As an academic discipline, postcolonialism is concerned with the cultural heritage left by colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism is the name of the concept which briefly covers the historical, literary, psychological, and philosophical theories that investigate the effects of colonialism. As to Postcolonialism in literature, it is works of the authors who received education with the language of the colonizer or embark on colonizer’s culture.
Post-colonial studies that began to rise after World War II takes its source from literature and cultural studies inherently. The starting point of the post-colonial studies is the countries who experienced that decolonization process, and who had just gained their independence.The aim of these studies is to reflect the situation and realities from the decolonized people’s view. This concept does not only focus on financial situation of nations but also focusses on the spiritual fatigue of these nations with the identity problems such as racism, discrimination, and oppression they were exposed to after the colonialism process. It seems that the post-colonial studies are the voice of colonized people. Colonialism evolved to imperialism and a new term, neo-colonialism, was born. The Western countries began to dominate the newly independent countries by empozing their own language, culture and made them dependent again to themselves. In the scope of post-colonial studies, humans and culture are at the center of it, and it examines groups and individuals who suffered and influenced by the Western culture.
There are some prominent names all of whom interested in different fields of the post-colonial studies claimed different theories in the scope of these studies. Frantz Canon, for instance, analyzed the psychological side of the identity pain point of the colonized people.
According to Fanon, it is required that decolonized people get over themselves from the destroying effects of imperialism and be freed not only bodily but also mentally from foreign domination. A French philosopher, Mıchel Foucault benefited from the founding relationship between power and knowledge. According to Facoult, power is used by the government to manipulate the decolonized people for the government’s own interests. In other words, to manipulate or dominate the decolonized people, they built a strong security intelligence service. Before World War II, colonizers exploited their colonies explicitly, but after World War II, they exploited the same country implicitly by collecting the security intelligence service. Simply, who has power; it is who has knowledge, who is powerful; it is who dominates the world, inevitably. Edward Said, father of the orientalism discipline in the post-colonial studies, benefited from the founding relationship between power and knowledge of Foucault, and with his groundbreaking work Orientalism, 1978, he claimed that West creates the East according to its thought and reality. According to West, East is undeveloped and can not be developed if the West does not dominate the East. The West declares its own cultural superiority on the the East by marginalizing the East, from Said’s point of view. Orientalism is a term used to describe the West’s approach to the the East and how the West perceives the East.
When it comes to the novel, which is the product of the West, there were many works given by some notable authors who depicted the reality of the colonized people in the history. As literature is related to history, philosophy, or political, some great authors such as Salman Rushdie, Indian origin, Britain novelist; Chinna Achabe, Nigerian author; Michael Ondaatje used the historical background of the post-colonial era in their great novels. Midnight’s Children, written by S. Rushdie; The English Patient, written by M. Ondaatje and Things Fall Apart, written by C. Achabe are the best novels given in that era.
To sum up, post-colonial studies are disciplines created by prominent figures such as F. Fanon, E. Said, M. Foucault, S. Rushdie, C. Achabe to understand both colonized and decolonized people’s problems. If there are not any post-colonialist philosophers, critics, or novelists, anyone cannot be aware of the colonized people’s traumas at that era now.
Melike Çelik
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