CAPITULO III COMUNIDAD ANDINA
VI. La Secretaría General de la Comunidad Andina Conformación
Discourse and Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New York:
Colombia University Press.
Wikipedia:http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/creativity.
UNIT 2 CATEGORIES/STAGES OF POSTCOLONIAL THEORY
CONTENTS 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Objectives 3.0 Main Content
3.1 Stages of Postcolonial Theory 3.2 Anti-Colonial Revolutionaries 3.3 The Subaltern Studies Group 3.4 Feminist Postcolonial Critics 4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMA)
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7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
According to Nelson Fashina (2009), the postcolonial period marked the second phase of the evolution of African literature. During this period—a decade spanning the late 1950s to the late 1960s—Africana scholars, critics, and writers began the search for meaning, definition, authenticity, validation, and literary identity for African literature. This intellectual search for a philosophy, theory, and existence of African literature was meant to resist and deconstruct earlier European critical views that Africans were incapable of abstract philosophical reasoning and creative thought (Smith 1950; Idowu 1962). Thus, the revolutionary temper of African literature in the second phase of its evolution was in line with Foucault‘s idea of ―revolution‖ as the ―courage of truth‖ (Foucault 1993, 17). The first attempt was to appropriate the literary enterprise to the service of political and economic liberation of Africa, both from the vestiges of colonial domination and from the corrupt neo-colonial administrations of the newborn African states. Phebe Jatau (2014) holds that postcolonial literature refers to creative writings emanating from colonised countries together with the critical and theoretical writing contingent upon the imaginative works (Webster, 1996). It is the name of a category of literary activity, which sprang up from a new and vibrant political energy within what used to be called "Commonwealth Literary Studies" (Slemon, 1994).
As a literary theory or critical approach, according to Ashcroft et al (1995), postcolonial theory is an engagement with and contestation of colonialism‘s discourses, power structures and social hierarchies. Postcolonial theory is applied to describe colonial discourses‘ analysis to determine situations and experiences of the subaltern groups whether in the first or third world. The theory also interrogates knowledge constructions of the West and calls for a rethinking of the very terms by which this knowledge has been constructed by the West. Postcolonial theory defies grand narratives such as the nation and nationhood, hence deconstructs such narratives because they are problematic. For Sunday Bamgbose (2013), postcolonial literary theory deals with the writings of the margin, paying attention to how literary and cultural elements are manipulated in order to subvert the hegemonic structures of colonialism and neo-colonialism. Postcolonial theory is a body of discourse that responds to colonialism and its aftermath in the Empire. It is a form of race and ethnicity-bound discourse, which counters the ‗centre‘ in order to give the ‗margin‘ its own true voice and identity in the imperial order of things. In the words of Okunoye (2008:79), ―The fusion of cultural and literary criticism is most evident in postcolonial discourse.‖ It is a body of thinking that interrogates Western hegemony
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through the examination of literary and cultural productions. This unit elaborates on the stages of postcolonial theory in African literature.
2.0 OBJECTIVE
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
discuss the categories/stages of postcolonial theory.
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Categories/Stages of Postcolonial Theory
Jatau (2014), citing Leong Yew (Internet) attempts a categorisation of postcolonial theorists and stages. The grouping, according to Yew, is by no means mutually exclusive; meaning that some theorists may find themselves within different categories than they would probably be categorised by some other scholars. It also means that a body of postcolonial writing can belong to more than one of Yew's stages at the same time. The categories/stages include: Anti-colonial Revolutionaries;
The Subaltern Studies Group; and Feminist Postcolonial Critics.
3.2 Anti-Colonial Revolutionaries
These are individuals who wrote mostly during the fight for national independence following the breakup of European empires at the end of the Second World War. The term 'anti colonial' refers more specifically to the era in which they wrote and under the shadow of nationalist movements, they were also not revolutionaries in the physical sense of the term. In many cases these individuals were affected by the violence and bloodshed marked by the attempt to gain independence, as in the case of Frantz Fanon and Ghandhi.
3.3 The Subaltern Studies Group
Also known as the Subaltern Studies Collective, the group was formed in 1982 to establish new ways of thinking about colonialism and nationalism, especially in issues of history and historiography. History, as it has come to
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be known, is tied to western modes of narrative. Hence, any act to talk about the past of colonised places becomes unproductively linked to reproducing these narratives. The group seeks ways of navigating through these concerns, emphasising initially on peasant movements and revolts before branching to issues about domination and modernity.
3.4 Feminist Postcolonial Critics
While postcolonialism may provide interesting ways to examining as well as responding to Western centred discourses, emphasising particularly on the notion of the postcolonial subject, there are questions about how inclusive this project might be. "Women" as a category has been treated ambivalently especially in Western feminism. While earlier waves of feminism presumed that there was a struggle against the universal phenomenon of androcentricity, these have come to be criticised colloquially as "white women saving coloured women from coloured men".
The combination of feminism and postcolonialism attempts to circumvent these by addressing a number of parallel but sometimes interesting issues;
for example it looks at subjectivities created through gender, the role of women in native tradition and the location of male discourses in it as well as problems surrounding the category of the postcolonial woman.
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this unit, you learnt that the revolutionary temper of African literature in the second phase of its evolution was in line with Foucault‘s idea of
―revolution‖ as the ―courage of truth‖. The first attempt was to appropriate the literary enterprise to the service of political and economic liberation of Africa, both from the vestiges of colonial domination and from the corrupt neo-colonial administrations of the newborn African states. The categories/stages of postcolonial writing include: Anti-colonial Revolutionaries, the Subaltern Studies Group, and Feminist Postcolonial Critics.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, the various categories of postcolonial writing were given. They include: Anti-colonial Revolutionaries; The Subaltern Studies Group; and Feminist Postcolonial Critics. This grouping, is by no means mutually exclusive; meaning that some theorists may find themselves within different categories than they would probably be categorised by some other scholars. It also means that a body of postcolonial writing can belong to more than one of Yew's stages at the same time.
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6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Attempt a brief categorisation of the stages of postcolonial writing.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READING
Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., Tiffin H. (1995). The Post Colonial Studies Reader. (ed.) London: Routledge.
Fashina, Nelson.(2009). ‗Alienation and Revolutionary Vision in East African Postcolonial Dramatic Literature‘. In Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies, 35(2).
Jatau, Phebe. (2014). The Postcolonial Dimension of the Nigerian Novel.
Zaria Ahmadu Bello University Press.
Michel, Foucault. (1976). The History of Sexuality. Volume One: An Introduction. London: Allen Lane
Okunoye, O. (2008). Modern African Poetry as Counter-discursive Practice. In A. Raji-Oyelade & O. Okunoye (Eds.). The Postcolonial Lamp: Essays in Honour of Dan Izevbaye. Ibadan: Bookcraft, 73-93.
Slemon, S. (1994).‖The Scramble for Postcolonialism‖. In C. Tiffin and A.
Lawson (Eds). De-scribing Empire. Postcolonialism and Texuality.
London: Routledge.
Sunday, Bamgbose. (2013). The Blackman‘s Ordeals: A Postcolonial Reading of Kofi Anyidoho‘s Ancestral Logic & Caribbean Blues‟.
In The African Symposium: An Online Journal of the African Educational Research Network. Volume 13, No. 1, June.
Webster, R. (1996). Studying Literary Theory. (2nd ed.). London: Arnold.
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