"Postcolonialism Today"

Hello Readers

On Sunday 22th November we had online session on Postcolonialism organized by iSPELL (Indian Society for the Promotion of English language and literature).The chief speaker of this event was Prof.Bill Ashcroft.The chairperson of this event was Dr.Jyoti Patil,president of iSPELL.And the master of the ceremony was Miss. Parvathy Ramchadran,Assistant Prof.English Kerala.So freinds today i would like to summarize this session in my blog as a sunday reading task given by Prof. Dr.Dilip Barad sir.

↪️About Chief Speaker:

The chief speaker ok today's session was Prof.Bill Ashcroft.Bill Ashcroft is an Emeritus Professor in the School of English, Media and Performing Arts. A founding exponent of post-colonial theory, co-author of The Empire Writes Back, the first text to examine systematically the field of post-colonial studies. He is author and co-author of twenty one books, variously translated into five languages, Including Post-Colonial Transformation (Routledge 2001), Post-Colonial Futures (Continuum 2001); Caliban's Voice (Routledge 2008) Intimate Horizons (ATF 2009) and Utopianism in Postcolonial Literatures (Routledge 2016). He is the author of over 200 chapters and papers, and he is on the editorial boards of ten international journals.

Click here to know more about his publications, awards and his area of expertise.

💠What is Postcolonialism?

Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the human consequences of the control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a critical-theory analysis of the history, culture, literature, and discourse of (usually European) imperial power.

Postcolonialism encompasses a wide variety of approaches, and theoreticians may not always agree on a common set of definitions. On a simple level, through anthropological study, it may seek to build a better understanding of colonial life—based on the assumption that the colonial rulers are unreliable narrators—from the point of view of the colonized people. On a deeper level, postcolonialism examines the social and political power relationships that sustain colonialism and neocolonialism, including the social, political and cultural narratives surrounding the colonizer and the colonized. This approach may overlap with studies of contemporary history, and may also draw examples from anthropology, historiography, political science, philosophy, sociology, and human geography. Sub-disciplines of postcolonial studies examine the effects of colonial rule on the practice of feminism, anarchism, literature, and Christian thought.

At times, the term postcolonial studies may be preferred to postcolonialism, as the ambiguous term colonialism could refer either to a system of government, or to an ideology or world view underlying that system. However, postcolonialism (i.e., postcolonial studies) generally represents an ideological response to colonialist thought, rather than simply describing a system that comes after colonialism, as the prefix post- may suggest. As such, postcolonialism may be thought of as a reaction to or departure from colonialism in the same way postmodernism is a reaction to modernism; the term postcolonialism itself is modeled on postmodernism, with which it shares certain concepts and methods.

💠Prof.Bill Ashcroft's views on Postcolonialism:

It had very interesting journey since 1989 when The right back was published.It is constantly changing and developing.

💠What is Postcolonial Theory?

◾️It is the branch of contemporary theory that investigates and develops preposition about the cultural and political impact of European conquest upon colonized societies and the nature of those society's responses.So there is two aspects of it.It is the analysis of impact of European colonization.

◾️Post colonial is above all a way of reading.So it's reading practice that draws attention to the profound and continuing effects of colonization upon literary production on anthropological accounts, historical records and scientific and administrative writing.

Watch the video to know more about the postcoloniali .

💠Postcolonialism and Globalization:

Language of postcolonialism drove the cultural turn in globalization in 1990s.Prof.Bill Ashcroft put the information about SIMON GIKANDI and they have gave two important things in common:

1.They are concern with explaining forms of social and cultural organization whose ambition is to transcend the boundaries of the nation state.

2.They seek to provide new ways to understand cultural flows that can longer be explained by a homogeneous Eurocentric narrative of development and social change.

💠'On Post colonial Future' by Bill Ashcroft

On Post-Colonial Futures proposes a radical view of the influence that colonized societies have on their former colonizers. In this ground-breaking book, Bill Ashcroft extends the arguments he posed in The Empire Writes Back to investigate the transformative effects of post-colonial resistance and the continuing relevance of colonial struggle. The book demonstrates the remarkable capacity for change in the intellectual spheres of literature, history and philosophy. The transformations of post-colonial literary study have not been limited to a simply rewriting of the canon but have affected the ways in which all literature can be read and have led to a more profound understanding of the network of cultural practices that influence creative writing.

⏹️A plethora of idea about the future of postcolonial studies arose at the th beginning of the century.

⏹️Growing Themes:

Transnational Literature
Transnationalis
Multiple Modernities
World literature
Cosmopolitanism
The Post colonial scared
Postcolonial Ecocriticism

💠Postcolonial Utopianism:

Postcolonial Utopianism is very interesting phenomenon.Utopian studies society was formed in 1988 The Empire Writer Backs formed in 1989,but you know the two have had nothing really to do with each other.Very recently Prof.Bill Ashcroft has published Postcolonial Utopianism and Postcolonial Literature.

(Bill Ashcroft on postcolonial Utopias)

(Postcolonial literature by Bill Ashcroft)

Thomas More's 'Utopia':

Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More (1478–1535), written in Latin and published in 1516. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social, and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries.

💠Literature's Anticipatory Function:

◾️Literature is so important so valuable in the anticipation of the future.

◾️Heimat-the home we have all sensed but never experienced or know."It is Heimat as utopia that determines the truth content of work of art."

◾️For Bloch Heimat always lies beyond the border.

He was also discussed about Broeders and Horizons of literature.

💠Transnation:

🔷Another concept that was discussed by Prof.Bill Ashcroft was about Trans naction.

🔷The transaction now all these only subjects all these citizens moving around the boarders of the state .The nation has always tried to identify a certain identify for itself.Prof.Ashcroft says that now in young nations such as Australia this becomes almost an obsession as it grows.People are obssessed with the idea of Australian national identity . Probably in India too the idea of national identity is something that people can escape really whether they are drawn to it or not.But this picture shows the actual multiplicity of a nation of the different strand that go to make it could put in another way that a nation is a big tossed salad.

Here is the full video recording of this event.The video was recorded by Prof.Dr.Dilip Barad sir.Please watch the video to knows more about this event.

💠Conclusion:

To conclude we can say that the term postcolonial has a different perspective.This term is also very huge one.No one can describe this term in briefly.

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