This document provides an overview of postcolonial theory and criticism. It discusses key concepts such as Orientalism, cultural imperialism, and the subaltern. It examines works by prominent postcolonial theorists like Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha. Methods of postcolonial analysis include examining the historical, physical, ideological, gender, and cultural aspects of colonial relationships. Postcolonial literature and criticism aims to resist and revise the Western canon by introducing marginalized voices and exposing colonialist perspectives and silences.

2. What would have happened if the
Philippines had never been colonized?

3. “Until the lion learns
how to write, every
story will glorify the
hunter.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire

7. Post-Colonial
Studies Jerome J. Salay
MAT-English
Eng 203-Literary Criticism

8. Colonialism

9. Colonialism deals with the
practice of acquiring full, or
partial, control over another
country occupying it with
settlers and exploiting it
economically.

10. Postcolonial discourse
is more likely a
reading strategy that
aims to identify the
consequences of
imperialism.

11. It attempts to
rewrite and correct
history.

13. Imperialism is defined as the domination of poor countries
through politics, economy, and also military forces.

15. Cultural impact
of the colonized
people

16. “the Other” or
the “Subaltern”
The people whose countries were
taken away or dominated by
powerful nations.

20. Places of Postcolonialism
• Latin
America
• Africa
• East and
Southeast
Asia
• South Asia
• Carribean • Polynesia
• United
States

21. The powerful European nations were superior.

22. “The identity of a
Filipino today is of
a person asking
what is his identity.”
– Nick Joaquin

23. Historical period: after the end of
colonialism
The way of reading: text and colonial
heritage, text and colonial immigrants,
text and the themes of colonialism and
imperialism
Postcolonialism

25. • 23 percent
• 102 countries

27. Postcolonial literature is the literature by people
from formerly colonized countries. ... It addresses the
role of literature in perpetuating and challenging what
postcolonial critic Edward Said refers to as cultural
imperialism.

29. Postcolonial
Criticism

31. It mainly focuses on postcolonial literature written by citizens
of current or former colonies.
It may examine the way in which writers from colonized
countries attempt to articulate their own often marginalized
experience.
It articulates their identity under or in the aftermath of
colonization.

33. Use of language
to justify their
dominance.

34. Postcolonialism
refers to a historical
phase undergone by
Third World countries
after the decline of
colonialism.

35. Postcolonialism is the critical academic study
of the cultural legacy of colonialism and
imperialism, focusing on the human
consequences of the control and exploitation of
colonized people and their lands. More
specifically, it is a critical theory analysis of the
history, culture, literature, and discourse of
(usually European) imperial power.

36. Postcolonialism and What Postcolonial Critics Do

37. Post-colonial critics are concerned with
literature produced by colonial powers and
works produced by those who were/are
colonized.

38. Frantz Fanon
Fought in the
Algerian War of
Independence

39. In The Wretched of the Earth
(1961), psychiatrist and
philosopher Frantz Fanon
analyzes and medically
describes the nature of
colonialism as essentially
destructive.

41. Fanon inspired people globally to
take action and fight for their
freedom.

42. Edward Said
Considered by E. San
Juan, Jr. as "the originator
and inspiring patron-saint
of postcolonial theory and
discourse."

43. In Edward Said’s book
“Orientalism” it is clear that
orientalism is the project of
European/Western for having
authority over the orient and
reconstruct in European thinking. In
another word, it’s the concept for
dominating, manipulating, exploiting
the orient. An interestedness in Orient
world recorded in so many Western
texts.

44. Through colonization, Western Europe
divided the world into the Occident
(West), and the Orient (East).
Occident Orient

45. Other
It is the term being described as
the state of being different or
Alien to the established norm.

46. Said suggests that the
West’s idea of the east is
often an exoticized or
misrepresented version of
reality.

47. Attempted to explain how
the European/Western
colonizers looked upon
the ―Orient.

49. The concept of the
―East i.e the ―orient
was created by the
―West suppressing the
ability of the ―Orient to
express themselves.

51. This allows the ―West
to identify themselves as
the opposite of these
characteristics: as a
superior world that was
progressive, rational,
and civil.

52. The natives must
violently resist colonial
subjugation.

53. Gayatri Chakravorty
Spivak
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was born
in 1942
• Is thought of as one of the three co-
founders of postcolonial theory.
• Her main work on the postcolonial
theory was her Critique of
Postcolonial Reason: Toward a
History of the Vanishing Present
(1999)
• Her work combines Marxism,
feminism, and deconstruction.

