POSTCOLONIAL TRENDS IN POST-SOVIET CULTURE AND LITERATURE

Abstract

Post-colonialism has become a popular and important theory for literary studies today. Culture is not only a key factor in defining this literary theory, but also an important point in distinguishing post-colonialism from imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism. As we know, postcolonialism is mainly concerned with the study of colonized cultures, intercultural struggle, and the intersection of cultures. Culture has been an important concept for research since the beginning of this literary theory. Postcolonialism has three predecessors and important theoretical foundations. These are Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) and his cultural hegemony, Frans Fanon (1925-1961) and his voice of racist culture, and Michel Foucault (1926-1984) and his theory of power and discourse. Gramsci's cultural hegemony argues that a culturally diverse society can be controlled or dominated by one social class. Fanon's personal experience as a black intellectual in a white world, especially the confusion he felt from his first encounter with racism, strongly shaped his psychological theories of colonial culture, which are mainly expressed in Black Skin, White Masks (1952). And Foucault's theory of power and discourse often serves as the basis for the dominance of one culture over another, a theory that Edward Said uses extensively in his Orientalism and Cultural Imperialism.

Postcolonialism, as a literary criticism, differs from imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism in its focus on culture. It is a combination of literary studies and cultural studies, and offers new perspectives for rereading literary works from a cultural perspective. The appropriation of postcolonialism, especially its cultural factors, will in turn have a long-term impact on the study of world literature.