Postcolonial literature

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Postcolonial literature (or "Post-colonial literature", sometimes called "New English Literature(s)") is literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated in colonial empires, and the literary expression of postcolonialism.

Postcolonial literary critics re-examine classic literature with a particular focus on the social "discourse" that shaped it. For instance, in Orientalism, Edward Said analyzes the works of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire and Lautréamont, exploring how they were influenced by and helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Postcolonial fictional writers interact with the traditional colonial discourse, but modify or subvert it; for instance by retelling a familiar story from the perspective of an oppressed minor character in the story, for example Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which was written as a pseudo-prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Often the protagonist of a postcolonial work will find him/herself in a struggle to establish an identity, feeling conflicted between an old, native world that is being abolished by the invasive forces of modernity and/or the new dominant culture.

Postcolonial literature uses a wide range of terms, like "writing back", re-writing and re-reading, which describe the interpretation of well-known literature under the perspective of the formerly colonized. In Wide Sargasso Sea, the protagonist is renamed several times, and exploited in several ways.

Other authors use different analogies for the colonized, but also very different approaches. The "anti-conquest narrative" recasts indigenous inhabitants of colonised countries as victims rather than foes of the colonisers.[1] This depicts the colonised people in a more human light but risks absolving colonisers of responsibility for addressing the impacts of colonisation by assuming that native inhabitants were "doomed" to their fate.[1]

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[edit] Notable authors by region

In Africa, Chinua Achebe set the standards for African literature with 1958's Things Fall Apart. Ayi Kwei Armah in "Two Thousand seasons" tries to establish a history for Africa from an African perspective.

In the Americas, Isabel Allende from Chile contributes to Latin-American literature and occasionally writes in a style called magic realism also used by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a certain way of vivid storytelling. The Canadian writer Margaret Atwood redesigned the Canadian writing in a postcolonial, identity-seeking perspective of Southern Ontario Gothic writing.

In Asia, the areas of postcolonial writing are the Muslim and the Indian literature. Meena Alexander is probably best known for lyrical memoirs that deal sensitively with struggles of women and disenfranchised groups.

In times before the decolonisation, Joseph Conrad and Charlotte Brontë had been not "postcolonial" authors, but had had specific interest within postcolonial theory in part because postcolonial authors such as Chinua Achebe and Jean Rhys (among others) engage and rework their novels. The same happens to Shakespeare's The Tempest, which has a colonial setting, and his Othello with its racial dynamic. The figure of Adamastor in the epic poem Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões also plays a large part in African literature, being reworked by authors such as Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa and André Brink.

This section needs to be expanded with J.M. Coetzee, Maryse Condé, Cyril Dabydeen, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Raywat Deonandan Buchi Emecheta, Athol Fugard, Nadine Gordimer, Bonny Hicks, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Doris Lessing, Earl Lovelace, Gabriel García Márquez, Bharati Mukherjee, V. S. Naipaul, Michael Ondaatje, Jean Rhys, Salman Rushdie, Bapsi Sidhwa, Wilbur Smith, Wole Soyinka, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Yvonne Vera, Derek Walcott, Kath Walker,

[edit] Events leading to post colonialism: a little about colonialism

Before post colonialism there was colonialism. Most colonial endeavors have an essentially capitalist foundation. Colonialism can be broken down simply as the following; in the beginning, a large power, for various reasons, has to colonize. This means that colonies had to be established by a large power. The large power seeks to expand its borders for any of a number of reasons. Some of these include: “civilizing” the native inhabitants (people who lived in the area before the settlers), converting them to Christianity, or using resources and/or raw materials found in the new territory. Colonialism is the way (usually brute force) that a country or empire takes natural resources, raw materials, markets etc. from its colonies. Colonialism most commonly was the abuse of the native people by settlers making a life in the new colony; settlers who were put there by the larger power. Colonialism and the oppression of the colonies by the large power can only go on for so long. Eventually, the colonies will fight back which ultimately leads to a revolution, if the colony is successful. A revolution and the rejection of oppression ultimately leads to independence, everything after that day is post colonial.

[edit] Defining postcolonial literature from a critics point of view

What qualifies as postcolonial literature is debatable, in fact it is a constant debate. Some would say that it is anything written after the colonies independence, however that seems a bit broad. The term, postcolonial literature, has taken on many meanings and has been shaped by the study of books written on postcolonialism. After years of postcolonial literature theories, ideas and arguments, most postcolonial critics have found common ground on three main rules. These rules are more like subjects. If a piece of literature is written after the independence day and discusses or explores any of the subjects, it may be considered postcolonial. The three subjects include:

1. Social and cultural change or erosion. [2] It seems that after independence is achieved, one main question arises; what is the new cultural identity?

