| Colonialism | Direct political, economic, and territorial control of one region by another | General historical category | Foundation of postcolonial inquiry; involves material exploitation and cultural domination |
| Imperialism | Expansionist ideology and policy of extending power beyond national borders | Lenin, Said | Broader ideological and economic structure underpinning colonialism |
| Neo-colonialism | Continued economic and cultural dominance after formal political independence | Kwame Nkrumah, Ngũgĩ | Highlights structural dependency in global capitalism |
| Orientalism | Systematic Western construction of the East as inferior and exotic | Edward Said | Demonstrates how knowledge produces power |
| Othering | Process of defining colonized peoples as fundamentally different and inferior | Said, Bhabha | Mechanism of identity formation within imperial discourse |
| Subaltern | Social groups excluded from hegemonic power structures and representation | Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak | Marks limits of representation and agency |
| Hybridity | Cultural mixing produced through colonial encounter | Homi K. Bhabha | Destabilizes binary opposition between colonizer and colonized |
| Mimicry | Colonized subject’s imitation of colonizer, producing ambivalence | Bhabha | Reveals instability within colonial authority |
| Third Space | Interstitial site where cultural meanings are negotiated | Bhabha | Space of transformation beyond binary categories |
| Epistemic Violence | Destruction or distortion of indigenous knowledge systems | Spivak | Colonialism as restructuring of knowledge |
| Decolonization | Process of dismantling colonial structures politically and culturally | Fanon, Ngũgĩ | Extends beyond political independence to cultural autonomy |
| Settler Colonialism | Form of colonialism where settlers permanently occupy land | Patrick Wolfe | Focuses on elimination and land appropriation logic |
| Creolization | Cultural and linguistic blending in colonial contact zones | Caribbean theorists | Productive transformation rather than pure hybridity |
| Diaspora | Dispersal of people from homeland with maintained cultural memory | Hall, Gilroy | Reconfigures identity beyond territorial nationalism |
| Nation and Nationalism | Imagined political community formed through shared history and struggle | Benedict Anderson | Central to anti-colonial movements |
| Strategic Essentialism | Temporary use of unified identity for political mobilization | Spivak | Tactical deployment of collective identity |
| Postcoloniality | Condition of societies shaped by colonial history | General theoretical category | Emphasizes structural continuity after independence |
| Colonial Discourse | Language and representation that sustain imperial power | Said | Institutionalized production of colonial knowledge |
| Dependency Theory | Economic model explaining continued underdevelopment through global capitalism | Frank, Amin | Links postcolonial studies to political economy |
| Ambivalence | Simultaneous attraction and repulsion within colonial relations | Bhabha | Undermines notion of stable colonial dominance |
| Internalized Colonialism | Adoption of colonial values by colonized subjects | Fanon | Psychological dimension of domination |
| Counter-Discourse | Writing back to imperial narratives | Ashcroft et al. | Literary resistance strategy |
| Cultural Nationalism | Emphasis on reclaiming indigenous traditions and language | Ngũgĩ | Decolonization through cultural revival |
| Worldliness of Texts | Literature embedded in material and political history | Said | Rejects purely aesthetic autonomy |