Understanding Postcolonialism and Colonial Legacies

📋 Course Outline

1. Postcolonialism as umbrella field and legacy
2. Postcolonial world and neocolonialism debate
3. Settler colonies and indigenous dispossession
4. British imperial expansion in the Atlantic
5. Abolition of slave trade and slavery
6. British Raj and Indian rebellion of 1857
7. Inter-war empire policy and independence movements
8. Decolonization in Africa and the Caribbean
9. Orientalism and the construction of Otherness
10. Achebe and Things Fall Apart colonial legacy

📖 1. Postcolonialism as umbrella field and legacy

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Postcolonialism : Postcolonialism is an umbrella field of theories and practices that studies colonialism’s effects in the present.
• Postcolonial studies : Postcolonial studies is an academic research field focused on colonialism’s past and present impacts.
• Postcolonial literature(s) : Postcolonial literature(s) are creative writings (often novels, plays, poems) produced in relation to colonial experiences.
• Postcolonial criticism : Postcolonial criticism is the formal study and discussion of literary works to explain their meanings and significance.
• Colonial legacy : Colonial legacy refers to plural political, economic, social, racial, and cultural consequences that persist after empire.

📝 Essential Points