As Hobson puts it: Colonialism, where it consists in the migration of part of a nation to vacant or sparsely peopled foreign lands, the emigrants carrying with them full rights of citizenship in the mother country . . . may be considered a genuine expansion of nationality. Hobson was explaining the economic emergence of late nineteenth century imperialism, but the link between nation and expansion is much older – the emergence of the nation-state and the imperial capitalist economies of post-Renaissance Europe being arguably inseparable. It is also arguable that without the provision of a greatly expanded source of supply for the dominant European standards of exchange (gold and silver) in the New World, the rapid development of long-distance trading ventures in the Renaissance period would not have occurred. Finally, this trade generated further demands for manufacture, and the raw materials for this expansion were supplied by the new economies of the colonized world, in the forms of plantations and mines which fuelled the industrialization of Europe. This complex story which is here, of course, grossly simplified, became the basis for a narrative that acted to consolidate the interests of the new trading classes and which demanded new social formations that either integrated older forms (municipal kingdoms, city-states or city leagues) or developed new ones (oligarchic and radical republics) to represent the interests of the new trading classes whose wealth, derived from the distance trade with the colonies, replaced and challenged the power of the old feudal aristocracies. These new ‘national’ entities demanded a new national narrative, the ‘Story of the Nation’, which became disseminated through ‘imagined communities’ of speakers and listeners (or writers and readers) French Enlightenment thought heralded a shift in the theory of the ‘nation’, a shift that sought to relocate the legitimacy of the modern nation-state in a theory of the ‘people’ based on the idea of a universal set of principles (the ‘Rights of Man’) rather than on mythic and historical origins. In its strict form, the impulse to create such a Universal vision is transnational and its revolutionary tendency to cross borders can be seen in the effects of Enlightenment thinking on many nations in Europe and in the Americas in the eighteenth century. Despite the conservative reaction that set in throughout Europe after Napoleon’s defeat, and the various attempts to resurrect the traditional monarchies, the states that emerged were in various ways based upon a modern concept of ‘state-power ‘rather than on the traditional ideas of inherited authority such as divine kingship. Even authoritarian regimes such as modern Prussia connected the idea of a dominant, traditional figure of authority (‘king’ or ‘emperor’) to a modern and highly efficient state bureaucracy and to the empowerment, through this bureaucracy, of the interests of the state conceived as an abstraction rather than as a personal fiefdom. Conversely, in the France of the Second and Third Republics the idea of a popular will was increasingly tied, not to a declaration of the struggle for universal human rights, but to a national vision of power and world expansion. Although, as Renan had noted, nations emerged only after the classical and mediaeval idea of 151 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
an imperium (empire) had broken down, it was, ironically, the newly emergent nations of the post-Renaissance world that initiated the new, colonizing form of nineteenth-century imperialism. Imperialism now became an extension into the wider world of the ideology of a ‘national ‘formation based on the unifying signifiers of language and race. Significantly, the rump of the last of the mediaeval imperialisms, that of the Austro-Hungarian fragment of the erstwhile Holy Roman Empire, proceeded in the opposite direction, as it was increasingly assaulted from within by the demands of those who wished to develop political entities based upon racially and linguistically defined nationalities. On the other hand, the imperialisms of the second half of the nineteenth century were expressions of the need to generate unifying cohesive myths within the complex and heterogenous realities of the late nineteenth-century nation-states (such as England, France, Germany, Russia, etc.) to prevent the re-emergence of older divisions based on earlier conceptions of the nation or to resist the emergence of new internal divisive forces based on theories of class. These were absolutely dependent on the expansionist vision which saw the home ‘nation’ as the centre of a larger formation and which defined itself specifically in opposition to the difference which that ‘other’ represented. In this sense, as Timothy Brennan has expressed it: Even though [nationalism] as an ideology . . . came out of the imperialist countries, these countries were not able to formulate their own national aspirations until the age of exploration. The markets made possible by European imperial penetration motivated the construction of the nation-state at home. European nationalism was motivated by what Europe was doing in its far-flung dominions. The ‘national idea’, in other words, flourished in the soil of foreign conquest. During the late imperial period, the dominance of the idea of the nation was such that it was largely in terms of a resistant nationalism that the anti-colonial movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries came into being, even though it was that force of nationalism that had fuelled the growth of colonialism in the first place. Anticolonial movements employed the idea of a pre-colonial past to rally their opposition through a sense of difference, but they employed this past not to reconstruct the pre-colonial social state but to generate support for the construction of post-colonial nation-states based upon the European nationalist model. Just as the modern European nation-states had come into being in the wake of the breakup of the old imperial forms of the classical and mediaeval world, so the colonial empires these modern nations had constructed were now subject to a similar internal resistance and a demand for separation based on the construction of national entities and nationalist cultural constructions. This is not just an ironic fact it also suggests that the bases of the post-colonial state were themselves far less radical than their early exponents believed, and the degree to which they incorporated models and institutions based on the European concept of a nation created the continuing linkages that allowed the neo-colonialist control of these states to operate so effectively. Perhaps the issue is not whether we have nations but what kinds of 152 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
nations we have, whether, that is, they insist on an exclusionary myth of national unity based in some abstraction such as race, religion or ethnic exclusivity, or they embrace plurality and multiculturalism. The notion of a nation has always been a complex one. In Benedict Anderson’s words, there are ‘imagined communities’. One cannot define nation by their borders alone, nor can one call it a unified whole when it comes to cultures and traditions. When we refer to a nation, we are in fact referring to a complex, multi-layered concept: nation is not only a term implying a physical place with borders and common government, but also refers to the structural ideology that inhabits those borders. Nations began taking shape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are a unique and modern entity. While large empires have existed throughout the millennia, they have not been organized and ritualized to the same extent as the modern nation. 5.10 SUMMARY There is no denying that the diverse concepts that come under the umbrella of the post-colonial theory, have a direct/indirect connection with one another. These connections may relate to the economic, political, psychological, or social fields. Other postulates also form a part of the post-colonial theory. The discipline of post- colonial learning encompasses the convergence of debates relating to language, race, gender, colonialism, and politics. The vocabulary of post-colonial education involves the study of both, familiar and new terms. In fact, the familiar terms acquire a novel significance. The book Postcolonial Studies: Key Concepts has provided a comprehensive synopsis of the concerns that designate post-colonialism. The book provides defines post- colonialism, explains where it comes to the fore, and the vital role it plays in debates about politics, race, gender, language and identity. Theoretically, post-colonialism has its birth in 1978, via the publicising of Orientalism by Edward Said. Keeping Foucault’s discussion as a base, Said built up on it, while altering the plan of non-Western education in literature and culture. He redirected this agenda/plan towards what is currently termed as post-colonial theory. Said believes that the withdrawal of imperial/colonial authority does not take away the impact that imperialism has on beliefs. Therefore, imperialism gave a certain shape to the traditions of the colonised populations. Then again, the removal of military authoritarianism from colonies will not suffice to end the discussions between the imperial power and the colonised populations. Admittedly, colonisation 153 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
