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More handpicked essays just for you.
Features of postcolonial literature in contrast to colonial literature
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Writer and philosopher Suzy Kassem once said, “Colonialism is the mother of terrorism.” Colonialism as portrayed in postcolonial texts is truly depicted as a root of terrorism: the act of instilling fear in citizens through means of brutal tactics in order to achieve a political goal. The “political goal” of the colonizers, the “terrorists”, is to essentially make the natives less savage and more humane, which they accomplish through “brutal tactics”. In these postcolonial texts, the verifications of the terrorism are more specifically shown through changes in native language and education, as characters in these readings are abused at school in addition to their languages being rejected due to these changes. By reading and analyzing different postcolonial texts, one can see that colonization has left lasting impressions on the education and language of postcolonial cultures and individuals, which is important because it shows how the colonization has had a significant impact on …show more content…
Like JanMohamed, Memmi also states that treating all the natives as one causes them to lose their sense of identity because they are “drown[ed]” into a sense of unanimity and anonymous entirety. After all the dehumanization that the natives go through, Memmi also states that “it is not enough for the colonized to be a slave, he must also accept this role” (Memmi 155). The “unanimous collectivity” and pluralness that the natives have to face while they are treated like animals is not enough to the colonizer, as they also must accept the dehumanization as their way of life, changing and severing their identities even
Post-colonialism is a discourse draped in history. In one point in time or another, European colonialism dominated most non-European lands since the end of the Renaissance. Naturally, colonialists depicted the cultures of non-Europeans incorrectly and inferior. Traditionally, the canon has misappropriated and misrepresented these cultures, but also the Western academia has yet to teach us the valuable and basic lessons that allow true representations to develop. Partly in response, Post-colonialism arose. Though this term is a broad one, Post-colonialists generally agree on certain key principles. They understand that colonialism exploits the dominated people or country in one way or another, evoking inequalities. Examples of past inequalities include “genocide, economic exploitation, cultural decimation and political exclusion…” (Loomba 9-10). They abhor traditional colonialism but also believe that every people, through the context of their own cultures, have something to contribute to our understanding of human nature (Loomba 1-20). This is the theme that Lewis prescribes in his, self described, “satirical fantasy”, Out of the Silent Planet (Of Other 77).
Church, Kenneth. “Jihad.” Collateral Language. Ed. John Collins and Ross Glover. New York: NYU Press, 2000. 109-123.
During the Cold War and twentieth century there were several processes that influenced colonization and decolonization. To be examined is what the characters reveal about the colonization processes, the involvement of industrialization, the change in identities of the characters, and lastly the social and political changes during the cold war will be discussed.
Criminalization is a term with many connections to smaller terms such as racialization, discrimination, marginalization, and oppression. This term is also connected to smaller terms as well as factors such as social location, age, race, sexuality, and religion. Overtime, this term has evolved into a concept encompassing many different social categories and inflated by many micro-aggressions controlled by normativity and the status quo. It is through a critical perspective and an anti-oppressive lens that I will discuss the evolution of racialization and criminalization in connection to minorities as well as its connection to the prison system and how it relates to crime and violence in Canadian society.
What do you know about imperialism? Imperialism can be defined as a strategy for outspreading a country 's power and effect through diplomacy. Many people know it as a force to spread ideas or gain power. This is consequently how the West was named as mother nations. When studying this topic many focus on the West, including Europe and North America. When discussing Imperialism it is important to discuss how it is justified, how the West engaged in it, and the advantages and disadvantages.
During the early years of colonization and exploration in North America and Africa, many New World "collided" and brought to each other many new things, both good and bad. There were exchanges of ideas, products and crops that greatly advanced the cultures of all involved, but on the other hand, new diseases, and harsh treatment of one another were also present.
The definition of the cultural imperialism in the Cambridge dictionary is simply as one “culture of a large and powerful country, organization, etc. having a great influence on another less powerful country." Yet to get the real and important meaning of cultural imperialism, we have to know more than its basic dictionary definition.
