PC 16 Literature of the Empire Handout 3 Empire Writes Back Wider Comparative Models:Nomenclature How to refer to world-wide range of English

h writing? o Joseph Jones terranglia- 1959 o Commonwealth Literature- 1960s a widely used term despite its geographical and political limitations. a descriptive term for a collection of national literatures united by a past or present membership of the British Commonwealth [22] o Third World Literatures- pejorative term. o Colonial literature- unacceptable to territories that have gained independence. o New Literatures in English De-emphasizes the colonial past Privileges a European perspective. No o theoretical direction or comparative framework. Compares the new with the old literatures of English. o Post-colonial Literatures Most acceptable, Positive- refers to the past and directs to the future it points towards a possible study of the effects of colonialism in and between writing in English and writing in indigenous languages in such contexts as India and Africa, as well as writing in other language diasporas (French, Spanish, Portuguese) [23] Comparative Models of Post-colonial Literatures:1. Disjunction between place and language o D E S Maxwells Model o Questions the appropriateness of an imported language to describe the experience pf place in post-colonial societies o For instance Indian writers using English (an alien language) to speak about native experience o Based on two groups: settler and invaded colonies. Settler 1. USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia 2. European occupation and consequent dispossession of indigenous population. 3. Estd a transplanted civilization 4. Political independence 5. Lack of ancestral contact created a sense of displacement overcome by clinging to English (imported) 6. Writer brings his own language to an alien environment. o o Invaded 1. India, Nigeria, Kenya 2. Indigenous people colonized in their own territories. 3. Writers were not forced to adapt to different landscape & culture 4. Native worldview inherent in the native language was marginalized by the acquisition of English 5. Writer brings an alien language to his native environment.

This aspect separated the post-colonial writers from the native English writers This creates what Maxwell refers to as double vision, in which identity is constituted by difference; where the colonized can never escape the hegemony of the colonizer.

 Limitations o Does not account for exceptions like West-Indies (where colonial process was much more disruptive, violent and divisive) or South Africa ( where though you can see concerns of both Settlers[white SA] and Invaded [black SA]* merging, is still wrought with immediate issue of apartheid under white regime) *Common themes: - Settler colonies- exile, the problem of finding and defining home, physical and emotional confrontations with the new land and its ancient & estd meanings - Invaded colonies- dispossession, cultural fragmentation, colonial and neo-colonial domination, post-colonial corruption, identity crisis. o Simplistic and essentialist- promotes the idea a language is inappropriate for use in another place which undercuts the very existence of post-colonial literatures

2. Thematic Parallels: o Theme of celebration of the struggle towards independence in community and individual Raja Ros Kanthapura (India), Nguigis A Grain of Wheat (Kenya), Victor Stafford Reids New Day (Jamaican) Theme of domination of foreign culture in contemporary post-colonial society. Chinua Achebes No Longer at Ease (Nigeria), George Lammings In the Castle of My Skin (Barbados), poems of Honi Tuwhare (New Zealand) Construction/ Demolition of building in post-colonial locations, an metonymic figure for the problematic of post-colonial identity V S Naipauls A House for Mr Biswas (Trinidad), Sinclair Rosss As For Me and My House (Canada), Peter Careys Bliss (Australia), Janet Frames Living in Manototo (New Zealand) Theme of journey of European interloper through unfamiliar landscape with a native guide Wilson Harriss Palace of the Peacock (Guyana), Patrick Whites Voss (Australia), Camara Layes The Radiance of the King (guinea) Use of irony, allegory, magic realism and discontinuous narratives. Recurring structural patterns like exile

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These shared themes and structural patterns are suggestive of shared historical and psychic experience across differences distinguishing one post-colonial society from another. 3. Colonizer and the colonized:o o Derived from the works of Fanon and Albert Memmi Based on the imperial-colonial dialectic- the act of writing texts ...in post-colonial areas is subject to political, imaginative, and social control involved in the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. [28]

What does decolonization imply? Pre-colonial cultural recuperation vs. Post-colonial syncreticity There has been two sides to this debate, esp in the invaded colonies

Recuperation of pre-colonial languages and cultures. They see colonization as a passing historical feature left behind after gaining full independence, politically and culturally. (Nguigi) Articulated in concepts like Negritude and Nativism- Politically attractive-act of self-assertionconfuse decolonization with reconstitution of pre-colonial reality

Those who regard cultural syncreticity as an inevitable feature of post-colonial society. They see this as a source of strength. In African context, the debate between Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka and the so-called troika of Chinweizu, Jemie and Madubuike In the Caribbean context, the debate between Edward Brathwaite on the one hand and Derek Walcott & Wilson Harris on the other.

In settler colonies, language is less of a problem. There drive is towards establishing national culture. 4. Dominated and dominating:o o o Conceived by Max Dorsinville- emphasizes the relationship between dominated and dominating societies Not specifically concerned with post-colonial societies For instance, the relative change in international importance i.e. in its moving from dominated to dominating position, can explain the changes in theme, emphasis and design of the literature of the USA. This shift in position gave it affinity to European powers and credence to produce canonical texts. This model can also account for the production of literary and cultural minorities within one country or area. For example, in the case of Australia, White Australian literature is superior to aboriginal literatures. Yet white Australian literature is in turn dominated by its relation with England. Similarly Irish, Welsh, Scottish literature- dominated yet in turn dominated. One of characteristic features of the dominated literatures is they have inherent tendency towards subversion. Nationalist assertion Questions the basis of European and British metaphysics Challenges the world view that polarises the centre and the periphery Challenges concepts of polarity- the governor & governed, ruler & ruled as essentialist way of ordering reality. J M Coetzee, V S Naipaul, Jean Rhys, George Lamming, Patrick White, Chinua Achebe, Patrick White have all rewritten particular works from the English canon with a view to restructuring European realities, not simply by reversing the hierarchical order, but by interrogating the philosophical assumptions on which that order was based. [32]

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