resulted in harmful outcomes, such as causing widespread disturbances to specific ways of living, thinking, and cultural practices. Edward Said can offer the finest translation of the entire scenario of superiority and its digressive operations. He provides a clear portrayal of colonial discussions and their implications. He uses his Culture and Imperialism, The Text, Orientalism, The Critic, and The World, for this purpose. Said has perused those types of Western literature, which are obviously associated with the Foucauldian discussion. It is because they comprise of assertions and proclamations that permit the establishment of knowledge about the Orient. Foucault believes that a discourse encompasses all actions linked to communication within a society, and at the same time, society has an influence upon discourse too. Foucault looks at discourse with a critical eye, hoping to produce a greatly accurate narrative of human conditions that exist in Western nations. Said’s thought processes have influenced several people, including Homi Bhabha. However, he explores the cultural relationship that existed between the colonised populations and the colonists, which is something that Said failed to address. This means that Bhabha opted for an alternative line of investigation. Earlier literatures on colonialism had denied such a relationship because they felt that there had been no ‘human’ interactions between them. Instead, the bond was that of a weaker population submitting to a greater power. The West retains its supremacy, while the colonised populations are tools of production. Regardless, there are families that consider Western traditions to be civilised in nature. They even adopt Western values. However, they are not happy with the notion of permitting their children to view Western culture with equal favour. According to Bhabha, the British are colonisers, while the Indians are the colonised. He feels that they are two extremes, and confrontations between them tend to have an impact on each of them. He reflects upon the coloniser’s identity, offering proof that it is comes into being via the interplay with the subdued populations. The identity of the coloniser has neither self-sufficiency nor a believable origin. This is so, despite the fact that this identity had acquired a shape earlier through Western discourse. This notion comes through very clearly as long as the coloniser is dependent upon the ‘other’. Although the coloniser’s discussion is an extremely efficacious weapon, Bhabha believes that it cannot be as anchored and safe as he thinks, since colonial supremacy is threatened by resistance. The resistance suggests that the colonised populations have recognised their priorities. Unlike Said, who places the Orient and the Occident in separate categories, and explores the Western interpretations of the East, Bhabha concentrates on the confrontation between them, and offers his contribution to the 154 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
post-colonial postulate. He does this by displaying his idea of hybridity, which points towards the dissolving of cultural forms, albeit in the strong presence of the dominating authority. Post-colonial education is an attractive package. It comprises of migrant literatures, along with diverse accompaniments. They include dual culture, the encompassment of various styles of writing, approaches to record proof, and historical occurrences that mingle with imaginary characters. Thanks to post-colonialism, migrant literary artists acquire great respect. Their residing in First World Countries encourage post-colonial critics to interview them. They also find it easier to access organisations that are ready to publish their books. Such attractions prompt migrant authors to make all kinds of Western techniques their own, even while they are dissimilar. Nevertheless, there are some migrant writers, who prefer to oppose authoritarian discussions, resist the presence of a literary canon, go in for rewriting a specific interpretation of history, or confront the ordinary perspective of politics. Some critics regard post-colonial writings as literatures that have been contributed by writers who were born in colonised nations. However, in the majority of cases, these nations finally manage to gain independence. As a result, these types of writings have the tendency to project the trials and tribulations encountered by the ex-colonised populations while confronting cultural disruptions, poverty, and financial vulnerability. The social constitution and educational systems of these nations appear to be inferior to those that their ex-rulers from Europe had initiated while in power. This issue prevails despite the countries having undergone decolonisation. Post- colonial literatures have undertaken a project to query European discussions, as well as discursive actions, from an advantageous platform stretching across both worlds. Therefore, the issue of minority, as well as being native to a particular country that has recently been under the influence of non-natives, proves to be major theme too. Post-colonial writings strive to highlight the vagueness of cultural and national identities that populations striving to rebuild a nation that had been under imperial rule earlier, face. 5.11 KEYWORDS Diaspora: The relocation of a community/culture into another geographical and cultural region. Race: It refers to the phenotypic aspects like skin colour. Ethnicity includes skin colour, alongside cultural aspects, such as traditions, religion, nationality, language, and tribal affiliations of a specific group. Orient: A term for the East, traditionally comprising anything that has an association with the Eastern world, in connection to Europe. 155 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Hegemony: The authority of one group over another, often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. In modern times, this term is frequently utilised as shorthand, in order to point out the relatively superior status of a specific group of ideas, and its accompanying habit to become intuitive and commonsensical. In turn, this leads to the inhibition, or maybe the vocalisation, of alternative notions. Politics: The activities that form a part of the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power. In Postcolonial language, it refers to the ideas dealing with representation, oppression and domination. 5.12 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. The major concepts connected with postcolonial learning can aid with understanding various ideas of ‘Othering’ the East. This can be exemplified in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s story The Speckled Band from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s ‘Vande Mataram’ can be re-read as a narrative that attempts in unifying a nation while leaving out fragments. ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5.13 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions 156 Short Questions 1. Define Diaspora. 2. Define Race. 3. Define ‘Other’. How does it connect to the ‘Self’? 4. How is language important in discourse? 5. Define hybridity. Long Questions 1. Analyse postcolonial learning as a multi-disciplinary subject. 2. Describe how the politics of gender, class, and race play an important role in determining the postcolonial identity. 3. Briefly elucidate on all the concepts explained in this unit. 4. How did postcolonial theory emerge with Said’ Orientalism? 5. Analyse the ideas of colonial discussions and post-colonial counter narrative. CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
