PoST COLONIAL THEORY AND LITERATURES: An Overview

1. PoST COLONIAL THEORY AND LITERATURES: An Overview

2. Colonisation A very good way to introduce colonialism . PC in classes ..let me bring in First the queen ant comes out..forms a colony..after completing she moves to form another colony ..locates a spot..safe, warm starts hatching eggs Underground, above the ground, on the trees… Slowly it starts multiplying to millions.. This is how British colonisation also happened..

3. What was Colonialism? Colonialism was not an identical process in different parts of the world. It is the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods which witnessed a wide range of practices including trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, enslavement and rebellion. . . (Loomba) Colonialism/Postcolonialism

4. POST-COLONIALISM - Definition & Features • The term post-colonial means post, or, after, the colonial period. • Widely accepted term, to indicate those literatures which emerged after the end of formal colonisation. • Covers all the literatures from countries which were affected by colonial culture. Cont....

5. Definition & Features • In simple terms it is the antithesis (critique) of European literatures. • Its implication is a historical phenomena. • Shifting of power relationship of the coloniser/ colonised • Umbrella term, covers Commonwealth Literatures and New Literatures

6. When did post-colonialism begin? “We use the term ‘post-colonial’. . . to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is because there is a continuity of preoccupation throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression. . .” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin: The Empire Writes Back)

7. The term ‘post-colonial’ . . . addresses all aspects of the colonial process from the beginning of colonial contact. Post-colonial critics and theorists should consider the full implications of restricting the meaning of the term to ‘after-colonialism’ or after-Independence. . . (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin: The Post-Colonial Studies Reader)

8. Major Issues in Postcolonial theory: Universalism/Eurocentrism Representation & Resistance Orientalism Language Diaspora Canon (subverting the canon) Hybridity & Ambivalence Subalternity-Class, race, gender, caste, ethnicity

9. What is Post-colonial criticism? Postcolonialism deals with the effects of colonisation on cultures and societies. . . It examines (I) the processes (2) the effects of (3) the reaction to (European) colonisation

10. Postcolonial ways of engaging with the Text Critique and subvert canonical texts (promote oppositional readings) Promote regional literatures in translation (revise the curriculum) Critique internal colonisation Promote englishes rather than English Promote mini/little narratives (internal colonisation)

11. Post colonial Literature: Categories

12. Major themes of Native Literatures • Themes of suppression and slavery. • Dispossession • Search for Roots • Cultural Fragmentation • Colonial and Neo-colonial domination • Post colonial corruption • Crisis of identity

13. Major Themes of Settler Literatures • Exile • Alienation • Survival • Defining “Home” • Physical and emotional confrontation with “New” land.

14. Language NATIVE WRITERS’ USE OF ENGLISH • English is an imported language. (bilingual creativity) • Appropriating English to fit their culture. (Adopt, Adapt, Adept, ) SETTLER WRITERS’ USE OF ENGLISH • English is a native language. • Appropriate English to fit an alien atmosphere.

15. Writing material NATIVE WRITING MATERIAL • Already available to the natives in the form of, myths, epics, legends and oral tales (folklore) SETTLER WRITING MATERIAL • Settler had to recreate or invent his own material

16. NEW LITERATURES IN ENGLISH UNIT-I : POETRY • 1. Australia - Judith Wright : At Cooloola • 2. New Zealand - James Baxter : The Ikons • 3. Allen Curnow :House and Land UNIT-II : POETRY • 1. Canada - Al Purdy : Lament for the Dorsets(Eskimos Extinct in the 14th Century AD) • 2. Africa - Kofi Awoonor : Song of War , The Weaver Bird • 3. WI - Ace Nichols, Grace Nichols : Of course, when they ask for poems UNIT-III : PROSE • 1. Africa - Achebe : Colonialist Criticism • 2. West Indies - V.S. Naipaul-India : A Wounded Civilization UNIT-IV : DRAMA Australia - Louis Nowra : Radiance J.P.Clarke : Song of a goat UNIT-V : FICTION Africa-Koetzee : Disgrace Canada-Maragaret Laurence : The Stone Angel Australia-Peter Carey : Oscar and Lucinda

17. COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE UNIT-I : POETRY Australia - A.D. Hope : Australia New Zealand - Jessie Mackay : The Noosing of the sun-god Africa - Abioseh Nicol : The Continent that lies within us UNIT-II : POETRY Africa - David Rubadiri : A Negro labourer in Liverpool Dereck Walcott : Ruins of a Great House Canada - F.R. Scott : The Canadian Author’s Meet UNIT-III : PROSE Sri Lanka - Ananda : The Dance of Shiva Coomaraswami UNIT-IV : DRAMA Nigeria - Wole Soyinka : The Lion and the Jewel UNIT-V : FICTION Canada - Margaret Atwood : Surfacing Australia - Patrick White : Voss

18. Projects/assignments 1.Ethnic differences are complicated and compounded by those of gender, class and age in a couple of the following post/colonial texts: Achebe 2. Practising postcolonial approaches in a multicultural context help frame a response to any text 3. Rewriting Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe to explore alternative subject positions and perspectives. Consider changes of genre, medium and period, too, if you wish. Add a commentary on the problems and possibilities encountered 4.Post-colonialism [is] an always present tendency in any literature of subjugation marked by a systematic process of cultural domination through the imposition of imperial structures of power.

19. Reference - Books Ahmad, Aijaz. In Theory. London: Verso, 1992. Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary & Cultural Theory. Manchester and New York: Manchester Univ., Press, 1995. Loomba, Ania. Colonialism / Post-Colonialism. London and New York: Routledge, 1998. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory in Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989. Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Jenkins, Keith. Re-Thinking History. London: Routledge, 1991. Hamilton, Paul. Historicism. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage, 1994. Ed. Padmini Mongia. Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997.  During, Simon. Ed. The Cultural Studies Reader. 2nd ed. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

20. Articles • Achebe, “Colonialist Criticism.” Hopes and Impediments – Selected Essays 1965-1987. London: Heinemann, 1988. • Bhabha, “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” October. No. 28. Spring (1983). Ed. Philip Rice and Patricia Waugh. Modern Literary Theory: A Reader. 3rd edn. London: Arnold, 1996. • Bhabha, “Signs Taken from Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree Outside Delhi, May 1817.” Critical Inquiry 12 (Autumn 1985) •  Spivak, Gayatri Chakravarthy. “How to read a ‘culturally different’ book.” Colonial discourse / Postcolonial theory. Eds. Francis Barker et al. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1994.

21. By Dr. C. Anita Assistant Professor Department of English Thiruvalluvar University Serkkadu, Vellore-632115 Contact Mail ID: lookanita@ymail.co Your Text Here