Postcolonialism

                                                                 Sophia Boullier

Figure 1. Eugène Delacroix. Women of Algiers. 1834. Oil on canvas. 70 x 90 inches. Musée du Louvre.

Postcolonial theory analyzes the cultural legacies of colonialism. To understand it, one must approach the colonial era as the illness and postcolonial theory as the remedy, through which the subjugated re-establish their cultural identities. The assumption of postcolonialism is that while colonizers imposed their cultural, intellectual, spiritual and political identities on the colonized, this process was not always entirely successful.

Postcolonialism can be applied in art history to critically unpack paintings with Orientalist themes. Orientalism developed in and endured throughout the nineteenth century as a literary and artistic movement at the height of European colonialism; it is a Western worldview which betrays misconceptions of the Orient and its people. ¹ French Orientalist artists often focused on the cultures of North Africa, as that region was colonized by France (Algeria in 1830,  Morocco (protectorate) in 1912 and Tunisia (protectorate) in 1881). Artists such as Eugène Delacroix (1798 – 1863) produced images in which “Oriental” cultures and peoples were portrayed as so chaotic, savage and immoral that Westernization could be assumed as an act of salvation.

Delacroix exaggerated the hyper-sexuality of Algerian women in Women of Algiers in their Apartments (1834), painted soon after the French conquest of Algeria in 1830 [Figure 1]. The three Algerian women are depicted as relaxed and passive through their body language: they are sitting and laying, barefoot, with no tension in either their bodies or facial expressions. Two of them seem unaware of the artist’s presence, as one looks up at the black servant and the other looks down at the ground. Another gazes straight at him (and, consequently, the viewer) but her relaxed body language and soft stare confront neither. She leans back on stacked pillows, as if to invite the viewer to engage with her sexually. Although Delacroix may have visited a harem while accompanying a diplomatic mission to Algeria and Morocco in 1832 (this female-only space of a Muslim home was normally off limits to men, especially European) his depiction of it is anything but realistic. Harems were not places for women to interact with men, but rather were designated spaces in which women could interact with one another without the company of men.²  The evident reason for Delacroix’s unrealistic portrayal of a harem was to conform to European fantasies about the sexuality of Algerian women and to legitimize colonization as a means to moralize them.

Postcolonialist theory aims to deconstruct and reinvent cultural perceptions and reject the self-ascribed racial and cultural superiority of Western colonizers. It can be used to analyze historical images (such as the Delacroix) but its theories and ideas have also informed more recent visual artists.  The Battle of Algiers (1966), for example, is a black and white film exploring the gruesome colonial war between Algeria and France during which French troops assassinated, tortured and raped Algerians, as a way to exert control over those they deemed as “barbaric.” Director Gillo Pontecorvo and screenwriter Franco Solinas criticize colonial occupation by “dramatizing one of the bloodiest anti-imperialist struggles of the twentieth century.”³  [Figure 2].

Figure 2. Still from Battle of Algiers. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Algers, Algeria: Igor Production, 1966.

Their artistic yet journalistic approach to representing the 1954-1962 rebellions in Algiers showcase the tension between the oppressors and the oppressed, which escalated into what eventually became one of the bloodiest moments in Algerian history. Over the course of the eight year war, up to one million Algerians lost their lives; tens of thousands of men, women and children were tortured and more than 3,000 Algerians were arrested and disappeared under French Forces.⁴ The film highlights the rise of an Algerian nationalist movement against colonial oppression through following the conflict between its main characters, National Liberation Front member and Algerian resistance symbol Ali La Pointe (played by Brahim Hadjadj) and French paratroop commander responsible for crushing the resistance, Colonel Mathieu (played by Jean Martin) [Figure 3].

Figure 3. Still from Battle of Algiers. Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo. Algers, Algeria: Igor Production, 1966.

This postcolonial artwork demonstrates the importance of national identity and contributes to a larger dialogue on what that might mean to Algerians while exploring what impact this deadly era had on the country. Delacroix’s biased portrayal of Algerians – and more specifically their women’s sexuality–defines the identities the French needed to construct in order to justify colonization. In comparison, The Battle of Algiers depicts the harsh realities and consequences of colonialism from the perspective of the oppressed.

The application of postcolonial theory to works of art is part of a larger discourse that has developed across several disciplines, in addition to art history. Artists and writers who engage with postcolonial theory are mediators of an important conversation regarding cultural and national identity in countries that were stripped of theirs and forced to embrace another.

1. Urs App, The Birth of Orientalism (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 4-5.
2. Rose-Marie Hagen and Rainer Hagen. What Great Paintings Say, Volume 2 (Cologne: Taschen Verlag, 2002), 361.
3. Richard Phillips, “A Timeless Portrait of the Anti-Colonial Struggle in Algeria,” World Socialist Web Site, last modified May 29, 2004.
4. Richard Phillips, “A Timeless Portrait of the Anti-Colonial Struggle in Algeria” World Socialist Web Site (May 29, 2004). Accessed March 30, 2015.