16 Postcolonial Studies I

Dr. Rayson K. Alex

Definitions

a. Colonialism and Imperialism

The word postcolonialism could be divided into post and colonialism, with post meaning ‘later,’ in terms of chronology or ‘delay,’ in terms of deference. The word colonialism must be understood in connection to the word imperialism. The term colonization is derived from the Latin word colonia meaning “settled land, farm, landed estate.” The root word throws light on the practice of transporting farmers from one place to another for farming. The root brings to the fore the conflict between two territories, those between the original landowners and the settlers. The migration could also pass off the settled land as the native for the settlers, ironically keeping ties with the original land. The word imperialism derives from the Latin word imperium meaning “to command.” Imperialism is understood as a system of military domination and sovereignty over territories. Both the terms, colonialism and imperialism, are political and power-oriented. But imperialism exercises absolute subjugation of one country over the other. However, both are often used synonymously (“Colonialism”).

Colonialism is defined as “a broad concept that refers to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s” (“Colonialism”).

b. Neocolonialism

Though Jean-Paul Sartre coined the term “neo-colonialism” in 1956, its origins were found in Leninism where the new forms of dominion of the colonizers are discussed (Crozier). Vasili Vajrushev defines neocolonialism as a new hidden colonial policy administered by the imperialist countries over the other countries for monetary, political and military gain. This is mainly done by strengthening and reinforcing capitalistic ideologies (Haag 9). For those who think that the years of colonial rule is over, neocolonialism is a new kind of colonialism which reinforces the survival of the colonial system which dominates/controls the once- colonized countries in an indirect way, using new forms of political, economic, social, military and technological systems. For example, sole interest of USA in the 2003 invasion into Iraq was monetary – for oil. The politics of oil was not merely to extract oil but to control the resource-dependent countries, like China and Russia, which might emerge as super powers. Under the influence of American officials, the newly formed government of Iraq has changed their policies on oil, which is, ironically, beneficial to America.

c. Decolonization

The traditional definition of decolonization is that it is a process in which countries become legally independent of the colonizers and be known as sovereign nations. This would mean the possession of a constitution, a flag and an equal status among other countries in the United Nations Organization (“Defining Decolonization”). It is labeled traditional because the definition is narrow and focuses only on the system of political change (independency). It does not include the economic, social, cultural and literary implications of these changes. Decolonization could also mean a conscious denial of all imperial consequences be it political, economic, social, cultural or linguistic (“Defining Decolonization”). This definition is more acceptable because it includes the colonizer and the colonized in some respects. To explain the idea, there are economic, political, social and attitudinal transformations that took place with both the colonizers and the colonized. The definition provides a broad methodology to analyze both the perspectives in an equal space. However, the definition gives a wrong impression – that history can be reversed or to be specific, colonial history can be completely erased. So, decolonization is not the removal of all the colonial remnants in the cultures of the colonized. Instead, it is the conscious understanding and awareness of the evolution of cultures.

d. Defining Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism can be summarized broadly as 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. Postcolonialism, as both a body of theory and a study of political and cultural change, has undergone and continues to go through three broad stages:

1. An initial awareness of the social, psychological, and cultural inferiority enforced by being in a colonized state
2. The struggle for ethnic, cultural and political autonomy
3. A growing awareness of cultural overlap and hybridity (“post-colonialism”)

Literally, “postcolonial” is a term used to demarcate the period during and after decolonization. However a strict historical demarcation is not possible when locating postcolonialism. Postcolonialism could be seen as a continuity of colonialism. In literature, ‘Third World’ literature is identified as postcolonial. This is so because many third world countries have been former colonies of the European powers. When these former colonies have attained nation status, they are referred to as postcolonial, even though they have remnants of the coloniser. The entire field of studying the literature and culture of formerly colonized nations is categorized as postcolonial studies.

