Our group chose to do Post-colonialism. To find information about the theory we looked in the "Literary Criticism" book by Bressler, and also looked up stories in the "Making Literature Matter" book, which included short post-colonial criticisms. Post-colonial criticism is a subset of cultural studies that looks at the effects that colonization has on the colonized countries, from the psychological effects, such as loss of identity or homelessness, to the social impacts, such as job opportunities (or lack thereof) to class division, to the physical impacts, such as in the stories "Counterparts" and "Like a Winding Sheet," when both the main characters lash out physically. The theory argues that colonialism did occur, that the British Empire was at the center of this colonialism, that the conquerors not only dominated the physical land but also the hegemony or ideology of the colonized peoples, and that the effects of this colonization are still being felt today. The main questions people in these positions have to ask are, Who am I?, How did I develop into the person I am?, and To what country/cultures am I forever linked?.
Our group incorporated the actual theory by talking directly about it and explaining the history of it and how it works. We then walked through post-colonial criticism of two texts that we felt worked very well with the theory.
No comments:
Post a Comment