Contents introduction chapter postcolonial period in American literature

American postcolonial writing style and themes

The discussion of postcolonial literature must first acknowledge the scope and complexity of the term “postcolonial”. Temporarily, the term refers to any national literature written after the people gained independence from colonial rule. By this definition, all literature written in the United States after 1776 can be considered a post-colonial period. However, because the United States has been an economic and political world power since the nineteenth century, today it is viewed not as a former British colony but as a more historical colonial power. In this area of literary criticism, "post-colonial" refers to the peoples who gained independence from the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the 1960s.
Geographically, the global term “post-colonial” refers to the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, the South Pacific Islands, and Malaysia. This applies equally to India, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Philippines. The United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and the United States are the colonial powers to which these countries have been subject and have continued to struggle since independence.¹
Postcolonial research is not limited to geography or time. They cover a wide range of issues: the activities of various empires during the colonial period and the various administrative systems inherited from the former colonies; the specific conditions under which independence is achieved in each individual case ; cultural, economic, and linguistic imperialism that continued even after independence; and local issues of education, government, citizenship, and identity. Post-colonial literature seeks to resist imperial forces as it seeks to establish an autonomous national identity. In this regard, the post-colonial literature examines the issues of cultural alienation and struggles to express the specificity and uniqueness of local cultures in the languages of former colonialists, rather than the original local languages. Kenyan writer Ngugi wa In 1981, after Chiongo co-wrote and directed two Kikuyu plays critical of the post-colonial Kenyan government and was imprisoned and exiled for directing, he decided to switch from English to Kikuyu for his recordings. Similarly, Irishman Samuel Beckett chose to live in France and write in French because the place and language did not carry the burden of Ireland’s struggle for independence from Britain. Thus, for many post-colonial writers, writing in the language of a colonial state is an attempt to accept and unconditionally accept this power, even if it is not physically present.
However, the language issue is complex. While writing in a colonial language implies some kind of partnership with their power and cultural dominance, issues of distribution and conflict need to be addressed . Could the circulation and readership of Ngugi ’s writers be as wide as Kikuyu’s in English? Is it possible to hear the voice of post-colonial resistance against the domination and hegemony of the empire in the language of the Caribbean? Expressing the post-colonial struggles and establishing national identity in the languages of the colonial powers - English, French or Spanish - is the formation of a contradictory speech that can be heard at the center of the empire.
In a foreign language, expressing oneself in a language that does not belong to one’s homeland, but in a language that is forcibly assimilated into it, is a source of tension and only creates a sense of alienation and uncertainty about the legitimacy of the mother tongue. confusion about the person. To what extent is an Indian citizen a true Indian, educated in English, writes in English and even speaks to Indians in the language of the British Empire? Although India has a national identity, history, literature and cultural practices, how can they remain pure Indians after two hundred years of British rule? As post-colonial Indian literature finds expression not in one of the hundreds of Indian languages, but in English, it seeks to identify and establish an identity that can no longer be pure. It must be acknowledged that post -independence, post- colonial identity is a mixture of hybrid, colonial and national identity, which is transmitted through education, government, religion and social practices.
The dynamics and theory of the rise of many identities, the intermingling of cultures, and the interdependence between colonialists and colonialists and local political interests create a relationship between postcolonial fiction and postcolonial theory. The interrelated development of postcolonial fiction and theory constitutes postcolonialism.
Connection with poststructuralism and postmodernism is not accidental: these schools of literary and cultural criticism serve to affirm the boundaries of artistic production by deconstructing the centers of truth. These forms of criticism emphasize that truth, meaning, and originality are never axioms; they are in a state of constant production, depending entirely on the context in which they arise. Postcolonial theorists argue that colonial identity is created by dominant, colonial forces. For example, Edward W. Said's Oriental Studies (1978) states that the Orient is a collection of images and assumptions made by the Western literary canon and directed at colonized peoples. Along with Said Gayatri Chakravorti Spivak and Khomi K. Bhabha argue that these fictitious, predicted images of the Eastern “other” provide the basis and support for an enlightened European theme. Indian Subaltern Studies Group led by Ranajit Guha and Spivak re-read the history of the British occupation to create versions of cultural identity free from imperial structures. Just as the East was shaped by writing to the Other , the post-colonial theme also seeks expression through literature. With the writing of each postcolonial novel, a new version of postcolonial subjectivity is told and a new theory of cultural difference, political and intellectual autonomy is formed. In the post-colonial period, fiction and theory work together to define, shape and expand each other’s boundaries.¹
Exile and alienation are among the main themes developed in post-colonial fiction; rebellion, struggle and resistance to colonial powers; confusing or confusing identities, establishing cultural autonomy free from multiculturalism and imperial power.
In post-colonial fiction, exile and alienation are expressed both physically and figuratively. Driving occurs when the protagonist or other protagonist is usually sent to the colonial lands to educate or find work for the local population under colonial rule. By becoming a marginal member of society in a colonial nation, the subject acquires certain characteristics and values of an oppressive culture. After that, it is almost impossible for the post-colonial subject to return to his homeland due to the psychological changes he experienced in their absence. Physical expulsion also occurs for political reasons: the subject either opposes the government and is expelled or decides to leave the country because colonial and post-colonial rules have led to changes in the home environment that make it uninhabitable. will come.
