Talk:Postcolonial literature

What is post-colonial literature?
This is a subject that genuinely confuses me. Why are Columbian writers considered post-colonial when Columbia has been independant for 150 years? By a similar standard was Nathaniel Hawthorne a post-colonial writer? Is Jaroslav Hasek a post-colonial writer? If not why not? (Similarly Robert Musil and Joseph Roth - Musil has far more to say about empire than almost any writer on the list given). Is The Cantebury Tales a work of post-colonial literature (it uses the English language to build a new sense of Englishness after centuries of Norman oppression!).Badtypist 14:16, 11 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Badtypist, Colonialism and post-colonialism are not geographical, or chronologically historical factors. Colonialism and post-colonialism are ideas, perspectives that could exist at any age, any time, in any country. It is not necessary that Britain does not suffer from colonialism because it imperialised other nations. Colonialism works like patriarchy, it is not an event, it is a discourse. Post-colonialism is a reaction to this discourse - this discourse of colonialism. So a post-colonial writer is essentially reacting to the idea of colonialism, and not necessarily to a colonial event, like the British rule in India, for example. Post-colonial literature can be of many kinds; it can perhaps react to other texts carrying a colonial message in their texts or sub-texts. It can also, sub-consciously, even while attempting to "de-colonize", carry its own semblances of the colonial discourse. So post-colonial literature can also be a reaction to the colonial discourse found in other post-colonial literatures themselves. I think this needs to be clearly explained in this article --Supriya (talk) 23:10, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * Also, the intro needs to be re-written.--Supriya (talk) 23:16, 18 June 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm going ahead and editing it if there are no other suggestions...--Supriya (talk) 07:48, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

"...being re-worked by authors such as Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa and André Brink"

"...in part because postcolonial authors such as Chinua Achebe and Jean Rhys (among others) engage and rework their novels."

I have removed these two lines because they don't make sense. Can someone please explain what the previous editor / writer meant by "engage and re-work"? We can incorporate it into the article after that. --Supriya (talk) 14:51, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

This is seems to push a whole lot of topics together. And it is interesting that there is not a single article on this in any other language: Chinese, French, Arabic, Hindi, Swahili, etc. All of which, one would expect, would have a stake in this.Agh.niyya (talk) 04:29, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Postcolonial literature is NOT a branch of Postmodernism
Postcolonial literature's agenda is progressive. Generally, Postcolonial lit. seeks to arrive at a definition of local identity that subverts imperial discourse. On the other hand, Postmodernism's agenda begins and ends with the toppling of absolutes. It does not intend progression from one state to another.--Smokinpope 17:58, 7 January 2007 (UTC)


 * a branch of Postmodern literature  Until now, I couldnt find any proof for this, other than that both started after the Second World War and Decolonization. That, however, might be a coincidence.--FlammingoHey 16:20, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

Hyphen Issue
This is not that essential, but this should go to postcolonial, without the hyphen, since not only is it the more common spelling (twice, says google, and texts with "-" then use "postcolonial" afterwards). The difference is very helping in grasping the topic: Post-colonial would make an emphasis on the "post", as opposed to "pre-" etc, while the literature came into existence in the process of decolonization, so a "post-colonial book" is one that was published after gaining independence, while a "postcolonial book", stressed postcolonial, would be one dealing with the postcolonial status. Other opinions? --FlammingoHey 20:40, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
 * There's a grammar book, Swan's Practical English Usage, saying it's an issue of emphasis, and that in general, the hyphen is falling into disuse. In this case, I'd argue it is a different perspective, but base the decision on the frequency of both spellings --FlammingoHey 20:43, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree. The hyphen seems to exist as an intermediate step of acceptance to a new compound word or addition of a prefix. "to-day", "good-bye" and "to-morrow" are all common examples of words that have dropped the hyphen while "postmodern" and "postoperative" are specific examples of the word "post" becoming a prefix.

