Postcolonialism is a new-left theory about Western societies that assumes the permanence of colonial power structures:
“Postcolonial theory (eng. Postcolonial studies) pursues the approach of critically reflecting on and questioning the construction of cultural differences and their transfer to societal power relations. Its subject is the history of colonialism and the associated hierarchisations and stereotypical thought patterns that continue to have an effect today… Postcolonial approaches examine and deconstruct this structural hierarchisation as well as the practices related to it and make visible how the image and perceptions of ‘the others’ (othering) were and still are shaped by these ideas.” 333
A central task of postcolonialism is to examine the perpetuation of colonial power relations and thought patterns. The goal is to develop a non-Western access to history, knowledge, and culture.
The basis of postcolonial approaches is the assumption that the former colonies were only politically liberated.334 Allegedly, Eurocentric viewpoints are still dominant.335
From a postcolonial perspective, a violent cultural contact took place with the process of colonisation: Western culture conquered, changed, and destroyed the colonised cultures. Changes are said to have occurred not only through military violence but especially through colonial ways of thinking and discourses. Consequently, authentic forms of knowledge are said to have been contaminated or destroyed by Western dominant culture (see epistemic violence). Postcolonial theory is a critical theory about the knowledge systems of Western culture, which are allegedly shaped by colonial continuity.336
Postcolonial critics endeavour to expose colonialism as a knowledge system. Postcolonial and decolonial approaches differ here: in decolonial approaches, an attempt is made to free allegedly marginalised knowledge from Western influence (see Decolonisation).337 In postcolonial approaches, greater reference is made to an intrinsic entanglement and continuity of colonial influences, with considerable overlaps with decolonial perspectives. Postcolonial theory provides a justification for the attempt at decolonisation.
A major focus of postcolonial activism is criticism of the Jewish state of Israel. The social scientist Ingo Elbe shows how one-sidedly Israel is forced into the role of a white colonial state. The conflict with the Arabs is blamed solely on Israel, while Arab antisemitism and terror are ignored. In addition, the entire historiography is placed in the service of anti-racist revisionism, which, among other things, relativises the significance of antisemitism as a cause of the Holocaust.338