The Context Of The Postcolonial Theory

“Women and Gender in Islam” by Leila Ahmed was published in 1992, at a time when research on Arab women was a young, newly emerging field of study. Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American writer and feminist. Her text “Women and Gender in Islam” targets proclaimed feminists, both western and non-western, as the intended audience. The text is involved with the discourse of gender, the discourses of women, the discourses of feminist, and colonial and post-colonial discourses.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi is a graphic novel that provides insight into a young girl living in Iran during the hardship of war. Persepolis takes place during the childhood of Marjane Satrapi. It gives a background of the Islamic Revolution and the war in Iran. Satrapi attempts to guide herself in a corrupted world filled with propaganda. She tries to develop her own morality concerning religion, politics, and humanity. Satrapi was blessed enough to have high class status and parents who had an open mindset about the world around them. Thanks to her slightly alternative lifestyle, she is able to reconstruct gender norms that society has set by depicting the different ways women resist them. “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” by Lila Abu-Lughod is an essay detailing the misconceptions surrounding the veil. Through this essay we can see how colonial feminism, the form of feminism in which western women push for a western way of living on their third world counterparts, has shined a negative light on cultures all around the world - particularly Islamic women. The essay shows how women who don’t conform to American societal structures are labeled as women who urgently require saving. Through this essay one can develop a thorough understanding of the veil itself and the many representations it holds to different entities. Although in Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Satrapi

Although James Joyce short story “Araby” might be seen as a straightforward love story which ends up in failure, it discusses more issues than just love and failure. The concept of capitalism and materialism are also depicted in the story through the use of young boy who became immersed in a culture that believes in capitalism. Through this, the readers experience a unique journey a poor and discouraged person.

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

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.

The specific topic of this book is the oppression of women. Its overall purpose is to understand the women behind the veils and why the Muslim women take up the hijab. The purpose is also to show how

The art scene of the Middle East has been historically patriarchal in nature and “The Book of Kings”, (2012) is her response to the shifting cultural landscape on the contemporary stage. The photographic series contains multiple self-portraits each annotated with poetry and prison writings in Farsi . The series fulfils the conditions of global art as Neshat provides a display to the museum through a representation, albeit a personal one, of a cultural narrative that would be censored in Iranian politics . The fulfilment of the diversification of local narratives is present as she presents to a global audience a contradictory stance in portraying the Middle Eastern landscape. Specifically, a criticism of the Iranian government, in relation to its religious persecution of individuals. Neshat demonstrates this representation through the blending of “local” to the historical. Mainly the 7th Century Islamic conquest of Persia interweaving it with recent events including the Arab Spring and Iranian Green Movement . Neshat’s purpose for blending these events not only juxtapose but also criticise the government in these events “in the name of justice across the Middle East and Arab World” . Neshat’s fulfilment of global art conditions is similarly interweaved in the work of Emily

In the novels ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ and ‘The Color Purple’ the violence and its effect can be explored through the patriarchy that provides for male domination in the political, economical and social status in the female protagonists Celie and Mariam. Within the exploration of oppression and its effect of women the oppression the female protagonists endure is correlated to the novels social, historical and political context of war, racial discrimination and cultural traditions of society led by man. Khaled Hosseini in a ‘Thousand Splendid Suns’ provides description of the oppressive nature by the presentation of the controlling husband Rasheed. Rasheed forces Mariam to wear a burqa against her will. Hosseini describes how the ‘pleated

They express many experience such as "racism, sexism, heterosexist, homophobia, ageism, poverty, indigotic. The Arab American writer contribute to the production of a critically recuperative voice exposing the ambivalence of the location of Arab Americans in the United States. It also articulates forms of self-division resulting from the different and sometimes contradictory strategies of belonging these authors negotiate. And by Reading their work against the backdrop of recent scholarship

The women of Saudi Arabia have been oppressed by the men of the country for generations due to the ignorance of the people, their Islamic faith, and the government. They have no rights and they must receive permission from their husbands or fathers to work, travel, and receive medical attention. The memoir Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson, is an excellent example of the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia and the literary devices of characterization and setting help to bring the oppression to life.

The fictional accounts of women’s experiences in Fadia Faqir’s, Pillars of Salt, illustrate issues articulated by women’s rights activists in the Middle East. Traditional roles of women and men and a mythology of femininity and masculinity are juxtaposed with the disparate realities of the characters. The damaging forces of colonial rule, war, and Westernization are also exposed.

The book itself is a great reminder of the harsh events these region has suffered and it is a helpful tool for those interested in learning about the war in the Middle East. As an immigrant, I can personally connect to this book because I understand the potential of culture alienation and displacement portrayed in the book’s premise. This is a common characteristic when living in a country with different values and rules. At the same time, I easily connected to its narrative because it is based on people’s personal experiences in a country torn by its population’s

Abdelrahman Munif, a Jordanian born Saudi novelist, wrote a novel called ‘Cities of Salt’. It is a monumental novel that tells the story of the discovery of oil. Encountering the vicious arrival of the global, political and economic modernity to an unnamed Persian Gulf kingdom is the main point of Munif in this novel. Munif described the migration of the villagers as their traditional lands are destroyed, and their way of living is thrown into disarray by the foreigners – Americans, through invasion of modern technology, cultural gaps, and a whole new bunch of the local economy. He has exercised an unconventional format in novel by declining a clear protagonist or even its mixture. Leading characters of the novel in its first dozen chapters are gone by the final third of the book, despite the formation of main characters. The valley that is destroyed in the beginning and later the town of Harran that goes from a backwater to booming oil valley or town. Where the novel’s all fiction

The work of literature “Midaq Alley” by Naguib Mahfouz introduces the audience an Arab culture through his descriptions of different characters. Each character is used as an analogue, representing people in the alley with different beliefs and ambitions. Moreover, the characteristics of Mahfouz’s characters also draw international readers’ attention concerning how westernization takes place.

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.