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Hi, students.
In class, we've been talking a lot about postcolonial theory,
and the reason we've been thinking
about postcolonial theory in this course
is because it gives us an intellectual framework
to think about the relationships that develop
between oppressors and the oppressed.
And postcolonial theory can be used
to describe the various complications, frustrations,
and all sorts of social interactions that can take place
between people who have power
and the people they have power over.
Now, one of the things
that postcolonial theory asks us to consider is the fact that
if you are dominating someone
or if you have control of someone else,
then you're going to perceive them in ways
that are slightly skewed, if not really skewed,
and which give you kind of a false impression
of who these people are and what it is they may want.
It also asks us to think about the fact that
if you yourself are oppressed in some way
or have someone kind of lording over you in one way or another,
your perceptions of that person
are also going to be inaccurate or complicated
by your relationship with them.
Now, those are fairly complex ideas,
but we have two really good terms
that we can use as we bring this concept to bear
on specific literary documents.
And those terms are, first, other or othering.
And we talked about how postcolonial theory asks us
to consider the other, and what the other is
is that person or group that is either oppressing you
or which you are oppressing.
It's the group that you are not a part of
but which has some major control or impact on your life,
and we might think of who these others might be
as we've seen them in literature so far this semester.
For example, in Robinson Crusoe,
we have the others of the cannibals--
the various tribes that Crusoe sees around his island.
And as he thinks about these tribes
and describes them
and articulates who they are to us,
one of the things we might notice
is that his perception of what's going on with these groups
is generally suspect-- is one thing we might say.
And then, we might also think
about how other people view Crusoe.
For example, when he rescues the sailors later in the text,
and he suddenly becomes
their new, uh...their new, uh...king, as it were.
The way in which they perceive him
and the way in which they talk about him makes us understand
that they see him in ways that maybe we don't,
or we haven't so far in this text.
But the classic example of othering, of course,
this semester is "Frankenstein,"
and Frankenstein's perception of the monster,
and the monster's perceptions of Frankenstein.
And what we find out by the end of that book
is that even though they've been caught up
in this epic struggle with one another
for a long period of time,
they have very skewed views of one another based
on their limited understanding and knowledge of one another.
That's postcolonial theory
or that's a way in which postcolonial theory
can be applied to a couple of texts
to help us understand them in different ways.
Also, we have the concept of the hybrid,
which is very useful in "Jane Eyre."
And the hybrid is the individual or individuals
who kind of straddle social classes,
or they straddle social expectations.
They're never one kind of person
or one kind of type or the other.
In "Jane Eyre," we have this character who seems to be able
to move in and out of various social rules and social classes,
and as we wonder about how these movements take place
and how these various... or how this identity
might affect Jane Eyre's life,
we can gain a better insight and understanding
into her concerns, into her struggles,
into why it is she makes the decisions that she makes.
For example, many of you have noticed
how resolute and almost stoic Jane Eyre is from time to time,
especially when you expect her to explode
or become very upset or frustrated.
Um...and what we see
is that she tends not to react as we think she will react.
Well, why is that?
Well, one way to think about that
is because part of her personality
is to be someone who can navigate
these various social rules and expectations in classes
while maintaining her own identity.
So postcolonial theory is a new concept.
The concepts of other or othering and hybrid,
I'm sure, are new concepts as well to you,
but we can bring them to literary text.
We can look for how they emerge in literary text,
and as we come to understand these subjects,
we can write about and think about books in different ways,
which may help clarify
your thinking or concerns on a particular novel,
which could be very helpful
for the papers that you will be writing.
So as was the case with the other theories I've examined,
that's a very, very, very general explanation
and introduction to the concept.
But hopefully, it's enough to get you interested,
to get you thinking, and to get you writing,
because that's what I'll be looking for.
So until next time, I guess, I'll see you in class.