Postcolonial literature, is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonizat... more Postcolonial literature, is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial literature often involves writings that deal with issues of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule. It is also a literary critique to texts that carry racist or colonial undertones. Postcolonial literature, finally in its most recent form, also attempts to critique the contemporary postcolonial discourse that has been shaped over recent times. It attempts to assimilate this very emergence of postcolonialism and its literary expression itself. Postcolonial literary critics re-examine classical literature with a particular focus on the social "discourse" that shaped it.Edward Said in his popular work Orientalism analyzes the writings of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire and Lautréamont, exploring how they were influenced, and how they helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Postcolonial fiction writers might interact with the traditional colonial discourse by attempting to modify or subvert it. An example of this is Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which was written as a pseudo-prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Here, a familiar story is re-told from the perspective of an oppressed minor character. Protagonists in post-colonial writings are often found to be struggling with questions of identity, experiencing the conflict of living between the old, native world and the invasive forces of hegemony from new, dominant cultures.In Wide Sargasso Sea, the protagonist is shown to be re-named and exploited in several ways. The "anti-conquest narrative" recasts indigenous inhabitants of colonised countries as victims rather than foes of the colonisers. 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. Léopold Senghor conceived the idea of négritude, Homi K Bhabha, Hampaté Bâ, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) made a significant mark in African literature. Ayi Kwei Armah in Two Thousand Seasons tried to establish an African perspective to their own history. In Britain, J. G. Farrell's novels Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip, written during the 1970s, are important texts dealing with the collapse of the British Empire.
Postcolonial literature, is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonizat... more Postcolonial literature, is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization. Post-colonial literature often involves writings that deal with issues of de-colonization or the political and cultural independence of people formerly subjugated to colonial rule. It is also a literary critique to texts that carry racist or colonial undertones. Postcolonial literature, finally in its most recent form, also attempts to critique the contemporary postcolonial discourse that has been shaped over recent times. It attempts to assimilate this very emergence of postcolonialism and its literary expression itself. Postcolonial literary critics re-examine classical literature with a particular focus on the social "discourse" that shaped it.Edward Said in his popular work Orientalism analyzes the writings of Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire and Lautréamont, exploring how they were influenced, and how they helped to shape a societal fantasy of European racial superiority. Postcolonial fiction writers might interact with the traditional colonial discourse by attempting to modify or subvert it. An example of this is Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), which was written as a pseudo-prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Here, a familiar story is re-told from the perspective of an oppressed minor character. Protagonists in post-colonial writings are often found to be struggling with questions of identity, experiencing the conflict of living between the old, native world and the invasive forces of hegemony from new, dominant cultures.In Wide Sargasso Sea, the protagonist is shown to be re-named and exploited in several ways. The "anti-conquest narrative" recasts indigenous inhabitants of colonised countries as victims rather than foes of the colonisers. 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. Léopold Senghor conceived the idea of négritude, Homi K Bhabha, Hampaté Bâ, Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) made a significant mark in African literature. Ayi Kwei Armah in Two Thousand Seasons tried to establish an African perspective to their own history. In Britain, J. G. Farrell's novels Troubles, The Siege of Krishnapur and The Singapore Grip, written during the 1970s, are important texts dealing with the collapse of the British Empire.
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