Postcolonial theory

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Post-colonial theory

• Lecture 7

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Part 1 Introducing the area of study

• 1) Linking the past to the present
• 2) Magnitude of inquiry
• 3) Whats involved
• Literary turn
• Historical archives
• Feminist perspectives
• In short, diversity of perspectives

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Part 1 continued.

• 4) Ideas generated by post-colonial theorists
• Post-modern theories of identity
• Inter-play class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality
  and race
• New terminology
• Particular local to Universal global

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Part 1 continued.

• 5) The types of questions asked by
• Feminist scholars
• Marxist scholars
• Anthropologists/ sociologists
• Methodological questions

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Part 2 Key writers

• Edward Said Orientalism
• Occident (the West)
• The Orient (the Rest)
• Franz Fanon
• Homi Bhabha

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Part 3 Western women, feminism and colonialism

• Western Women ignored in studies
• One side of the argument
• Collusion with patriarchy
• Other side of the argument
• Activists

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Part 4 Post-colonial Identities

• White Amnesia (Hall)
• Resistance The past makes sense of the present
• The past and belonging to the post-colonial
  nation
• Post-colonial struggles continuation of the
  colonial past

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Part 5 Critiques of post-colonial theory

• Employing trendy western theories to understand
  the Third World
• Guilty of ignoring the dynamics of capitalism
• Dense theories that are jargon

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Counter-critique

• Academics wary of changing their vocab
• Capitalism is included