54. Subaltern is not just a classy word for
"oppressed", for The Other, for somebody who's
not getting a piece of the pie... In postcolonial
terms, everything that has limited or no access to
the cultural imperialism is subaltern—a space of
difference. Now, who would say that's just the
oppressed? The working class is oppressed. It's
not subaltern.... Many people want to claim
subalternity.

55. Homi K. Bhabha

56. In The Location of Culture (1994),
theoretician Homi K. Bhabha argues that
viewing the human world as composed of
separate and unequal cultures, rather than as
an integral human world, perpetuates the
belief in the existence of imaginary peoples
and places—"Christendom" and the "Islamic
World", "First World," "Second World," and
the "Third World."

57. To counter such linguistic and
sociological reductionism, postcolonial praxis
establishes the philosophic value of hybrid
intellectual spaces, wherein ambiguity
abrogates truth and authenticity; thereby,
hybridity is the philosophic condition that
most substantively challenges the ideological
validity of colonialism.

58. METHODS OF
ANALYSIS

59. Historical
Aspect
Trace the history of
colonialism and subjugation
during the colonial period. In
this case, there’s always the
subject and the object of
colonialism.

60. Physical and
psychological aspect
Oppression and
intimidation, are the ways to
make colonized feel weak,
frightened, devaluate pride,
submissive, and obedient to
the colonizer.

61. Ideological
aspect
In whose
perspective it
is narrated ,
colonizer or
colonized?

62. Gender
aspect
Man as colonizer,
woman as
colonized.

63. Cultural aspect
Domination of a
certain culture,
including
ethnicity, race
and religion.

64. An Example
“Jane Austen and
Empire” by Edward
Said

65. Thomas Bertram
The character that maintained
Mansfield Park earns his money
through an estate he owns in
Antigua.

66. He then points out that the
Caribbean estate would have
undoubtedly been a sugar plantation
with slaves, making inherently
connected to Britain’s colonial
history.

67. He then points out that the
Caribbean estate would
have undoubtedly been a
sugar plantation with slaves,
making inherently connected
to Britain’s colonial history.

68. He admits that this
background does not form
the huge part of the text but
still says that this is an
important detail to spark in
reading the novel as an
allusion to the foreign
estate are allusions to the
unsavory parts of history.

70. He says that the novel perfectly captures the way in which the
white colonist oppresses the figure of the black slave.

71. Because the slave planters are both central to the novel
through their labor which sustains the British estate
Mansfield Park and also marginalized due to their lack of
presence in the text.

73. Subjects of
postcolonial
literature

74. Social and cultural
change or erosion
It seems that after
independence is achieved,
one question arises;
what is the new cultural
identity?

75. Misuse of power and
exploitation

76. Colonial abandonment
and alienation
This topic is generally brought up
to examine individuals and not
the ex-colony as a whole. The
individuals tend to ask
themselves: in this new country,
where do I fit in and how do I
make a living?

77. Use of English
language
literature

78. Examining
colonizer/colonized
relationships in literature

79. Is the work pro/anti colonialist?
Why?

80. Does the text
reinforce or resist
colonialist
ideology?

81. Tries to
introduce/expose
―otherized
works.

82. What is the prevalent culture in
the work?

83. Resisting/
Revising the
canon

84. The Western canon is the body of high culture
literature, music, philosophy, and works of art that is
highly valued in the West: works that have achieved the
status of classics.

85. 1. Postcololial critics challenge the idea that the Western
perspective is the universal experience of the world and
show the limitations of the perspective of much canonical
western literature, particularly its ability to empathize with
other races and cultures.

86. 2. They examine the author’s
depiction of cultures that are
different to their own.

87. 3. Postcolonial critics
expose literature that
is purposefully silent
on more distasteful
areas of colonial
history, such as
slavery.

88. 4. They examine ideas of cultural
difference in a vast amount of
literary works.

89. 5. They celebrate multiculturalism
and cultural pluralism, in which
many ethnic groups enter into a
dialogue with each other and
collaborate without any group
subjugating to the other or
sacrificing their cultural identity.

90. 6. They focus on states marginalization and
“Otherness” as a potential starting point for real
cultural and national change, celebrating narrative
voices from relatively marginalized groups within
literature.

91. The key question for
writers and critics is how
to retrieve (or gain for the
first time) their “lost” and
“unified” identity.

