Women in many societies have been relegated to the position of "Other", marginalized and "colonized". Women, like post-colonial people, have had to construct a language of their own when their only available tools are those of the colonizer. Both groups are powerless, exploited and have a subordinate position in society. Feminist and post-colonial discourses both seek to reinstate the marginalized in the face of the dominant, and early feminist theory, like early nationalist postcolonialism sought to invert the structures of domination. But like Postcolonialism, feminist criticism has now turned away from such simple inversions towards a questioning of forms and modes. Both Feminist and Postcolonial critics have reread the classical texts demonstrating clearly that a canon is produced by the intersection of a number of readings and reading assumptions legitimized in the privileging hierarchy of a "patriarchal" or "metropolitan" concept of "literature". This offers the possibility of reconstructing the canon. The subversion of patriarchal literary forms themselves has also been an important part of the feminist project. However, in post-colonialism this is not a conscious aim. Both discourses are oriented towards the future. Both are projects towards revolutionary disruption in society. There is another thing that these two theories have in common: Postcolonialism and Feminism are oppossed to Marxism. According to the marxism, the ruling class constructs and circulates ideasmwhich secure its power because they dominate the minds of the working class. The ruling class for Postcolonial and feminist theories is Europe and men respectively. However, the working class (= Postcolonialism and Feminism) as a result of its material conditions of explotation and oppresion, will fight against the ruling class (=Europe and Men) by producing its own ideas.
Notes from: "Myths of Otherness: Feminism, Postmodernism and Postcolonialism". QMW (University of London) Spring semester, 1999. Course tutors: Anita Raghumatha and Helen Thomas.