POST-COLONIALISM

“History is written by the winners.”- George Orwell

DEFINITION An analysis of and response to, the

impact of colonialism and imperialism*.

* the creation of colonies and empires

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Colonialism is the belief in the right of a

country to take over and run (colonize) another country, often as part of a bigger empire.

The British empire was the greatest empire in history.

At its height (1800s) it controlled nearly 1/3 surface of planet and nearly 1/3 of population of world.

THE BRITISH EMPIRE

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND The colonial power is by its nature

powerful, militarily, economically and culturally.

So it tends to produce books etc that tell the story of the past.

(Consider also WW2 and our views of it) The colonizer’s view of history is what

is accepted The colonized people are sidelined,

silenced

POST-COLONIAL TIMES Since the end of WW2 the British Empire

went into decline and most of the countries within the empire were either given or fought for, independence.

These countries then created art and literature about being former colonies, a response to having been a colony.

A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW Post-colonialism attempts to give the

point of view of the colonized Post-colonialism revises the view of

history Criticises the colonialists? Attempts to give a more balanced view

of history to include the colonized

POST-COLONIALISMS In Ireland, post-colonialism might

present modern Ireland as having emerged from being under the control of the British government or it might present the past

In India, post-colonialism might do something similar

POST-COLONIAL TEXTS A work of literature might be considered

a post-colonial text if it presents a view of history that includes the perspective of the colonized (usually written after independence from the colonizer)

A POST-COLONIAL READING

A reader might take a post-colonial view of a text if it comments on colonialism.

E.g. Shakespeare’s The Tempest (from a post-colonial p.o.v) might be considered to criticise ( or simply to present) the act of colonizing since a man takes over an island and makes the natives his slaves

A poem like ‘Ruins…’ might be considered a post-colonial poem since it is written after the colonial time and looks at the British empire from the p.o.v of a descendent of a slave.