ABSTRACT
The term “postcolonial” refers to the historical period of statehood and governance, and the cultural and political life, after colonization by an external imperial state. Postcolonial writing in the social sciences and cultural and literary studies documents and theorizes human experience in the cultural and political contexts during and after colonialism. This corpus of work arose from communities that gained autonomous rule through dissent and revolution against European, American, and Asian empires in the mid and late 20th century, and from diasporic communities created through migration and partition. Postcolonial studies also describe economic and cultural domination by transnational corporations and imperial powers after the colonies had achieved political self-determination (Hardt & Negri, 2000). As a result, postcolonial studies of youth and education have expanded from the study of ex-colonies to include the experiences of those communities living under conditions of neocolonial economic control and cultural hegemony (Smith, 1999).
