Colonialism and post-modernism

My very last blog post in my college years will be about the subject colonialism and post-modernism, as these are the subjects we have been studying the past few English modules. Now, starting off with colonialism, I think it is important to emphasise that it is the English colonialism that is the centre of attention. The British Empire is/was, by all means, the most powerful empire in the world. Apart from birthing the most important country in the world today (USA), the British people had colonies all over the world; from India to Africa. And it is mainly Africa that was our focus point in the English classes. 

We went through several texts written in or about the colonial period and analysed photographs. It was quite interesting to see how so many things can be explained in just a photograph. When analysing the photographs, we stumbled upon a concept called jingoism, which is nationalism in the form of aggressive foreign policies. 

The Europeans were putting a lot of resources into exploring Africa. The politicians, therefore, needed support from the public and a public opinion that agreed with them. The British government made a lot of propaganda and made it look clever to spend money in Africa so that the British people would support them. They were using propaganda to make the exploits look good. They wanted to capture Africans and bring them back to Europe and put them in zoos to justify that they couldn’t fend for themselves and needed help being civilised. Jingoism is a term that describes this view on other cultures – someone you need to help move forward in some way.

Besides colonialism and post-colonialism, we have also been studying post-modernism, which to me is a bit like modernism and then not at all. I love the minimalism in the period and how so much can be said with so few words. I love that there is no objective truth nor is there a homogenous society. I think this really sprang to mind when we analysed the short story “Troll Bridge”, which is a story about a boy Jack that you follow through his teenage years and some of his adult years too. I was astounded by the things that can be interpreted in that story. As I read the story, I would have never thought that a stone with a rainbow-shine in it or a troll eating you, could be interpreted as a person coming out as a homosexual. In hindsight, it all makes sense and that is what I really like about post-modernism. A story can end in so many ways – it is really only your imagination that sets boundaries. 

On that note, I think it’s time to maybe reflect on my English course this year – my very last English course as a college student; it is so weird. I have really been enjoying English courses this year. In some way, it has formed as a person. I now understand Shakespeare – at least I understand him to the degree that I actually get what he is saying through his works. And this has only strengthened my desire to study Shakespeare at university. Overall, I think it has been an amazing year and I will miss the 0.104 classroom.