Presented by\ Akram Al-Quzahy akramq2009@yahoo.co

POSTCOLONIALISM PIONEERSIN CULUTRAL STUDIES

The definition of Postcolonialism

• “Post-colonialism (or often postcolonialism) deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. As originally used by historians after the Second World War in terms such as the postcolonial state, ‘post-colonial’ had a clearly chronological meaning, designating the post-independence period. However, from the late 1970s the term has been used by literary critics to discuss the various cultural effects of colonization.”…( Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin Post-Colonial Studies The Key Concepts Routledge Key Guides 2008) .

• “Post-colonialism (or often postcolonialism) deals with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies. As originally used by historians after the Second World War in terms such as the postcolonial state, ‘post-colonial’ had a clearly chronological meaning, designating the post-independence period. However, from the late 1970s the term has been used by literary critics to discuss the various cultural effects of colonization.”…( Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin Post-Colonial Studies The Key Concepts Routledge Key Guides 2008) .

CULTURAL STUDIES CULTURAL STUDIES

• Cultural Studies refers to areas of theory focus on forms of culture that are ordinarily produced and circulated within the group central to their societies, be they hegemonic or non-hegemonic, and often on cultural artifacts implicated in economics and social power. These theories often originate in Marxist or material culture analyses, but soon redefine the concept of production. Popular Culture Studies refers most often specifically to artifacts of mass culture, their dissemination, and the material forms which they take.

Cultural studies often converges with studies and critiques of (post)colonial

hegemonies, including some great thinker who are considered the pioneers of postcolonialism in both cultural and

literary studies :

1- Edward Said a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, a literary theorist, and a public intellectual who was a founding figure of the critical-theory field of Post-colonialism. Born a Palestinian Arab in the city of Jerusalem in 1935 . He was an American citizen through his father.

Said was an advocate for the political and the human rights of the Palestinian people and has been described by the journalist Robert Fisk as their most powerful voice.

Contribution:• Edward Said's signature contribution to

academic life is the book Orientalism. It has been influential in about half a dozen established disciplines, especially literary studies (English, comparative literature), history, anthropology, sociology, area studies (especially middle east studies), and comparative religion. It is a foundational text for the academic field of Post-colonial Studies, wherein the denotations and connotations of the term “Orientalism” are expanded to describe what Saïd sees as the false cultural assumptions of the “Western World”, facilitating the cultural misrepresentation of the “The Orient”, in general, and of the Middle East, in particular.

2- Seyla Benhabib Seyla Benhabib (born September 9, 1950) is Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University, and director of the program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, and a well-known contemporary philosopher. She is the author of several books, most notably about the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas. Benhabib is well-known for combining critical theory with feminist theory. Seyla Benhabib is a democratic theorist who does not believe in the purity of cultures; she thinks of them as formed through dialogues with other cultures.

3- Frantz Fanon Frantz Fanon (Frantz Omar Fanon, 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961) was a Martinique-born, French Creole psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and writer whose works are influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory, and Marxism. As an intellectual, Fanon was a political radical, and an existentialist humanist concerning the psychopathology of colonization, and the human, social, and cultural consequences of decolonization.

Contribution :Fanon is best known for the classic on decolonization The Wretched of the Earth.[11] The Wretched of the Earth was first published in 1961 by François Maspero and has a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre.[12] In it Fanon analyzes the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle for national liberation. Both books established Fanon in the eyes of much of the Third World as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century.

4- Homi BhabhaHomi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, and the Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post-colonial studies, and has coined a number of the field's neologisms and key concepts, such as hybridity, mimicry, difference, and ambivalence.[1] Such terms describe ways in which colonised peoples have resisted the power of the coloniser, according to Bhabha's theory. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in the field of literature and education by the Indian government. Homi Bhabha claims that a salient characteristic of colonial culture is its hybridity, its ―in-betweenness‖. He is the theorist of cultural hybridity and in-betweenness, so he himself is ―a mediating figure between activists and academics.

Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, and the Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post-colonial studies, and has coined a number of the field's neologisms and key concepts, such as hybridity, mimicry, difference, and ambivalence.[1] Such terms describe ways in which colonised peoples have resisted the power of the coloniser, according to Bhabha's theory. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in the field of literature and education by the Indian government. Homi Bhabha claims that a salient characteristic of colonial culture is its hybridity, its ―in-betweenness‖. He is the theorist of cultural hybridity and in-betweenness, so he himself is ―a mediating figure between activists and academics.

5- Gayatri SpivakGayatri Chakravorty Spivak (born 24 February 1942) is an Indian literary theorist, philosopher and University Professor at Columbia University, where she is a founding member of the school's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.[1] She is best known for the essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" considered a founding text of postcolonialism. Spivak is best known for her contemporary cultural and critical theories to challenge the "legacy of colonialism" and the way readers engage with literature and culture. She often focuses on the cultural texts of those who are marginalized by dominant western culture: the new immigrant; the working class; women; and other positions of the subaltern.

•There are others who contribute to the development of postcolonial theory around the world and here are some other names: * Benedict Anderson •Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri •Roberto Fernández Retamar •Mary Louise Pratt •Chantal Mouffe •Ernesto Laclau

Conclusion

Postcolonialism is the most powerful theory which permeates in all other theories and aspects of life and culture. All the mentioned thinkers contributed in a way or another to the development of this field of study. They are in this sense called pioneers of postcolonialism in cultural studies. Culture and literature relationship is the relationship between the context and the text. These thinkers studied the first and showed how the second is related to the first.. Thanks for them ..

References 1- Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin Post-Colonial Studies The Key

Concepts Routledge Key Guides 2008.

2- "Hybridity and National Identity in Postcolonial Literature." 123HelpMe.com.

02 Nov 2013

    <http://www.123HelpMe.com/view.asp?id=6743>.

3- http://wikis.la.utexas.edu/theory/page/cultural-studies-post-colonial-studies

4- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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