Notions of Empire and Cultural Imperialism in the Postcolonial Discourse

Abstract

This article considers various theoretical approaches specific to the postcolonial era and modern imperialism. The following approaches are noteworthy: the postcolonial discourse as a history and development discourse (A. Biccum); the postcolonial theories in relation to the interaction of the colonizer and the colonized (S. Slemon); the representation of cultural dominance (H. Münkler); the correlation between culture and imperialism (E. Said); the discourse of culture and wealth in the postcolonial era (B. Ashcroft). There are a number of the varieties of modern cultural imperialism, including: scientific imperialism ( J. Galtung); telecommunication imperialism ( J. Galtung, D.Y. Jin); and linguistic imperialism (R. Phillipson). The scope of general statements includes: the existence of a globalized empire; the possible influences of the colonizer and the colonized either via a direct influence or via the institutional regulators and the semiotic field; the significance of cultural imperialism in a general meaning of culture as a whole; the understanding of an empire as an overabundance of both wealth and culture under the common denominator of economics of discourse. As a result, the semantic core of cultural imperialism is determined, and the authorial definition is given.
 Keywords: postcolonialism, empire, cultural imperialism, E. Said