Perspectives on Post-colonial Theory: Said, Spivak and Bhabha

Abstract

The present paper Perspectives on Postcolonial Theory: Said, Spivak and Bhabha explores and defines postcolonial theory, its roots, development, major critics, principles, issues, covering area and different forms. Some critics argued that, the post colonialism is the continuation of colonialism in the sense that the colonies get freedom only from political rule and there started the complex process of postcolonialism, self imposed colonialism. Here the focus point is to discuss post colonialism as a literary discuorse in Indian context. The British had an extended empire during the nineteenth century and this empire had a fairly strong on all its territories. This teritories were of two kinds those like Canada, New Zealand and Austrelia in which the English people colonised and established their culture, and those like India and Nigeria where they were rulers by force and imposed their institutions and norms. The process of self determination and the granting of political independence to each country of Empire brought out postcolonial age in the history of the World. In the closing decades of the twentieth century, the term 'Post colonialism' has gained carrency and what is more, it has eclipsed terms like postmodernism, post structuralism and so on. Hans Bertens rightly assumes: " In the course of 1980s, Commonwealth literary studies become part of the then emerging and now vast field of literary, cultural, political and historical inquary that we call postcolonial studies. " [Bertens, p. 200]. The term postcolional has been substituted in the 70s for the post independence issues throughout the world. It has both historical as well as ideological significance. Postcolonialism is a critical theory which focuses colonial experience from the colonised society's point view, semantically post colonialism means something that has concern only with the national culture after the departure of imperial power. But in actual practice it has to be understood only in reference to colonialism, myth and history, language and landscape, self and other are all very important ingredients of postcolonial studies. It means that the physical area of postcolonial study is wider than any other descipline in literature. It consists of the writing world over. In postcolonial studies the writing centre changed from the middle aged Europe to world over. The mariginalised countries like India, Pakistan, Shri Lank, and other Asian Countries, outside Asia, Nigeria, Canada, Austrelia, South Africa and many Islamic countries are foregrounded in postcolonial studies. Again Bertens' remark is notable here: " In recognition of this new situation, in which writing in English from the former colonies-including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other Asian colonies-has proved itself as a vital and as important as the literature written in England itself; we

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Perspectives on Postcolonial Theory: Said, Spivak and Bhabha
Datta G. Sawant
Assistant Professor of English,
TACS College, Sengaon
The present paper Perspectives on Postcolonial Theory: Said, Spivak and
Bhabha explores and defines postcolonial theory, its roots, development, major
critics, principles, issues, covering area and different forms. Some critics argued that,
the post colonialism is the continuation of colonialism in the sense that the colonies
get freedom only from political rule and there started the complex process of
postcolonialism, self imposed colonialism.
Here the focus point is to discuss post colonialism as a literary discuorse in
Indian context. The British had an extended empire during the nineteenth century and
this empire had a fairly strong on all its territories. This teritories were of two kinds
those like Canada, New Zealand and Austrelia in which the English people colonised
and established their culture, and those like India and Nigeria where they were rulers
by force and imposed their institutions and norms. The process of self determination
and the granting of political independence to each country of Empire brought out
postcolonial age in the history of the World. In the closing decades of the twentieth
century, the term ‘Post colonialism’ has gained carrency and what is more, it has
eclipsed terms like postmodernism, post structuralism and so on. Hans Bertens
rightly assumes:
“In the course of 1980s, Commonwealth literary studies become part of the
then emerging and now vast field of literary, cultural, political and historical inquary
that we call postcolonial studies.” [Bertens, p. 200].
The term postcolional has been substituted in the 70s for the post
independence issues throughout the world. It has both historical as well as ideological
significance. Postcolonialism is a critical theory which focuses colonial experience
from the colonised society’s point view, semantically post colonialism means
something that has concern only with the national culture after the departure of
imperial power. But in actual practice it has to be understood only in reference to
colonialism, myth and history, language and landscape, self and other are all very
important ingredients of postcolonial studies. It means that the physical area of
postcolonial study is wider than any other descipline in literature. It consists of the
writing world over. In postcolonial studies the writing centre changed from the
middle aged Europe to world over. The mariginalised countries like India, Pakistan,
Shri Lank, and other Asian Countries, outside Asia, Nigeria, Canada, Austrelia, South
Africa and many Islamic countries are foregrounded in postcolonial studies. Again
Bertens’ remark is notable here:
“In recognition of this new situation, in which writing in English from the
former colonies- including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other Asian colonies- has
proved itself as a vital and as important as the literature written in England itself; we

