Literary Philosophy of Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism: History And an Overview

Postcolonialism is both a political orientation as well as a theory of literary criticism and a philosophy. Broadly defined, it is "a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies. It is concerned with both how European nations conquered and controlled 'Third World' cultures and how these groups have since responded to and resisted those encroachments" ("Key terms in post-colonial theory"). Postcolonial studies add an additional dimension to the realm of cultural studies, focusing on how European perspectives have misappropriated and distorted the cultures of those whom they conquered. "Post-colonial critics are concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works produced by those who were/are colonized. Post-colonial theory looks at issues of power, economics, politics, religion, and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial hegemony (western colonizers controlling the colonized" ("Postcolonial criticism," The Owl at Purdue).

One of the earliest and most prominent exponents of postcolonial theory was Edward Said, whose analysis of how the West viewed 'the Orient' has shaped much of postcolonial theory since the publication of his famous book Orientalism. "The Orient signifies a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien ('Other') to the West" ("Orientalism." Postcolonial Studies @ Emory. ). The Orient is constructed as passive, feminine and untrustworthy vs. The active, masculine, democratic West. Much like a woman, the Orient is seen as 'deserving' of colonization. Post-colonialism attempts to unmask such long-standing assumptions. Given that self-proclaimed Orientalists have held sway in the public discourse for so long, the need for post-colonial thinkers to re-appropriate and take back their cultures is particularly acute. "This idea of knowledge as power is present throughout Said's critique. By knowing the Orient, the West came to own it. The Orient became the studied, the seen, the observed, the object; Orientalist scholars were the students, the seers, the observers, the subject" ("Orientalism," Postcolonial Studies @ Emory).

Another notable literary critic in the field of postcolonial literature is that of Gayatri C. Spivak who wrote a 1985 article "Can the Subaltern Speak? Speculations on Widow Sacrifice" that was highly influential in the literary movement. "In it, she describes the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a young Bengali woman that indicates a failed attempt at self-representation. Because her attempt at 'speaking' outside normal patriarchal channels was not understood or supported, Spivak concluded that 'the subaltern cannot speak'" ("Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty," Postcolonial Studies @ Emory). In her article Spivak points out how the practice of widow sacrifice on the husband's funeral pyre was often used by the colonists to criticize Hindu culture as barbaric and primitive. Exponents of Indian nationalism defended the practice but they were often male. Thus the woman within the equation could not speak: to declare the practice barbaric and to refuse was to endorse the colonizers' perspective. However, to embrace the practice as a part of Indian culture was to literally embrace their own death and a highly patriarchal worldview that did not serve them. Colonialism thus negated the ability for there to be constructive debate within the culture and reinforced oppression rather than liberated the women. Neither the colonizers nor Indian nationalists truly had the interests of and the humanity of the woman at the forefronts of their minds. "Her extremely nuanced argument, admittedly confounded by her sometimes opaque style, led some incautious readers to accuse her of phallocentric complicity, of not recognizing or even not letting the subaltern speak" ("Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty," Postcolonial Studies @ Emory). Spivak does not believe it is wrong for the oppressed women to try to speak and cry out in a colonized India; rather, she stressed how the methods of dialogue open to them were impossible for them to use to truly articulate their interests.

Postcolonial critics like Said and Spivak are heavily influenced by the writings of Michael Foucault, who stressed the importance of power dynamics in relationship between the self and other. Foucault's revolutionary understanding of power was that in power relationships it was not that one entity had all the power (the colonizer) and one party had none (the colonialized) and was the victim. The specter of the 'other' could have power as well, as seen in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in which fears of the European colonizer being 'corrupted' by the non-white colonized as clearly expressed. Novels such as Things Fall Apart depict how internal power structures and constructions of masculinity left the native African population vulnerable to infighting and colonization and that the act of colonization is an intellectual as well as a physical one.