Postcolonial Feminism: Deniz Kandiyoti & Chandra Mohanty

Asian Social Science

Since the 1980s, feminism and post-colonialism began to exchange and dialogue, forming a new interpretation space, that is, post-colonial feminist cultural theory. There is a very complicated relationship between post-colonialism and feminism, both in practice and theory. It was obvious that they have always been consistent as both cultural theories focus on the marginalization of the "other" that is marginalized by the ruling structure, consciously defending their interests. Post-structuralism is used to deny the common foundation of patriarchy and colonialism—the thinking mode of binary opposition. However, only in the most recent period, Postcolonialism and feminism "Running" is more "near", it is almost like an alliance. (The factor contributing to this alliance is that both parties recognize their limitations.) Furthermore, for quite some time there have been serious conflicts between these two equally famous critical theories. They have been deepl...

1. Postcolonial feminist theory is primarily concerned with the representation of women in once colonized countries and in western locations. While postcolonial theorist struggles against the maiden colonial discourse that aims at misrepresenting him as inferior, the task of a postcolonial feminist is far more complicated. She suffers from "double colonization" as she simultaneously experiences the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy. She has to resist the control of colonial power not only as a colonized subject, but also as a woman. In this oppression, her colonized brother is no longer her accomplice, but her oppressor. In his struggle against the colonizer, he even exploits her by misrepresenting her in the nationalist discourses. Not only that, she also suffers at the hand of Western feminists from the colonizer countries who misrepresent their colonized counterparts by imposing silence on their racial, cultural, social, and political specificities, and in so doing, act as potential oppressors of their "sisters". In this article, I explore these struggles of a postcolonial feminist, for it is in her struggle against the "postcolonial" and "feminist" theorists that she can assert her identity as a "postcolonial feminist."

Literatures on feminist theory abound: they challenge the dominant traditional modernist worldview that uses the male perspective as the standard by which all social phenomena are measured. Thanks to feminists, theories now span the whole range of the ideological spectrum. However, post-colonial feminism is still on the fringes. Rejecting sweeping generalizations, this paper highlights specific cases from Asia and Africa in order to analyze the different actions and discourses of women from the Third World. By so doing, this research contributes to mainstreaming women’s voices from the Global South as well as promoting post-structural analysis which treats women, not as an indistinct unified blob, but as a heterogeneous group of individuals and groups with discrete identities and dissimilar agenda.

Postcolonial studies is mostly a critical theory but at the same time it is a debate concerning the identity politics surrounded with questions such as: “Who speaks?”, “Who speak for whom?”, “What is being said?” and maybe the most important one “Whose voices are heard?” These questions occur as an evident result of the representation problem that not only the process of colonization but also that of the decolonization includes. In this context the debate of representation will occupy an important point in the way of relating feminism with postcolonial studies.

Creative Saplings, 2024

Post-truth is built as a theory after itsrecognition by Oxford English Dictionary in 2016, as the word of the year because of the increasing usage by politically active communities and people, among them alt-right and Brexiteer was at the highest use this term in the US for denoting the political situation out there. Post-truth is majorly referring to or indicating situations in which appeals to emotion and personal conviction have a greater impact on public opinion than do factual facts. The signs of the origin of this term can be traced from the word “truthiness” coined by Stephen Colbert in 2005, which could be described as being convinced of something's truthfulness even though it isn't necessarily supported by the facts. Chandra TalpadeMohanty in her essay “Under the Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse.” attacks the bogus Post-truth and monolithic statement of Western feminists and philosophers about third-world women regardless of their race, class, geographic location, or religion and without any knowledge about women of third world nation and their priorities. In order to get the superior position even in pointing out the difficulties facedby third-world women, the first-world feminists judging their way of daily routine in the light of subjugation, suppression, and ostracization, which could be seen through the post-truth theory. The essay was first published in 1986 as the opening chapter of Feminist without Borders. To make her point more clear Mohanty supports her statements with anti-post-truth examples, the gendered division of labour, the veiling of women, or women's financial dependency on males. According to Mohanty, unless these examples are taken into account in context, these data by themselves are not a useful source of knowledge. Western feminists' views will be incorrect and ineffectual in assisting the communities they are attempting to assist if they base them on these observable realities. So the approach of this paper is to analyze these post-truth statements with reference of the essay by Mohanty whereshe depicts the individual differences of third-world women and asksfor strategic essentialism against these postcolonial and post-truth waysof presenting things by third-world nations.

Postcolonial Studies (Taylor & Francis), 2019

Feminist Review, 2021

Postcolonial feminist criticism examines how women are represented in colonial and postcolonial literature and challenges assumptions which are made about women in both literature and society. Colonialism and patriarchy have been closely entwined historically, but an end to formal empire has not meant an end to the oppression of women in the former colonies. Postcolonial feminists point out the ways in which women continue to be stereotyped and marginalised, ironically sometimes by post-colonial authors who might claim to be challenging a culture of oppression.