what's the best way to start reading about post-colonial theory?
postcolonial theory is interesting because it’s an intersection of race, gender, and class, and sometimes goes beyond what we would conceptualise as ‘postcolonial’ in the strictest sense, e.g. not just countries that were once part of the british empire. it’s more about the critique of supremacy of the ‘western’ world. it’s also an area of study that covers many different subjects, not just IR/polsci, so keeping that in mind, here is what i can recommend as a brief reading recommendation list.
orientalism by edward said — this is like. the foundational text on postcolonialism. as you could probably guess from the title, it’s focusing on the relationship between the west and east (the orient).
power, postcolonialism and international relations: reading race, gender and class by geeta chowdhry and shelia nair — this is a very IR heavy analysis of postcolonialism. it’s very good, very comprehensive, and has quite a few case studies.
africa in the colonial ages of empire by tatah mentan — this is a dense piece of work, but really really interesting and comprehensive when it comes to analysing africa through a postcolonial lens. this book literally taught me about the way US foreign policy is written to continue extracting resources from africa under the guise of ‘liberal internationalism’ which, hey! i wrote a whole essay on.
prison notebooks by antonio gramsci — hey i’m recommending gramsci again. gramsci coined the term ‘subaltern’ and he’s just a really important source for critical theory regardless of what perspective you’re coming from. i am biased, i really really like gramsci.
can the subaltern speak? by gayatri chakravorty spivak — she’s cool. her theory is cool. she makes the point to seperate ‘subaltern’ from the marxist sense of being synonymous with proletariat, and gives it a specific colonial meaning.
the white saviour industrial complex by teju cole — right of the bat, i want to be clear that teju cole is not a postcolonial theorist, but his article here is really really interesting, and i what i was talking about when i said i brought up kony 2012 as an example of postcolonial response.
imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism by lenin — >:)
as for non book/journal sources, i would really recommend checking out some of the speeches of fidel castro and che guevara, and if you live in a country with a history of colonialism, looking into the work of indigenous rights activists within your country. i live in aotearoa (new zealand), and would recommend specifically the legacy and activism of whina cooper.
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