B.Multiple Choice Questions 157 1. The Greek word ‘diaspora’ means a. To integrate b. To disperse c. To move in several directions at once. d. To have no identity 2. To the self/colonist, the colonised is the- a. Superior b. The Other c. Unknown d. Master 3. Point out the binary that does not belong to the post-colonial postulate. a. Coloniser- Male, Colonised- female b. Coloniser- Female, Colonised- male c. Coloniser- superior, Colonised- Inferior d. Colonizer- civilized, Colonised- barbaric 4. Who, amongst these theoreticians, does NOT specialise in subaltern studies? a. Partha Chatterjee b. Gayatri Spivak c. Ranajit Guha d. Anita Desai 5. Who coined the word ‘subaltern’? a. Gayatri Spivak b. Antonio Gramsci c. Edward Said d. Homi K Bhabha Answers 1-(b), 2-(b), 3-(b), 4-(d), 5-(b) 5.14 REFERENCES Textbooks CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Ashcroft et al, (2013) Postcolonial Studies: Key Concepts, 3rd ed. Routlelage, Oxon. Loomba, Ania. (2005) Colonialism/Postcolonialsim. Routelage, Oxon. Young, R. J. C. (2003) Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Soyinka, Wole (1986) ‘This past must address its present’. Nobel Prize Lecture, PMLA, 102, 5 (October). Spiegel, Marjorie (1988) The Dreaded Comparison: human and animal slavery. New York: Mirror. References Terray, E. (1975) ‘Class and class consciousness in an Abron kingdom of Guyana’ in Bloch 1985. Watters, R.E. (1961) ‘Original relations: a genographic approach to the literatures of Canada and Australia’, Canadian Literature, no. 7 (Winter). Webb, Francis (1969) Collected Poems. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Wedde, Ian (ed.) (1985a) The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse. Auckland and London: Penguin. Websites https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/ http://www.postcolonialweb.org/ https://www.facinghistory.org/ 158 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
UNIT 6: ‘PITFALLS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS’ AND ‘ON NATIONAL CULTURE’ FROM THE WRTECHED OF THE EARTH Structure 6.0 Learning Objectives 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Frantz Fanon 6.3 The Wretched of the Earth 6.4 ‘Pitfalls of National Consciousness’ 6.5 ‘On National Culture’ 6.6 Summary 6.7 Keywords 6.8 Learning Activity 6.9 Unit End questions 6.10 References 6.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, student will be able to: Explain the theory formulated by Frantz Fanon. Describe the multifarious approaches to postcolonial theory. Recognize postcolonial literature using the psychological aspects of postcolonial theory. 6.1 INTRODUCTION There has been theories available in the after-colonization period cutting across countries, cultures, people and across all classes of society. There have been observations made 159 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
regarding the psychology on the people who were under colonization. The unit will be dealing with the psychoanalytical approaches after colonizing as well as contributions of critics like Frantz Fanon in this area. Examining the critics psychology is the field from it has been written, has come under the influences of historian from France, Foucalt,he discusses the shifting towards social and historical influences made to the relevant subject, along with their” systematized forms about which is spoken about”. The theoretical impact has many issues over the perceptions on the structure and operation. Which include the psychoanalytical theories? The examination of the psychologies was indeed required as necessary actions were required in bringing universalization of the psychologies. Moreover, there are warning going against the effects of psychology in reductions given as excuses in order to dismiss certain considerations of those psychological traits in powers. When the subjectivity is not affecting the pre and post colonizing distributions of power, but their conducts, the channel of transmitting, the important questions revolving around how the concept needs to be analysed properly for establishing relationship psychoanalysis. 6.2 FRANTZ FANON Frantz Fanon who is a psychoanalyst as well as philosopher of West Indian origin, well known for his theories on neurology which are generating social impact and his writing for liberalisations of the colonized persons. His critics are influenced by coming generation of thinker and their activist. He went to schools in Martinique, serving in the French Armies at the time of WWII, thereafter, attending schools in France, did study in field of medicine along with psychiatrics from the Lyon University. From the period between 1953 to 1956, he served as the Head of the psychiatric unit of Blida Hospital in Algeria, which at time was part of France. When he was looking after the soldiers of Algeria and France, he began observing the effect of violence caused by colonizing on the psychology on humans. Fanon works talked about the multidimensional analysis of the effects of colonizing on racism.Combining psychoanalytic, phenomenon, existence and the theories of Négritude.He has been articulating the exclusive views of the aftereffects of colonization on the colonized persons. It was published just before he died in his book The Wretched of the Earth(Les Damnes da la terre)establishing him as a leading intellect in the world decolonizing movements, the preface of the book being written by Jean Paul and Sartre. 6.3 THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH The book Wretched of the earth begins with explaining about the violence happening within the colonized country. According to him, the act of coming out of colonizing will be 160 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
involving violence. Coming out of the colonization is not only with agreement only as it is completely immersed in violent past. The colonizer took control with the help of tanks, rifles and military equipment in order to maintain controlling the similar ways. The whole ambience of colonies comprised of barrack and police station, constituting two different kinds of space, one of them being the world of colonizer’s space comprised of opportunities in the world, in which the colonies referred to “disgraced place for disgraced people”. This is burdened with poor economic conditions, draught and lack of education. He is referring to the colonized world as duality happening between the white and the black, white being the persons colonising and blacks as persons in colonisation depicting the darker side of humanity. The world of colonization had individuals continuously at the edges of tensions in violence. There is a continuing environment of violence in the societies and the persons in captivity where attempting to get freedom from different means of violence. In the cold war, there was the presence of the Eastern Bloc comprising of Soviet Union& its allied nations. The Western Bloc comprising of the United States &its allies trying to get into the under developing nations for their needs, as Fanon argues building such a nation would be capitalistic in nature, even as the Third world countries remain neutral in their attitudes. They will not be supporting the Western world, which through colonizing has become richer by exploitation of resources of the underdeveloped nations. The population in the colonies and their respective nation’s politics are not on similar lines as claimed by him.Political parties those days had people colonized, the working class, as they were only about less than a percentage of the whole population. The working class in the cities was the most prominent in the colonized societies as they will be standing to losing all that they had during decolonizing. They will constitute the countries middle class living with ideas from western world. The peasant population which is comprising of the under developing nation comprising of people living in the village by following their customs and traditions, as they had differences with the middle classes which had mistrusts those days. While the mass population was neglecting the ideas of political party, the people were becoming the revolutionizing forces in the nation as they were an important part of liberalisation sand getting freedom from colonizers. There was another class having criminals, prostitute, and juveniles and many more being valued. He argues that the urban population spearheaded the liberation. At the same time, many nations were engaged in freedom struggles in order to get independence. He had warned about new ideas of oppressing which was growing in those under developing countries. In new independent countries, the middle class of the country was taking controls in political world as they wanted to be placed in the sources of power. In under developing nations, the working classes are not aware of economics, as they are running restricted economies in order to earn profit. In the era of decolonizing, the peasantry mass continued to suffer as 161 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
