Glossary

Abrogation

Abrogation refers to the rejection by post-colonial writers of a normative concept of ‘correct’ or ‘standard’ English used by certain classes or groups, and of the corresponding concepts of inferior ‘dialects’ or ‘marginal variants’. The concept is usually employed in [...]

By |2021-03-25T21:52:33-05:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Abrogation

Allegory

A type of writing in which the settings, characters, and events stand for other specific people, events, or ideas. As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues [...]

By |2019-05-03T11:22:38-05:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Allegory

Allochronic Discourse

A term coined and elaborated by Johannes Fabian, allochronism originally referred to the practices in the field of anthropology, though it can be expanded very easily to apply to other cultural studies fields. Fabian first points out that a major [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:42:42-06:00December 4th, 2019|Comments Off on Allochronic Discourse

Alterity

"The state of being other or different"; the political, cultural, linguistic, or religious other. The study of the ways in which one group makes themselves different from others. (Source: https://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/postcold.htm) Video

By |2020-01-22T13:43:21-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Alterity

Ambivalence

The ambiguous way in which colonizer and colonized regard one another.  The colonizer often regards the colonized as both inferior yet exotically other, while the colonized regards the colonizer as both enviable yet corrupt.  In a context of hybridity, this [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:43:58-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Ambivalence

Appropriation

Appropriation generally refers to the strategies employed by postcolonial societies and its writers and scholars that enable them to use the philosophical, linguistic, and academic tools introduced by the colonizers to offer their own versions of truth or, in ideal [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:44:38-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Appropriation

Binarism

A mode of thought predicated on seemingly stable oppositions (such as good and evil or male and female) that is seen in post-structuralist analysis as an inadequate approach to areas of difference also : a specific dichotomy subscribed to or [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:45:56-06:00November 15th, 2019|Comments Off on Binarism

Catachresis

The use of a word in an incorrect way, for example the use of mitigate for militate. ‘English and American studies, especially, seemed to be focusing on narrative and drama in ways that excluded from study bizarre and interesting phenomena [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:47:20-06:00November 15th, 2019|Comments Off on Catachresis

Center/ Periphery

Center and Periphery are probably two most contested terms in postcolonial studies, as they represent the biaristic geography of colonialism but at the same, if used uncritically, also tend to normalize this view of colonialism in which the European powers [...]

By |2020-01-22T13:47:57-06:00November 15th, 2019|Comments Off on Center/ Periphery
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