92. Commonly Cited Works of Fiction
and Poetry
America is in the Heart (autobiographical), Carlos Bulosan (1946)
The Bamboo Dancers, N.V.M. Gonzalez (1959)
Dogeaters (novel, nominated for National Book Award), Jessica Hagedorn(1990)
Many Voices (poetry), José García Villa (1939)
The Peninsulars (deals with influences of Spanish colonization),Linda Ty-
Casper (1964)
“Scent of Apples” (short story), Bienvenido Santos (1979)
State of War (novel), Ninotchka Rosca (1988)
Ilustrado, Miguel Syjuco (2010)
When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (1999)
American Son, Brian Ascalon Roley (2001)
Dream Jungle, Jessica Hagedorn (2003)
When the Elephant Dances, Tess Uriza Holthe (2002)
Magdalena, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (2002)

93. Latin America
• Alejo
Carpentier, The
Lost Steps
(1956);
• Carlos Fuentes,
The Death of
Artemio Cruz
(1964);
• Julio Cortázar,
Hopscotch
(1966);
• Mario Vargas
Llosa, The Green
House (1968);
• Gabriel García
Márquez, One
Hundred Years of
Solitude (1970);
• Manuel Puig,
Betrayed by Rita
Hayworth (1971);
• Marta Traba,
Mothers and
Shadows (1983);
• Severo Sarduy,
Colibri (1984);
• Isabel Allende,
House of the
Spirits (1985);
• Silviano
Santiago, Stella
Manhattan
(1985);
• Diamela Eltit,
The Fourth World
(1995);
• João Gilberto
Noll, Hotel
Atlantico (1989)

94. Africa
• Amos Tutuola,
The Palm-Wine
Drinkard and His
Dead Palm-Wine
Tapster in
the Dead's Town
(1953);
• Naguib Mahfouz,
Palace Walk (1956–
1957);
• Chinua Achebe,
Things Fall Apart
(1958);
• Ousmane
Sembène, God's
Bits of Wood
(1962);
• Bloke Modisane,
Blame Me on
History (1963);
• Tayeb Salih,
Season of Migration
to the North (1969);
• Wole Soyinka,
Death and the
King's Horseman
(1975);
• Ngugi wa
Thiong'o, Petals of
Blood (1977);
• Mariama Bâ, So
Long A Letter
(1980);
• Nadine Gordimer,
July's People
(1981);
• Buchi Emecheta,
The Rape of Shavi
(1983);
• Nuruddin Farah,
Maps (1986);
• Assia Djebar,
Fantasia: An
Algerian Cavalcade
(1989)

95. East and Southeast Asia
1967
• Eileen
Chang, The
Rouge of the
North
1975
• Pramoedya
Ananta Toer,
The Fugitive
1975
• John Okada,
No-No Boy
1982
• Theresa
Hak Kyung
Cha, Dictée
1983
• Wendy Law-
Yone, The
Coffin Tree
1989
• Amy Tan,
The Joy Luck
Club
1990
• Jessica
Tarahata
Hagedorn,
Dogeaters
1995
• Pak Won-
so, The
Naked Tree
1996
• Yu Miri,
Family
Cinema
1997
• Lan Cao,
Monkey
Bridge

96. South Asia
• R. K. Narayan, Swami and Friends (1944)
• Kamala Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve (1954)
• Raja Rao, Serpent and the Rope (1960)
• Bharati Mukherjee, The Tiger's Daughter (1972)
• Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (1981)
• Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)
• Meena Alexander, Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993)
• Mahasweta Devi, Imaginary Maps (1994)
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (1999)
• Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace (2001)
• Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (2001)

97. Caribbean
• George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (1953);
• V. S. Naipaul, Mystic Masseur (1959);
• Kamau Brathwaite, Rights of Passage (1967);
• Aimé Césaire, Tempest (1986);
• Maryse Condé, Heremakhonon (1976);
• Wilson Harris, Guyana Quartet (1985);
• Derek Walcott, Omeros (1990);
• Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1990);
• Erna Brodber, Louisiana (1994)

98. United States
1987
• Toni Morrison,
Beloved
1990
• Américo
Paredes,
George
Washington
Gomez
1991
• Leslie Marmon
Silko, Almanac
of the Dead
2002
• Sandra
Cisneros,
Caramelo, or,
Puro cuento

99. References
• https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/about-
postcolonial-studies/