Postcolonialism and Orientalism: Said, Spivak, Bhabha, and the Critique of Colonial Discourse
Postcolonial theory is the body of currents that, from the 1970s–80s onward, critically analyzed the cultural, psychic, and epistemic effects of colonialism — not only during colonial rule but in its persistence after formal independence. Its object is not primarily the political economy of empire (studied by other traditions) but discourse: the representations, knowledges, and structures of subjectivity that made colonialism thinkable, sayable, and durable. This article traces its precursors — Du Bois and Fanon — and the trio that consolidated the field: Said, Spivak, and Bhabha. ...