I'll remove all the hyphens from this article pending a challenge. Eberts (talk) 15:53, 1 November 2010 (UTC)Eberts

authors
The list that used to be there started useless and grew ever less valuable, so here it is; please everyone interested delete a name here and put a sentence into the article about the writer.--FlammingoHey 20:09, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree the list is problematic. I would not classify Michael Ondaatje as postcolonial as his writings do not disrupt imperialist structures but rather work to reproduce them. Perhaps some discussion is needed about the neoimperialist co-option and promotion of Third World writers and writing in the service of reproducing prevailing structures of power. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Eruptionsfromdownstream (talk • contribs) 22:56, 13 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Chinua Achebe
 * Joseph Conrad — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.148.202.255 (talk) 11:24, 12 December 2011 (UTC)
 * J.M. Coetzee
 * Maryse Condé
 * Cyril Dabydeen
 * Tsitsi Dangarembga
 * Raywat Deonandan
 * Buchi Emecheta
 * Athol Fugard
 * Nadine Gordimer
 * Bonny Hicks
 * Kazuo Ishiguro
 * Hanif Kureishi
 * Doris Lessing
 * Earl Lovelace
 * Gabriel García Márquez
 * Bharati Mukherjee
 * V. S. Naipaul
 * Michael Ondaatje
 * Jean Rhys
 * Salman Rushdie
 * Bapsi Sidhwa
 * Wilbur Smith
 * Wole Soyinka
 * Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
 * Yvonne Vera
 * Derek Walcott
 * Kath Walker

POV tag
This is one of the most controversial schools of thought in the contemporary academy. There needs to be a section on critics of the post-colonial approachElan26 (talk) 00:59, 20 May 2008 (UTC)Elan26

Agree with NPOV Tag: Postcolonial theory as a neocolonial construct
I agree with the NPOV tag. Many argue that the idea of classifying literature as a response to colonization is in itself a neocolonial construct, there should be discussion of this area included. Many argue that Edward Said is not a postcolonial writer, but rather a critic of the notion of the existence of "postcolonial literature". In other words, he assumes an analytic high-ground that includes postcolonial literature as a form of colonial ideology, a false literary construct, to be analyzed and refuted. There should be some discussion of this point of view, or at least a mention that it exists. 154.20.13.223 (talk) 01:25, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Francophone Literature
Hello, there is a link to this article inside the Francophone Literature section of the French Lit. template. See for ex., in the page French literature. Therefore my question is : should the template be amended or this article internationalized ? (and that includes of course other languages and not only Fr.) Best.--Pierre et Condat (talk) 10:39, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Politics?
Am I alone in finding the opening sentence of the lede depressing?
 * "Postcolonial literature is the body of literary writings that respond to the intellectual discourses of European colonization in Asia, Africa, Middle East, the Pacific and elsewhere".

I'm far from well-read in this area but surely writers from the countries that were colonised, do more than this? That is they write about their own culture and write entertaining, moving and humorous literature. I'm not saying that politics can be ignored but this article is supposed to be about literature not "intellectual discourse". Rwood128 (talk) 22:51, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

Recent additions
In trying to improve what was an inadequate discussion of this topic I have added relevant material from various WP literature and author's pages. I have endeavoured to do this in accordance with WP copyright guidelines. Rwood128 (talk) 15:28, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

Proposed expansion
I am planning to expand the article in three ways: 1. By re-organizing the "critical approaches" section (I want to differentiate between colonial discourse analysis and postcolonial responses to the center) 2. By adding the common themes and concerns of postcolonial literature. 3. By editing out any extra or irrelevant information about authors and literature of specific geographical region (For example, I think we can LINK people to information ABOUT a region or ABOUT an author, rather than explain it in this article). I am open to any criticism over the next three weeks as I work on the edits in my Sandbox!Sgk18 (talk) 22:18, 2 July 2018 (UTC)

Post-colonial Poland
http://rcin.org.pl/Content/51835/WA248_71046_P-I-2524_skorczew-post-colon.pdf Xx236 (talk) 09:42, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

removed from lede
Post-colonialism is a broad cultural approach to the study of power relations between different groups, cultures or people, in which language, literature and translation play role (Hatim & Munday, 2005, p. 106) moved this sentence from the lede. MassiveEartha (talk) 14:24, 8 September 2020 (UTC)