The Empire writes back to the center

1. �The Empire writes back to the center� Phrase coined by Salman Rushdie Refers to members of British colonies (before or after independence) responding, or talking back, to the imperial center � by telling their own story or expressing their own point of view

2. �The Center� Britain was referred to as a colonial �center� as early as the 16th century, a period of colonial expansion Britain was crystallized as Imperial Center in the 19th century, when English literature became an academic study throughout Britain's colonies. The academic study of English propagated ideas of �center� vs. �margin,� �civilization� vs. �savagery.�

3. �Postcolonialism� �Writing back to the center� is a form of �postcolonial� writing: theoretical and creative writings that examine the culture of former colonies and the construction of colonial and postcolonial subjects. Postcolonial writing presents �counter-narratives� to European imperial discourses.

4. �Postcolonial� can therefore refer, temporally, to the period after independence, or can refer, conceptually, to cultures affected by European imperial expansion, from the moment the cultures were colonized to the present.

5. Postcolonial literature includes writing from locations including Africa, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, and settler colonies such as Canada and Australia. The U.S., too, constitutes a settler colony, though many postcolonial critics do not count it among postcolonial countries because of its �neocolonial, hegemonic power� (to borrow Chantal Zabus's terms).

6. Postcolonialism and its fellow �isms� Postcolonial, feminist, and postmodern writing share a dedication to exploring the constructed nature of historical narratives and rewriting history from silenced perspectives.

7. Wide Sargasso Sea In some ways, Wide Sargasso Sea is a paradigmatic instance of �writing back:� - a deliberate response to an icon of Victorian literature - a �supplement� or �alternative� to Bronte's narrative Some Caribbean writers, ex. Edward Kamau Braithwaite (1974), rejected Wide Sargasso Sea as a postcolonial or Caribbean novel on the premise that it is sympathetic to the white plantation-owning class and therefore fails to meaningfully identify with the world of black Jamaicans of the 19th century.