postcolonialism
Studying imperial legacies
Postcolonialism is an intellectual and political framework examining the lasting effects of colonial rule on formerly colonized societies.
It analyzes how imperial powers shaped culture, identity, language, and power structures—and how those influences persist after independence.
The term covers both the historical condition of being post-colonial and the academic field studying it: postcolonial literature, postcolonial theory.
Postcolonialism questions Western-centric narratives and centers the perspectives of colonized peoples.
Freedom from external control
- liberationRelease from constraint
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
autonomy · self-rule · indigenization · reclamation · reparations · repatriation · unshackle · nation-building
Interest in Eastern aesthetics
- SaidExpressed verbally, past tense
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- EurocentrismBias toward Western perspectives
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
representation · exoticism · worlding · deconstruction · critique
Dominant group's control
- dominationSupreme authority held
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- subjugationForcing into submission
- exploitationSelfish use of others
oppression · colonizer · colonized · resistance · subversion · agency · complicity · neo-imperialism
Pidgin maturing into mother tongue
- syncretismFusion of different beliefs
- fusionJoining into unity
- in-betweennessQuality of being neither one nor another
- bricolageConstruction from available materials
mimicry · liminality · code-switching · ambivalence · neither-nor · pidgin
Scattered population sharing origins
- belongingState of fitting in
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
- displacementRemoval from usual location
- exileBanishment from homeland
homeland · rootlessness · alienation · ancestral · motherland · return · nostalgia · reconnection
Pushed to society's edges
- voicelessHaving no voice
- silencedRendered unable to speak
- representationDepiction or likeness
- agencyPower to act
grassroots · peasantry · dispossessed · non-elite · testimony · counter-narrative · erasure · recovery
Everyday regional speech
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- counter-narrativeStory opposing mainstream version
- representationDepiction or likeness
- voiceSound from throat
independence
Freedom from external control
- liberationRelease from constraint
- sovereigntySupreme independent authority
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
emancipation · autonomy · self-rule · indigenization · reclamation · reparations · repatriation · unshackle · nation-building
orientalism
Interest in Eastern aesthetics
- SaidExpressed verbally, past tense
- otheringViewing as fundamentally different
- EurocentrismBias toward Western perspectives
discourse · representation · exoticism · worlding · deconstruction · critique
hegemony
Dominant group's control
- dominationSupreme authority held
- imperialismExtending dominion over others
- subjugationForcing into submission
exploitation · oppression · colonizer · colonized · resistance · subversion · agency · complicity · neo-imperialism · extraction
creolization
Pidgin maturing into mother tongue
- syncretismFusion of different beliefs
- fusionJoining into unity
- in-betweennessQuality of being neither one nor another
bricolage · mimicry · liminality · code-switching · ambivalence · neither-nor · pidgin
diaspora
Scattered population sharing origins
- belongingState of fitting in
- heritageInherited cultural legacy
- displacementRemoval from usual location
exile · homeland · rootlessness · alienation · ancestral · motherland · return · nostalgia · reconnection · unbelonging
marginalized
Pushed to society's edges
- voicelessHaving no voice
- silencedRendered unable to speak
- representationDepiction or likeness
agency · grassroots · peasantry · dispossessed · non-elite · testimony · counter-narrative · erasure · recovery · archives
vernacular
Everyday regional speech
- storytellingRecounting events aloud
- counter-narrativeStory opposing mainstream version
- representationDepiction or likeness
- AsiaChina, India, Japan, Thailand, Korea
- ismscapitalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, racism
- anthropologyanthropology, fieldwork, ethnography, social anthropology, cultural anthropology
- colonialismcolonizer, colonies, British Empire, colonizers, protectorate
- -ismsatomism, postmodernism, feminism, Marxism, Darwinism
- cultural theoryideology, hegemony, discourse, deconstruction, postmodernism
postcolonialismcolonialism
Domination through foreign settlement
imperialism · white man's burden · empire · civilizing mission · neocolonialism
postcolonialismcolonial rule
Foreign power's territorial dominion
empire · imperial expansion · annexationism · colonial administration · dominion
postcolonialismEurocentrism
Bias toward Western perspectives
cultural imperialism · universalism · primitivism · exoticism
colony, colonial, colonist, colonize, colonization, colonialism, decolonization, neocolonialism, decolonize