Postcolonialism Lecture Notes Flashcards

Flashcards testing core concepts, historical facts, theorists, and literary works from Dr. Kalyani Vallath's Postcolonialism lecture.

How is colonialism defined in the lecture notes?

The extension of a nation's sovereignty beyond its borders by the establishment of settler colonies in which indigenous populations are directly ruled or displaced.

What is imperialism in relation to colonialism?

A set of beliefs used to legitimize or promote colonialism; the ideology of colonialism.

What was cultural hegemony based on during European colonization?

The ethnocentric belief that the morals and values of the colonizer were superior to those of the colonized.

Where did Western cultural hegemony place white people in relation to nature?

At the top of the animal kingdom, 'naturally' in charge of dominating non-European aboriginal populations.

According to the notes, how far back can colonialism be traced?

Back to the ancient Phoenicians 3,000 years ago.

What were the two broad waves of European colonialism?

1492 to 1852, and 1850 to just after the end of World War II.

Which wave of European colonialism was described as more imperialistic?

The second period (1850 to just after the end of World War II).

What occurred regarding colonial powers during and after World War II?

Disintegration of colonial powers.

What was the primary purpose of colonialism in the Americas?

Land and Settlement.

How much wealth did Britain amass from India in 173 years according to the lecture?

Around $45 trillion.

What concept associated with Rudyard Kipling represents the moral purpose of colonialism?

The White Man's Burden (a moral sense of responsibility to educate, enlighten, and civilize other people).

How is Social Darwinism defined in the context of colonial purposes?

'Survival of the Fittest'; a feature of society to fight for the available resources.

When did Western colonial history begin, and who landed in the Bahamas in 1492?

It began in about 1500; Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492.

Who discovered the sea-route to India in 1498?

Vasco-da-Gama.

Where did sea power shift during the rise of Western colonialism?

From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

Which five countries are listed as the major colonial powers?

UK, France, Spain, Portugal, and Netherlands.

What three key factors aided colonialism?

Trade and commerce, technological inventions, and cartography.

When did Britain begin establishing overseas colonies, and when did the British Empire come into being?

Britain began establishing overseas colonies in the 16th century, and the British Empire came into being in the late 18th century.

What event brought a close to the first phase of British colonialism?

The American Revolution.

By 1914, how much of the world's land surface and population did the British Empire cover and rule?

A fifth of the world's land surface and a fourth of its population.

What historical map is depicted in this image showing territorial reach in 1765 and 1914?

Map of the British Empire in 1914.

When did Postcolonial Studies emerge as a discipline?

In the late 1970s to early 1980s.

What alternative names were used for Postcolonial Studies?

Commonwealth and Third World Studies.

Who coined the term 'Third World' (Tiers Monde) in 1952?

French demographer Alfred Sauvy.

Which controversial essay was written by Fredric Jameson regarding Third World literature?

'Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism'.

What does the term 'Fourth World' refer to?

The subaltern and aboriginal communities within the Third World.

What are the main aims of postcolonialism?

To analyse decolonization, study formerly/currently colonized cultures, challenge universalist assumptions of liberal humanism, reclaim the past, and engage in new disciplines.

Which new academic disciplines does postcolonialism engage in?

South Asian Studies, Subaltern Studies, Resistance Studies, and Historiographic revisionism.

How did European colonial policies affect modern political boundaries in West Africa?

They created boundaries based on linguistic, political, and economic contrasts by cutting up Africa in unnatural ways, causing long-term destabilization.

What British strategy led to the Partition in India?

The game of 'divide and rule'.

Which advertisement uses the White Man's Burden theme to teach cleanliness to other races?

Pears' Soap advertisement.

Who created the political cartoon titled 'THE WHITE (?) MAN'S BURDEN'?

Victor Gillam.

How does Ambrose Bierce satirically define 'ABORIGINES' in The Devil's Dictionary?

'Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.'

How is colonial literature defined?

Literature written during the age of colonization from the point of view of the colonizers (the literature of the British Empire).

What four primary examples of colonial literature are listed in the lecture?

Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (and Lord Jim), and E.M. Forster's A Passage to India.

Where do the origins of Postcolonial Theory lie, and when did it emerge as an academic discipline?

Origins lie in anti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia; it emerged as an academic discipline in the 1990s.

What term did Robert Young use to refer to Postcolonial Theory?

'Tricontinentalism'.

