POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Western literary viewed the novel as a criticism of colonialism
• Post-colonialists see Conrad as portraying the colonized Africans as savages in comparison to Europeans
• Conrad may have written the book with an anti-colonialist argument in mind
• HOD shows that Africa's suffering and pain caused by European colonization
• Conrad writes the novel so that the readers can see the reality since colonialism is just like robbery or a murder for him

Postcolonial in Drama

• Sizwe Bansi Is Dead opens in the photography studio of a man named Styles. The studio is located in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. After reading a newspaper article on an automobile plant, Styles tells a humorous story to the audience about an incident that occurred when he worked at Ford Motor Company
• Styles continues to read the paper and talks about his photography studio.
• Sizwe says his name is Robert Zwelinzima. Styles asks Sizwe what he will do with the photo, and Sizwe tells him he will send it to his wife.
• The focus switches back to Sizwe as he continues to compose the letter to his wife. He describes his experiences at Sky’s Shebeen, where he was served alcohol by a woman in a respectful manner.
• sizwe Bansi Is Dead shifts to the outside of Sky’s after Sizwe and Buntu have been drinking.
• At Buntu’s house, Buntu switches the photographs in the books. He proposes that they burn Sizwe’s book—effectively making him dead—and have Sizwe adopt the dead man’s identity so he can stay in Port Elizabeth.
• Sizwe is unsure about the plan; in particular, he worries about his wife and children. Buntu contends that they can remarry. After much discussion, Sizwe agrees to the switch.

Postcolonial in Novel

Edward Said

Postcolonial in Poem

Vulture by Chinua Achebe

• Power & knowledge are inseparable
• Orientalism is the 1978 book that has been highly influential in post colonial studies
• Attempted to explain how European/Western colonizers looked upon the "orient"

keeping the hollowed remnant

in easy range of cold

telescopic eyes.

last three line 1st section

Reference

second section

Strange

indeed how love in other

ways so particular

will pick a corner

in that charnel-house

tidy it and coil up there, perhaps

even fall asleep - her face

turned to the wall!

third section

section 4

Praise bounteous

providence if you will

that grants even an ogre

a tiny glow-worm

tenderness encapsulated

in icy caverns of a cruel

heart or else despair

for in the very germ

of that kindred love is

lodged the perpetuity

of evil.

Thus the Commandant at Belsen

Camp going home for

the day with fumes of

human roast clinging

rebelliously to his hairy

nostrils will stop

at the wayside sweet-shop

and pick up a chocolate

for his tender offspring

waiting at home for Daddy's

return...

In the greyness

and drizzle of one despondent

dawn unstirred by harbingers

of sunbreak a vulture

perching high on broken

bones of a dead tree

nestled close to his

mate his smooth

bashed-in head, a pebble

on a stem rooted in

a dump of gross

feathers, inclined affectionately

to hers. Yesterday they picked

the eyes of a swollen

corpse in a water-logged

trench and ate the

things in its bowel. Full

gorged they chose their roost

keeping the hollowed remnant

in easy range of cold

telescopic eyes...

Strange

indeed how love in other

ways so particular

will pick a corner

in that charnel-house

tidy it and coil up there, perhaps

even fall asleep - her face

turned to the wall!

..Thus the Commandant at Belsen

Camp going home for

the day with fumes of

human roast clinging

rebelliously to his hairy

nostrils will stop

at the wayside sweet-shop

and pick up a chocolate

for his tender offspring

waiting at home for Daddy's

return...

Praise bounteous

providence if you will

that grants even an ogre

a tiny glow-worm

tenderness encapsulated

in icy caverns of a cruel

heart or else despair

for in the very germ

of that kindred love is

lodged the perpetuity

of evil.

The opening of the poem is described as a bleak and depressing setting ‘greyness’. (line 2)

• Costa, G. (2010, January 31). Postcolonialism Theory. Retrieved

from http://www.slideshare.net/gemcosta/

postcolonialism-theory

• https://www.google.com.my/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=what+is+vulture
• http://www.mahmag.org/english/worldpoetry.php?itemid=456
• Michael.G., Martin.K., & Imre.S., (2012), Contemporary Literary & Cultural Theory, US: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

(line 6)metaphors of horror and death : the dead tree

The metaphor of the “pebble” refers to the vultures head which is small in comparison to its body,

"bashed-in head, a pebble

on a stem rooted in ,

a dump of gross "

1st section

What is post - colonial criticism?

• Post-colonial criticism also known as (New English Literature)
• It is the body of literary writing that responds to the intellectual discourse of European colonization in Asia, Africa, Middle East, the Pacific and elsewhere.
• Post-colonial criticism identify the problems & consequences of the decolonization of a country & nation, especially the political & cultural independence of of formerly subjugated colonial peoples.
• It is also covers literary critiques of & about post-colonial literature.
• Colonial Critique - Deals with imperialistic views.
• Post Colonial criticism - Examines the effects of imperialistic view in post-colonial society

Postcolonial Theory

• Postcolonial theory has transformed literary studies in the past three decades.
• By foregrounding how colonialism has radically altered the globe, this critical lens has provided flexible methodologies for engaging the literary production of empire, colonial and anti-colonial discourse, and the literature of current and former colonies in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Pacific Islands.
• By turning to topics such as decolonization, migration, language, knowledge production, and representation, postcolonial studies approaches the study of literature in ways that intersect with other fields such as critical race theory and diaspora, feminist, indigenous, transnational, and transoceanic studies.

POST-COLONIAL CRITICISM