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now usually speak of ‘literatures in English’ rather than of ‘English Literatures’ if we
want to refer to English language writing.” [Bertens. p. 195]
Thus, Postcolonial studies expanded the scope of literature in later period.
India, one of the biggest colonies of British, got independence in 1947 that is political
and the whole scenario of literary study has been changed. There were discoveries in
Indian religious texts like Ramayana, Mahagharata, Upnishadas and many others.
The texts were used as the base material for creative writing, and from the time being
the new branch of Indian English literature came into existence.
This is all about postcolonialism and postcolonical studies, now we have to
turn towards the base of the postcolonial discource. Postcolonial discource attempts
to redifine reformulate and reconstruct the colonized self. The post colonial should
mean the period beginning with national independence in contrast to the colonical
rule. It is because the age of colonialism is over, so the whole world is to be
considered as postcolonial, but if we think, it is continued colonialism in hidden form.
The imperial impact is still alive and active today in literature. There are discussions
over Neo-colonialism as the countries like Nigeria, and India may be both
postcolonial in the sense that being formally independent and neo-colonial
psyeologically at the same time. In short though they got independence and freedom
from the British rule, Colonialism is still ruling their psychology and it is known as
neo-colonialism. But a lot of discussion over this matter leads to the way round and
comes to post colonialism and postcolonial study, the most accepted phrases. The
world except Europe and now America is affected and affecting a lot from the
imperial dominance; it exploited the literature of marginals. The European literatures
of the then English literature were used as a tool of manipulation, to set the rule, to
repress the orient in Said’s term.
Edward Said’s “Orientalism’ is the founder stone of post-colonial study. Orientalism
established the scientific study of postcolonial theory published in 1978. It
revolutionized the area of postcolonial theory and literatures. The book has its own
terminology. It depicts the imbalance between the West and East by showing the
superiority of West over the East, West always dominated the East. Said applied
terms and concepts as “ orient’ the other’ and ‘accident’ to show the relation between
two distinct cultures - West and East.
Orientalism is one of the parts in a trilogy; the other two books are The
Questions of Palestine (1980) and Covering Islam (1982). This fact is stressed out by
Leela Gandhi, a postcolonial crific:
“Orientalism is the first book in a trilogy devoted to an exploration of the
historically imbalanced relationship between the world of Islam, the Middle East and
the ‘Orient’ on the one hand, and that of European and American imperialism on the
other.” [Gandhi, p. 9].
Here, Gandhi uses the phrase ‘historically imbalanced’ to show the antiquity
of the relationship between East and West. Said rightly emphasised the policies,
schemes and methodologies of the Occident making dominant over the Orient. The
focus point of Orientalism is to create awareness in continantal literature.
Marginalisation must be banned through the effective use of Eastern literature. The

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factors like irrationality, sensuality, primitiveness, despotism and idleness are
attributed to the East to establish dominance of West. This process of attributions
marginalised Eastern literature. Binary opposition of East and West suggests that the
valley of discrimination among them is wider. Here we should advocate that:
“West and East form a binary opposition in which the two poles define each
other, the inferiority that orientalism attributes to the East simulteneously serves to
construct the West’s superiority. The sensuality, irrationality, primitineness, and
despotism of the East construct the West as rational, democratic, and progressive and
so on.” [Bertens, p. 205]
Again, the view of superior West and inferior East is expressed by Peter Barry
in his comments on Said’s Orientalism. He says that Said’s Orientalism started post
colonial theory properly exposing the very basic ideas regarding this area:
“Hence, another major book, which can be said to inaugurate postcolonial
criticism proper, is Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), which is a specific expose of
the Eurocentric universalism which takes for granted both the superiority of what is
European or Western, and the inferiority of what is not. Said identifies a European
cultural tradition of ‘Orientalism’, which is a particular and long-standing way of
identifying the East as ‘other’ and inferior to the West.” [Barry, p. 193].
He further, explains the three stages of postcolonial literature to understand the
various dimensions of postcolonial theory. The first stage is the Adopt phase in
which the writer seeks the form of genre and mentions its universal validity. The
second stage is the Adapt phase, here the author adapts or borrows the form,
particulary the European form to the native subject matter. The last stage is the Adept
phase, focusing over the indepdence of the text. In last phase, we do not find
interference of European cultural forms. Regarding the third phase, Barry made a
remark:
“Characteristically, postcolonial writers evoke or create precolonial version of
their own nation, rejecting the modern and, the contemporary, which is tainted with
the colonial status of their countries. Here, then, is the first characteristic of post
colonial criticism- an awareness of representations of the non-European as exotic or
immoral ‘other.” [Barry. p. 194].
The above commentary on ‘Orientolism’ clarifies the objective of study of
posteolonial theory as to unite the different cultural, social, political, economic, ethno-
racist aspect in literatares of both the Worlds- East and West.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is another important figure in posteolonial theory,
her critical work In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics (1987) deserves special
mention including the essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ She widened the scope of
subaltern literature including the literatures of marginalised women. She makes harsh
comment on the male dominant society and shows the secondary position, inferior
role given to women in patriarchy. According to Spivak, women are doubly exploited
and under estimated in post colonial literature. Subaltern is a military term, but
Spivak used it to denote the lower rank, marginal status of women and the literature
exploring it. She is fully postcolonial feminist critic:

