Post-Colonialism and International Relations


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Ak M. A.

in: Theories of International Relations, Prof.Dr. Tayyar Arı,Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Toprak, Editor, Üniversite Yayınları, Eskişehir, pp.66-86, 2019

  • Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter TextBook
  • Publication Date: 2019
  • Publisher: Üniversite Yayınları
  • City: Eskişehir
  • Page Numbers: pp.66-86
  • Editors: Prof.Dr. Tayyar Arı,Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elif Toprak, Editor
  • Bursa Uludag University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Post-colonial theory is a theory that emerged as a critique of Western enlightenment. It resisted imperial and colonial ideologies that legitimize the superiority of the West in the international arena. e modernist perspective that emerged in the West revealed the validity of objective knowledge and development of the technique of the West are based on this knowledge. us, Western knowledge constituted supremacy over the world, thus, the West looked at some places outside of West was defined as backward. en, they began to establish colonies for exploitation which were the economic dimension of this domination, the exploitation was not only economic but also cultural and political. e post-colonial theory focuses on the cultural dimension of exploitation and it examines the exploitation of mind, consciousness, language and religion of indigenous people. Postcolonial studies are interested mostly in subaltern part of society, in this sense, they have tried to reconstruct the society and raise consciousness. Moreover, Frantz Fanon, Aime Cesaire, Alpert Memmi formed a resistance against the colonists. ey formed the framework of “what needs to be done” in meaningful post-colonial studies. Even writers like Derrida and Foucault do not directly say anything about post-colonialism. However, they drew the theoretical framework of postcolonial theory with Foucault’s discourse and Derrida’s deconstruction it concepts. erefore, Derrida and Foucault argued “how needs to be done”. Edward Said indicated “what position colonized people are in” in his Orientalism book. After all, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak determined post-colonialist thought in terms of their own culture, and the elements used in post-colonial perspective. When it comes to critiques of post-colonialism which focus on the word -post- , it was problematized whether these analyses discussed -post- colonialism or -pre- colonialism. Also there are some dierences between immigrants in developed countries that constitute hybridity and people living in third world countries in terms of status, economic and political independence with very limited upward mobility etc.