Q. How globalization reshapes postcolonial identities. How does global capitalism influence the cultural and economic dimensions of postcolonial societies? Can you relate this discussion to films or literature that depict the challenges of postcolonial identities in a globalized world?
1. Reshaping of Postcolonial Identities
New Empire & Power: Hardt and Negri’s idea of Empire shows that power no longer operates from a single center but through decentralized global networks that regulate culture, migration, and trade.
Post-9/11 Dynamics: The “Global War on Terror” reinforced global hierarchies of domination, showing how violence and identity politics intertwine with globalization.
2. Role of Global Capitalism
Market Fundamentalism: As Stiglitz and Sainath note, neoliberal globalization often disadvantages developing nations, widening inequality and reshaping local economies
Cultural Homogenization vs. Local Resistance: Global brands, media, and digital platforms promote homogenized consumption patterns, while local cultures adapt, resist, or hybridize these influences.
Globalization 4.0 (Fourth Industrial Revolution): Technology (AI, robotics, IoT) intensifies economic shifts, creating new dependencies but also opportunities for postcolonial societies to participate in global innovation.
3. Examples in Literature and Film
Globalization’s impact on postcolonial identities is well depicted in contemporary cultural texts:
Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake – Shows how diasporic identities negotiate cultural belonging in a globalized world
Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger – Critiques neoliberal India, where global capitalism sharpens class divides and reshapes aspirations.
Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Explores how a Pakistani man’s identity is reshaped (and fractured) by globalization, U.S. capitalism, and post-9/11 suspicion.
Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses – Earlier but still relevant, dramatizes hybrid, fragmented identities in global migration.
Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire – Highlights how globalization, media, and capitalism intersect with postcolonial poverty and aspiration.
4. Conclusion
Globalization does not erase postcolonial conditions but reshapes them into new forms of dependency, hybridity, and resistance. Cultural and economic dimensions are tied to global capitalism, which produces both opportunities (transnational mobility, digital connectivity) and new inequalities. Literature and film provide a lens to see how individuals and communities navigate these tensions—caught between global homogenization and the search for authentic, resistant identities.
1. Contemporary Fiction as Postcolonial Critique of Globalization
Economic critique: Many novels highlight the destructive effects of “Market Fundamentalism” (Stiglitz, Sainath), where globalization privileges corporate profit over human lives.
Identity crisis & hybridity: As globalization erases borders, postcolonial writers show characters struggling between local traditions and global aspirations. This creates hybrid identities but also cultural alienation.
Resistance: Fiction often dramatizes protests and movements—against corporations, wars, or state violence—as spaces of resistance against globalization’s hegemony.
2. How Authors Navigate Resistance, Hybridity, Identity
Some examples from the article:
Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger (2008):
Balram Halwai embodies the contradictions of neoliberal India. His rise from chauffeur to entrepreneur critiques how globalization fuels corruption, inequality, and violence while promising mobility.
Arundhati Roy, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (2018):
Roy depicts marginalized voices (Dalits, Muslims, Kashmiris, trans communities) silenced by global-capitalist development projects. The novel highlights resistance against displacement, ecological destruction, and state violence in a globalized India.
Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis (2003):
Though not postcolonial, the novel stages anti-globalization protests around a billionaire protagonist, showing resistance to finance capitalism’s excesses.
Robert Newman, The Fountain at the Center of the World (2003):
Intertwines WTO protests in Seattle with Latin American struggles, exposing how globalization reshapes the lives of workers across borders.
Ian McEwan, Saturday (2005):
Connects global war (Iraq invasion) with everyday urban life in London, reflecting how global politics invade the personal sphere.
3. Film Example
The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012, dir. Mira Nair, based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel):
A Pakistani man, Changez, initially embraces U.S. capitalism but faces racial profiling and suspicion after 9/11. The film critiques how globalization and empire intertwine, producing identity crises for postcolonial subjects who are simultaneously included in global markets and excluded by geopolitics.
Other films you could relate:
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – globalization, media, and inequality in India.
City of God (2002) – global capitalism and violence in Brazilian favelas.
4. Conclusion
Contemporary fiction (and film) critiques globalization by unmasking its promises of opportunity as deeply entangled with exploitation, cultural erasure, and inequality. Postcolonial authors navigate hybridity and resistance through characters who embody contradictions: simultaneously drawn into global networks and alienated by them. These narratives ensure that postcolonial critique remains vital in an age where globalization continues colonial patterns under new names.
1. Intersection of Postcolonialism and Environmental Concerns
Spatial Amnesia (Rob Nixon): Western environmentalism often celebrates untouched wilderness while erasing histories of displacement and violence in colonized lands. This silence marginalizes indigenous voices in global ecological debates.
