POST COLONIALISM - PAUL GILROY

• 16th - early 20th century the British Empire expanded through the colonialisation of Africa, Asia and the Americas.
• We exploited the population of these countries by utilising their labour to produce goods for the UK.
• This brutal process brought more money to the empire.
• At it's height the British Empire spanned 23% of the entire Earth's surface
• 1st idea - Britain is still struggling with accepting it's loss of Empire

  "Post-colonial melancholia"
• We often see representations in British media that hark back to our imperial days.
• Britain's lovely rural countryside, the union jack displayed on newspapers and British elitism. This comes the stereotype of a very civilised, reserved and polite country. So this means in media we see Britain more in line with it's imperial era than in reality.
• 2nd idea - Any reminder that Britain has changed since the imperial days evokes anger and violence. Such as immigration. the reality is we are an average country in terms of the economy differing from the state of the Empire.
• So, British media demonise immigrants as lawless and at the base of Britain's economic struggles.
• Civilisationism - Binary differences between white British and other.
• White British people are often shown as more powerful, successful and important.
• Civilisationism constructs a hierarchy of civilisations, with the West at the top and the rest of the world at the bottom. Relates to binary oppositions theory by Levi Strauss.