Postcolonial Literature

In a broad sense, postcolonial literature is writing which has been “affected by the imperial process
from the moment of colonization to the present day” (Ashcroft et al, 2). In India’s case, this includes novels,
poetry, and drama which were written both during and after the British Raj or “Reign,” which came to a formal
conclusion with Indian Independence in August 1947. Although writing from India and other formerly colonized
countries such as Nigeria, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Singapore have distinctive features, postcolonial literature
shares some significant concerns and characteristics.

Concerns

➢ Reclaiming spaces and places

Colonialism was, above all, a means of claiming and exploiting foreign lands, resources, and people.
Enslavement, indentured labour, and migration forced many indigenous populations to move from the places
that they considered “home”. Postcolonial literature attempts to counteract their resulting alienation from their
surroundings by restoring a connection between indigenous people and places through description, narration,
and dramatization.

➢ Asserting cultural integrity

During colonization, the indigenous cultures of those countries subjected to foreign rule were often side-
lined, suppressed, and openly denigrated in favour of elevating the social and cultural preferences and
conventions of the colonizers. In response, much postcolonial literature seeks to assert the richness and validity
of indigenous cultures in an effort to restore pride in practices and traditions that were systematically degraded
under colonialism.

➢ Revising history

Colonizers often depicted their colonial subjects as existing “outside of history” in unchanging, timeless
societies, unable to progress or develop without their intervention and assistance. In this way, they justified
their actions, including violence against those who resisted colonial rule. Revising history to tell things from the
perspective of those colonized is thus a major preoccupation of postcolonial writing.

Characteristics

➢ Resistant descriptions

Postcolonial writers use detailed descriptions of indigenous people, places, and practices to counteract or
“resist” the stereotypes, inaccuracies, and generalizations which the colonizers circulated in educational, legal,
political, and social texts and settings.

➢ Appropriation of the colonizers’ language

Although many colonized countries are home to multiple indigenous languages—in India, for example, more
than 12 languages exist alongside English—many postcolonial writers choose to write in the colonizers’
“tongue”. However, authors such as Arundhati Roy deliberately play with English, remoulding it to reflect the
rhythms and syntax of indigenous languages, and inventing new words and styles to demonstrate mastery of a
language that was, in a sense, forced upon them.

➢ Reworking colonial art-forms

Similarly, authors such as Arundhati Roy rework European art-forms like the novel to reflect indigenous
modes of invention and creation. They reshape imported colonial art-forms to incorporate the style, structure,
and themes of indigenous modes of creative expression, such as oral poetry and dramatic performances.

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 DIMENSIONS OF POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE
Writers as diverse as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka from Nigeria, Salman Rushdie and Arundhati
Roy from India, Derek Walcott from the Caribbean, Seamus Heaney from Ireland, Margaret Atwood and Michael
Ondaatje from Canada, Peter Carey and Patrick White from Australia, and J. M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer
from South Africa have been prominent when major literary awards such as the Booker Prize or the Nobel Prize
have been announced, and their works now appear on numerous school and university syllabuses.
➢ Postcolonial Poetry:
Postcolonial poetry told the colonialism and changes undertook by colonialism for example, Shiv. K. Kumar,
Sarojini Naidu and Kamala Das’s Poems
➢ Postcolonial Prose:
Postcolonial prose is excellent in the thought sharing and the fine writing for example, Anita Desai, Jhumpa
Lahiri’s Works
➢ Postcolonial Drama:
Acts that respond to the experience of imperialism, whether directly or indirectly; Acts performed for the
continuation and/or regeneration of the colonized (and sometimes pre-contact) communities; Acts performed
with the awareness of, and sometimes the incorporation of, post-contact forms; and Acts that interrogates the
Hegemony (Domination), underlies imperial representation.
There are three Critical Models in Postcolonial Literature. They are,
• National/Regional Model- American and British literature/West Indian and Caribbean literature (inner
regions of nation)
• Comparative Model- It is normal core of British literature (Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)
• Race based Models- The model gives priority to colour of people, their country and their community.
(Black Writings, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam)