Internal colonialism: Even within decolonized nations, indigenous peoples face displacement through mega-projects (like India’s Narmada dams) or mining operations that echo colonial patterns of dispossession.
2. Disproportionate Impact on Colonized Peoples
Ecological burden without benefits: Formerly colonized nations supply raw materials for global capitalism while suffering pollution, deforestation, and climate vulnerability.
Climate injustice: Rising sea levels, droughts, and floods hit Global South nations harder despite their minimal historical contribution to carbon emissions.
Displacement: Projects like dams, plantations, and mining displace indigenous communities, severing cultural ties to ancestral lands. This perpetuates cycles of poverty and ecological vulnerability.
Ken Saro-Wiwa’s activism in Nigeria against Shell oil demonstrates how corporate extraction devastates both land and livelihoods in postcolonial societies.
3. Film as Reflection: Avatar (2009) or Okja (2017)
To illustrate through cinema:
Avatar (James Cameron, 2009):
Although set on the fictional planet Pandora, the story reflects real-world histories of colonization and ecological exploitation. The Na’vi people’s struggle against corporate-military forces allegorizes how indigenous communities resist extractive capitalism. The film mirrors the fates of Amazonian tribes or the Ogoni people in Nigeria who fight oil exploitation.
Okja (Bong Joon-ho, 2017):
This film critiques global agribusiness and its devastating impact on local farming cultures and ecosystems. It highlights the violence of neoliberal food industries, resonating with postcolonial critiques of multinational corporations.
Both films dramatize the same dynamics the article describes: how ecological crises and capitalist expansion repeat colonial patterns of dispossession.
4. Conclusion
Postcolonial studies in the Anthropocene reveal that environmental degradation is not just a “natural” crisis but also a deeply historical and political one, rooted in colonial and capitalist exploitation. Colonized peoples bear the heaviest costs—through displacement, ecological loss, and climate vulnerability—while global capitalism continues to profit. Films like Avatar and Okja translate these injustices into powerful cultural critiques, making visible the environmental inequalities of our globalized, postcolonial world.
Q. From examining how Hollywood shapes global perceptions of U.S. hegemony. How do these films project American dominance, and what postcolonial critiques can be applied to these narratives? Consider selecting other films or TV series that perpetuate similar hegemonic ideals.
1. Hollywood and the Projection of American Dominance
Rambo Films:
Rambo III (1988) glorifies U.S. support for Afghan Mujahideen, casting America as liberator against Soviet oppression.
James Bond Films (though British, aligned with Western/US interests):
The Living Daylights (1987) echoes U.S. Cold War politics, with Bond aiding Afghan rebels.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) dramatizes media control and information warfare, echoing U.S. anxieties about narrative dominance in globalization.
Together, these films normalize U.S. military and ideological superiority, painting America as a benevolent superpower and marginalizing alternative worldviews
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2. Postcolonial Critiques
From a postcolonial lens, these films reveal hegemonic strategies that recycle colonial-era binaries:
Orientalism (Edward Said): Non-Western spaces (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Latin America) appear as chaotic, dangerous zones in need of Western intervention. Locals are either villains (Communists, drug cartels) or sidekicks (Afghan rebels), never full agents of their destinies.
Neo-imperialism: The U.S. replaces the colonial powers, positioning itself as protector of democracy, but simultaneously enacting cultural domination through film.
Cultural Hegemony (Gramsci): By entertaining global audiences, Hollywood masks imperial projects as heroic adventures, making U.S. geopolitical interests appear natural and moral.
Silencing the Subaltern (Spivak): The voices of colonized or oppressed peoples are absent; their struggles are narrated only through the lens of American (or Western) heroism.
3. Other Films & TV Shows Perpetuating U.S. Hegemonic Ideals
Top Gun (1986, 2022): Glorifies U.S. air power, celebrating military masculinity and patriotism, aligning Hollywood with Pentagon narratives.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012): Justifies U.S. torture practices while celebrating the killing of Osama bin Laden as triumph of American justice.
Homeland (TV series, 2011–2020): Centers U.S. intelligence as morally complex but ultimately necessary, depicting Middle Eastern regions as terrorist hotbeds.
24 (TV series, 2001–2010): Legitimizes torture and unilateral U.S. action against “terror,” reinforcing post-9/11 geopolitics.
These cultural texts act as extensions of U.S. foreign policy, teaching global audiences to see the world through American lenses.
