What does 'postcolonial' mean in literary study?

It refers to literature and criticism engaging the cultural legacies of colonialism, especially from formerly colonized societies, rather than simply meaning 'after independence'.

Is postcolonial literature only about the past?

No. It addresses ongoing effects of empire—language, migration, inequality, identity—and remains a living, contemporary body of writing.

Postcolonial Anglophone Literatures

Postcolonial Anglophone literatures are the writings, in English, of authors from regions formerly under British rule, engaging the legacies of empire, language, and cultural identity.

Definition

Literatures in English written by authors from former British colonies, addressing colonial legacies, identity, and the politics of language and representation.

Scope

This topic examines English-language literatures from Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific produced during and after colonial rule. It covers major authors and movements, the relationship between English and indigenous languages, and the critical theory of postcolonialism—including Orientalism, hybridity, and 'writing back' to the imperial canon. It also addresses debates over the term 'postcolonial' itself.

Core questions

How do postcolonial writers respond to and transform the English literary canon?
What is the relationship between English and indigenous languages in postcolonial writing?
How do concepts such as hybridity and mimicry illuminate postcolonial texts?
Is 'postcolonial' a useful or misleading category?

Key concepts

Orientalism
hybridity
mimicry
writing back
the language question

Key theories

Orientalism: Edward Said showed how Western writing constructed the 'Orient' as an object of knowledge and power, a framework postcolonial literature both contests and reworks.
Hybridity and mimicry: Homi Bhabha theorized colonial encounters as producing hybrid identities and ambivalent mimicry, where the colonized's imitation of the colonizer destabilizes imperial authority.

History

As British colonies moved toward and achieved independence in the twentieth century, writers such as Achebe, Naipaul, and Rushdie produced English-language literatures that reckoned with colonial history and cultural identity. The academic field of postcolonial studies, shaped by Said, Bhabha, and Spivak, gave these literatures a theoretical vocabulary from the late 1970s onward.

Debates

Should colonized writers use English?: Writers and critics dispute whether English is an alienating colonial imposition or a resource to be appropriated, a debate dramatized by figures such as Achebe and Ngugi.
The limits of 'postcolonial': Scholars question whether 'postcolonial' homogenizes diverse histories and obscures ongoing inequalities, even as Said's and Bhabha's frameworks remain influential.

Key figures

Edward Said
Homi Bhabha
Chinua Achebe
Salman Rushdie
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

Seminal works

said1978
ashcroft1989
achebe1958

Frequently asked questions

What does 'postcolonial' mean in literary study?: It refers to literature and criticism engaging the cultural legacies of colonialism, especially from formerly colonized societies, rather than simply meaning 'after independence'.
Is postcolonial literature only about the past?: No. It addresses ongoing effects of empire—language, migration, inequality, identity—and remains a living, contemporary body of writing.