CONTENTS

Cuvânt înainte................................................................................... 7

Chapter 1 – A Theoretical Approach........................................... 11

1.1. Colonialism and Postcolonialism.............................................. 11

1.2. Prominent Names in Postcolonial Studies................................ 21

Franz Fanon and his Panorama on Three Levels................... 21

Edward Said – All about Orientalism and Imperialism......... 25

Gayatri Spivak – A Marxist-Feminist-Deconstructionist....... 31

Homi Bhabha – Mimicry, Hybridity, Ambivalence............... 35

1.3. Turning Theory into Practice: Postcolonial Literature.............. 41

Chapter 2 – India............................................................................ 44

2.1. A Taste of India – Historical and Literary Context................... 44

India in Pre-Colonial Times................................................... 44

The Arrival of the British – The Rise of the East India Company

.............................................................................................................. 46

The Indian Mutiny.................................................................. 48

The Caste System................................................................... 50 6

The Amritsar Massacre.......................................................... 52

Mahatma Gandhi.................................................................... 54

Jawaharlal Nehru.................................................................... 56

The India-Pakistan War (1971).............................................. 57

The Indian Literary Context................................................... 59

2.2. Salman Rushdie......................................................................... 63

Midnight’s Children (1981)................................................... 66

2.3. Jhumpa Lahiri............................................................................ 83

The Namesake (2003)............................................................. 88

Bibliography.................................................................................. 109