much as they did in colonized era and so the conflicts among the various class grew. This led to growing tension among the local as well as religion-based group, as racists attitudes grew among the ruling classes. Politics here refers to one party system in a country which translated into dictators, with single leadership in the country favouring the working population. For avoiding it, he says there must be decentralization of the governments, moving to villages having peasant population. The nationalistic attitudes are the most destructive things to a growing nation as new country will not be able to develop until such attitudes are removed from sources of power. After gaining independence, the colonized intellect person in the class of culture, fighting for recognitions of the cultural nationality as well as rights of existence. Racism in colonial nations has been part of the black countries dividing it of its culture and knowledge, whereas the people colonized trying to prove it wrong. The intellect in colonization looks back to the past time before the colonization in order to get back his culture in the continent. They are giving acceptance to Negro culture, specially the literatures covering the entire Africa bringing in whole African communities. This whole black world is stretching from Africa, Caribbean as well as going to USA,hence,he says, that there is something in common other than the necessary facts, in relation to the white population.Further,he is asserting that, culture is doing something which will not be in isolation in those pre colonized tie. The cultures are created by development of nations consciously struggles for formation of new independent countries. Colonial oppressions as well as violent struggles for gaining independence which leads to a stream of mental disorder. He was a psychiatrist doing practice, having files of cases from his patient whom he had treated in the Algerian War for its independence. It included assessment as well as notes from the people, European as he details the types where the colonization was affecting them mentally and physically. His cases ranged from emotions like anxiety, depressions as well as anorexia leading to breaking in psychotics of a person and inducing homicide nature, each of the cases dealt with traumas relating directly to the colonies of the French in Algeria as well as wars thereafter. He looks at the psychological impacts of long brainwashing as well as excess tortures done by colonizers. He insisted on the uses of serums of truths, considering the Algerian were being sent to camps, even debating the theories of Algerian criminals being products of underdevelopment of the brains and their nervous systems. The criminals are deeply rooted in the same causes as the other problem in Algeria where there were colonies. In his book he is concluding for the call of actions. He is calling for putting an end to colonising and decolonisation for everyone, urging those growing countries as not to look at Europe as a set example. There was another country which was looking up to Europe for centuries, he warned than then and now USA, was like a huge monster with 162 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
drawbacks,disease,death as well as inhuman nature of Europeans for reaching to fearful proportion. Development of the African countries should not look at their pasts or European nations but starting new chapters in history as well as their thinking. 6.4 ‘PITFALLS OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS’ In the chapter mentioned ‘Pitfall of National Consciousness’ from the book The Wretched of the Earth demonstrating the ways of decolonizing turning into decolonising. Nation consciousness, he said”, is not the coordination of a definite form of the population’s inner aspiration”. On the other hand, it is cruel, hollow, can be easily destroyed”. There are loopholes in the consciousness of the nation, degrading it to nation’s ethnicity, to the states as well as tribes. The deterioration happening as per him was harming the developing nations. The problem was associated with the nation’s working class. The countries conscious is unstable, strong things that it is moveable, creating impressions as well as in development of a growing country. It is reflection as a whole, no single ethnicity, groups or tribes. The degradation will mean to cause destruction to it. In a new country, the nation’s working class takes the charge of being in power after colonising ends, but they are lacking in experiences as well as development. The higher-class graduate who makes up a small part of the population are mainly present in the city; they are not industrialist or financer. They are not in production or invention of anything but doing work. In the view of Fanon, few elite political people do nothing for the country, yet they are driven by economy and political atmosphere. For grown nations, leadership is still driven by societies who have more experience. The new colonization which lack experiences is quickly grounded. The main purpose of nation’s population in under developing countries is rejecting their status as rulers and dedicating them to the peasantry class which they are representing. A good national leader should leave the environment in cities in order to learn from the population as well as teach them in universities of the west. This is a path to” heroism as well as positivity “he said it is the best ways to be helping the country. To become a nation lover does not mean to leave the lives in western world. In such a way, it will become neither positive nor heroic in nature, leading to destruction of society as well as serving no real purpose. As under developing countries like ours, countries population knows nothing about the economy. The knowledge is just theory, the economic supporting is restricted based on its local produce. Under such circumstances, there are few who are making profits while others are suffering. As the population has skills that are restricted, in which colonial business is taken over by exits of the colonising powers. Moreover, they are able to work in any form of 163 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
