Postcolonialism

Time’, ‘space’, ‘place’ are some of the frequently used (sometimes misused) terms in literature, and they have been defined in different ways and from various theoretical perspectives. In the colonial discourse, in particular, the concept ‘place’ was closely related to knowledge and power in so far as the process of mapping the ‘other spaces ‘ was deployed to reproduce dominant world view. While the tenants of imperialism are teleological, its practices have always been geographic. As Edward…

Michael Parenti, The Face of Imperialism, 2011 Michael Parenti received his Ph. D. from Yale university. He is an internationally known award-winning author, scholar, and lecturer who addresses a wide variety of political and cultural subjects. He now serves on the advisory boards of Independent Progressive Politics, Education Without Borders, and the Jasenovic Foundation. He has currently written 23 books with topics on theocracy and other religious sins, democracy and economic power,…

Hybrid noun Hybrid is defined as something that is a combination of two different things. www.yourdictionary.com Now fuse the word hybrid to desserts, this would how it turns out. Brownie Cookies by Brownies Unlimited Brownie Cookies by Brownies Unlimited (Photo by: Redelyn Juan) Brownie Cookies The decadent creation is a brood of Brownie and chocolate chip cookie. You’ll less likely munch chocolate chip cookies after eating this. Brownie cookies are something to bring home for the kids.…

Returning the “Gaze” Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John is an attempt at writing back to a hegemonic colonial discourse. The protagonist of this postcolonial bildungsroman, Annie, is struggling to form an identity while adhering to colonial ideologies forced upon her. However, her ability to write and speak back is limited to the colonial culture, specifically English literature and language. She uses the culture that is oppressing her as a means of liberation. Similarly, Homi Bhabha argues that a…

Some critics have been fairly harsh with their views on Orientalism, even going so far as to “[accuse] Said of perpetuating the same Eastern stereotypes for which he has faulted the Western imperialist” (“Edward W. Said” 336). Others simply focused on the imperfections in his arguments, stating that they were weak or could have had more impact (336). In his review of Orientalism in 1980, Malcolm H. Kerr states that “Edward Said, a literary critic loaded with talent, has certainly made a splash…

In the second and third chapter of The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon discusses the stakes of the struggle for independence. Continuing where he stopped in the preceding chapter “On Violence,” he elaborates on the dangers and possible pitfalls during and after the revolutionary struggle would prevent the former colonies to emerge as truly independent nations. At the center of Fanon’s assessment lays the development of a humanism that supersedes the nationalism that unifies in the…

Orientalism is a term which indicates how the West perceives the East as the ‘other’. Edward Said published his controversial book Orientalism in 1978, which talks about how Orientalism forms an inferior Orient, in terms of knowledge and domination. Edward Said opens his introduction by mentioning the Western’s misconception about the East arguing that “The Orient was almost a European invention” (Said 1). The Orient played a significant role in the creation of the European culture and it…

The word ‘post’ implies, it is also the literature written after the end of formal colonial rule. The post-colonial style of writing is a branch of post-modern literature, the interest of which is political and cultural independence of peoples formerly subjugated in colonial empires. Post-colonial literature should be clearly separated from colonial literature. Colonial writing is a production of the authors who belong to the colonizing power. The label ‘post colonial’ asks for a shift in focus,…

In ‘The Rhetoric of Empire’, David Spur explores the discourse that Western journalists, travel writers and imperial administrators have used to depict the non-Western world using tropes, which he identifies through a careful analysis, tracing various sorts of writings from different historical contexts, and studying the way in which these tropes have been deployed. Among these rhetorical modes are surveillance, classification, and affirmation; framing these themes proves very much useful, as it…

Postcolonial author Zadie Smith offers “a new rhythm of life” in her fiction (Fanon 1442). Born in London, England to a Jamaican mother and British father, Smith’s stories of multicultural families and the-search-for-self narrative examine the postcolonial world with humor. Her novels and essays, including White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and NW, invoke the existence of a new type of character, the displaced but hopeful hybrid. Psychiatrist and philosopher Frantz Fanon describes postcolonial…