According to Almaguer (1987), the Chicanos’ victimization from the colonial situation had its roots in the nineteenth century. He formulates a series of problematic features in the works of scholars such as Barrera et al. (1972), Bailey & Flores (1973) regarding the internal colony model. The first critique is that the works give inadequate thought to the impact of class within the Mexican population before and after the Mexican-American War and the class nature of racial tension after annexation into the United States. Second is the trouble in understanding the claim of Chicanos as victims of colonization in their land. Third, the claim that Chicanos were victims of colonial systems based on racial domination is troubling. Such a claim juxtaposes
School systems have become the domain of learning about our own cultures; it prescribes what we know and how we engage within the global sphere. By students attending School it is a way to intersect knowledge to the new generations to come. We use textbooks in schools to help facilitate the information that has been passed down through the years of progression. In order to understand ones heritage one needs to understand what occurred and how one came to be. Education has become a fundamental process in which all youths must obtain too in order to develop into a valued functioning member of society. Educators strive to educate youth in the history of their culture but the reality of the truth is that history is a false perception derived from years and year of colonization, white hierarchy. “Textbooks are very influential message senders in the formal kindergarten through 12th grade school systems in the United States. The realities of students reading these textbooks are shaped by the information printed, especially of things that are unfamiliar and unavailable to them” (Clark & Moore, 2004). Textbooks have in turn brought upon a false history and claims to what the truth really is, but whose truth is it, whose truth is dominant, colonial truth is dominant and textbooks within the school system provide false truths of history to back up colonial ways. Colonization is a continuing process within the school system by means of history textbooks; it is this book that claims to speak the truth but only one truth.
The imposition of colonialism on Africa drastically reconstructed the continent. All over, European powers attempted to “assimilate” countries into their own, all the while exploiting and victimizing their people, culture, and resources. However, if there was one aspect of colonialism that provided a fertile ground for conflict, it was the unknowingly insidious method of introducing religion, specifically Christianity, into African families. This is particularly exemplified in the novels Things Fall Apart, Houseboy, and Weep Not, Child. Throughout these novels, the assimilation of Christianity within the protagonists’ not only results in a destruction of their sacred and traditional values, but also their well-being and those around them.
what an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence.” It quickly becomes apparent that those who were integral to the modern colonization of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa were not doing so out of the goodness of their hearts. Without delving too deeply into the actual statistics of the good done for these “barbaric” cultures, it may seem as if colonization was a positive occurrence. In all actuality, however, the ulterior motives and imperialistic attitudes of the key players in colonization brought much more harm than gain. The benefits of colonialism were almost entirely one-sided at the unfortunate loss of the other side’s culture, inhabitants, resources and overall way of life.
Colonialism was a concept of superiority of one territory over another; it was a concept that originated centuries ago. Colonialism had been put into action throughout a long line of history and did not end after World War II in 1945. Even with resistance and efforts from independent states after the war, colonialism did not disappear and continued as a dominant system. It remained and changed its form, resulted in the process of globalization, which continued to control over newly independent states following World War II. Globalization, a form of colonialism, maintained power for the system over states or regions through economic terms with the development of the World Bank, and its derivation of structural adjustments. This financial institution was formed and contributed to colonialism; it assisted in the economic affairs of colonized nation(s). Along with class, professor Manfred B. Steger's book, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, and I.B. Logan and Kidane Mengisteab's article, "IMF – World Bank Adjustment and Structural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa," discussed the indirect rule of colonial powers through globalization.
The British invasion formed into a historical development of British colonialism in India. Despite India under the British rule, Mahatma Gandhi played an important role in gaining Independence. He not only changed India but also strongly fought for India's independence, using various strategies. The British Empire ruled as long as they could to reform India both politically and socially.
In this paper feminist aspect of post colonization will be studied in “Season of Migration to the North” novel by Tayeb Salih. Postcolonial feminism can be defined as seeks to compute for the way that racism and the long-lasting economic, cultural, and political influences of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world, according to Oxford dictionary. As it mentioned earlier about the application of Feminism theory in literature, the provided definition of postcolonial feminism also is not applicable in literature analysis. Therefore, Oxford defines another applic...
Every human being, in addition to having their own personal identity, has a sense of who they are in relation to the larger community--the nation. Postcolonial studies is the attempt to strip away conventional perspective and examine what that national identity might be for a postcolonial subject. To read literature from the perspective of postcolonial studies is to seek out--to listen for, that indigenous, representative voice which can inform the world of the essence of existence as a colonial subject, or as a postcolonial citizen. Postcolonial authors use their literature and poetry to solidify, through criticism and celebration, an emerging national identity, which they have taken on the responsibility of representing. Surely, the reevaluation of national identity is an eventual and essential result of a country gaining independence from a colonial power, or a country emerging from a fledgling settler colony. However, to claim to be representative of that entire identity is a huge undertaking for an author trying to convey a postcolonial message. Each nation, province, island, state, neighborhood and individual is its own unique amalgamation of history, culture, language and tradition. Only by understanding and embracing the idea of cultural hybridity when attempting to explore the concept of national identity can any one individual, or nation, truly hope to understand or communicate the lasting effects of the colonial process.