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‘Spivak can be said to be the first postcolonial theorist with a fully feminist
agenda. That agenda includes the complecity of female writers with imperialism.....
Spinvak’s insistance on the importance of feminist perspectives is part of a larger role
that she has perhaps unintentionally played over the last two decades: that of the
theoretical conscience of postcolonial studies. Her work has as much addressed
theoretical shortcomings in post colonial theoriszing as it has focused on postcolonial
issues itself.” [Bertens. p. 211].
Spivak’s chief contribution of post colonial theory is her terms - subaltern,
essentialism, strategic essentialism, - which gained a specific reference in post
colonial literary and critical studies in contemporary age.
The next significant postcolonial theorist is Homi K. Bhabha and his book The
Location of Culture (1994) has made prominenant contributions in postcolonial
criticism. His concept of Hybridity gained currency in defining the vision of
postcolonial theory that all cultures are confluenced in each other and it cannot be
seperated. In this regard, the diasporic writing become important; it redifined the
postcolonial aftermath not only in liferature but also in socio-cultural, political,
national, economic, et cetra. Selden remarks:
“Bhabha sees hybridity as a problematic of colonial representation which
reverses the effects of the colonialist disavowel (of differance), so that other ‘denied’
knowledes enter upon the dominant discures and estrange the basis of its authority.”
[Selden. p. 228].
Bhabha also raises the question of cultural identity.He uses the term mimicry
to indicate the Westenrization of native cultures. Native cultures are imitating- it is
blindly- the Western culture without knowing cultural demolition of natives. Bhabha
criticised Frantz Fanon’s-Fanan is one of the earliest writers associated with
postcolonialism- Blcack Skin, White Masks. Leela Gandhi rightly quotes:
“In his comments on Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, the
poscolonial critic Homi Bhabha announces that memory is the necessary and
sometimes hazardous bridge between colonial and the question of cultural identity.”
[Gandhi. p. 9].
After the discussion of prominant exponant of postcolonial theory Said Spivak
and Bhabha literature excluding British and American literature was first called
commonwealth literature. Now commonwealth literature included different types of
literature from different cultures. To include all these literatures a new term having
reference of time is coined that is postcolonial literature, According to many
postcolonial critics the postcolonial literature is appropriate and most authorative,
term to denote, describe and study the emerging literatures in English. Registance,
subversion and reconstruction are the significant features of postcoionial literature.
Postcolonial literatures in all languages, particulary in English are based on the
conflict between the traditional culture of history, gender, culture and politics. The
Indian English Literature can be divided into four major postcolonial discourse as one
Minority Discouerce in which Rohinton Mistry’s such A long Joureny and ‘Fine
Balance’, Boman Desai’s ‘The Memory of Elephant’, and ‘And some take a Lover’
are important works. Two diasporic writers like Salman Rushdi (Midnight’s

