A Thorough Exploration of Orientalism and the Subaltern as the Critical Concepts Used in Postcolonial Literary Theory

Imperialism and its detrimental aftermath, colonialism, were reinforced through both cultural and military strategies. As a significant cultural phenomenon, orientalism played a major role in the solidification of colonialism in that it justified the lucrative presence of western colonizers in their colonies. That is to say, orientalism depicted a distorted image of the eastern people as uncivilized and barbarous subjects in need of western civilization. Hence, orientalism served as a sort of soft power aimed at the brainwashing of the colonized subjects into thinking that European colonizers have come to the east to carry out their civilizing mission known as the white man s burden . This article traces the development of orientalism as a critical concept associated with postcolonial literary criticism and its cultural and economic consequences including the exacerbation of indigenous women s status who were already marginalized by patriarchy. Therefore, this paper will also explore the subaltern as another critical concept in postcolonial criticism. Likewise, it will be argued that colonialism aggravated the status of women as female subalterns.

Keywords:

colonialism , culture , hegemony , orientalism , the subaltern