Postcolonial Flashcards
What is Colonialism
establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory
Neocolonialism
refers to the unequal economy and power relations that currently exist between former colonies and colonizing nations (effects not just gone from one day to another)
> NOT: continuation of colonialism
political meaning: POST - colonial
in the sense of “after” colonialism (emancipation of colonies)
cultural meaning: post- COLONIAL
in the sense of the lasting effect of colonial rule (language, cultural products, religion, identity…)
what are the four main approaches of postcolonial studies?
- awareness for normative Eurocentric view and representation of “the other”
- Critique of the usage of colonial language (because its a form of complicity with the system and structure of colonialism)
- Emphasis on concepts that regard identity as fluid, doubled, hybrid, and/ or ustable
- stress on different forms of cross-cultural interactions
- Interdisciplinarity
Summarize the history of colonialism
- 1450s-1700s - Age of Discovery - Portugal and Spain
- 17th C. - French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish Empires
- 18th-19th C. - American Revolutionary War, Latin American wars for independence
- 1881-1914 - Africa
- WWI and WWII: resistance
Summarize the phases of Postcolonial Cultures
- Adopt
> adoption of European forms and standards (due to their supposed universal validity); humble apprenticeship - Adapt
> adapt European form to ‘colonial’ subject matter; first assumption of right to critical investgation of former colonial subjects; declaration of cultural independence (repudiation of European canon) - Adept: colonial writer as independent, not humble apprentice or licensee (unwriting the Western canon)
Name some of the reasons for the original success of the colonial efforts and Europe’s attitude towards it
- infrastructure, incl. communication
- colonies (subalternities) had no access to modes of defence, opposition
‘emotional support’:
- attitude already bread in (e.g. medieval travel accounts)
- western concept of history: no history > no development; legitimises colonialism
Define theliology
history as linear notion with our current ‘position’ as its goal, with the past behind us and overcome > ‘now’ as focus of history
Name some of the themes of postcolonial studies
- undermining universalist claims of liberal humanism
- exposes white, Eurocentric norms and practices and marginalization of all other perspectives
- challenges notions of European or Western superiority and notions of non-Western inferiority
- investigates the central problem of the difference between self- representation and representation by others
Name some of the aspects of the approach of postcolonial studies
- Awareness for normative Eurocentric representations of the non- European as exotic or immoral „Other“
- Critique of the usage of colonial languages as a form of complicity with the system and structures of colonialism
- Emphasis on concepts that regard identity as fluid, doubled, hybrid, and/or unstable
- Stress on different forms of cross-cultural interactions
- interdisciplinarity!
Name the key figures of postcolonial studies and their theories
Gayatri Ch. Spivak (1942- )
- founding figure
- Subalternity: everything that has no or limited access to the cultural imperialism
Edward Said (1935-2003) - Orientalism
Homi K. Bhabha (1949- )
- Hybridity: inscription and articulation of culture’s hybridity > inbetween space > overlap
Walter Mignolo (1941- ) - hegemonic project for managing the planet > global coloniality, geopolitics of knowledge
Name the four elements of the postcolonial and explain why they are problematic
WHEN
- easy answer: after “end” of colonialism
> problems:
- colonies still experience consequences of colonialism
- colonialism didn’t end at the same time for all colonies > has it ended everywhere?
WHERE - easy answer: former colonies > problems - continuity of colonialist structures and new relations - unevenness
WHO
- easy answer: formerly colonised
> problems
- ethnic plurality, migration, unsettled/unsettling identities etc
WHAT
> historical amnesia
> intellectual complicity
Explain Orientalism
academic discipline: anyone teaching, writing about or researching the Orient
form of thinking based on ontological and epistemological distinction between Orient and Occident
- binary oppositions
- artificial construct > realistic consequences
- literary phenomenon (stereotypes)
- ahistoric > static
NOTE:
colonial gaze
NOTE:
Occident cleanses itself of negative by projecting it on Orient
Describe the forms of Orientalism
institutionalised and discursive practice of power
- imaginative constructs viewed as reality
- orientalism’s legitimising claim
> based on positional superiority of the West
