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Background Postcolonial criticism emerged as a distinct category only in the 1990s. It is not mentioned, for instance, in the first edition of Selden's A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory (1985) or Jeremy Hawthorn's A Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary Theory (1992). It gained currency through the influence of such books as In Other Worlds (Gayatri Spivak, 1987); The Empire Writes Back (Bill Ashcroft, 1989); Nation and Narration (Homi Bhabha, 1990) and Culture and Imperialism (Edward Said, 1993). An important collection of
In this chapter we look at the work and perspectives of historians in the field of postcolonial history. The decades immediately following the Second World War have often been described as the ‘age of decolonization’. During the second half of the twentieth century the European powers granted independence to, or were forced out of, colonies acquired over the previous four centuries. 1 The magnitude of European imperial expansion may be measured both by its unprecedented geographic spread, and the millions of human beings whose lives and cultures were
1970s, as memories of the Raj attained a degree of nostalgia, clubs that had opened in the 1870s and 1880s celebrated their centenaries. This was an occasion for looking back and for justifying their existence within the nation-state. Slowly, clubs began to capitalize on their Raj connection, noting their contributions to civilized society, and marketing themselves as sites of colonial nostalgia in a postcolonial
This book provides a sense of the continuing debates about postcolonialism while seeking to anchor some of its key themes and vocabularies securely. It takes as its primary focus, the various reading practices which distinguish and characterise much of the field - practices which for the purpose of this book attend chiefly to literary texts, but which can be applied beyond a strictly literary context to other cultural phenomena. The book introduces some major areas of enquiry within postcolonialism, as well as offers concrete examples of various kinds of relevant reading and writing practices. It provides a brief historical sketch of colonialism and decolonisation, providing the intellectual contexts and development of postcolonialism. The book approaches various attitudes towards nationalist representations in literary and other writings during the busy period of decolonisation in the 1950s and 1960s. It then deals with national traditions and national history, and the conflict between national liberation and imperialist domination. Divisions within the nation such as ethnicity, language, gender and eliteness which threaten the realisation of its progressive ideals are discussed, with attention on Partha Chatterjee's narrative of Indian nationalism and Chinua Achebe's novel Anthills of the Savannah. Other discussions include the re-reading of literary 'classics', the re-writing of received literary texts by postcolonial writers, postcolonial feminist criticism, and migration and diaspora in the context of decolonisation. The 'STOP and THINK' section in each chapter identify focal points of debate for readers to pursue critically.
The habit of self-critique This concluding chapter is designed to allow us to revisit some of the comments we made when defining postcolonialism in Chapter 1 , and to think again about the problems and possibilities of the term in the light of some of the ideas we have encountered throughout Beginning Postcolonialism while meeting some new ones too. We will have an opportunity, then, to reflect critically upon the beginnings we have made. Ultimately, the purpose of this chapter (if not Beginning Postcolonialism as a whole) is to assist you in reaching
10 Anthropology and the postcolonial The story of ethnic difference in Africa has threatened to overwhelm larger debates about postcolonial identity politics across the continent. Once told in terms of tribe, now ethnicity and ethnogenesis, this narrative apparently remains spell-binding. Yet as in the colonial politics of everyday life that we saw shown in early Manchester School studies, so too ethnic identities are only a small fraction of the identities mobilized in the postcolonial politics of everyday life, and anthropology has faced a major challenge to
Introduction The purpose of this chapter is to approach a flexible but solid definition of the word ‘postcolonialism’. In order to think about the range and variety of the term, we need to place it in two primary contexts. The first regards the historical experiences of decolonisation that have occurred chiefly in the twentieth century. The second concerns relevant intellectual developments in the latter part of the twentieth century, especially the shift from the study of ‘Commonwealth literature’ to ‘postcolonialism’. After looking at each, we will be in a
Some definitions Postcolonial feminist criticism is extensive and variable. Its analyses range across representations of women in once-colonised countries and in Western locations. Some critics have concentrated on the constructions of gender difference during the colonial period, in both colonial and anti-colonial discourses; while others have concerned themselves with the representations of women in postcolonial discourses, with particular reference to the work of women writers. At the level of theory, postcolonial feminist critics have raised a number of
laid claim. The ancient British trams and buses were picturesque but from another age. Much to my surprise, and for all its evident contrasts, Lisbon reminded me of London – with its historic facades still in place, possessing too a certain decorum, but essentially a post-colonial city on the skids. As the chapters of this volume attest with impressive verve, to map the colonial traces still present and visible in contemporary post-colonial cities requires all the skills, and more, of the conventional historian. To those
2 Postcolonial minorities and securitization Introduction Public attitudes towards minorities, especially Muslim minorities, in Britain and France have changed rapidly since the events of 2001 and 2007. Groups that were defined as “immigrants” or by their country of origin – Pakistan, India, etc. – have been collapsed under a cultural–religious nomenclature of Islamic or Muslim, while no such categories have been created for Hindus or Christians. Hyphenated generational identities have lost their nuanced status. While the larger argument of this book explains