Notes on Post-Colonialism
and Sara Mills Essay
Links on Po-Co (Post Colonialism)
Vocabulary
- imperialism --
- ideology
- orientalism
- liminal
- subaltern
- heterogeneity of the subject
- hegemony
- hybridity
Sara Mills, "Post-Colonial Feminist Theory"
98
Intro
- What are major issues
in post-col theory?
- Dealing with Othering
- masculinist bias at
first
- sexualizing of other cultures
- uses of power-- way that art is implicated in teh ideologies that
legitimize use of power
- impact still being felt
- What issues do PoCo
and Fem have in common?
- Othering issues -- dominance and subordination
- gender is crucial to both (complicity between colonialism and patriarchy)
- both are concerned with issues associated with essentialism, over-generalizing
- marginalized voices; opening up and speaking experiences that have
been supressed
- resistance -- ways in wich subordinate groups and individuals can
fight back, critique, and speak their own realitiesn
- Examples of works with
PoCo issues:
- What have feminist po-co's
reacted against?
- What have feminist po-co's
focussed on?
- idea of the land as a
woman (how metaphors are part of colonial ideology)
- problem of universalizing
-- do Western feminists colonize "third world" feminists? Should po-co
critique this? Should it be more than a critque of Western fem ?
- Issue of "images of
women" -- both how women in colonies are portrayed and how Colonizing women
are portrayed
- What has PoCo crit added
to feminism?
99 Post-Colonial
Theory
- How does the history
of post-colonialist crit pararllel the historical development of other aspects
of feminist lit crit?
- Follows the same curve
of concerns. Starts out with critique (especially focused on mimetic
concerns) ; then it goes on to try to establish some aesthetic and sense
of special concers derived from the "subject-position" of the colonized.
100 Figuring Colonial/
Imperial 'Woman"
- What are some of the
stereotypes, myths, and metaphors about colonial women? (images of colonial
women)
- How were these images
acted out?
- What was the ideological
role of British women in the idea of empire?
- symbolic figure of the
pure British woman justified many repressive aspects of colonialism.
- How was house-cleaning
tied into colonialism?
- How does the debate
over "essentialism" get developed in Po-co feminist theory?
104 British Women's Involvement
in Colonialism
- How did British women
relate to colonial women?
106 Subaltern Subjects
- What are some of the
critiques of Western feminist ideas about "third world" women?
- What is Spivak's critique
of Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea?
- Who are "US Third World
Feminists" and what perspective do they have to offer?
109 Futures
- What kinds of perpectives
are hoped for and called for in the future?