ipl-logo

Postcolonialism

1264 Words6 Pages

Post-colonialism marks the end of the colonial period and the beginning of new era. People have relieved from the clutches of the colonial rule which lasted for one hundred and fifty years in the subcontinent. Post colonialism has become a very debatable topic for the postcolonial thinkers with reference to the subalterns, especially after the publication of ‘In the Words’ by Spivak (1987), ‘The Empire Writes Back’ by Aschcroft (1989), Nation and Narration (1990) by Bhabha and Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said (1993). The very first attempt goes back to Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1990), as he says: The first step for the colonized people in finding a voice and an identity is to reclaim their own past. For centuries, the Europeans …show more content…

Substantial references needs to be quoted in the above passage The opening of the narrative is very suggestive as it focuses on the role of Asian women in the rural Punjab back in 1970s, which identifies even in today’s situation with the same cultural mores and typical life style. Maulana’s wife plays a very short part in the novel yet her presence is debatable as being the representative of the typical Asian women called ‘cultural bearer’. Substantial references needs to be quoted in the above passage Amrit Wilson says, “One of these roles given to Asian women by their families and communities is to be upholders and preservers of our culture” (qtd in Mortada). Aslam observes the role of Asians women through his male perspective and paints a very realistic picture of women managing their household duties; looking after their children or husbands. As Maulana Hafeez’s wife is the representative of the subjugated class of women who are supposed to be obedient housewives. In the opening narrative, Maulana’s wife is seen while serving her husband: “When he (Maulana Hafeez) came out of the drizzle his wife poured him a cup of tea- the second of many that Maulana Hafeez would drink during the course of the day” (P 10). Aslam has noted that women have no roles in the construction …show more content…

She does not admit the notion that the Western world is superior to the Third- World as it is purified from the grossness of acute barbarism. In her critical discourse, she raises the question of marginalized subjects and the place of subaltern women in the society and their empowerment. Though people have surpassed the colonial rule, yet they are not completely free from the influences and social structure. Spivak in her essay,” Can Subaltern Speak?” addresses the subaltern, the oppressed subjects or more generally those “of inferior rank” (Spivak 283). In the context of colonial production, subaltern has no history and cannot speak, subaltern as a female is even more deeply in “shadow” (Spivak

Show More
Related

  • Women's Role In The Early 1800s

    1528 Words  | 7 Pages

    For decade women have been discriminated by society, all around the world. In many countries women are still treated as the inferior sex. “daily life for women in the early 1800s in Europe(Britain), was that of many obligations and few choices. Some even compare the conditions of women in time as a form of slavery.” (Smith, Kelley. "

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Igbo Society

    1950 Words  | 8 Pages

    The pre-colonial and postcolonial Igbo society has been observed to be male dominated. Men reign supreme in sociocultural affairs while the female figure has specific limited prescribed roles, a confirmation of absence of feministic ideologies. Motherhood, being submissive to the husband and generally domestic dutiesare some of the roles women are associated with. As the title of the novel by Buchi Emecheta Second Class Citizenimplies, the female figure has been treated as a lesser significant sexwithin the Igbo society considering that equalityamong women is limited by their fathers, husbands and the general patriarchy system. This is something Adah finds quite the same when she moves to England whereby with her African descent she continues to suffer womanhood struggles.

    Read More

  • Essay About Clothing Over Time

    891 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firstly, during the years around the time of the American

    Read More

  • Hardships In Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns

    1413 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, we come across two women Mariam and Laila, who endure extreme hardships that most women across the world experience. In the following essay I am going to critically discuss the statement that says "A Thousand Splendid Suns shows the social and cultural- and, ultimately political structures that support the devaluation, degradation, and violence endured by Mariam and Laila". This will be done by focusing on the events that take pace in

    Read More

  • Things Fall Apart And British Colonialism

    889 Words  | 4 Pages

    Questions: 1.How does the British educational system impose white European values onto the Igbo people? In what ways, do the British seek to eradicate the indigenous cultural values of the Igbo tribe through education? 2.Why did the British government impose such absolute values in the quest to eradicate Igbo identity in the Nigerian colonies? 3.In what ways does the British government seek to sublimate Igbo identity by a focus on a “primitive state” in the Igbo tribe?

    Read More

  • Mistreatment Of Women In A Thousand Splendid Suns Essay

    1495 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hosseini portrays how this treatment of women was accepted in Afghani culture because men’s superiority was derived from tradition. He depicts a culture in Afghanistan where wives were seen as mere possessions, so their husbands found fault with them for the inconveniences they experienced. Hosseini demonstrates the mistreatment of women in Afghanistan through the multiple examples he provides where men laid blame with women for circumstances beyond the women’s control or for which were not solely to blame for, just as Nana had warned Mariam that they were prone to do. The first instance in which Nana’s statement rings true is when Nana found out for herself how easily women in Afghanistan could be held completely accountable for things that were not solely their responsibility.

