Nov 22, 2021
(Bonus) Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the
cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the
human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized
people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical theory
analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of
(usually European) imperial power. Postcolonialism encompasses a
wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians may not always agree
on a common set of
definitions. On a simple level, through anthropological study, it
may seek to build a better understanding of colonial life—based
on the assumption that the colonial rulers are unreliable
narrators—from the point of view of the colonized people. On a
deeper
level, postcolonialism examines the social and political power
relationships that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism,
including the social, political and cultural narratives surrounding
the colonizer and the colonized. This approach may overlap
with studies of contemporary history, and may also draw examples
from anthropology, historiography, political science,
philosophy, sociology, and human geography. Sub-disciplines of
postcolonial studies examine the effects of colonial rule on the
practice of feminism, anarchism, literature, and Christian
thought.