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Colonial Discourse and English Studies

This document provides an overview of a postcolonial studies course taught by Dr. Rama Islam. It summarizes several key concepts in postcolonial literary criticism and theory, including how canonical English texts reflected colonial structures of dominance, the reinterpretation of texts by examining their colonial contexts, Homi Bhabha's concepts of colonial ambivalence and mimicry, Gayatri Spivak's work on subalternity and representation of native women, and how globalization relates to neo-colonial domination and the diaspora experience.

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287 views9 pages

Colonial Discourse and English Studies

This document provides an overview of a postcolonial studies course taught by Dr. Rama Islam. It summarizes several key concepts in postcolonial literary criticism and theory, including how canonical English texts reflected colonial structures of dominance, the reinterpretation of texts by examining their colonial contexts, Homi Bhabha's concepts of colonial ambivalence and mimicry, Gayatri Spivak's work on subalternity and representation of native women, and how globalization relates to neo-colonial domination and the diaspora experience.

Uploaded by

Daisy rahman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Postcolonial Studies: Colonial

Discourse and English Studies


12-08-2021
Course: Dr Rama Islam
Associate Professor
Department of English
Metropolitan University, Sylhet
• Postcolonial Literary Criticism focuses on the
role of English literature, English language and
cultural representations, demonstrating how
canonical English texts are imbricated in
colonial structures of dominance and
oppression within colonial discourse studies.
Re-interpretation
• In postcolonial studies reinterpretation
involves paying attention to the contexts in
which English literary texts were produced and
to work colonial ideologies through these
texts.
Bhabha: The Location of Culture
• Bhabha emphasises on ‘ambivalence’ which
suggests that the colonial authority was often
subverted from the inside by the colonial and
by the natives.
Subject and Subalternity
• Bhabha’s work reveals colonial discourse as
unstable and fractured, ambivalent and open
to subversion – each time colonialism seeks to
impose its authority through a repetition of
the sign (the emblem, the English book) the
native’s repetition of the sign dismantles it by
adding or cubstracting any intended or
original (colonial) meaning depending on his
(native’s) need.
Mimicry, Hybridity and In-betweenness

• Mimicry is sought through Western education,


religion and structures where the native is
trained to think/behave like the white man.
Spivak and Subaltern
• Spivak’s intellectual notion of the subaltern notes
the power of both patriarchy and colonialism where
the native woman, because of her location within
these two structures, cannot enunciate and instead
is always spoken for the intellectuals – a process
Spivak is critical of because, as she argues, it is
better to let the woman remain on the margins of
the discourse (thus disturbing it) rather than
speaking on her behalf and thus consigning her
deeper into the silence.
Other Concepts
• Gender, Sexuality and Empire
• Nations and Nationalism
Globalisation, Diaspora, Cosmopolitanism
and Postnational
• Globalisation has generated a new form of colonial
domination, often termed neocolonialism.
• Diaspora is a term used for large scale migration of
people from the country of their origin to other
countries, either voluntarily or due to economic or
political compulsions. When we speak of the Indian
Diaspora we mean Indians people from third world
countries settled in England, America, Africa, and
the Caribbean. Similarly one can discuss the
Caribbean Diaspora to England, Canada and France. 

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