Postcolonial Theory examines the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. It developed after colonial countries gained independence in the mid-20th century. Postcolonial theory analyzes how colonial power dynamics shaped notions of identity, race, and nationalism in both colonized and colonizing nations. Key theorists discussed in the document include Edward Said, who questioned Western stereotypes of Eastern cultures through his analysis of orientalism; Gayatri Spivak, who focused on marginalized voices; and Homi Bhabha, who analyzed how colonialism shaped concepts of self and other.

1. Postcolonial Theory
Presentation by Irene Jade

2. What is ‘Post-colonialism’?
Colonialism
• control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent
country, territory, or people.
Post-colonialism
• is an intellectual direction that exists since around the middle of the 20th
century.
• It developed from and mainly refers to the time after colonialism.
• The post-colonial direction was created as colonial countries became
independent.
• Nowadays, aspects of post-colonialism can be found not only in sciences
concerning history, literature and politics, but also in approach to culture
and identity

3. Themes that link to Postcolonial
Theory
Identity Power
Control
Race Postcolonial Theory
Subjectivity
Nations and nationality
Leadership

4. Edward Said
• Professor at Columbus university
• Revolutionized study of middle East and helped to
re-shape study of post-colonialism.
• He wrote the book ‘Orientalism’ translated into 26
languages
• Most controversial scholarly book of last 30 years
• Said wants to question- Why do we have pre-
conceived notions and stereotypes of people we
haven’t even met? And How can we come to
understand different cultures and races?
• He thinks west, Europe and USA look at Middle East
through a lens (orientalism) that distorts reality and
makes people of the East seem threatening.

5. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Works-
• Translation and Introduction to Jacques Derrida's Of
Grammatology ( De la grammatologie, 1967)
• "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
• "Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism," (1988) "The Making of
Americans, the Teaching of English, and the Future of Culture Studies," New
Literary History 21 (1990): 781-798.
• Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present
(1998)
About
• An Indian theorist, literary critic and lecturer at Columbus university
• She describes herself as a "practical Marxist-feminist deconstructionist”
• Best known for her contemporary cultural and critical theories to challenge
the "legacy of colonialism" and the way readers engage with literature and
culture. She often focuses on the cultural texts of those who are
marginalized by dominant western culture: the new immigrant; the working
class; women; and other "postcolonial subjects".

6. Homi K Bhabha
• Is a Harvard professor and one of the top post
colonialist thinkers. He wrote “Nation and Narration”
(1990) and “The Location of Culture”
• Bhabha says: that white people ‘instead of seeing the
world as a huge coat of many colours, they see it in
terms of good/bad opposites, putting themselves
always at the “good” end and everyone else who is
different at the “bad” end:
East/West, civilized/savage, First World/Third
World, Western liberalism/Islamic fundamentalism and
on and on.
• He studied the works of French post-structuralist
thinkers like Derrida, Lacan and Foucault. He is also a
follower of Edward Said