Ch.4 Post-colonial Literary Theory

1
Ch.4 Post-colonial Literary Theory

• Cathy Lee, Chris Chang, Daphne Chia, Edison Yen,
  Janine Fang, Joby Huang, Joe Wang, Tony Wang

2
The text Shakespeares The Tempest

• Prospero
• Protagonist of the play. He is the usurped Duke
  of Milan who was forced to live on a deserted
  island with his daughter, Miranda. He has been on
  the island for twelve years.
• He possesses magical powers, and has taught
  Caliban his language.
• Miranda
• Daughter of Prospero. She has never seen any
  other human besides her own father, hence her
  perception of people is somewhat naïve.
• It is suggested in the play that Caliban has
  tried to rape her.
• Caliban
• A local of the island and servant of Prospero. He
  is hostile towards Prospero as his ruler,
  believing that the land was stolen from him by
  Prospero. He is presented as an uncouth and
  unpleasant character.
• Famous quote pg. 278

3
Post-colonial Interpretation

• Prospero colonizer. Expelled from his country
  and banished onto the island which he becomes the
  ruler of.
• Miranda woman figure from the colonizers
  party needs to be protected from the violation
  of the aborigines.
• Caliban the colonized the aborigine whose land
  was taken over and oppressed by an authoritative
  power.

4
D. O. Mannonis theory

• Text Prospero and Caliban The Psychology of
  Colonization (1964)
• Prospero complex
• Domination complex
• Idealism of paternalist colonization
• Sexual guilt
• Flight from home
• Caliban complex
• Dependency complex on the colonizer
• European colonization is desired by future
  subject peoples

5
Franz Fanons Critique

• Text Black Skin, White Masks (1986)
• Mannoni takes it upon himself to explain
  colonialisms reason for existence. In the
  process he adds a new complex to the standing
  catalogue the Prospero complex. It is defined
  as the sum of those unconscious neurotic
  tendencies that delineate at the same time the
  picture of the paternalist colonial and the
  portrait of the racialist whose daughter has
  suffered an imaginary attempted rape at the
  hands of an inferior being (Fanon 1986 107-8)

6
Fanons Critique

• Mannoni is excusing the colonizer by giving him
  a neurological complex
• Criticism of the colonizer
• Dependency complex excuses colonizer
• The white mans unfounded fear of black men
  raping their women
• Desire for profit
• Exploitation

7
Fanon

• No colonial system draws its justification from
  the fact that the territories it dominates are
  culturally non-existent. You will never make
  colonialism blush for shame by spreading out
  little-known cultural treasures under its eyes
  (On National Culture 41)

8
Fanons Theory

• Return to Africa escapism
• The colonized are unable to face the brutal
  degradation of colonialism
• The colonized look to the utopian glory of the
  past to find comfort and to serve as a
  justification for future national culture
• Proposes hybrid culture
• Reason the colonized have evolved from the
  original condition
• Dynamic national culture, colonialism is unable
  to obliterate the pre-existing national culture,
  instead brings it to its present state