Colonial Discourse and Power/Knowledge

Colonial discourse analysis studies how the language, texts, and knowledge of empire constituted the colonized as objects to be known and ruled.

Definition

The analysis of the systems of representation and knowledge through which colonial power constructed, classified, and governed colonized peoples.

Scope

This topic examines the discursive dimension of colonialism: how travel writing, scholarship, administration, and literature produced a body of knowledge about the colonized that was inseparable from power. It draws on Foucault's account of power/knowledge as taken up by Said and developed in colonial discourse analysis.

Core questions

• How does knowledge about the colonized function as a form of power?
• What texts and institutions produced colonial discourse?
• How does Foucault's power/knowledge apply to empire?

Key theories

Power/knowledge

Foucault argued that power and knowledge are mutually constitutive, producing the very objects and subjects they appear merely to describe.

Orientalism as colonial discourse

Said adapted Foucault to show that Western knowledge of the East was a discourse that produced and authorized colonial domination.

History

Colonial discourse analysis emerged after Said's Orientalism (1978) brought Foucauldian discourse theory to bear on empire, becoming a central method of 1980s and 1990s postcolonial criticism as surveyed by Young.

Debates

Discourse versus material power

Critics question whether emphasizing discourse adequately accounts for the economic and military realities of colonial rule.

Key figures

• Edward Said
• Michel Foucault
• Robert J. C. Young

Seminal works

• said1978
• foucault1980

Frequently asked questions

What is colonial discourse?

It is the body of language, texts, and knowledge through which colonial powers represented and justified their rule over colonized peoples.