A Theoretical Review of the Feminism， Post—colonialism and Post—colonial Feminism

侯治剛

Abstract： Feminism， post-colonialism and post-colonial feminism are three important and relevant theories of literary criticism. This paper tries to explore their connotation by analyzing the defining features and relevance between them so as to give a comprehensive understanding of them.

Key words： theoretical review； feminism； post-colonialism； post-colonial feminism

Feminism， post-colonialism and Post-colonial Feminism are three important theories of literary criticism. Apparently， they are three different and independent theories. Each of them has their own features and is applied in different field of literary criticism. But they also share some similarities and are related to each other in some ways. Recently， some scholars even tend to integrate the feminism into the post-colonial context， which leads to the creation of post-colonial feminism.

Ⅰ. The Connotation Definition of Feminism

Feminism refers to a series of social movements with gender issues and strong political sense. Feminist critics believe that culture has been so completely dominated by men that literature is full of unexamined “male-produced” assumptions. They see their criticism correcting this imbalance by analyzing and combating patriarchal attitudes.

The aim of feminism is to eliminate all the inequalities between men and women involving domestic violence， law， language and philosophy. As feminists have observed， women have lost their own identity and are subordinate to men and dominated by men. It tries to make women gain equal social status with men and liberate them from the situation of subservience. Besides， it also tries to reconstruct a culture that can offer space for women and their desires by breaking male domination and creating a more equal society.

For a long time in history， women were deprived of many basic rights such as the education right and financial right. They live in a male dominated society where their voice is ignored and they have no other choices but to obey men. In literature women are always subservient characters such as mens wives， mothers and goddess， losing their own voice. Women live for men rather than for themselves. The writing of women in literature by men is to serve men. Human beings are defined by men instead of women. Men are “self” and the center while women are “other” and marginalized.

French feminist Simone de Beauvoir firstly introduced the concept “other” into feminism in her description of patriarchal culture. According to her， as for women， being “other” means that they are what others want them to be， and they cant define themselves. They lose their identity and individual characteristics. Women are treated as “other” against men. Therefore， “other” has become an important concept in the study of gender. Beauvoir thinks “other” is the minority and the least favored. When compared with men， women are “other”， “ for a man represents both the positive and the neutral， as indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general； whereas women represent only the negative， defined by limiting criteria， without reciprocity ”.

Ⅱ.The Connotation Definition of Post-colonialism

Post-colonialism is a set of theories that focuses on the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized by dealing with the literary works that take colonies or the people in colonies as the setting or characters.

It arose in the western academic circle in the 1970s with the publication of Edward Saids Orientalism which examined the construction of the oriental “other” by European discourse of knowledge and helped to establish the field. After the Second World War， many colonies in the Third World gained independence. But afterwards during the development of these countries， they suffered some setbacks and difficulties. Meantime， the western countries still tried to put these countries under their domination by political and economic control， and cultural penetration， which kept an unequal status between the western countries and the Third World countries. After the Cold War， globalization and pluralism are the mainstream of the whole world. People began to realize that western culture and values are not the only correct choice. The relationship between western culture and eastern culture is not a simple binary opposition. People can not simply judge which culture is superior or inferior but to acknowledge the coexistence of diverse cultures. Under this circumstance， how to view the colonial period and the social situation after colonial period， and how the Third World countries view the relationship between their contemporary social situation and post-colonization have been hot theoretical issues in the field of cultural study. And post-colonialism is just the product of these theoretical issues.

This phenomenon is especially prominent in America which is an immigrant country with many different races. Many people began to realize the coexistence of diverse culture and pay attention to the life of many minorities. So the subject that takes minorities and other marginalized groups as the research object began to develop and prosper in the cultural and theoretical circle. These subjects and theories tried to put criticism on the mainstream culture from the standpoints of marginalized groups and vulnerable groups. The intellectuals who were from marginalized minorities and had the life experiences at the bottom of society have the most voice in this field.

