What is postcolonialism? Postcolonialism is, at its most basic definition, any work that deals with the issues of the historical colonial time period in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, but also how those groups of people responded to those unique experiences. It is a way that those who were influenced by colonialism could embrace their native cultures and embrace the experiences related with that and fight back against colonization. It is also important to note that the "post" in postcolonialism is not exclusive to those works produced after colonialism, there was still some level of colonialism and colonization happening at the time of postcolonialism.
Another alternative term, which helps to show how broad this was proposed by Robert Young, which was called "tricontinentalism" which was to represent America, Africa, and Asia which were the three most prominent continents impacted. This term never caught on, but it demonstrates how vast postcolonialism actually is.
There are some characteristic themes of postcolonial literature. For example, usually there is a fight against power, or a struggle and search for independence. This is due to the very essential part of decolonization that is present and prominent to the writers of the literature. Furthermore, there are also emphases on emigration as well as identity. Migration, also being an important event happening throughout this time period, brought with it its own questions in literature, asking about things such as identity in a new land, allegiance to previous cultures. It asked the questions about transitioning from one culture to another and what that means and looks like for each individual. These themes were not only limited to literature, other works also demonstrated these themes such as art or really any creative work.