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Children, Shame, Satanic Verses), Vikarm Seth (A Sutable Boy) are important post
colonial novelists. The third category is Feminist Discourse Shashi Deshpande,
Nayantara Sehgal, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De is major writers in this category, and
the last category is of Political Discourse which repeats the above writers like Rushdi.
Thus, Indian English Literature has a great impact of postcolonial theory, inside and
outside the country.
It is necessary to note down some of the issues often discussed in posteolonial
theory.
1) Cultural difference in literary texts. e.g. gender (feminist criticism),
class (Marxist criticism), and sexual orientation (lesbinlgay criticism).
2) Double identity and identity crisis in different cultures and their texts.
3) Rejection of Western literature and their norms, and establishment of
native literature creating their own norms.
4) Western literature has not the ability to speak over the matters like
coliniallism and imperialism.
5) Support to the notion that western literature is not the universal
literature.
6) Representation of prominenance of ‘Other’ cultures in literature.
7) Strong belief in hybridity, multiculturalism, multi-ethnicity, and cul
tural polivalency.
8) Use of ‘otherness’ and ‘marginality’ as the power, source of energy
and potential change for the natives.
9) Foregrounding of marginality is the chief task of native literature.
Posteolonial theory revolves around these issues and they are found in
postcolonial literature.
Thus, postcolonial theory- as epistemology, ethics, and politics, - addresses
matters of identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity with the challages of developing
a postcolonial national identity, of how a colonized people’s knowledge about the
world is generated under specific relations between the powerful and the powerless,
circulated repetitively and finally legitimated in service to certain imperial interests .
Terms and concepts used in postcolonial theory and literature are enlisted in here, in
brief.
1) Discoures: discourse means any thought communicated by speech; but
according to Foucault, discourse is the material menifestation of a thought that
is preserved, transmitted and still affects our present day thinking.
2) Eurocentric: Eurocentric means Europe is the source of all knowledge.
Postcolonial theroy used this term to denote the marginality of ‘Other
literature.
3) Foregrounding: It means cousidering significant. Postcolonial theory fore
grounds the ‘Other’ literature.
4) Hegemony: hegemony refers to power and control (indirect) in Marxist
criticism.
5) Hybridity: The term stands for mixture, intermingling of different cul
tures. It is syncreticism and multiculturalism.

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6) Intertexuality: Every work contains the bits or some factors of other work
can be called intertexuality.
7) Marginality: Marginal means of secondary, subimportant. In postelonial
theory Europe is the centre and colonies are margins.
8) Minicry: Bhabha uses this term to mean that blind initation of western
ideology, literature and lifestyle.
9) Orientalism: According to Said, it is a Western style of dominating and
having authority over East. It is a huge body of texts establishing their
superiority over ‘Other’ texts.
10) Other: Feeling of considering a person, subject, text out of focus. For
coloniser, colonised is the ‘Other’.
11) Subaltern: Subaltern means of lower rank, but Spivak has widened its scope
and attributed the term to the literature of marginality and suppressed groups
of society.
12) Expatriate: The term expatriate means the native who goes to the
West and works their but keeps the option open to come back home.
13) Immigrant: It refers to that person who leaves his/ her country for a for
eign land for good.
14) Multiculturalism: It is referred to writing of those writers whose origin lies in
another country and they work in third country.
15) Periphery: periphery is the similar term to margin. Europe is the centre
and ‘Other’ is periphery.
Thus, the ultimate goal of postcolonial theory is combating the residual effects
of colonialism on cultures. It is not simply concerned with salvaging post worlds, but
learing how the world can move beyond this period together, towards a place of
mutual respect. Postcolonialism began when colonialism is over. But colonialism is
still ruling psyche of the people of independent countries like India, Africa, West
Indies, New Zealand and Canada. It provides them the theme of neocolonialism,
resistence, subversion, reconstruction, search for indentiy, problems of diaspora,
alienation, landscape, and national identity, feminist and political themes.

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Bibliography
Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Liferary Terms. Thomson Heinle, Prism, 1999.
Barry, Peter, Beginning Theory. T.R. Publications Pvt. Ltd. 2006.
Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. Routledge, 2007.
Gandhi, Leela. Posteolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Oxford University Press.
2007.
Krishnaswami, N. etal. Contemporary Literary Theory: A Student’s Companion.
Macmillan India Ltd. 2001.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Concetionsof the Orient. Penguin Books.
Reprinted 2001.
Selden, Raman, et al. A Reader’s Guide to contemporary Literary Theory.
Fifth Education. Pearson Education. 2007.
Webliography
 www.english.emory.edu
 www.eurozine.com/articles/2008
 www.uni-graz.at/aya/archive