What was the goal of Colonial Discourse Analysis in the 1970s and 80s?

To unmask colonial ideology in literary and cultural discourses that legitimized certain knowledges while silencing others.

How were texts read in postcolonial theory during the 1980s-90s?

Almost exclusively for their politics as socio-political documents, not for their aesthetics.

According to Ashcroft et al. in The Empire Writes Back (1989), what are the three characteristics of postcolonial writing?

1) Silencing/marginalisation of the postcolonial voice by the imperial centre; 2) Abrogation of the imperial centre within the text; 3) Active appropriation of language and culture of that centre.

According to John McLeod in Beginning Postcolonialism (2000), what are the three modes of postcolonial reading?

1) Re-reading English literature to examine how it reinforced imperialism; 2) Analyzing how texts constructed colonial subjects and how they resisted; 3) Discussing ways colonial subjects 'wrote back' to the Empire.

Who is the theorist depicted here, born in Martinique, trained in psychiatry, and author of Black Skin, White Masks?

Frantz Fanon (1925-61).

When was Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks published?

First published in 1952 (translated in 1967).

What core psychological issue does Black Skin, White Masks explore?

How Blackness is constructed, how dependence and inferiority are internalized by the colonized, and the psychological effects of racism.

How does the opening sentence of Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth end?

'…decolonization is always a violent phenomenon'.

Who wrote the preface to Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth?

Jean Paul Sartre.

What are the main chapters of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth?

1) Preface by Jean Paul Sartre; 2) Concerning Violence; 3) Spontaneity: Its Strength and Weakness; 4) The Pitfalls of National Consciousness; 5) On National Culture; 6) Colonial War and Mental Disorders; 7) Conclusion.

Why does Fanon criticize the African bourgeoisie in 'The Pitfalls of National Consciousness'?

Because it has none of the qualities of the European bourgeoisie, is rooted in self-interest and narrow nationalism, and appropriates the privileges of the former colonial power.

How does Fanon differentiate between a 'country' and a 'nation'?

A country is a geographical space, whereas a nation is a psychological sense.

What is Fanon's conclusion regarding the bourgeois phase in underdeveloped countries?

'The bourgeois phase in the history of underdeveloped countries is a completely useless phase.'

What term does Fanon use for literature that identifies with resistance and creates national consciousness?

'Literature of combat'.

What is Fanon's view on the connection between political struggle and literature/culture?

He asserts that the political struggle is integrally connected to literature and culture, challenging Western aesthetic isolationism.

Who is the Palestinian professor of literature at Columbia University depicted here who wrote Orientalism?

Edward Said (1935-2003).

Which 1975 book by Edward Said deals with the philosophical concept of beginning as change and subversion?

Beginnings.

How is Orientalism (1978) described in terms of Western institutionality?

A Western 'corporate institution' for coming to terms with the Orient through stereotypes, authorizing views, ruling over it, and defining the West.

In The World, the Text and the Critic (1983), what phrase does Said use to describe texts in relation to the world?

'Texts are in the world, and hence, worldly.'

Which Jane Austen novel does Edward Said analyze postcolonially in Culture and Imperialism (1993)?

Mansfield Park.

What ancient Greek play by Aeschylus is cited by Said as an early reference point in Orientalism?

The Persians.

What four common Oriental stereotypes generated by Europeans are highlighted in the lecture?

1) Orient is timeless (stagnant); 2) Orient is strange (black magicians, witches); 3) Orient is exotic (sensuous, mystic beauty); 4) Eastern men are effeminate.

What French term refers to the lounging female slaves frequently depicted in Orientalist art?

Odalisques.

Which three French artists are named for painting scenes of Islamic culture and odalisques?

Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Which 1824 painting by Eugène Delacroix is shown in the presentation?

The Massacre at Chios.

Who painted The Raft of the Medusa (1818-1819)?

Théodore Géricault.

Who painted The Women of Algiers in 1834?

Eugène Delacroix.

Who painted Turkish Bath in 1862?

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Which two theorists heavily influenced Edward Said's concept of Orientalism as discourse and power?

Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci.

What are the three academic and theoretical definitions of Orientalism provided by Edward Said?

1) An academic field rooted in 19th c. race theories; 2) A way of seeing based on East/West distinctions; 3) A Western style of hegemony for 'dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient'.

In Orientalist discourse, how are the 'Exotic Other' and 'Demonic Other' differentiated?

