"Postcolonial Theory"

Lecture #17:"Postcolonial Theory" Mikaela Lundahl, History of Ideas

Here are the highlights:

What is Post-Colonial Theory?
- The “post” derives from several different contexts.
o It could mean after which is a descriptive term.
o Or it could mean influenced by which is similar to post-Marxism.
- It was first developed in the discipline of comparative literature in the 1970s.
- It was developed as a compliment to other important theories at the time.
- Post-colonial theory is about epistemology.
o Who defines truth/ justice?
o Who is knowledgeable?
o Who defines what is worth knowing?

Edward Said
- It is often said that he is the founder of post-colonialism but he doesn’t accept that he is a post-colonial thinker.
- “Orientalism,” 1978
o He studied the discourse of orientalism or the Arab world.
o People in the orient were very sexualized thus the myth of the harem.
o The harem was developed in contrast to sexually suppressed Victorian British society.
o Fragments of stories from the orient as well as “1001 Nights” which was newly translated coupled with suppressed sexuality becomes imposed on the “other.”
o Western travelers were never invited into the harem thus they imagined it to be something it was not which was simply a private space within a home.
- These discourses of others have more to do with the conflict, tensions and challenges within the societies where they are produced than the places/ people they describe.
o Most colonial histories are like this.
o This can also be applied to discourses on gender.
- When you produce a story, you are not the only author. You reproduce power and world order within your society.

Homi Bhabha
- Indian, literature professor working in the U.S.
- He did not write a discipline altering book but many important articles.
- He coined the concepts of hybridity and mimicry.
o Both terms originally come from the natural sciences.
o Hybridity occurs when a new species is created from two different species.
o Mimicry is like the actions of a copycat.
o The lecturer prefers the term creolity because it is more open.
- People in colonial and postcolonial India are continuously described as “Indians” implying that there was such a thing as India prior to colonialization.
o But the nation-state was not and is not a given.
o During colonialism, the British imposed a sense of Indianess upon diverse regions.
o Contemporary conflicts reflect this.
o Identities in the colonial world were constructed according to European ideas and interests.
o First, pre-colonial “India” was like Viking “Sweden” it was not clearly defined or taken for granted.
o Second, colonial British India was a time when “Indianess” was invented. This represented a new kind of hybridity.
o Third, post-colonial India was formed.
o Fourth, it is impossible to know what will come next.
o Today’s Indians was a hybrid of previous eras.
o Both Indians and colonizers were altered as a result of colonialism.
- Colonization is a process not just an event. Thus once colonizers leave, structures, culture, businesses, etc. remain.
- Colonization created a new form of hybridity between the colonizer and the colonized.
- The world is not homogenized through colonization.
- Mimicry is another product of colonization.
o It occurs when the colonized mimic colonizers.
o It resulted in a cry for authenticity.
o Hybrid people can never really be authentic.
- Colonial mythology: We construct the “other” as deficient/ in need/ savage.
- When the “other” becomes equal, new mythologies are needed thus the concept of mimicry.
- Bhabha descrives mimicry as a way that the colonized can destabilize the status quo.
o This reveals how “whiteness” is constructed.


Gayatri Spivak
- It was previously theorized that “others” were embedded in their situation and could not understand universal experiences or truths.
- It was also theorized that white, European males were privileged in their position and could understand everyone “below” them.
- Spivak says that no one is different of privileged; everyone is equally transparent and knowledgeable of others.
- We need to be more humble in our quest to know others.
- We can see others just as well as they can see us.
- “White men rescue/ save brown women from brown men.”
o Brown mean are constructed as dangerous, backward and brown women are constructed as innocent victims.
o This idea helps Europeans to legitimize their policies of intrusion/ invasion/ colonization.
o This format is reproduced in different contexts.
o These phrases are mobilized when needed.
o This reproduces colonial stereotypes/ stigmatization which creates problems without solving them and is a self-fulfilling prophecy.