Postcolonial feminism

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Postcolonial feminism, sometimes also known as Third World feminism, is a form of

feminist philosophy which centers around the idea that racism, colonialism, and the long
lasting effects (economic, political, and cultural) of colonialism in the postcolonial
setting, don't only involve non-white, non-western women.[1] Postcolonial feminists
criticize Western feminists because they have a history of universalizing women's issues,
and their discourses are often misunderstood to represent women globally. Thus, one of
the central ideas in postcolonial feminism is that by using the term 'woman' as a universal
group, they are then only defined by their gender and not by social classes and ethnic
identities.[2] Also, it is believed by postcolonial feminists that mainstream Western
feminists ignored the voices of non-white, non-western women for many years, thus
creating resentment from feminists in developing nations.[3]
Postcolonialism can provide an outlet for citizens to discuss various experiences endured
during colonialism. These can include: "migration, slavery, suppression, resistance,
representation, difference, race, gender, place and responses to the influential discourses
of imperial Europe."[4] Postcolonial feminists see the parallels between recently
decolonized nations and the state of women within patriarchy - both take the "perspective
of a socially marginalized subgroup in their relationship to the dominant culture."[5]
Postcolonial feminists have had strong ties with black feminists because colonialism
usually contains themes of racism. Both groups have struggled for recognition, not only
by men in their own culture, but also by Western feminists.[6]

Contents

1 Postcolonial feminist authors

2 Postcolonial feminist quotes
3 See also
4 References

Postcolonial feminist authors

Postcolonial feminist authors include:

Gayatri Spivak, with her important "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
Trinh T. Minh-ha, with her essay "Infinite Layers/Third World?" (1989), and her
book "Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism" (1989)
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, with her influential essay "Under Western Eyes"
(1991)
Uma Narayan, with her book Dislocating Cultures (1997) and her essay
"Contesting Cultures" (1997)
Kwok Pui-lan, with her book Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology
(2005)
Sara Suleri, Boys Will Be Boys: A Daughter's Elegy (2003)
Lata Mani, Contentious Traditions: The Debate on Sati in Colonial India (1998)
Kumkum Sangari, Recasting Women: Essays in Colonial History (1989)
Anne McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial
Contest (1995)
Gloria Anzalda, Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza (1987) And the
recopilations: This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of
Color(1981) Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical
Perspectives by Feminists of Color(1990)

Postcolonial feminist quotes

Many feminists have contributed to postcolonial feminism by using written words to
express their ideas and opinions - which have been of great importance to the
postcolonial feminist movement.

"The juncture I am proposing, therefore, is extreme. It is a location wherein the

praxis of U.S. third-world feminism links with the aims of white feminism,
studies of race, ethnicity, and marginality, and with post-modern theories of
culture as they crosscut and join together in new relationships through a shared
comprehension of an emerging theory and method of oppositional
consciousness." - Chela Sandoval[7]

"Given the significant dangers that varieties of cultural essentialism pose to

feminist agendas, I believe that the development of a feminist perspective that is
committed to antiessentialism both about 'women' and about 'cultures' is an urgent
and important task for a postcolonial feminist perspective. Such a perspective
must distinguish and extricate feminist projects of attending to differences among
women from problematically essentialist colonial and postcolonial understandings
of 'cultural difference' between Western culture and its 'Others.' - Uma Narayan[8]

"While a politics of inclusion is driven by an ambition for universal

representation (of all women's interests), a politics of partiality does away with
that ambition and accepts the principle that feminism can never ever be an
encompassing political home for all women, not just because different groups of
women have different and sometimes conflicting interests, but, more radically,
because for many groups of 'other' women other interests, other identifications are

sometimes more important and politically pressing than, or even incompatible

with, those related to their being women." - Ien Ang[9]

See also

History of feminism
Postcolonialism
Third-world feminism
Transnational feminism

References
1. ^ Weedon, C: "Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective,"
2002
2. ^ Narayan, Uma. "Essence of Culture and a Sense of History: A Feminist Critique
of Cultural Essentialism." Ed. Narayan and Harding. Decentering the Center.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000. 80-100
3. ^ McEwan, C: "Postcolonialism, feminism and development: intersections and
dilemmas," 2001
4. ^ Kramarae and Spender: Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, Vol.
3, 2000
5. ^ Kramarae and Spender: Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, Vol.
3, 2000
6. ^ Weedon, C: "Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective,"
2002
7. ^ Sandoval, Chela. "US Third World Feminism: the Theory and Method of
Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World." Genders 10 (1991): 1-24.
8. ^ Narayan, Uma. "Essence of Culture and a Sense of History: A Feminist Critique
of Cultural Essentialism." Ed. Narayan and Harding. Decentering the Center.
Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2000. 80-100
9. ^ Ang, Ien. "I'm a Feminist but..."Other" Women and Postnational Feminism."
Ed. Caine and Pringle. Transitions: New Australian Feminisms. London: Allen &
Unwin, 1995. 57-73
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