Postcolonialism
Studying imperial legacies
Postcolonialism is an academic framework examining the cultural, political, and economic legacy of colonialism after formal colonial rule ends.
It analyzes how colonial power structures persist—in literature, identity, institutions, and global relations—and how formerly colonized peoples resist or reclaim narratives imposed by colonizers.
Postcolonialism shaped how scholars read novels from the British Empire.
The field emerged in the late twentieth century, drawing on writers like Frantz Fanon and Edward Said.
Scattered population sharing origins
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
- creolizationPidgin maturing into mother tongue
- mimicryAdaptive resemblance to another
- displacementRemoval from usual location
exile · belonging · homeland · rootlessness · alienation · assimilation · ambivalence · syncretism
Junior commissioned officer
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
- SaidExpressed verbally, past tense
discourse · imperialism · essentialism · representation · deconstruction · agency · epistemology · critique
Supreme independent authority
- independenceFreedom from external control
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- nationalismDevotion to one's country
- anticolonialismOpposition to foreign domination
liberation · resistance · partition · borders · reparations · extraction · exploitation · dependency
Fatwa-targeted novelist
- rewritingComposing text anew
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
- oralityState of being spoken
- decolonizingEnding colonial domination
Kincaid · translation · multilingualism · Caribbean · testimony · narrative · resistance · reclamation
Lasting psychological wound
- intergenerationalInvolving multiple age groups
- museumsInstitutions preserving cultural artifacts
- repatriationFormal return to homeland
- monumentsStructures commemorating notable achievements
statues · renaming · memorialization · archives · erasure · silencing · education · missionary
diaspora
Scattered population sharing origins
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
- creolizationPidgin maturing into mother tongue
- mimicryAdaptive resemblance to another
displacement · exile · belonging · homeland · rootlessness · alienation · assimilation · ambivalence · syncretism · in-betweenness
subaltern
Junior commissioned officer
- hegemonyDominant group's control
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- hybridityMixed-origin quality
Said · discourse · imperialism · essentialism · representation · deconstruction · agency · epistemology · critique · canon
sovereignty
Supreme independent authority
- independenceFreedom from external control
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- nationalismDevotion to one's country
anticolonialism · liberation · resistance · partition · borders · reparations · extraction · exploitation · dependency · globalization
Rushdie
Fatwa-targeted novelist
- rewritingComposing text anew
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
- oralityState of being spoken
Kincaid · decolonizing · translation · multilingualism · Caribbean · testimony · narrative · resistance · reclamation · storytelling
trauma
Lasting psychological wound
- intergenerationalInvolving multiple age groups
- museumsInstitutions preserving cultural artifacts
- repatriationFormal return to homeland
monuments · statues · renaming · memorialization · archives · erasure · silencing · education · missionary · infrastructure
Postcolonialismcolonialism
Domination through foreign settlement
imperialism · neocolonialism · empire · white supremacy · civilizing mission
post, colonial, colonialism, colony, colonies, colonize, colonized, colonizer, colonizers