Edward Said builds on the premises of Michel Foucault, especially about knowledge and power, in his book Orientalism. Said uses the term “discourse” to develop his idea of orientalism. Foucault defines the complex term discourse as ways of constituting or containing knowledge which is subjective in nature, rooted in culture and displays power. Discourse reflects the thought, mind and experience of the person involved, and makes meaning of the subject in discussion (Weedon 108). Foucault’s “discourse” brings in a sense of history and society and focuses on the shifts in power. The core of Said’s orientalism (orient+ism) is the shift of power between the colonized and colonizer. Countries of the East especially East Asia are generally called “oriental.” In Orientalism, Said discusses the common Western misconceptions about the East. He believed that these misconceptions clearly exist in the Western minds/consciousness. Said uses Jacques Lacan’s terminology, “the other” to describe the Western fascination with the orient. To clarify the idea, the identity of oneself is defined by a contrast with the identities of the other. For example, an Indian is an Indian because he/she is neither an American nor a European. Here, the Western is identified as the “Self” and the non-Western as the “other.” The “other” could also be seen as a stereotype that exists in the Western “self” about the non-Western “other.”

Said means several things by orientalism. To him, anyone who teaches, researches or thinks about the orient is an orientalist.

“Orientalism is a style of thought based upon a … distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the Occident.’ Thus a very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators, have accepted the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate theories, epics, novels, social descriptions, and political accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, ‘mind,’ destiny, and so on.”

Homi Bhabha was instrumental in developing the area without actually mentioning the term postcolonialism. He popularized the terms, “ambivalence,” “mimicry” and “hybridity.” Ambivalence is the ambiguous way in which colonizer and colonized regard one another. The colonizer often regards the colonized as both inferior yet exotically other, while the colonized regards the colonizer as both enviable yet corrupt. In a context of hybridity, this often produces a mixed sense of blessing and curse (“ambivalence”). What is the meaning of the word mimicry? Mimicry is the way in which the colonized people adapt the culture, language, education and clothing of the colonizers. It is not mere imitation but a process in which what is adapted is being changed in such a way to suit the cultural context of the colonized (“mimicry”). Mimicry also involves the imitation of the mind of the coloniser’s, which begins a deep-rooted affectation of the psyche. Mimicry paves way to hybridity. Now, what is hybridity? Hybridity is a new culture that is formed from a cross-cultural exchange. Hybridity is effected in many ways – social, political, cultural and religious (“hybridity”). The terms point to the deeper understanding of the relationship between colonizer and the colonized.

Take for instance Daniel Dafoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), where Crusoe represents the colonizer and Friday, the colonized. Crusoe strives to civilize the native. Analyzing Friday’s experience, he is seen mimicking Crusoe after submitting himself to Crusoe. Bhabha considers mimicry as the most effective strategies of colonial power and knowledge. The ambivalence in the relationship between Crusoe and Friday is two- dimensional. We do not know if Friday has fear or respect towards Crusoe. Another text which could also be seen in this context is Shakespeare’s Tempest. The play discusses the conquest of an island – keeping as the backdrop the conquest of the Caribbean island by the Western powers. Prospero, who represents the Western power, colonises the island and Caliban, the heir to the queen who is referred to as a witch. Caliban learns the language of the master which he, in turn uses to curse the Master. Shakespeare strives to show the adverse side of colonising through his play. There is an ambivalence in the relationship between the master and the slave – Crusoe and Friday; Prospero and Caliban. On the other hand, we do not know if Crusoe sympathizes with Friday or considers him a mere fool. But we could see that Caliban is unhappy with Prospero. Postcolonialism has given a new method of reading texts and understanding the power relationship between the coloniser and the colonised. It would also be worthwhile to mention another version of Robinson Crusoe which was rewritten from the perspective of the colonised by J. M. Coetzee titled Foe.

