Colonial And Postcolonialism: Terminology, And Perspectives

Neocolonialism and Sovereignty are closely related and go hand in hand in the texts. To start off sovereignty is defined as being a ruling power that has supreme power or authority over a country and its people. Similarly, neocolonialism is defined as a practice of using methods such as culture or economic pressures to influence a country. With neocolonialism the influence can extend militarily or political influence. Although both may not seem related, they go hand in hand in most situations. In the video “Crucible of Empire,” they discuss many of the ways the European powers and the United States used these principals in order to take advantage or control several countries.

Through research, you can learn that postcolonial discourse is an “academic discipline that analyzes the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism.” It is made up of theories found amongst “history anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, film, political science, architecture, human geography, sociology, Marxist theory, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature.” An understanding of postcolonial discourse could be what colonized societies handed down to succeeding generations after them that has become significant to their culture.

Postcolonial criticism analyzes literature created by cultures that developed in response to colonial domination. This type of criticism defines formerly colonized people as any population that has been subjected to the political domination of another population. Readers analyzing literature in a postcolonial critical way will seek the political, social, cultural, and psychological understanding of the colonialist and anticolonialist. Authors, like Ralph Ellison, address the problem of cultural identity using postcolonial critical theory through their works of literature. In “Battle Royal” (Chapter 1 of Invisible Man,) Ralph Ellison discusses a number of postcolonial issues such as control, race, and double consciousness.

This week, we had a variety of readings discussing neocolonialism, and the effects of the progressive era, and move towards an authoritarian mode of government. During the progressive era, Latin America had many reforms in hopes of becoming more like the western powers in Europe and the United States, however, while they succeeded in some areas, their plan did not go perfectly. For many, quality of life improved, however for the lower classes, life stayed practically the same. This aspect of the reading surprised me, as I thought with progressive reforms, more social reform would take place. Being how modernization theory should have taken place, I found it shocking that there was a large flaw in this theory. There was economic growth, but

For this essay I have chosen to use the identity lens for the postcolonial theory review. There are three literary works I will be analyzing: The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tempest, and The Heart of Darkness. Each of these literary works introduces us to characters dealing with struggles impacting identities. The identity lens will show the connection between the colonizers and colonized and better define the struggles of the colonizer.

Postcolonial scholars examine and ultimately seek to undo the historical structures that originally created, maintained and continue to reproduces the oppression of the colonial experience. Otherness, the term introduced by Edward Said, pointed out that non-western cultures are seen as object for study. Seeing from the submissive cultures, power dynamic of imperialism is dominant. Western looks and explains things in western way. However, another essential theme in post-colonialism is hybridity which is the space between two cultures.

Postcolonial critiques of literary works are often accomplished by reading and interpreting the work with a specific theme in mind or a ‘lens’. By allowing oneself to use a ‘lens’ when reading specific works, it allows the reader to interpret the effects of the themes and the changes throughout the writings. The goal of the critical lens is to seek to understand the behavior of characters or the society ("Post Colonialism," 2016). A few of the most popular themes used to view literary works are identity, oppression and power; applying this ‘lens’ can give the reader a different perspective and experience while reading the writings.

Teachers who suffer from settler teacher syndrome, act within a system of schooling meant to solidify an epistemological and ideological foundation for settler colonialism, and do so with little critical consciousness. Having been indoctrinated into settler colonialism, and by seeing the system of schooling as neutral and normal, teachers are employed as cultural gatekeepers and function to maintain systems that are harmful to students of color. One could also use Hill Collin’s matrix of domination, a black feminist construct, to explain the phenomenon. Hill Collins described the matrix of domination as structural, disciplinary, hegemonic and interpersonal in nature - “the structural organizes oppression, the disciplinary manages oppression, the hegemonic justifies oppression and the interpersonal influences oppression” (blinded for review). In both the settler colonial framework and the matrix of domination framework, teachers are both actors and acted upon. Their places within a system of domination is dependent upon them not being furnished with the opportunity to critically interrogate the system they are so intricately linked to. I argue that suffering from settler teacher syndrome is not wholly a conscious condition, but rather an (un)intended consequence of functioning within settler colonialism. I’d also like to think that they suffer from lack of knowledge, and can therefore be (re)trained and (re)taught, to think and function differently within settler

New Imperialism was the third wave of colonial expansion, precursored by Catholic colonialism in the sixteenth century and Mercantile colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. As the nineteenth century began, it became apparent that Europe and the United States were the dominant forces of the world, and that they were in control of defining global society. Proponents of New Imperialism believed that modern expansionism was necessary for economic, political, and cultural purposes that would benefit their own country. Furthermore, proponents also believed that colonization would modernize and incite progress in the civilizations outside of Europe and the United States. Nonetheless, New Imperialism established deep lines of contempt regarding Western power, marked with violence, throughout the world. Therefore, New Imperialism was a paltry act done by the Western world which seems to have produced little benefit.

Indeed, postcolonial literature in the colonial language is a double-edged sword. Without its use, the writing may never reach a wide audience, as it is impossible to translate every work into each different indigenous language. Furthermore, those who have experienced a diaspora after colonization, such as the Africans who were transported to colonial lands, lost their indigenous language. Their ancestors grew up with the colonial language, and unless they learn their indigenous language, they have no choice to write in the colonial language. Yet, writing in the colonial language furthermore reflects the power that colonists still exert today, that their language must be used to describe the aftereffects of their subjugation of another country. “The colonial language becomes culturally more powerful, devaluing the native language as it is brought into its domain, domesticated, and accommodated.” Ultimately, the writers must take into consideration the positives and negatives of each approach. They have the choice to write in either language,

“Colonialism is complex, for sure, but it is also simple in that it falsely promotes the superiority of Europeans over Indigenous people.” – Wenona Victor, an oppressed Aboriginal who created a “decolonizing dialogue.”

Classical Colonialism occurs when metropolitan nations fuse new territories or peoples through means which are virtually involuntary such as war, conquest, capture, and additional forms of enforcement and control. (Biauner 1987,150) Classical colonialism is distinguished by economic exploitation, forced entry, and cultural imperialism through the establishment of new institutions and methods of thought. (

Through research, you can learn that postcolonial discourse is an “academic discipline that analyzes the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism.” It is made up of theories found amongst “history anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, film, political science, architecture, human geography, sociology, Marxist theory, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature.” An understanding of postcolonial discourse could be what colonized societies handed down to succeeding generations after them that has become significant to their culture.

The literary theory known as Post-Colonialism is easily defined in content but not in its beginning or end. Ashcroft, Griffins, and Tiffin state that the term “covers all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day” (2). They focus on the territories colonized by Britain in Empire Writes Back but state that the analysis can apply to the former empires of France, Spain, and Portugal. This view falls in line with the issue brought up by Childs and Williams about after whose empire or whose colonization does it begin? The United States in the 1700s, the Latin American states in the 1800s, or the mid-1900s fall of the British and French empires (1)?

The postcolonial era presents various issues for the decolonized nations, like the reconstruction of a government and the maintenance of an economy. In addition to that, the individual identity of the colonized people is a complex issue that they must cope with as well, and it is an issue that is still present today. Compared to the other issues of postcolonialism, the construction of one’s identity might appear trivial; however, there are many problems of postcolonial identity, including the obligation of one to perceive themselves as people do from the outside through stereotypes, and the difficulty of unifying two conflicting identities: one that is created by outside sources, and one that is created through personal experiences.