Figuratively, the subject of exile is represented as alienation and self-search. The colonial conditions in the homeland made the local culture, language and education inferior to the colonial culture and system of government. This cultural repression and recognition of the emperor triggers a crisis of identity in the post-colonial protagonist and encourages him to seek his legitimate and positive image. To begin self-discovery, one must first isolate, break, or question the protagonist, leading to social alienation . Alienation is like exile because the subject is no longer physically or psychologically “at home”. Physical alienation means that if a resident of a prestigious country is considered a criminal or a subversive under colonial law , he or she is imprisoned or deprived of the subject’s social benefits. Often in the post-colonial literature, alienation is presented as a psychological condition : it is a state of innocence, the absence of a real home. Post-colonial subjects are alienated by Eurocentric, imperial systems that never fully accept them culturally and racially; at the same time, they were alienated from the local cultures that adopted or rejected the colonial system because they spoke the language of the colonialists or became empires.
One of the most in-depth studies of cultural exile and self-discovery was presented by James Joyce (1922) in Ulysses. Although its protagonists Stephen Daedalus , Leopold Bloom and Molly Bloom never leave Dublin, the novel draws a modern parallel with Homer’s Odyssey, the epic story of the man’s departure from home. exile to foreign lands and search for a way to return home (search for oneself in a metaphorical sense). At first glance, Joyce’s novel does not seem to be related to Ireland’s struggle to free itself from centuries of British rule. The novel takes place on the same day; The plot is that Bloom and Stephen go about their business, and Blum returns home. However, the novel works on many levels - literally, metaphorically and legendally - one of which stems from many references to Ireland’s British occupation and Ireland’s struggle for political autonomy. After Bloom’s journey around Dublin, the novel describes his departure from home and eventually his return home as a study of Irish subjectivity. When multiple layers of meaning are revealed, the reader discovers that Blum is neither a pure Irish nor a pure product of British colonialism. The novel mentions Bloom’s Jewish heritage; his wife, Molly, grew up in Gibraltar, the geographical gateway to British imperial expansion; Bloom’s English, on the other hand, is a multicultural mix of Irish, Italian, and Greek words. This modern odyssey, devoted to the problems of colonialism, shows that the search for self leads to the discovery of a culture that is not culturally pure. The novel also shows that as soon as a person leaves home, all ideas of a pure, holistic "I" disappear.
The usual novel about exile and alienation is George Lamming’s novel “In My Tower” (1953). This autobiographical bildungsroman presents the writer’s childhood in Barbados from his point of view at the age of twenty-three, who lived in London. Looking back, it is governed by the alienation experienced in the colonial capital. The childhood in which he returns and shapes the story chronologically coincides with the last stages of colonialism in the Caribbean and is set against a backdrop of growing nationalism. The author’s childhood development is reminiscent of the loss of cultural innocence as the catastrophic floods, general strikes and riots on the island mark his ninth year, and the village lands are sold to business shortly before he takes his first job in neighboring Trinidad. When the hero leaves Barbados , his village is destroyed, a gap between the loss of childhood innocence and the destruction of cultural identity, exile and alienation, and the destruction of native lands due to colonialism. Only in terms of physical and spiritual alienation can the narrator look back and realize the destruction of his homeland. Only in this state of exile can he tell his story; the only house he can return to is the house, the fiction , the house that makes up his story. As the title suggests, in exile imposed on him by colonialism, the narrator is left with only his body, which has become his home.
The subject of alienation and exclusion of people not only from the dominant culture but also from their own country, language, and cultural practices expanded the boundaries of post-colonial literature and embraced feminist concerns about the oppression of women by men. Anita Desay’s novel “Fire in the Mountains” (1977) speaks of the cultural and social exclusion of women in India with an unusual twist on the subject of exile. The protagonist of the novel, Nanda Kaul , retired at the top of a mountain in Punjab, fulfilling her role of wife and mother. This retirement exile in old age means a changing exile awaiting Nandan. In the novel, she was originally portrayed as an image of the perfection of an Indian woman: sculptural, gentle, direct and elegant. Nanda paints her life as a young woman in the colors of happiness: her childhood, what her parents proposed to her as a child, and her marriage in a society that usually ignores girls. Towards the end of the story, he reveals an unfortunate truth from the past: his father was usually away as a child and never brought home good gifts; her husband never loved or respected her and did not keep her mistress during his marriage to Nanda; and he never enjoyed intimacy with his children, who were responsible for putting him on top of the mountain to get rid of him. In order not to make Nanda’s story seem tragic or unusual to women in India, the novel presents the life story of the little hero, Ila Das, who is truly tragic and unhappy . Ila is Nanda’s childhood friend; he is rude, obscene and quite stupid. Elijah was also unlucky: his father died when he was young, his mother was disabled, and his brothers squandered the family's wealth. Nanda and her husband find a job that Ilaga can’t support on her own and often saves her from poverty.¹