Postcolonial literature focuses on writing from previously or currently colonized countries dealing with colonization or colonized peoples. Postcolonial theory refers to critical observations of former colonies and how they relate and interact with the rest of the world. It seeks to critically investigate what happens when two cultures clash and one assumes dominance over the other. Edward Said was a prominent figure in developing postcolonial studies and theory through his 1978 book Orientalism, which examined how political power influenced representations of Asia and the Middle East during European imperialism. Postcolonial texts can be those written after independence but still influenced by and dealing with the lingering effects of colonialism on the mind.

1. POST COLONIAL
LITERATURE
A theory on and lens for
life after foreign rule.
By :
MAIZATUL

2. Colonialism
•An extension of a nations rule over territory
beyond its borders.
•It also refers to the establishment and
maintenance of colonies in one territory by
people from another country.
•Colonialism is the process where the
sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the
colonizer.

3. • Focuses on the reading and writing of literature written in
previously or currently colonized countries. The literature is
composed of colonizing countries that deals with colonization or
colonized peoples.
• The Postcolonial theory is a term that refers the theoretical and
critical observations of former colonies of the Western powers and
how they relate to, and interact with, the rest of the world.
• Greatly interested in the cultures of the colonizer and the
colonized, postcolonial theory seeks to critically investigate what
happens when two cultures clash and one of them ideologically
fashions itself as superior and assumes dominance and control
over the other.
• The field of postcolonial studies has itself been hotly contested
ever since its rise in the 1970s.

4. Edward Said
• Probably the most important figure for the rise of
postcolonial studies and theory.
• Born in 1935 in Jerusalem and dies 2003
• Palestinian-American scholar, critic, and writer
• Said, raised as an Anglican, attended a British school in Cairo
then at Princeton and Harvard, he became an academic
literary critic.
• From 1963 until his death he was a professor of English and
comparative literature at Columbia University in New York.

5. •His 1978 book Orientalism reevaluated
an entire historical tradition of
European-American thought, examining
the relation of politicalpower to the
representation of the world, and
generated an entire field of cultural and
postcolonial studies as well as informing
the thinking of scholars in every area of
cultural, social and historical work.

6. Orientalism• Illustrates Asian and Islamic Cultures during European imperialism
and Europe’s goals of maintaining power and domination of non-
Europeans
• He argued that Europe used the Orient and imperialism as a symbol
of its strength and superiority.
• “Said suggested that Orientalists are treated as others—in this case,
Muslims and Asians—and as objects defined not in terms of their
own discourses, but solely in terms of standards and definitions
imposed on them from outside. Among the influences underlying
these definitions was, in Said's view, along-standing Western concern
with presenting Islam as opposed to Christianity.

7. Post Colonial Text
•Any text Which is written after the time of
independence,, is “post colonial text”.
•General belief which is NOT true..
•Any writing which comes after so and so
date, doesn't make it post colonial writing.
For example ,, Chetan Bhagat cannot be
studied ass post colonial writer..

8. Post Colonial Text
•The text which have both the influence Pre independence
time and post independence time.
•It is rather a process which have happened in mind–
“Freeing” from coloniser’s patterns.
•It cannot be divided by some moment of time.
•Because once mind gets colonised, it gets difficult to
overcome the slavery. Even if physically they get free,
mentally they remain COLONISED. So the text which deals
with this conflict, can go under the term.

9. Example of colonial text