capitalism as well as in their interests which are best by creating systems of neocolonising.At the level of psychology, national population can identify themselves from western people. Hence, building nation is not coming from any shortcuts. However, countries people who are attempting to come to power as well as running the country is a shortcut. Decolonization is dismantling the whole colonized situations, he is arguing that, keeping what is required and getting rid of things not required. He is arguing that nation building is not based on economics of the west, weakening his arguments. His argument is very clear having powers given by nation’s population is mimicking the colonizers as colonising being present but not in progression. The national people such as western people, developing the economies based on the tourism such as exotics, hunting as well as casino. There are many resort, playground and tourism are form of nationalised industry. Casinos in places like Havana and Rio, saturates the landscapes, where girls from Brazil and Mexico are sold. Tourism was a huge form of trading in former colonies in those nations, forming another type of colonization.City is full of foreign people and native persons are getting exploited in the whole process, as they are continuously placed in positions of services to the whites. Owners of the land behave in the same ways as the national population. Soon after getting freedom, the big farmers call for nationalising all the agriculture. They are taking over the farmlands owned by the colonizer and take controlling in the regions. The owners exploit the workers on farms as they are not interested in getting an increase in the production as well as integrating a nation’s economies. In a paradox, the owners wanted agriculture to be national subject, implying the country should be owning as well as controlling it. But they wanted to keep the profit with them and do nothing in return just as national leaders. This is again called neocolonising, this time owners of land are in full control. After getting independence, the people of the country suffered racist’s attitude, colonising, calling for jobs of whites who were lawyers, doctor, and landowner claiming that white worker will be insulting the country. They move to bring African people in managing positions as well as demanding the job. The urban population agreeing with the nationalist views, but where the country’s people are singled out against the Europeans who are whites, the urban population fight with African countries. Riots in the races breaks out between the tribal population, just as Fanon is saying, nationalizing has been changed to “separatism, chauvinising and adapting racists attitude” Nationalism is an important for one tribes to the other, bringing race argument, this is forming neocolonising.In such a way, whichever tribes holds majority, gets the powers to control the nation, leaving all other ethnic groups behind. He has argued that country and its conscious is reflecting in the entire country, not only a part of it. 164 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Africans and Arabs by nations have not been based on nationalising. Their only concern is transfer of powers from the previous foreign people, which is leading to returns of the most dangerous and chauvinist type of people. The population is very uneducated, lacking experience, not able to show the people ways towards building the country; leading to rising tensions between ethnic groups Colonizing is not exploiting the whole country. It will focus on the effort made in highly populated area by letting peasants falling into trap of poverty. The return of the heinous acts of colonizers is referred to as colonising. As one race whether being from Africa, Arab nation or any other within the tribe is representing here also known as neocolonising, country will be back to ground zero. Fanon has said a country has to bring its forces together, in order to get the population in unity, not only by just helping in the facilitation. There are conflicts building up among various ethnic group, rivalry in religion begins to come, there are two religions now Islamic and the Catholics who begin to clash with each other. He is claiming that” colonising is getting back on the feet as they are pulling up the string “for division of the nation and in sighting violence. African nation, for example, has been divided into regions of blacks and whites. Africa of the whites is culturally rich and more civilized, whereas the Africa of Blacks is more uncivilized, wilder as well as savaged. This is similar to the racist’s nature of the colonizer. The religions played a major part in colonizing the entire world. Missionaries of Christians were being sent to underdeveloped nations so as to get God to the persons presumed as primitive as well as getting religious clashes among them. For those who support Catholics will be looking like other persons to be bad and not civilized. The inefficiencies of the countries are not restricted to the economics only. They are achievable powers done through nationalising bias as well inciting racist’s nature in order to make people weak and dividing them. As per Fanon, the people who preach about humanity and its freedom, then demanding that other people are rising with them in the western countries. Hence, the real unity of Africa is established with and by the people, not taking into consideration the political class. He has pointed out that a nation believing in equal rights but believing that Western nations are better than Eastern nations in all the ways, which is completely opposite to their claiming. If the western standards are not regarded, then he is arguing that countries political classes will be devoid of the power. The population in the country does not want to enter into local politics. There believe that the most apt approach is one party in politics. This is not inspiring for building the confidence level in the population, as the states begin harassment of the people. The nation is still ignorant of the farming community and focusing only on the different cities They bring foreign people and are not willing to distribute profit among the population. A one-party system is similar to dictating, which is again giving a new country in the state of 165 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
neocolonising single person, having national interests in mind, getting all the powers of the country. Under it, the farmers are again getting suppressed as well as exploitation is carried out. In some time, leaders are elected popularly to take over the nation and its people. This kind of dictating is getting fuel from a leader, making his ways crossing the nations just talking about oppressing by the colonising power, the population begins to have faith in him. He is talking about independence for the country, but in reality, looks like a CEO of the national people and their revenues. The new leadership combining the interest of the people with interest of his colonized company as he knows it is just a tool for causing corruption in the country. The dictatorship is of no help in nation building, only the national people and the farmers are suffering. This kind of system resembles the colonizing, hence, not decolonising. In such a way, he has implication that truly decolonizing will not be achievable in forms as long as the people in the country are given powers. At the same time, the past colonial powers are taking lesser troubles as they try hiding the facts that they are having powers in the governments. The new leadership is dividing the people and the interests of the nation; he is getting support from the elite as well as hiding it from the population. With his passionate speech, the persons are getting fooled. Different countries have implementing of such rulings. He says, it comes from one nation, which they talk for the black population. The leadership talks to the people of the country, refusing to break up from the elite, every time he is talking to the people, he asks them to recall the colonised days as well making them think as to how far they are coming. He is arguing that there is less difference if the powers of colonizer are just pulling up the string of oppressing from other countries or within the country. In both cases, he is implying, in being colonized, it is getting disintegrated just like colonising as such. Like other powers of colonising, the dictators are manipulating the previous colonised and banking on the history of struggling the war for supporting them.Hence,they have not really come that far being in the colonized systems, Fanon has implied: He is saying that farmer population are not given access from the time of colonising. Their lives have not changed as they should have been undernourished and always hungry, there is no visible change on ground. The policemen in Africa are still harassing the people, are not convinced about the things which are not going properly in the country. The rebelling population is losing the patience. Becoming restricted after gaining independence, rebellious people are required for festivities and parading on Independence Day. They have played their parts in nation building by coming in power, so they are not required. 