In defining postcolonialism, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak “focuses … [our] attention on the continuance consequences and power of colonial discourses, practices and mindsets on the [present]” (Lemmerich 1). Spivak argues that the lives of women in the third world countries cannot simply be expressed or represented using vocabularies of the western critical theory (Morton 7) or even the language of the male. To Spivak, this is an ethical and a political issue of the oppressed groups. She believes that in such a case women or any other minority groups for that matter will be silenced and the western critical theory is simply incapable of representing this phenomenon. Spivak upholds Said’s idea of “marginality” and discusses inability of women to express (speak) for themselves as She (the woman) is a subaltern (the term, from Antonio Gramsci, is used to refer to groups that are outside the power structures, disenfranchised and disempowered). In her seminal essay titled, “Can the Subaltern Speak,” she mentions that the problem is that knowledge is nothing but a commodity that is created and constantly modified by the west and transferred to the rest of the world for financial benefits. These kind of communities/people exist within the postcolonial society. In fact Spivak proposes that research is always colonial because it otherizes, objectifies the subject. Spivak brings-up the example of the practice of Sati and argues, in this case, that women were merely the subjects of men. It is primarily this gender parity that restricted them to articulate to the British or to their own society. This silences the women quite systematically and effectively. The marginality created is an effect of the lack of communication.

Postcolonialism has significance in various issues that bring to the fore the connection between power and people; Power is an intense kind of an experience, which according to Foucault, circulates in a particular society and takes into control many different subjects. Among them the postcolonial understanding of nation, nationhood, racism and cosmopolitanism are discussed in the next few sections.

Have a look at “Audio-Visual 1” given in the “Audio-Visual Quadrant” section. Attempt a postcolonial reading of the painting. The painting named “Society Observed” is by Johan Zoffany. The painting is exhibited in the Yale Center for British Arts.

Anti-colonialism

The struggle between the colonized people and the colonial forces be it ideology or power structures, results in the resistance of the colonized people against the colonial people. This struggle is apparently translated to political, economic and cultural institutions, in fact to the lowest unit. There seems to be a rejection of anything colonial and the focus shifts from global to the local. This kind of political engagement is called anti-colonial nationalism. Anti- colonialism took different forms such as a liberation from the racial and class struggles. It also often turned out to be a demand for political and cultural recognition of differences between ethnic, indigenous and local identities. Colonial ideology brought about a perspectival change in understanding cultures. Binarism was the new order. Binarism is a binary or duality seen in entities for examples there is a binary between colonizer and the colonized; white and black, civilized and primitive; advanced and retarded; good and evil, beautiful and ugly, teacher and pupil; doctor and patient powerful and powerless, civilized and uncivilized; ability and inability and so on. The binary became a taboo. Texts and cultural institutions began to be read from the binary perspective. There was even attempt fix the binary ideology as the reason for all struggles, be it racial or gender.

Cosmopolitanism and Postcolonialism

Cosmopolitanism is usually refers to “a citizen of the cosmos.” The term was first used by Greek philosophers and later the eighteenth Century philosophers re-introduced it with modern affiliations. Emmanuel Kant defines it as “rights as citizens of the earth rather than as citizens of particular states.” According to Ulrich Beck, cosmopolitanism refers to “an emerging ethical response” to globalization. When cosmopolitanists favoured “cultural pluralism,” they ignored the discourses around “rootedness or vernacular”. Thus inherently, the aforementioned binarism comes into play in cosmopolitanism – the struggle between the subjugated and the subjugator; the subject and the other; the global citizens and the local citizens. Thus, there is a clear negotiation between cosmopolitanism and postcolonialism.

Conclusion: Interdisciplinarity and postcolonialism

In the volume entitled Interdisciplinary Measures: Literature and the Future of Postcolonial Studies edited by Graham Huggan and Andrew Thompson (Liverpool University Press, 2008) the authors initially review the scholarship around postcolonialism and declare that postcolonialism brings together anthropology, history geography and sociology in the purview of the literary theory. The book clearly says that the future of postcolonialism is to diversify the lens (the way of looking at things) to a variety of disciplines. They claim that post colonialism should cross borders into other disciplines within cultural studies and also sciences and technology. With the intension of connecting to social and cultural issues that are local and global in nature the authors analyse the environmental issues from a post- colonial perspective – Ecopostcolonialism. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment written by Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin (Rutledge, 2010) is proof to that. Postcolonial ecocriticism (Pocoeco) bridges environmental studies and postcolonialism. Pocoeco bings into light a lively conversation between globalization critics, feminist, indigenous and animal–rights philosophers and cultural theorists.

References:

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