Postcolonial language: Language as a medium for power—there are three main types of linguistic groups,

➢ Mono-glossic: ‘single-language societies using English as a native tongue’

➢ Di-glossic: bilingualism—’English as the language of government and commerce’ (India, Africa, the
South Pacific)
➢ Poly-glossic or Poly-dialectical: ‘a multitude of dialects interweave to form a generally
comprehensible linguistic continuum’ and linguistic ‘intersections'(Caribbean)
Literature concerned with the political and cultural independence of people. New independent countries
had to deal, not only with many economic and social issues, such as poverty and lack of education, but also with
the aftermath of colonialism. Centuries of maltreatment, complete disrespect and negation of the natives’
values and culture alienated
The post-colonial authors’ challenge was to find and re-establish their lost national identity, history and
literature, and to define their relationship with the land and language.
Main characteristics of Postcolonial Literature:
➢ Interacting with the traditional colonial discourse
➢ Critical look at imperialism and its legacy
➢ Reclaiming the past,
➢ Searching for cultural and personal identity
➢ Self-reflection
➢ Style often ironic
➢ Approach eclectic(free), political and egalitarian (equal)
The literature written in the colonial period is called Colonial Literature, and when the countries got the
independence it is called Post-Colonial Literature. Post-Colonial Literature reflects a way of life and talks about
customs, attitudes, religion, and legends. So, it inscribes a culture in a frame. That is, an affirmation of their
identity. It is called Local Colour; it is mostly a realistic literature that gives an account of the real country.
Imperialism is the very root of Colonialism. The assumption of Imperialism, in the case of England, is mainly
based in their Industrial Revolution;” We are progress”, they said. They convinced themselves that they had the
right and duty to teach others, expanding their industrial revolution. They meant to civilize the world, they gave
civilization to other countries. Imperialism is “the notion of the authority assumed by a state over another
territory”.
During 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain went to different countries and they settled and invaded there.
Settled in: Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa Invaded in: India, Caribbean and African territories

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Concerns of Postcolonial Literature
➢ Reclaiming spaces and places
➢ Asserting cultural integrity
➢ Revising history
Characteristics of Postcolonial Literature
➢ Resistant descriptions
Postcolonial writers use detailed descriptions of indigenous people, places, and practices to counteract or
“resist” the stereotypes, inaccuracies, and generalizations which the colonizers circulated in educational, legal,
political, and social texts and settings.
➢ Appropriation of the colonizers’ language
Although many colonized countries are home to multiple indigenous languages—in India, for example, more
than 12 languages exist alongside English—many postcolonial writers choose to write in the colonizers’
“tongue”. However, authors such as Arundhati Roy deliberately play with English, remoulding it to reflect the
rhythms and syntax of indigenous languages, and inventing new words and styles to demonstrate mastery of a
language that was, in a sense, forced upon them.
➢ Reworking colonial art-forms
Similarly, authors such as Arundhati Roy rework European art-forms like the novel to reflect indigenous
modes of invention and creation. They reshape imported colonial art-forms to incorporate the style, structure,
and themes of indigenous modes of creative expression, such as oral poetry and dramatic performances.

Women Writers

• Bharati Mukherjee Indian The Tiger’s Daughter, The Holder of the World
• Arundhati Roy Indian The God of Small Things, Mary Roy
• Margaret Atwood Canadian Surfacing, the Blind Assassin
• Anita Desai Indian Clear Light of Day, Voices in the City
• Kiran Desai Indian The Inheritance of Loss
• Jhumpa Lahiri Indian The Lowland the Namesake

