POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSES IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS Even though colonialism helped in forming an “educated” reaction against the Western, Colonization promoted scientific racism- which said that Western people are better and African people are closer to Monkeys. It shows that the mind can be easily colonized. In the Indian context, Mughals were more like “indigenised” rather than being the “colonizer”. At first, British didn’t have any religious agenda, because they were traders and they knew that interfering in local people’s faith will be counterproductive. They only focused on money. But the Christian missionaries protested in the parliament, so they had to give permission. The British made the initiative to educate the people of colonized lands like India, because they needed interpreters and mediators. It’s more like “Indian in blood, and British in character”. The biggest contribution of British to India was their introduction of Shakespeare to Indians. Thanks to them, la...
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POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSES IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
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POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSES IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS The postcolonial theory looks at how colonialism influenced the development of literature and literary studies in the context of the region's history and politics. Shakespeare was introduced into the colonies as part of European literature in order to carry out a policy of European cultural dominance. Postcolonial readings of Shakespeare’s texts try to understand how the colonized people try to use Shakespeare to speak back to colonizers, relating it with their reality. Shakespeare’s plays were widely used to challenge the colonialist assumptions of the British than to act as mouthpieces of the colonizer. The postcolonial people used his works in discussing against colonization and also as a mouthpiece for colonized people. Indians became experts of English and Shakespeare, and they were communicating back to the empire, or, to put it another way, they were speaking back to the power. As a result of this process, colonialism faded awa...
POST COLONIAL DISCOURSES OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS - Gifty Rose K B
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Post-colonial examines the effect colonialism had on literature and literary studies within the historical boundaries and outside the geographical boundaries of England and Britain. The plays which are considered to be the post-colonial plays of Shakespeare are Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, Merchant of Venice and Tempest. After the post-colonial theory got introduced, they got different interpretations. Mind and wealth of the people were colonized by the Colonizers. In India, Mughals became Indianized and Westerners didn’t undergo that transformation. The religious agenda of the English started with the Pious Clause in India. Macaulay’s Minutes introduced an Education policy by the British for the education of Indians. This education aimed to produce interpreters between colonial people and local people. Indians mastered the English Language and started to speak back to Britishers. This instance can also be seen in The Tempest when Caliban talks back to Prospero and tel...
Post colonial discourses in Shakespearean plays
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Plays of Shakespeare are related to the idea post colonialism even before post colonialism. Post colonial theory examines the effects of colonialism had on literature and literature studies within the context of region and politics. Shakespearean plays are mouthpieces against the colonizers. We can look into the plays of Shakespeare in four aspects of post colonialism: nation, gender, race and class. Four plays of Shakespeare deal with the post colonial theory; The Tempest, Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and The Merchant of Venice. The first three plays portray non-white characters and The Merchant of Venice deals with non-Christian characters. Othello, Caliban, Othello‘s mother, Prince of Morocco and Caliban‘s mother represent the non- white characters and Shylock, his daughter Jessica and his friend Tubal are the non- Christian characters in The Merchant of Venice. The Tempest by Shakespeare is a post colonial text because it represent the struggle of colonized people and thei...
Post-Colonial Discourses in Shakespearean Plays
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Postcolonialism examines the meanings present behind the obvious in literary texts by focusing on the context in which they were written and also trying to reveal the colonial ideologies hidden within the text. Canonical texts of Shakespeare which was circulated across the world were given special attention and different interpretation after the arrival of Postcolonial theory. It was a reaction against the western colonization of the east. To smoothen their work in colonies, they try to impose their language on the colonized people. Macaulay's “Minute on Indian Education” of 1835 emphasizes the need to impart English education to the Indians. Universities began to establish in India in 1857. It popularized Shakespeare in these countries. Shakespeare’s plays were used by postcolonial people as a discourse against colonies. Postcolonialism reads Shakespeare within the narrative of the Subaltern narrative by using the idea of the nation, gender, race, and class as the paradigms. Othel...
POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY
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India, together with the present and colonial past of postcolonial culture, is seen as a rich subject with meanings and influence for the study. However, as compared to other colonial powers, British imperialism is much more functional. The western effect of India changed the Indian society. The literary movement has been influenced by the ideals and basic values of local people's traditional attitude, culture, and social life. The authority of the British, was stopped for more than two hundred years. Also, it becomes direct when we need to learn the history of English literature as it relates to the lives of the English people. This mindset affects the educational, social, and cultural areas. The movement of the British colony in the given subcontinent shows the importance of literature on people's social live At the first time, British people came India for trading. There are two types of British colonizer came to India. One came for trading purpose and another one for religi...
Postcolonial Discourses in Shakespearean Plays
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Postcolonialism is an educated reaction to the western attitude. Around Shakespeare’s time, various explorations and trade were going on. Even several wars between nations in the name of some other ideologies were happening for trade purposes. In India, the foreign traders realised felt teaching the English language was counterproductive to their purpose; later Christian missionaries succeeded in this and made a huge profit out of this. Using the English language to produce slaves and workers for British administration and Government was the major intention of ‘Macaulay’s Minute’ yet Indians got united through English and started shaking the British Empire. Postcolonialism changed the Education system in India and we were exposed to literature outside the geographical boundaries. When the British started coming into power they were looking down on people who needed civilisation. We can find this through the words and works of Rudyard Kipling which are “White man’s burden” and “Oh,...