4. Conclusion
Hollywood’s global reach makes it a powerful medium for soft imperialism, turning cinema into a tool of U.S. hegemony. Films like Rambo and Bond blend entertainment with ideological messaging, presenting America as both hero and hegemon. From a postcolonial perspective, such narratives erase subaltern voices, perpetuate Orientalist stereotypes, and repackage empire in cinematic form.
Q. In light of this, reflect on how the film appropriates and reimagines tribal resistance against colonial powers. How can such narratives contribute to or undermine postcolonial struggles? You could relate this to other films that portray resistance or appropriation of indigenous or subaltern heroes.
1. Appropriation and Reimagining of Tribal Resistance
Historical figures vs. cinematic myth:
Bheem fought the Nizam of Hyderabad with the slogan “Jal, Jangal, Zameen” (Water, Forest, Land).
Their struggles were fundamentally about land, livelihood, and ecological justice.
RRR’s reimagining: The film fuses their localized movements into a pan-Indian nationalist struggle against the British, reframing them as freedom fighters rather than defenders of indigenous autonomy.
This creates a grand spectacle of anti-colonial unity but erases the environmental and social justice core of their battles, missing the chance to connect their legacies to contemporary issues like displacement and climate change.
2. Contribution vs. Undermining of Postcolonial Struggles
Contribution:
RRR inspires pride and global recognition of Indian resistance, inserting tribal heroes into a national and international cinematic consciousness.
It challenges colonial erasure by celebrating subaltern figures, albeit in altered form.
Undermining:
By subsuming tribal resistance into a nationalist frame, the film silences indigenous voices, repeating what Spivak would call the “subaltern cannot speak” problem.
The erasure of ecological struggles (land, water, forests) undermines current indigenous movements fighting displacement by corporations and the state.
Nationalism risks flattening tribal resistance into a tool for state-centered pride, rather than highlighting continuing marginalization.
Thus, the film both empowers symbolically and disempowers politically, depending on whether one reads it as allegory or history.
3. Comparative Film Examples
Other films also negotiate indigenous or subaltern resistance in problematic ways:
Avatar (2009, dir. James Cameron):
Mirrors indigenous resistance to resource extraction but told through a white savior figure (Jake Sully), appropriating indigenous struggle into a Western hero’s journey.
Like RRR, it romanticizes resistance but risks reinforcing colonial hierarchies of voice.
Lagaan (2001, dir. Ashutosh Gowariker):
Reimagines peasants resisting British taxation through cricket.
While celebratory, it dilutes the actual material hardships of colonial exploitation into symbolic sport.
Ten Canoes (2006, dir. Rolf de Heer):
An exception: co-created with Australian Aboriginal communities, it foregrounds indigenous voice and oral storytelling traditions without subsuming them under national or Western frames.
These comparisons show how cinema oscillates between appropriation (romanticizing or nationalizing subaltern struggles) and authentic representation (foregrounding indigenous perspectives).
4. Conclusion
Films like RRR demonstrate both the power and danger of popular cinema in reimagining postcolonial struggles. They can elevate marginalized figures to national and global recognition but also risk silencing the very ecological, cultural, and political struggles those figures embodied. True postcolonial engagement would require narratives that highlight ongoing indigenous fights for “Jal, Jangal, Zameen”, linking historical resistance to the pressing crises of displacement and environmental justice today.
References:
Barad, Dilip. Globalization and Fiction: Exploring Postcolonial Critique and Literary Representations, Oct. 2022, www.researchgate.net/publication/373717690_Globalization_and_Fiction_Exploring_Postcolonial_Critique_and_Literary_Representations.
Barad, Dilip. GLOBALIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES, Oct. 2022, www.researchgate.net/publication/376374570_GLOBALIZATION_AND_THE_FUTURE_OF_POSTCOLONIAL_STUDIES.
Barad, Dilip. Heroes or Hegemons? The Celluloid Empire of Rambo and Bond in America’s Geopolitical Narrative, Aug. 2024, www.researchgate.net/publication/383415195_Heroes_or_Hegemons_The_Celluloid_Empire_of_Rambo_and_Bond_in_America’s_Geopolitical_Narrative.
Barad, Dilip. POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: BRIDGING PERSPECTIVES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE, Oct. 2022, www.researchgate.net/publication/376374708_POSTCOLONIAL_STUDIES_IN_THE_ANTHROPOCENE_BRIDGING_PERSPECTIVES_FOR_A_SUSTAINABLE_FUTURE.
Barad, Dilip. Reimagining Resistance: The Appropriation of Tribal Heroes in Rajamouli’s RRR, Aug. 2024, www.researchgate.net/publication/383603395_Reimagining_Resistance_The_Appropriation_of_Tribal_Heroes_in_Rajamouli’s_RRR.
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