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Category Classicism Romanticism Realism Naturalism Symbolism Expressionism Historical Period 17th–18th century (revival of Greco-Roman ideals) Late 18th–mid 19th century Mid–late 19th century Late 19th century Late 19th century Early 20th century Philosophical Foundation Rationalism, order, harmony Emotion, imagination, subjectivity Empiricism, social observation Scientific determinism (Darwinism) Idealism, mysticism Existential anxiety, psychological intensity View of Human Nature […]

16th–17th Century: Renaissance & Early Modern Period 4 Period Movement Core Feature Representative Figures Renaissance Humanism Classical revival, dignity of man William Shakespeare Metaphysical Poetry Intellectual wit Conceits, paradox John Donne Puritan/Religious Writing Moral didacticism Spiritual struggle John Milton 18th Century: Enlightenment & Neoclassicism 4 Movement Dominant Concern Features Neoclassicism Reason, order Satire, decorum, classical

A. Primary Literary Forms Form Definition Core Features Representative Writers Poetry Condensed literary expression emphasizing rhythm, imagery, and figurative language Meter, symbolism, lyric voice William Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot Drama Literary form written for performance Dialogue-driven, stage direction, conflict William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen Novel Extended fictional prose narrative Character development, plot complexity, realism or experimentation

This table maps major phases in the evolution of postcolonial thought, from anti-colonial resistance theory to contemporary decolonial frameworks. Chronological Evolution Table Phase Key Thinker Major Work Core Concern Theoretical Shift Anti-Colonial Revolutionary Phase (1950s–60s) Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth Violence, psychological colonization, national liberation Colonialism as total structure of domination (material +

Term Definition Key Theorist(s) Conceptual Significance 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

Introduction: From Anti-Colonial Struggle to Neo-Colonial Critique If A Grain of Wheat interrogates the moral complexity of the anti-colonial struggle, Petals of Blood moves decisively into critique of post-independence Kenya. Published in 1977, the novel reflects Ngũgĩ’s radicalization toward Marxist-inflected postcolonial analysis. Here, colonialism is no longer the sole antagonist; its legacy mutates into neo-colonial

Introduction: Independence and Historical Reckoning Published in 1967, four years after Kenyan independence (1963), A Grain of Wheat marks a decisive transition in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s intellectual development. Unlike nationalist novels that celebrate liberation unambiguously, this text interrogates the moral, political, and psychological costs of anti-colonial struggle. It is not merely a historical novel about

The consolidation of postcolonial studies as a critical field in the late twentieth century is inseparable from the intellectual interventions of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Though distinct in method and emphasis, their works collectively reoriented literary and cultural theory toward the analysis of empire, representation, subjectivity, and epistemic power. Frequently

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o occupies a singular position in postcolonial thought: he is simultaneously novelist, dramatist, memoirist, and one of the most systematic theorists of cultural decolonization. While many postcolonial writers “write back” to empire through narrative revision, Ngũgĩ advances a comprehensive program for dismantling colonial epistemology—particularly through language, education, and cultural production. His intellectual trajectory

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys is one of the most influential postcolonial and feminist rewritings of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. If Brontë’s novel marginalizes Bertha Mason as the “madwoman in the attic,” Rhys re-centers her—renaming her Antoinette Cosway—and reconstructs the Caribbean history that Brontë’s Victorian narrative suppresses. A postcolonial reading of Wide Sargasso