Manifestations of Referential and Methodological Dualities in Postcolonial Literary and Critical Discourse

Postcolonial discourse is a literary and critical postmodern discourse that operates both internally and externally, intertwining politics, knowledge, literary texts, and critical analysis to examine the effects of the postcolonial experience. This study aims to uncover the referential and methodological dualities which shape postcolonial discourse and guide its methodological approaches and tools. The study concluded that postcolonial discourse exhibits two main types of dualities. The first is referential dualities, which can be categorized into five types: colonial literature vs. postcolonial literature, colonialism vs. imperialism, postcolonial literature vs. postcolonial criticism, the relationship between innovation and tradition in postcolonial literature and criticism, and the intersection of Eastern and Western thought in shaping postcolonial discourse. The second type is methodological dualities, classified into four categories: the relationship between center and periphery, the self vs. other, language and hybridity, and military colonialism vs. cultural colonialism. These referential and methodological dualities play a crucial role in shaping postcolonial discourse, both descriptively and analytically.