We can interpret “post-colonial” from the following three levels： Firstly， it refers to the previous colonies that have gained independence after the Second World War， are still under the domination of western colonial culture. Secondly it refers to the contemporary situation of the previous colonies. That is to say the Third World countries are still suffering western cultural control after the colonial period. Thirdly it refers to the global cultural colonialism after the end of western colonialism. What makes post-colonialism revolutionary is that it opposes colonial oppression， especially the cultural oppression such as the Eurocentrism and cultural hegemonism imposed on the Third World countries by western countries. Post-colonialism advocates cultural pluralism. It often focuses on racial relations and the effects of racism， and usually indicts the white and colonial societies. It tries to explore the previously silenced voices and perspectives to create new narratives and histories.

The literature on colonial issue has two aspects---the literature in the previous colonies， and the literature on colonies and its people in colonial countries.

Ⅲ. The Connotation Definition Post-colonial Feminism

post-colonial feminism is also called Third World Feminist criticism sometimes. It creates unique space by combining post-colonialism and feminism. It offsets the deficiency of post-colonialism and feminism by dealing with the hot issues about gender， race and class. It shows strong political sense and antagonism by fighting against the imperialism， cultural hegemony， white-centrism and patriarchy. It seeks to explore the hegemonic tendency in the mainstream discourse and its power mechanism to form a more pluralistic equal discourse space. It is concerned with the marginalized “other” and tries to subvert the binary opposition which is based on the logo-centrism.

The integration of post-colonialism and feminism is an attempt to address the womens problems in the post-colonial context. The two theories share some similarities. Both of the theories belong to a minority discourse in western culture. And then both of the theories are concerned with the marginalized “other” and have the same goal which is to fight against any form of oppression and eliminate inequality.

Post-colonialism points out the cultural oppression between different races. Said and Homi Bhabha are the representatives of post-colonial critics and helped to establish the field of post-colonialism. Said pointed out how the western discourse has defined the East in completely different ways， instead of basing on its actual knowledge of the Asia and other culture outside Europe. Homi Bhabha contributed to post-colonialism by raising the hybrid theory which offers a strategy for decolonization and to explore new space for the people in the colonies. However both Said and Homi Bhabha ignored the gender oppression between different races and within a race， such as the western white womens oppression of the third World women—the western white womens distorted writing of the Third World women， and they also didnt notice that the Third World women suffer the triple oppression of patriarchy oppression， racial oppression and class oppression.

Feminism points out the gender oppression and tries to fight against the patriarchy for equal rights and liberation of women. However the western feminism only finds out patriarchy which is absolutely not the only source for oppression on women. It ignores the fact that the Third World women suffer more oppression besides gender oppression. And whats worse is that in their discourse， in order to identify the “self” of western white women， the Third World women are depicted as “other” that usually represents poor， ignorant and backward images， which constitutes a new type of oppression on the Third World women. For the Third World women， they not only suffer gender oppression， but they also suffer racial oppression.

So in order to explore the sources for oppression on women， especially on the Third World women， feminism is integrated with post-colonialism. Just under this circumstance， post-colonial feminism came into being. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is one of the most influential representatives of post-colonial feminists. Spivak is known as “Holy Trinity” in the field of post-colonialism. She offered a different and complete understanding of post-colonialism by including the issues of race， gender and class in her works such as Can the Subaltern Speak， Three Womens Texts and a Critique of Imperialism， In Other Worlds and the Spivak Reader. She opposes the idea that post-colonialism is male-dominated narrative without involving the issue of gender oppression and inequality. She introduced gender issue into post-colonialism in her works. According to her， the Third World women suffer double oppression of imperialism and patriarchy， and thus become a silent collective. In her Can the Subaltern Speak， she is concerned with the miseries the subaltern， the colonized women， suffer and how they are silenced by analyzing the old convention of sati practiced in some Asia countries. She strongly criticizes the patriarchy culture and the western feminisms distorted narrative of the Third World women.

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（作者單位：陜西理工大學，陜西 漢中723000）