166 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Those in the rebelling population are used in full as well as they are just thrown as their services are no longer required similar to other colonising systems. They were at one time very important in fighting for independence of the country, now being restricted to parading and festivities. Nothing has changed on the ground, with the exception of the oppressors, there is exploitation of the farmers. Once again, he is implying the national leadership is the biggest enemy of the growing country and it must be taken out from the country which is progressing. The colonizing systems which are in place even in the absenteeism of the colonial powers. The state is running like colonies, holding the police to get hold on innocent persons. There are no rights to equality, and the national leaders stealing from the people, just as colonizers. Here, he says, that is asserting the harmful behaviour of the political class, who are imposing the new type of colonizing on the population. He is used caricatures in describing the new country, which is not only Europe, but the image seems to be a joke for him. By adapting the Europe ways, countries will be failing. The most important sectors seem to be colonized as being in services of colonies resembling slaves. With the nationalizing of the sectors and by having control on the nations, they are getting profits. Civil servant is not required in the era of post colonizing as the sector is already corrupt. An understanding of all the things happening, he said changes can come only with education about the politics of the country. Fanon in his words is saying that people will be sent back to the caves suggesting persons are like animals reflecting the thinking of racism of colonising. The transforming of political party into an intelligence agent suggesting how much corruption has come in the society. Any such party can change the status of the country being independent. He is claiming there are fights, people suffer and struggle in the new country which means there is nothing which has changed in colonising. In complete removal of the colonising, he is suggesting changing all the necessary things which includes the ideas of government’s capitals in the metros. As most people are not living in metros, it is implying that political class also should not live-in cities. By defining, national persons will not be relocating to other countries; their lifestyle does not get support there. In his argument, this is the relevant point. Just as Third world war is not about westernizing the society, it will not become a structure in that way. It is implying that in order to lead the people in a more efficient manner, you need to know who the people are, and it can happen only in their lives. Racist colonization assumes dictating the farmers who are not smart with politics, but he is expressing how ridiculing this assumption can be. When people understand they are not giving credit to the west minded nationals. As the country’s conscious is the identification for the whole country, one part of the nation will not get ignored for the other. He is advocating that education in politics be given to member of the new country as he is favouring simplicity of languages free from any jargons and elite influences. 167 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Fanon is rejecting the ideas of sporting as they offer more to one member, teams being heroes. All the people are same in a growing nation, not only as a person, but anyone’s views should be considered. He is implying that younger kid have more vulnerability often turning them into lower strata, trending that can be remedy for educating. Building a nation is a political process, where there is educating happening simultaneously. By providing education to whole population as well as relocation of the governments to the nation making the persons living free actually. He is arguing that the new country has better chances of growth as well as prosperity. To build a nation is always important. It is not built by the army, which he is implying is given more importance in the western world. Persons are valued to the nations in many ways, in ways that are better for the country. It is all about the population and not to the ideas. To summarise, he has claimed that nation and its identity have come to a dead end. If the country is not for its people, it is not a true nation, leading to neo colonizing and continuous oppression. 6.5 ‘ON NATIONAL CULTURE’ In this chapter, he is saying, it is concerned with legitimate relationship rather than politics. The missions of under developing nations are resisting the colonising for growth of new freedom struggles. In the post colonizing era, the people are fighting with heart and soul. If the struggles are failing at the world level, it is not because they are not leaders, but the situations are not the same. The struggles of the under developing nations failing to make a global presence as colonizing and racists nature have become part of their culture in comparison to the developed nations. It is through national efforts, each of those countries struggling can be made legitimate. The parallels established with politics, as claimed by him, are the intellectual persons. They are the most civilized people who are recognising the nation’s culture as well as rights to exist, which remain their issues. Political people are placing themselves in the present day, but the colonization happened in historical past. They are very much aware of the risks of getting trapped in the culture of the west, as they are on the way back from the era of colonising. They are not able to come to term like oppressing of historical past, so for reclaiming it for restoration of the cultures of the countries. He has argued that culture of the past cannot be claimed again. It has been erased and there is no existence of it anymore. The cultures as well as intellectual have remained in oppression, especially due to colour and racism remaining present. This racist’s attitude is not the culture of the poor nations, so they are always required to prove it to the world. 168 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Colonising was not only exploitation and abusing the population, the cultural and historical identities of the persons were taken away. The powerful colonizer is distorting, disfiguring and destroying the same. It resulted in banging on the heads of the people. It became difficult to understand why it was returning of the precolonizing era. In claims that the people had no cultures, the colonizers denied the people their rights to humanity as well as history, leading to destruction of various cultures. The empty nations without their culture and nationhood are susceptible to oppression due to powerful colonizer. The quests of the colonies of people for reclaiming their past are a nation’s pride on a large scale. It is like reliving the past. Under colonising, Africa was seen as den of curse, evils and hatred on the world levels. It was the attempts made by the intellectuals to correct the wrongdoing in the continent, in order to take way African cultures. As there were colonised places, there were also noncultures. Negro culture has the literature of the whole continent. By taking the cultures to the continent level, it will become simpler as well as not proper, where the identities represented is of the black population. Thereby leaving many people out such as the Arabs in Africa. He again emphasises that colonising with racism is the African” den of savages” who have reduced the people there who are treated like animals not having human rights. Negro in literatures, as he says, is a foremost instance of non-African and those writers hesitating to go beyond the country. On African population is stretching from USA, where the blacks’ world was formed by people living in Ghana, Senegal and Chicago. The same thoughts are shared by both worlds. But Africa’s culture is a dead ending for the intellectuals of African origins. Take for example, the Society for culture in Africa was formed to create the existence of the culture of Africa. It turned to be the cultural hub of the blacks world, including the blacks diaspora, havingmillions of people of blacks settled in USA. He again uses the term dead ending in order to describe the efforts of post colonizing, like doing for national integrity. A similar culture of blacks, in different ways, has the similar problems in bringing unity to the nation. A simple culture that includes all its population cannot be reflecting the whole culture, as persons in different countries are different to come in the same subdivisions. In such a way, there is simply another way of misrepresenting the cultures, which is not as productive as the genuine one put in the first place. Americans who are whites treat the blacks in the same way as the colonizers in Africa, but it does not take much time for them to understand that Black American have similarity with the blacks of Africa as they both have definitive relations with white people. The black movement is limiting the Negro culture as those in discovery think culture is a country defined thing. Even Wright and Hughes are admitting that their experience is very different from Senghor or Kenyatta. Though they insisted that Africans had no culture, the powerful colonized them towards the cultural happenings so as to radicalize them to bring to terms 169 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
