WE LOVE LITERATURE

To understand what post colonialism is, we first need to understand what colonialism is. According to the Oxford English dictionary colonialism comes from the roman ‘colonia’ which meant ‘farm or settlement’ and referred to Romans who settled in other lands but still retained their citizenship. In the Oxford English Dictionary it is describes as

A settlement in a new country… a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state; the community so formed, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors, as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up. (Loomba, 2015).

It is a branch of modernist theory that analyses methods of intellectual discourse in response to colonialism and imperialism. They often record racism, slavery, economic explotation and genocide.It is thought that these texts help raise awareness and recognise the struggle many colonised countries have faced.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-colonialism in literature includes the study of theory and literature as it relates to the colonizer-colonized experience. Edward Said is the leading theorist in this field, with Chinua Achebe being one of its leading authors.

In many works of literature, specifically those coming out of Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian Subcontinent, we meet characters who are struggling with their identities in the wake of colonization, or the establishment of colonies in another nation. For example, the British had a colonial presence in India from the 1700s until India gained its independence in 1947. As you can imagine, the people of India as well as the characters in Indian novels must deal with the economic, political, and emotional effects that the British brought and left behind. This is true for literature that comes out of any colonized nation. In many cases, the literature stemming from these events is both emotional and political.

The post-colonial theorist enters these texts through a specific critical lens, or a specific way of reading a text. That critical lens, post-colonial theory or post-colonialism, asks the reader to analyze and explain the effects that colonization and imperialism, or the extension of power into other nations, have on people and nations.

 

McKinley (2003)