Glossary

Colonialism

Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. One of the difficulties in defining colonialism is that it is hard to distinguish it from imperialism. Frequently the two concepts are treated as synonyms. [...]

By |2019-11-14T14:28:46-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Colonialism

Deracinate

Deracinate/ Deracination Deracinate literally means to pull out a plant's roots. In postcolonial studies, it implies the literal removal of African peoples from their original cultures and then their enslavement and transportation to the Americas and the caribbean. This forceful [...]

By |2019-12-23T10:47:33-06:00December 23rd, 2019|Comments Off on Deracinate

Diaspora

Originally, Diaspora literally meant a "scattering" of the people and referred to the early Greek populations that scattered to colonize other territories. In the classical sense, however, after the translation of the Old Testament into Greek, the term Diaspora has [...]

By |2019-11-21T11:00:30-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Diaspora

Discourse

Most literary scholars rely on Michel Foucault's theorization of discourse to discuss literary and cultural texts. The following brief video explains the concept

By |2024-10-04T09:02:52-05:00November 15th, 2019|Comments Off on Discourse

Dominance

According to Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, power (state) works either through dominance or hegemony. Dominance involves the coercive use of brute force such as the police, army, or the law to control a population or a group. But more often [...]

By |2019-11-13T13:32:39-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Dominance

Formalism

Literary Theory: Formalism and New Criticism Most of this lecture has been recorded using the discussion of Formalism and New Criticism from the New World Encyclopedia. In literary criticism, Formalism refers to a style of inquiry that focuses, almost exclusively, [...]

By |2019-11-25T11:46:59-06:00November 25th, 2019|Comments Off on Formalism

Going Native

Postcolonial Concepts: Going Native Going native was used as a pejorative term to point to any Europeans wo, while living in the colonies, adopted the customs and habits of the natives. By far the most striking example of someone going [...]

By |2019-11-26T10:42:13-06:00November 26th, 2019|Comments Off on Going Native

Hegemony

Hegemony, the dominance of one group over another, often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. The term hegemony is today often used as shorthand to describe the relatively dominant position of a particular set of ideas and their associated tendency to become commonsensical and [...]

By |2019-11-13T13:34:26-06:00May 2nd, 2019|Comments Off on Hegemony
Go to Top