Key Definitions
What term describes the study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and societies?
Post-colonialism
What scholar wrote Orientalism, foundational for post-colonial theory?
Edward Said
What theme involves characters or nations resisting the coloniser’s culture?
Resistance/counter-colonial voice
What century did many European powers begin colonising large parts of Africa and Asia?
Late 19th-20th centuries “Scramble for Africa” era
If a novel shows a native character speaking English in a way that mixes local dialect and colonial terminology, what post-colonial concept might this reflect?
Concept like “code-switching,” hybridity, mimicry
What is the term for returning or reclaiming indigenous language and culture after colonial rule?
re-indigenisation
Name the scholar who introduced the concept of the “subaltern.”
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Which theme involves people living between two cultures and identities?
Hybridity or in-between identity
What major mid-20th-century process led to many former colonies gaining independence?
Decolonisation post-WWII
If an author retells a British imperial story from the perspective of the colonised, what literary strategy is that?
“Writing back” or “counter-narrative”
What term describes the process by which a colonised people begin to see the coloniser’s culture as superior?
internalised colonialism
Why is "The Empire Writes Back"significant?
helped establish post-colonial literature, and inspired write to "write back" against the British Empire
This theme focuses on how colonised characters struggle to define who they are when both the empire’s identity and their native identity pull at them at the same time.
identity conflict or double identity
Why is it significant that many post-colonial writers write in the colonisers’ language (English)?
a colonial legacy + site of resistance
In a poem where the speaker says “I am the mirror of your empire,” what power dynamic is being exposed?
Exposing imperial power, representation, voice and mirror of empire
What is “hybridity” in post-colonial theory?
mixing of cultures
Which theorist coined ideas such as “Third Space” and “mimicry”?
Homi K. Bhabha
This theme appears in post-colonial texts when colonised people try to reclaim or rebuild their cultural history after it has been erased, damaged, or rewritten by an empire.
recovering or reconstructing cultural
What is “neo-colonialism,” in simple terms?
indirect control of former colonies by economic/cultural means
Why might a post-colonial writer use fragmentation or nonlinear narrative to depict colony life?
Non-linear form reflects disruption, fragmentation caused by colonial experience
What term identifies the literary works produced by formerly colonised nations?
Post-colonial literature
Name a major post-colonial novel or writer associated with British colonial/ post-colonial literature.
Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, etc.
How does the theme of migration or diaspora relate to post-colonial literature?
diaspora = as a result of or response to colonialism
How did colonial mapping, borders or “divide and rule” strategies affect post-colonial societies?
Border drawing, forced divisions, legacy of colonial administration
Give one reason why studying post-colonial literature is important for understanding British Literature today.
Helps understand cultural identity, legacy of empire, global literature