A Critical Analysis of Postcolonial Studies and Its Approaches

Postcolonial studies is a new discipline dealing with non-Western countries and their cultures، which fall within the scope of cultural studies. This critical approach refers to a set of theoretical attitudes which analyze the colonial discourse with emphasis on colonial consequences. These studies lay emphasis on colonialism as an intangible and cultural issue which still exists. The field and subject matter of postcolonial studies، due to emergence of new issues، has a very wide scope. This is because of the wide scope of the subjects falling within scope of postcolonial studies، which include، theory، literary critique، economic and political studies as well as research about colonial governments، identity and cultural studies. This leads to some ambiguities and controversies in the primary encounters of the researchers with this field of studies، causing some writers to consider conceptual unity and integrity for this field. It seems that a more precise study of the branches and approaches of this field is necessary. Hence، attempts have been made in the present paper to restudy the subject matter and approaches of postcolonial studies and analyze the ignored aspects of this discipline through a critical approach.