Post-Colonialism: Literature, Identity, and the Politics of Representation

Abstract

This essay examines post-colonial literature as an emerging arena where cultural and political negotiations take place. It explores how it engages with questions of identity, power, and representation. Drawing upon key literary texts and dominant theoretical approaches, this essay analyses how postcolonial literature mirrors and reconstructs the complex realities faced by societies constructed by colonial legacies. It argues that post-colonial literature cannot be viewed as a historical niche that is associated with the struggles of the mid twentieth century only, rather it is an active, growing discipline that still addresses the issues of colonialism even in the context of the twenty-first century.

Keywords: Postcolonial Literature, Culture, Historical trauma, Memory, Representation, Postcolonial Feminism, Hybridity, Diaspora, and Globalisation