Postcolonial And Post Colonialism

The terms ‘postcolonial’ and ‘post-colonial’ vary in their usage. For historians, the hyphenated word refers specifically to the period after a country, state or people cease to be governed by a colonial power and take administrative power into their own hands. The prefix “post-” in ‘post-colonial’ refers to a historical relation, to a period after colonialism. It indicates chronological signification. The term ‘postcolonial’ is used to refer to the consequences of colonialism. By definition, postcolonialism is a period of time after colonialism, and postcolonial literature is typically characterized by its opposition to the colonial. However, some critics have argued that any literature that expresses an opposition to colonialism, even if it is produced during a colonial period, may be defined as postcolonial, primarily due to its oppositional nature.

Postcolonial literature is a body of literary writing that responds to the intellectual discourse of European colonization in Asia, Africa, Middle East, etc. Postcolonial literature addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country and of a nation, especially the political and cultural independence of formerly oppressed colonized people. In his essay discussing the nature and boundaries of postcolonialism, Simon During argues for a more inclusive definition, calling it “the need, in nations, or groups which have been victims of imperialism to achieve an identity uncontaminated by universalist or