Exotic Other is fascinating, mystical, and seductive; Demonic Other is dangerous, sensual, and violent.

Which two epigraphs open Edward Said's Orientalism?

'They cannot represent themselves; they must be represented.' (Karl Marx) and 'The East is a career.' (Benjamin Disraeli).

What is the difference between Latent Orientalism and Manifest Orientalism?

Latent Orientalism is the unconscious, stable certainty regarding the Orient as backward/passive; Manifest Orientalism includes the stated views, information, and changes in knowledge of Oriental society.

Which book on Islamophobia shown in the lecture was written by Chris Allen?

Islamophobia.

What main critiques did Aijaz Ahmed raise against Edward Said's Orientalism?

He criticized Said for dubbing Marx an Orientalist and for using Western approaches (inaccessible to the colonized) to criticize Orientalism.

What term has emerged to represent non-Western stereotypes of the West?

Occidentalism.

Who is the postcolonial theorist depicted here who translated Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Which author's Bengali works (such as Imaginary Maps and Breast Stories) were translated by Gayatri Spivak?

Mahasweta Devi.

List four major works written by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (1987), 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' (1983), 'Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism' (1985), and A Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999).

Which Indian scholars are listed as members of the Subaltern Studies Group criticized by Spivak?

Ranajit Guha, Partha Chatterjee, Shahid Amin, and Dipesh Chakraborty.

What is 'epistemic violence' as defined in Spivak's critique?

The imposition of a set of beliefs on another society and the disqualification/subjugation of native knowledges as inadequate.

Who is the silenced subaltern figure whose suicide is discussed at the end of Spivak's 'Can the Subaltern Speak?'

Bhubaneswari Bhaduri.

Which three literary texts does Spivak analyze in 'Three Women's Texts and a Critique of Imperialism'?

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre, and Frankenstein.

How does Spivak define the term 'Worlding'?

The process by which imperialism disguises itself as natural.

In Wide Sargasso Sea, which character represents the silenced subaltern Obeah woman?

Christophine.

Who is the postcolonial theorist depicted here who edited Nation and Narration (1990) and wrote The Location of Culture (1994)?

Homi K. Bhabha.

How does Homi K. Bhabha define 'Hybridity'?

A state of in-betweenness and the emergence of new cultural forms within multiculturalism that challenge fixed identities.

What is Aimé Césaire's play Une Tempête an example of in postcolonial literary forms?

Postcolonial revisionism / 'writing back' (where Caliban is portrayed as a revolutionary black intellectual).

In 'The Commitment to Theory' (1989), how does Bhabha address the charge that theory is imperialist?

He questions the binary between theory and politics, asserting that theoretical discourses are characterized by hybridity and ambivalence.

How does Bhabha differentiate 'Cultural Diversity' from 'Cultural Difference'?

Cultural Diversity views culture as a pre-existing empirical object; Cultural Difference views culture as enunciated and expressed at the meeting point of cultures.

How does Bhabha describe the colonizer's desire in colonial mimicry?

'Almost the same, but not quite'.

Which minor lawyer character in A Passage to India exemplifies terrifying mimicry to the British?

Amritrao.

What character in Rudyard Kipling's work represents reverse mimicry ('going native')?

Kim.

What is 'Agency' in postcolonial theory?

The ability or freedom of a non-European individual to make choices and carry them out within existing social structures.

What Dutch word meaning 'separation' refers to the system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s?

Apartheid.

Who coined the term 'Black Atlantic' in his 1992 book of the same title?

Paul Gilroy.

What scene is depicted in this 19th-century engraving?

An Arab Slave Ship in the Red Sea, with British Cruiser in sight.

Who coined the term 'Chutneyfication' in Midnight's Children (1981)?

Salman Rushdie.

What is 'Contrapuntal Reading' as defined by Edward Said?

Reading a text as embedded in the prejudices, myths, and beliefs of its contextual culture to unravel hidden colonial, racial, and patriarchal hierarchies.

What does the 'Fourth World' represent in the four-world taxonomy?

Populations without territory of their own living within a larger nation, such as ethnic minorities and aboriginals.

Who developed the theoretical concept of 'Strategic Essentialism'?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Which three Francophone intellectuals developed the Négritude movement?

Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Léon Damas.

What are the three phases of postcolonial writing outlined in the lecture?

Adopt (colonial phase), Adapt (adapting European forms to local subject matter), and Adept (remaking forms for cultural independence).