Post-Colonial theory came into being as an response to Edward Said's 1978 book, "Orientalism," which unveiled the insidious effects of European colonization on second- and third-world cultures. Post-Colonialists problematize the encounter between Europe and the cultures it has colonized; as a... [more]

Post-Colonial theory came into being as an response to Edward Said's 1978 book, "Orientalism," which unveiled the insidious effects of European colonization on second- and third-world cultures. Post-Colonialists problematize the encounter between Europe and the cultures it has colonized; as a general rule they seek to decentralize Eurocentrism. The imprint of European power is typically analyzed in terms of dominations, oppressions, subjugations, silencings; but also hybrids, mixtures of East and West, first world and third world. Some theorists celebrate the phenomenon, others resent it; all attempt to understand the multifarious influences of capitalism and imperialism on smaller-scale economies and cultures. The resources of the field are rich: from food to labor to language, an entire array of hybrid forms of culture has evolved with the spreading of capitalism into almost every corner of the world. An entire body of fiction derives from an exploration of the pleasures and dangers of these mixtures. The theoretical genre that analyzes colonization finds itself in a rather precarious position, however, since its constituents are inevitably academics, trained in their own academic fields, saturated with academic language, and ceaselessly self-conscious of the potentially oppressive effects of their own discourse. To the extent that it removes itself from this mire, Post-Colonial theory becomes interesting. [show less]