Colonial Power and the Representation of the “Other”

Abstract

This paper examines how colonial power operates through the representation of the “Other” in English literary texts. Drawing on postcolonial theory, particularly the work of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, the study analyzes the discursive mechanisms through which colonial narratives construct cultural hierarchies and marginalize colonized subjects. Using a qualitative, text-based methodology grounded in close reading, the analysis focuses on narrative authority, stereotyping, exoticism, ambivalence, mimicry, and hybridity as key strategies of colonial representation. The findings demonstrate that the colonial Other is not a fixed identity but a discursive construct shaped by symbolic oppositions and narrative perspectives that privilege the colonizer. At the same time, colonial discourse is marked by instability, as moments of mimicry and hybridity reveal the fragility of imperial authority. By foregrounding the literary construction of otherness, the paper contributes to postcolonial literary scholarship and highlights literature’s role in producing and contesting colonial power structures.