    Read More

  • Education In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    1130 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the author Khaled Hosseini emphasizes the importance of education in woman. With the importance of education in women comes the endurance of woman. Hosseini displays the endurance of hardships that women face in Afghanistan through his female characters in the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Mariam wants to go to school and be able to learn like other children,“She pictured herself in a classroom with other girls her age.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    878 Words  | 4 Pages

    Equality of genders is a basic human right that all should posses. However, in the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the reader explores Afghanistan’s true nature of extreme gender inequality towards women and how it affects all the characters within the novel. The novel explores how within a marriage, women have unequal rights, undergo major amounts of physical abuse, and are emotionally and mentally tormented by their very own supposedly beloved husbands. A marriage is defined as a union of two people as partners in a personal relationship.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    1539 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the progressive modern world, the ancient mindset of men’s superiority exists in many societies. Women who are opposed to such ideology are, in some cases, perceived as rebellious when words such as feminism has come to acknowledgement for over a century. Through the struggles that the characters of A Thousand Splendid Suns faced in the patriarchal Afghani culture, Khaled Hosseini delivers his feminist ideas. For her whole life, Nana endured the troubles given by men, and she is one of the “fallen female warrior” of the novel because she fought against the oppression and lost, due to the unfortunate circumstances of her life. Mariam also suffered the torments imposed on her by the men in her life, sharing a similar fate as her mother, Nana, in a way.

    Read More

  • Gender Inequality In A Thousand Splendid Suns

    1093 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the story, the women are oppressed by the society. This is narrated through the delivery of the main antagonist’s id, the gender inequality in enforcing laws and the marginalization of women. As a result of Rasheed’s id, Mariam and Laila are consistently physically and emotionally

    Read More

  • Denise Brennan What's Love Got To Do With It Summary

    1672 Words  | 7 Pages

    Through the weaving together of these voices Brennan is able to analyze Sosua from a transnational scale and chooses to draw from the tradition of ethnography in shaping her work. As George Marcus and Michael Fischer have demonstrated ethnography must be treated as a “form of representational literature”, wherein the anthropologist must “move forward by writing in the ironic mode” (Marcus & Fischer 443). In light of this information Brennan attempts to avoid literary plotting and rhetorics of romance, tragedy, and comedy by constantly reminding the viewer that “very few women ever make it out of poverty”, only some women “break even” and that some may be “worse off after coming to Sosua” (Brennan 20, 56,

    Read More

  • Women In Patricia Mccormick's Sold

    908 Words  | 4 Pages

    Portrayed as the strong, dedicated, stereotypical, maternal type, Ama attempts to protect her little girl at all costs. Whenever Lakshmi wants go to the city to work, Ama refuses by saying, “‘Lakshmi, my child,’ she says. ‘You must stay in schools, no matter what your stepfather says.’” (McCormick, 1). She breaks the gender boundaries early on the first page of the book by defying the man of the households wishes and undermining his needs.

    Read More

  • Positive And Negative Impacts Of Colonialism In Things Fall Apart By Africa

    1715 Words  | 7 Pages

    Discourse on colonialism generally results in the different opinions of the colonizer and the colonized. The upshot of such discourse shows that colonialism has divergent interpretations. For the colonizer, it is ‘a civilizing mission’; to the colonized, it is exploitation. Such concept is better understood when both the views are studied with an objective approach. Things Fall Apart is a perfect novel to study colonialism as it deals with the perspectives of the colonizer and the colonized.

    Read More

  • The Eurocentric Nature Of International Relations Theory And World Politics

    1795 Words  | 8 Pages

    The one-sided understanding and definition of global problems that leave out the problems of the Third World, where majority of the conflicts take place. Post colonialism is a concept that sees International Relations and global politics as presenting a partial outlook of the world political scenario and discredits the current economic, social and political structure that has emerged as a result of colonialism. Postcolonial theory is a critique of the main stream International Relations theory and challenges the central nature of the European nations. Post Colonial approaches help us to make sense of the current political scenario, we can relate the current events to the acts of Imperialism and Colonialism and the ways in which people were affected by them. In this essay, I will take the recent attacks on Paris and explain how they were a result

    Read More

  • Language In Colonial America

    6285 Words  | 26 Pages

    Chapter 1 A discursive on minority studies would suggest that power in the form of knowledge was what created hegemony. So also when we look at the colonial discourse, we have come to an understanding or rather it is understood that one of the pertaining factor that sustained the domination over the colonies was ‘power’ in the form of knowledge. That very knowledge further gave the colonizers the power to ‘represent’ the colonized. Edward Said says, Orientalism is the colonizers way of, “dealing with the Orient by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, teaching it, ruling over it,” or rather, “Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient.”

    Read More

More about Postcolonialism

Open Document