Writers

• Raja Rao Indian Struggled for the eradication of unwanted beliefs

• Mulkraj Anand Indian Coolie, Untouchable
• K. Narayan Indian The English Teacher, The Guide, Malgudi Days
• K. Ramanujan Indian Is there an Indian way of thinking?
• Salman Rushdie Indian The Satanic Verses, Midnight’s Children
• Wole Soyinka Nigerian Death and the king’s Horseman, The Interpreters
• Chinua Achebe Nigeria n Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God
• James Joyce Irish Ulysses, Dubliners, Portrait of an Artist as a Young man
• Rudyard Kipling British Jungle Book, Kim
• M. Coetzee South African Diary of a Bad Year, Dusk Lands
• Wilbur Smith South African the triumph of the Sun
➢ The colonization made a great impact on society. Postcolonial writing is an international genre.
➢ All the Postcolonial pieces combined and called as the Common Wealth Literature.
➢ Postcolonial Literature has had a major, significant and enormous effect on the Literature.

POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE CHARACTERISTICS

• Appropriation of Colonial Languages

Postcolonial writers have this thing they like to do. They take the language of their colonizer (English or
French, for example) and turn it on its head. A writer from the Caribbean, for example,
• Metanarrative
Colonizers liked to tell a certain story. In this story, Europeans were created to rule over other, lesser people,
from the Irish to the Igbo. Europeans were the designated masters, the rulers of t...
• Colonialism
For many cultures around the world, colonialism was a massively traumatic thing. Imagine: all of sudden
this stranger shows up in your town or your village, takes all your stuff, forces you to Lear...

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• Colonial Discourse
Discourse is a collection of narratives, statements, and opinions dealing with a certain topic. Discourse can
be about anything. There's even Justin Bieber discourse, if you think about all those m..
• Rewriting History
European colonizers often thought that the people that they colonized didn't have a history before the
Europeans "enlightened" them. The colonizers thought that the colonized peoples had no culture...
• Decolonization Struggles
Freedom fighters in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean fought colonialism. People like Mahatma
Gandhi in India, Patrice Lumumba in Zaire (now Congo), Amilcar Cabral in Cape Verde and Gu...
• Nationhood and Nationalism
Postcolonial writers are really interested in nationhood and nationalism. A lot of these writers are very
patriotic. They write books on behalf of their nations. Their work is often nationalist, be..
• Valorisation of Cultural Identity
You know how a big justification for colonialism was, basically, that the cultures of colonized peoples were
inferior to those of Europeans? Well, postcolonial writers challenge this idea, and they...
• Counter-Discourse
If there's one characteristic that we could use to lump together all of these different literatures emerging
from all over the world, it's that they form part of a counter-discourse to colonialism...
• Challenging Stereotypes
In order to justify colonialism, colonizers had to make themselves believe that the people they were
colonizing were somehow lesser than they were. Otherwise, how could they go off and enslave and...

APPROPRIATION

A term used to describe the ways in which post-colonial societies take over those aspects of the imperial
culture language, forms of writing, film, theatre, even modes of thought and argument such as rationalism, logic
and analysis that may be of use to them in articulating their own social and cultural identities. This process is
sometimes used to describe the strategy by which the dominant imperial power incorporates as its own the
territory or culture that it surveys and invades (Spur 1993: 28). However, post-colonial theory focuses instead
on an exploration of the ways in which the dominated or colonized culture can use the tools of the dominant
discourse to resist its political or cultural control.

Appropriation may describe acts of usurpation in various cultural domains, but the most potent are the
domains of language and textuality. In these areas, the dominant language and its discursive forms are
appropriated to express widely differing cultural experiences, and to interpolate these experiences into the
dominant modes of representation to reach the widest possible audience. Chinua Achebe (quoting James
Baldwin), noted that the language so used can ‘bear the burden of another experience’, and this has become
one of the most famous declarations of the power of appropriation in post-colonial discourse. However, the very
use of the colonial language has been opposed by writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Ngugi 1981a), who, after
a successful career as a writer in English, has renounced the language of the former colonizer to write his novel
and plays in Gikuyu. Nevertheless, Ngugi continues to appropriate the novel form itself, and it has been argued
that the very success of his political tactic of renouncing English has relied on his reputation as a writer in that
tongue.

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