with nation and the continent. Robert Wright & Langston Hughes, both of them are Afro- American writers, having nothing in common with Senghor the first president of the country of Senegal as well as Kenyatta who was the former of Kenya. They had different experiences except some like Fanon has pointed out; they also suffered racism in the western world and thereby defining themselves as others in the white cultures. Hence, the black culture cannot be existent on the scale of continents. It must be a true representing of the cultures of blacks on a small but rather more genuine scale. For people having no country are facing implications on the psychology of the person. There are “no anchors, border, colour, and state, “he further says that they have two different personalities. For example, a person who is under colonization can be Algerians, French, Nigerian or English. The individual finds ways to escape from the western cultures and their identities, as he looks everywhere in order to get away from the person oppressing. This is one of the instances of “two conscious “in ways which Bois has seen, as people from Algeria as well as Nigeria are forcing them on the whites having their eyes on Europe. Not having a country to belong to, it is not possible for them for defining them in relationship between them, which is impacting their health mentally ensuring an identity for themselves. Writer of those colonized are going through three different stage of developing. Firstly, the persons who are under colonization are able to prove that they are associated with cultures of whites. This stage is symbolic and surreal. Later, in the next stage, the writers are going back to precolonization cultures. So, they are outsiders to their own population as they are not able to precolonized era. The final stage, the writers are turning into fighters for the population for writing about literatures, revolution of the literatures as well as nationalized literatures. They are discovering that a country does not exist as cultures are established due to struggle of people going against colonial oppressions. Of the three different stages, the last one only expresses its national identities. The initial stages are just related to the western cultures, in the second stage there are attempts being made for embracing the native cultures that are no longer existent in post colonization era. By turning towards its people, the writers are perfectly capturing the struggles of the population, in which Fanon has argued where black cultures are actually living. The nation’s cultures are the struggles for the nations. The languages of the intellectuals use the appreciation of the pieces of arts of that of oppressors. The talks of intellectuals in parts of Africa are in terms of national identities ending up in exacting. Adding to it, if the intellectuals are returning to the cultures through arts, they are treated as foreigners. He is hypnotized by those dead scraps or bits, when combined together are getting destroyed. It is not easy to simplify the cultures. Fanon is saying that it is the reason for intellectuals to step out. When there is look at Africa and other nations in the underdeveloped nations will soon become a racist’s form of colonial action, it will be focusing on how the Western nations will be different from Third World Countries. 170 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
The intellectuals are staring at the rare cultures similar to exhibits in the zoo and getting interested in it. When they are able to see bits or pieces of the cultures, which is dignified, degraded as well as erased. Once again, the intellectual is going out of the way, similar to other people. In the field of visualisation of art, the creations of the people under colonization are attempting to make their art forms in order to get countries attention ending up being the stereotype. They are search for genuine nation’s cultures as well as representation of the truth of the nation. Under the colonizer’s ruling, the painters were not allowed to paint at a national picture as individuals are choosing stills as well as no presenting forms of arts. In such nations who have gained independence, painters want to return to their people so as to give them countries reality, which is often referred to as “reminding about death instead of life”. The society in the country, which is independent, as he says, is extremely destructive, which is the reason for the arts becoming reminders of deaths. The person who colonises the landscapes of the country during the colonized era was just littering in their presence and making life like paintings as well as offering them more controlling over the subject matters. Poetry still remains the same. The poets, who were in colonisation, also want to write poems having national importance but his writings are for his own population, poems written are short and precise. The poets have to start with defining the subjects which he wants to write about, in order to understand why they are being alienated. The poets are not able to get reconnected with the past, as the persons are not living. But instead, they must be connected with living people. It is because of colonising, they become strangers in their own countries as well as among their own persons. Even if the countries are independent and free, it has been cracked and got injured under colonising, there is a need for uniformity in nation’s cultures just before the poets are able to start writing about it. If the person who is colonized is writing for its people taking the pasts into consideration, planning to keep the doors open for the future hopes. They should be committed giving their heart and soul for the countries struggling and big muscle pulling is needed. The intellect person is not purely being individual’s responsibility towards culture of the nation but the country as a whole. When there is fighting for the nation’s cultures, it is fighting for its freedom. The population of Algeria, for instance, are in the struggles for getting freedom for their culture which is going to get shaped in the struggles.Hence,the persons previously under colonization should not be turning towards the past so as to prove that nations culture is existing.Culture is not just the people, or just the word and its gesturing. The culture is a “collection of thinking processes of the people in order to explain, give justification andbe admired” for the liberalisation struggle.Simply,liberalising is fighting for developing the cultures of the growing nation.Hence,the intellect should not return to the pre colonialization era for isolating the cultures. Once again, he is mentioning that the muscle powers of the 171 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
