Post-colonial ways of reading

Post-colonial critics are interested in issues

• of power, dominance and control

• of the environment

• of materialism

They are keen to explore how different groups of people are

• made into characters

• represented

Post-colonial Theory deals with literature produced in countries that were once, or are now (a)   of other countries.

In essay 4.1 by P. Barry, the writer explores the essay

• By Jonathan Said about Jane Austin's 'Mansfield Park'

• By Edward Said about Jane Austin's 'Pride and Prejudice'

• By Edward Said about Jane Austin's 'Mansfield Park'

Edward Said 'foregrounds the background' of the text novel by

• focussing on the estate of Mansfield Park, which is maintained through a sugar plantation in Antigua

• focussing on the class differences in the family

• focussing on the overt racism in the ovel

in 4.4., C. Achebe critiques the reviews, by white British people, of writers from colonies. He describes three parts to a review by Honor Tracey. The first one is:

• Africa's celebrated cultural norms

• Africa's glorious past (raffa skirts)

• Africa's inglorious past (raffa skirts)

The second part is:

• That Europe brings civilisation to Africa's inglorious past

• That Europe stifled the culture of Africa

• That Europe oppressed indigenous peoples

The third part is:

• That Africa is grateful to Europe for bringing civilisation

• That Africa is ungrateful to Europe for bringing this civilisation

• That Africans are, quite rightly, annoyed by Europe's supremacy

Achebe goes on to describe the idea that Europeans disliked Educated 'natives' more because

• They became disconnected from their people, ungrateful and untrustworthy

• They spoke English well

• They understood more than the Europeans

Essay 4.5 discusses how language is the most potent instrument of cultural

• education

• control

• integration