2. Misuse of power and exploitation. Even though the large power ceases to control them as a colony, the settlers still seem to poses power over the natives. [2] The main question here; who really is in power here, why, and how does an independence day really mean independence?

3. Colonial abandonment and alienation. This topic is generally brought up to examine individuals and not the ex-colony as a whole. [2] The individuals tend to ask themselves; in this new country, where do I fit in and how do I make a living?

[edit] Details of the first subject: social and cultural change

In order to look at change, you have to look at what something is changing from. Colonies go through many changes throughout their existence. When looking at pre-colonialism, you see the area’s original culture. Their beliefs and customs run smoothly and they are a functioning society. Colonialism changes everything. In almost all cases of colonialism, the norms, beliefs and cultural values of the larger power are forced upon all of the colonies natives. This is because the colonizer believes that the natives are “savages” and they need to be civilized. The natives have no choice but to accept these new ways of life. The settlers technology is more advanced and they could easily wipe out all natives who refuse to conform to the new culture. This is where the depletion of their own culture begins. Natives stop practicing their religion. In most cases they convert to Christianity, mainly because it is forced onto them. In order to communicate with the colonizers/ settlers, they start speaking the settlers language. Soon enough their own is lost.

After so many years of colonialism, the natives become similar to their colonizers. The colonizers control education, therefore the control the thoughts and ideas absorbed by the youth. Native’s children absorb the new culture and ideas at a young age. Because of this, the original culture is lost in new generations. The colonizer is a brute force with oppresses the natives. In the fight of this oppression, independence is fought for and a culture that has almost been forgotten is once again sought after. Finally, an independence day comes. The larger power no longer has control of the colony, or rather, former colony. Now post colonialism takes place. Now that the larger power is gone, what is left of the original culture, the pre-colonial culture of the native people? The subject of culture is deeply explored in postcolonial literature.

Post colonialism deals with the aftermath of colonialism. It’s about the struggle of being independent. One main concern in a post colonial nation is its government. After being controlled by the large power for such a long time, they need to establish their own way of running things. It’s difficult because their cultural identity is in question. Governments are supposed to act in the best interest of the people, but what do the people want? The society is no longer being oppressed, they’re independent, free to be themselves again. However they’ve changed, their culture has changed now they need to figure out who they really are.

Postcolonial literature can be identified by its discussion of cultural identity. The piece of literature, be it a novel, poem, short story etc. may be about the change that has taken place or question the current change. Postcolonial literature tends to ask the question: What now? Meaning that now that they’ve finally achieved independence, what to they do. After so much change has taken place, they can’t go back to their original culture.

Post colonial literature tends to answer the following question: Should there be an attempt to restore the original culture, conformity to the culture presented by the settlers or the creation of a new culture which combines both. If a novel answers and explores any of the above questions it may be considered postcolonial literature. When trying to identify post colonial literature, it is important to recognize whether the ex-colony in question is actually independent or considered independent, but reliant on its former colonist.

[edit] Postcolonial literary critics

Edward Said is often considered to have been the seminal postcolonial critic. Further critics are Bill Ashcroft, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Homi K. Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Leela Gandhi, Gareth Griffiths, Abiola Irele, Gayatri Spivak, Helen Tiffin, Khal Torabully, and Robert Young

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Revie, Linda L. (2003). The Niagara Companion: Explorers, Artists and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, p95. ISBN 0889204330. 
  2. ^ a b c Mansour, Wisam. "Post-colonialism", Lecture 5, April 14, 2008. Accessed April 14, 2008.


[edit] Further reading

  • Prem Poddar and David Johnson, A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Liteartures in English, 2005
  • John Thieme, The Arnold Anthology of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
  • Chelsea 46: World Literature in English (1987)
  • Poetry International 7/8 (2003-2004)
  • Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly (eds.), Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
  • Alamgir Hashmi, Commonwealth Literature: An Essay Towards the Re-definition of a Popular/Counter Culture
  • Elleke Boehmer, Colonial and Postcolonial Literature: Migrant Metaphors
  • Britta Olinde, A Sense of Place: Essays in Post-Colonial Literatures
  • Peter Thompson, Littérature moderne du monde francophone. Chicago: NTC (McGraw-Hill), 1997
  • Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict edited by Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine, Routledge (2008)

[edit] External links