an evolution in academia to consider the untold stories of the oppressed. ¤ Postcolonialism = a literary lens! The focus of this lens is upon exposing the injustices suffered by oppressed groups and the contrast between their worldviews/the oppressors’.

6. Topics and terms for the postcolonial scholar
-Social Darwinism -Eurocentrism -White Man’s Burden * What was thought to be an obligation to “civilize” non-European people -Racism -Hegemony -Exploitation -Counter-narrative -Cultural borderlands
Social Darwinism refers to various ideologies based on a concept of competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas drives social evolution in human societies . Eurocentrism is a term coined during the period of decolonization in the later 20th century to refer to the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture. The term Eurocentrism implies criticism of the concerns and values at the expense of non-Europeans and is not used by those who consider it factually justified.

7. Postcolonialist Criticism: The Literary Lens
►Examining colonizers/colonized relationship in literature ■ Is the work pro/anti colonialist? Why? ■ Does the text reinforce or resist colonialist ideology? ► Types of oppression ■ What tools do the colonizers use to demean or oppress the colonized? ■ What psychological aftermath are the colonized people left with? ■ Considering the present as well as the past ■ Is the author using the language of a colonizer?

8. Questions to prompt postcolonial analysis:
How does the literary text, explicitly or allegorically, represent various aspects of colonial oppression?
What does the text reveal about the problematics of post-colonial identity, including the relationship between personal and cultural identity within cultural borderlands?
What person(s) or groups does the work identify as "other" or stranger? How are such persons/groups described and treated?
What does the text reveal about the politics and/or psychology of anti-colonialist resistance?

9. What does the text reveal about the operations of cultural difference - the ways in which race, religion, class, cultural beliefs, and customs combine to form individual identity - in shaping our perceptions of ourselves, others, and the world in which we live?
How does a literary text in the Western canon reinforce or undermine colonialist ideology through its representation of colonization and/or its inappropriate silence about colonized peoples? (Tyson )

10. Warnings for the amateur
Don’t be afraid to be critical of an author’s portrayal of race. If it makes you uncomfortable, there’s probably something wrong with it.
Do not get sucked in to “positive stereotyping.” Casting the colonized person as a purely innocent, angelic culture to be pitied is almost as bad as demonizing. That’s not acknowledging complexity.
If you are white, this legacy can be difficult to accept. But it’s the history you inherited, so learn to deal with it now.
Any text, even one that doesn’t seem to be “about” race/culture, can be examined from a postcolonial lens.