Postcolonial Literature

Study Notes

Postcolonial literature originates from formerly colonized countries, except Antarctica, and addresses the problems and consequences of decolonization.
It explores themes such as racialism, colonialism, political and cultural independence, and the role of literature in perpetuating and challenging cultural imperialism.

Postcolonial literature often overlaps with migrant literature, but not all migration takes place in a colonial setting, and not all postcolonial literature deals with migration.
The prefix "post-" in "postcolonial" is a matter of contention among scholars and historians, with no unified consensus on when colonialism began and when it ended.

European colonization of the Americas began in the 15th century and lasted until the 19th century.
The colonisation of Africa and Asia reached their peak in the 19th century.
By the 20th century, most non-European regions were under European colonial rule, until anti-colonial independence movements led to decolonization after World War II.

Pramod Nayar defines postcolonial literature as "that which negotiates with, contests, and subverts Euro-American ideologies and representations".
The term "postcolonial literature" gained currency among scholars, replacing "commonwealth literature" which was used to refer to writing in English from British colonies or nations.

Scholars of commonwealth literature advocated for its inclusion in literary curricula, but the succeeding generation of postcolonial critics took issue with the label for separating non-British writing from "English" language literature written in Britain.
Other terms used for English-language literature from former British colonies include national corpus designations, "English Literature Other than British and American", "New Literatures in English", "International Literature in English", and "World Literatures", but these have been dismissed as too vague or inaccurate.