Eng 7 Postcolonial theory

Hegemony

leadership or dominance of one group, country, or culture over others.

To subvert

to undermine or weaken something, especially an established system or authority

To affirm

to state or declare that something is true; to confirm

To concede

to admit that something is true or to give in to something.

To expound

to explain something in detail

To acknowledge

to recognize, admit, or accept that something is true

To immolate

to kill or sacrifice, especially by burning

To negate

to deny, reject, or make something ineffective

To dismantle

to make something less severe, harmful, or painful

To mitigate

done by one person, group, or side without the agreement or involvment of others

The subjugation

the act of bringing someone or a group under control or domination

To purport

to claim or suggest that something is true, especially when it may not actually be true

The Third Space

A cultural and social space where different cultures, identites, and traditions meet and interact. In postcolonial theory, it refers to the space between cultures, where other people can create new identities that are neither entirely one culture nor another. The concept is associated especially with Homi K. Bhaba.

Hybridity

The mixing and blending of different cultures, identities, languages, and traditions as a result of cultural contact, especially through colonialism. In postcolonial theory, hybridity challenges the idea that cultures are pure, separate, or fixed. It can also descirbe how colonized people combine elements of their own culture with those imposed by colonial powers.

Neocolonialism

The continued economic, political, and cultural influence or control of powerful countries over formerly colonized countries after formal colonial rule has ended. Instead of direct political control, —- operates through trade, debt, corporations, political influence, military power, or cultural dominance.

Essentialist Identity and Culture

The belief that a group of people has a fixed, natural, and unchanging identity or set of cultural characteristics based on their nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, or other category. Postcolonial theory generally criticizes essetialism because it can reduce diverse people to stereotyoes and ignore differences within a culture or group

Mimicry

The practice where colonized subjects adopt or imitate the culture, language, and behavior of the colonizers. Producing a result that is 'almost the same, but not quite,' it subtly parodies and subverts colonial authority

Substitution

the use of one person or thing instead of another

tabula rasa

a situation in which nothing has yet been planned or decided, so that someone is free to decide what should happen or be done

insofar as

to the degree that

discern

to see, recognize, or understand something that is not clear

antagonistic

actively opposing or showing unfriendliness towards something or someone

reification

the act of changing something abstract (= existing as a thought or idea) into something real

secrete

to put something in a place where it is unlikely to be found

echelon

a particular level or group of people within an organization such as an army or company

delineate

to describe or mark the edge of something

status quo

the present situation

alleviate

to make something bad such as pain or problems less severe

prostrate

lying with the face down and arms stretched out, especially as a sign of respect or worship

singularity

the quality of being strange

dehumanize

to remove from a person the special huiman qualities of independent thought, feeling for other people etc

History- with a capital H

The study of the past, the writing of the past. It’s the history we know and have access to. It’s the events and peoples we study in this class. It’s a socially constructed narrative based on available evidence, mores, hopes, fears, etc, and changes as all of these factors adjust.

Fellaheen

Peasants, the untainted revolutionary vangard of the anti-colonial struggle. Unlike urban classes, they retain nothing to lose and possess a pure, spontaneous urge to radically overthrow the colonial system.

Compartmentization

Descirbes the rigid, enforced division of society into separate, antagonistic spheres where colonizer and the colonized live isolated, unequal lives.

Manichean

refers to the rigid, absolute binary division imposed by colonial power. It splits society into two diametrically opposed, mutually exclusive categories: the colonizer (symbolizing ligjt, good, civilization, and reason) and the colonized (symbolozing darkness, evil, savagery and irrationality)

Representation

the way something is shown, described, or protrayed, especially through words, images, or symbols.

Integral

necessary or essential to make something complete; an important part of a whole.

Discourse

a system of ideas, language, and knowledge rgar shapes how people understand and talk about a particular subject. For Foucault, it also influences what is accepted as true or normal within a society.

Colonial

relating to a country or grouo that controls another terreitory and its people, ofter for political, economic, or cultural benefit.

Interdependent

dependet on one another; when two or more things rely on each other

Connote

to suggest or imply an additional meaning or feeling beyond the literal meaning of a word.

Ontological

relating to the nature of being or existence; what it means to exists and what exists

Epistemological

relating to knowledge; concernign how we know something, what counts as knowledge, and how knowledge is aquired.

Contention

an argument, claim, or point of disagreement that someone strongly maintains

Unilaterally

done by one person, group, or side without the agreement

Disparate

very different from one another; not alike or easily compared

Orientalism

the study of how the Orient is viewed, stereotyped, and thereby dominated by its opposite, the occident, or the West.

The Other

any person or group marked as different from the dominant societal norm. This concept exposes power dynamics, defining the “self or “us” by contrasting it against an alien, marginilized or inferior “them”.

Othering

This is the process by which colonizers create a distinction between themselves and the colonized

The Occident

term for the West, traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the western world

The Orient

old-fashion and sometimes dated geographical name for the East, specifically the countries of East and Southeast Asia (and historically including parts of South and Western Asia).