Ethnic Studies and

Postcolonial Gender Studies and

Queer Theory Cultural Studies
Criticism

Ethnic Studies,” sometimes referred to as

“Minority Studies,” has an obvious historical Gender theory came to the forefront of
relationship with “Postcolonial Criticism” in the theoretical scene first as feminist
that Euro-American imperialism and theory but has subsequently come to “Cultural Studies” arose quite self-
colonization in the last four centuries, include the investigation of all gender consciously in the 80s to provide a means of
whether external (empire) or internal and sexual categories and identities. it analysis of the rapidly expanding global
(slavery) has been directed at recognizable starts tp reemegre in united states and culture industry that includes entertainment,
ethnic groups, western countrie in1960s advertising, publishing, television, film,
computers and the Internet.

“Postcolonial Criticism” investigates In the context of postmodernism, gender

the relationships between colonizers theorists, led by the work of Judith
and colonized in the period post- Butler, initially viewed the category of
colonization. “gender” as a human construct enacted Cultural Studies” brings scrutiny not only to these
by a vast repetition of social varied categories of culture, and not only to the
performance. decreasing margins of difference between these
realms of expression, but just as importantly to
“Postcolonial Criticism” pursues not merely the politics and ideology that make contemporary
the inclusion of the marginalized literature culture possible.
of colonial peoples into the dominant “Queer theory” is not synonymous with gender
canon and discourse. “Postcolonial theory, nor even with the overlapping fields of
Criticism” offers a fundamental critique of gay and lesbian studies, but does share many of
the ideology of colonial domination and at their concerns with normative definitions of
the same time seeks to undo the
“imaginative geography” of Orientalist
man, woman, and sexuality. “Queer theory” “Cultural Studies” has been interdisciplinary,
thought that produced conceptual as well questions the fixed categories of sexual identity even antidisciplinary, from its inception;
as economic divides between West and and the cognitive paradigms generated by indeed, “Cultural Studies” can be understood
East, civilized and uncivilized, First and normative (that is, what is considered “normal”) as a set of sometimes conflicting methods
Third Worlds. sexual ideology. and approaches applied to a questioning of
current cultural categories.
 Structuralism New Historicism
Marxism and
and Post and Cultural
Critical Theory
structuralism Materialism

Structuralism is frequently associated with the

larger field of semiotics, the study of signs. A term coined by Stephen
Marx and co-author Friedrich Greenblatt, designates a body of
Semiotics involves the study of the various signs –
Engels argue that all of history from body gestures to social rituals – used by theoretical and interpretive
is about the struggle between people to send out coded images. Semiotics practices that began largely with
the haves and the have-nots. studies how these signs convey meaning. These the study of early modern
signs are social in nature because they signify a literature in the United States.
meaning which is shared by people belonging to
the same social group or culture.

Marxist theorists use “New Historicism” in America had

been somewhat anticipated by the
traditional techniques of
Literary semiotics deals “with theorists of “Cultural Materialism”
literary analysis but in Britain, which, in the words of
subordinate aesthetic the entire signifying system of their leading advocate, Raymond
concerns to the final social the text and the codes we Williams describes “the analysis of
and political meanings of need to be masters of in order all forms of signification, including
literature. to read it.” quite centrally writing, within the
actual means and conditions of
their production.” 
Marxist analyses of society
and history have had a
“Structuralism” relied initially on the ideas of
profound effect on literary Cultural Materialism refers to a
the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure. Marxist orientation of New
theory and practical criticism,
“Structuralism” was to be a metalanguage, a Historicism, characterized by the
most notably in the
language about languages, used to decode analysis of any historical
development of “New
actual languages, or systems of signification. material within a politicized
Historicism” and “Cultural
Materialism.” framework, in a radical and
subversive manner.