colonized persons, is getting ready for the challenges ahead towards nation building. He is not referring that culture is not valuable in precolonization times. In contrasts, he is arguing, it is rich and valued; it is getting modification for the future for changing the country along with its cultures. Once again, the unified Negro cultures will necessarily summarize it for the whole of Africa. The cultures which Fanon has pointed out, is disappearing with the vanishing culture of Africa getting introduction by colonizing if more introspection is carried out. The perception of the nations is full of complexities. In his words, Anderson has said that there are” imaginative societies”. The nations are not merely defined by its borders only, but they are united among their cultures and traditions. When we are referring to nations, there is complexity of multidimensional concepts: country is not merely implied by the existence of places with its limits as well as governments, but it is referring to structural ideologies that are inhabiting the borders, which is getting proper shape in the 18th and 19th century. They are usually different as well as modern entities. The larger empires are existing throughout the century, yet there is no formal organization in the formation of the nations. 6.6 SUMMARY . The book “The Wretched of the Earth” is description of the after-war independence movements especially of Africa and Algeria. Fanon has argued that violence during the colonization ruling helped in sowing the seed of the overthrowing. Taking the actions of violence helps in restoring the faith among people and helping them get back their human needs. The three units of the book talk about narratives. It gradually is progressing from the instantaneous uprisings happening through revolutions for the formation of governments in post colonisation period. The fourth unit is arguing in favouring the nations instead of the countries. The next manages to draw attention on history of cases in order to show the aftereffects of tortures and wars. He starts by narrating the ways in which the natives who are intellectuals will be reacting to colonising. It does not merely mean” getting the grip of people. “Colonizing is also “recalling the pasts of the persons in oppression, by distorting, disfiguring and destroying it.”In such a way, natives doing intellectual research from the past are finding the proofs in the varied and glorified history of the nation. In doing so, such intelligent people have managed to recover the history of Africa and the black persons around the world. While taking such efforts, there came into being a literary movement called Negritude. The uprising was aimed at creating a unique 172 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
literature different from the European, which in a way was driven from the black lives and their cultures. He has sympathy for the efforts taken. He is valuing the spheres of culture, implying that intelligent people are a requirement and not a luxury. Finally, he is able to find the drawbacks of Negritude and its attempt for defining black culture worldwide. There were problems while braving the problem for people like Richard Wright and Langston Hughes who was African American writers, which were different from people like Senghor (First president of Senegal) .The US as well as Senegal, was different from each other, having cultural differences. According to him, the culture of Europe was imitating the black cultures, the natives were intellectual will realize that the cultures is nation based. He is quoting that the Haiti poets Rene Depestre and poet from Guinea Fodeba Keita are few instances of poets born out of nation’s struggles. He believes that nation’s cultures cannot give births to the nations. Poetry cannot get freedom to the nations. The struggles for freedom are creating the nation’s cultures. His conclusion is calling out for actions. He is calling out to his fellow men as brothers and comrades who are turning away from European Countries. He is advising for going against catching up with European countries in terms of economics and culture. But, in a way, the countries will be going forward on the paths.Hence, at the end liberating people will be benefiting society. 6.7KEYWORDS Decolonization: It is the process where there is deconstruction of ideology of colonizing as superiority as well as privileges of the western thinking and its approach. It is containing violent approach. Psychoanalytic Study In Post Colonialism: It is an approach that is deploying psychoanalysts for reading the minds of colonized history applied in the present time, replacing it with desires of colonizer in after colonizing era. Bourgeoisie:The elite class who owns most of country’s wealth as well as producing facilities. Negritude: The expressions of revolts of going against the history of colonising and racist attitudes of people. Savage: The images of the people in colonization are that of being violent, torturous and uneducated. 173 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
6.8 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. How will you relate Fanon’s book “The Wretched of the Earth “with the history of Afro- America in the form of slavery? ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2. Fanon has given “Black Skin, White Masks” which gives a perspective on colonizer’s mimicking the ideas of shame. Explain. ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6.9 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Write briefly on Frantz Fanon and also mention his work. 2. Which incident made Fanon make his contributions towards the post colonization theories? 3. Briefly describe Fanon’s “Third Space”? 4. What is Fanon saying about Negritude and Negro Cultures? 5. Discuss views of Fanon on decolonization? Long Questions 1. How does theory of Fanon emerge with respect to the study of post colonizing literatures and thoughts? Give some examples. 2. How can psychoanalysis be related to post colonizing literatures? 3. Describe in detail decolonizing and the introduction to the Negro literature? 4. Discuss views of Fanon on nation building? 5. Discuss in detail any text of your choice using theory of Fanon? B.Multiple Choice Questions 1. Fanon says decolonization begins with- a. Violence b. Servitude c. Apathy d. Migration 174 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
2. Which is the book written by Fanon? a. Who’s Imagined Communities? b. Black Skin, White Masks c. The Location of Culture d. Nation and Narration 3. Which war was Fanon part of? a. World War I b. World War II c. Vietnam War d. The American Civil war 4. Which country is Fanon from? a. West Indies b. France c. Nigeria d. Portugal 5. According to Fanon, who will not contribute towards nation building? a. Political leaders b. Bourgeoisie c. Lower class d. Women Answers 1-(a), 2-(b), 3-(b), 4-(a), 5-(b) 6.10 REFERENCES Textbooks Etherington, B. (2016). An Answer to the Question: What Is Decolonization? Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and Jean-Paul Sartre's Critique of Dialectical Reason. Modern Intellectual History, 13(1), 151. Fanon, F. (2008). Black skin, white masks. Grove press. Hook, D., & Truscott, R. (2013). Fanonian ambivalence: On psychoanalysis and postcolonial critique. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, 33(3), 155. Said, E. W. (1985). Orientalising reconsidered. Race & class, 27(2), 1-15. 175 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Elam, J. D. (2019). Postcolonial theory. References Ahmad, Aijaz (1992) In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London: New York: Verso. Alexander M. Jacqui and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, eds. (1997) Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. London; New York: Routledge. Ashcroft, Bill (2001) On Post-Colonial Futures: Transformations of Colonial Culture. London: Continuum. Sartre, Jean-Paul (1964) Colonialism and Neocolonialism (trans. Azzedine Haddour, Steve Brewer and Terry McWilliams). London. Soyinka, Wole (1976) Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Websites https://www.lehigh.edu/ https://lawandreligionforum.org/ https://www.studocu.com/ 176 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
UNIT 7: GAYATRI SPIVAK: CAN THE SUBALTERAN SPEAK? Structure 7.0 Learning Objectives 7.1 Introduction to Subaltern Studies 7.2 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 7.3 Can the Subaltern Speak? 7.4 Summary 7.5 Keywords 7.6 Learning Activity 7.7 Unit End Questions 7.8 References 7.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, student will be able to: Define 'Subaltern Studies'. Discuss observations made by the postcolonial feminist critic, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Analyse texts using Spivak's theory on Subaltern studies. 7.1 INTRODUCTION As it was not discovered in the last unit, ‘Subaltern’ refers to ‘ranking inferior’. The term was taken by Gramsci who is referring to the groups in society who are subjected to domination of the rulers. He has used the words subaltern in order to show the inferiority or subordination of a place in terms of its classes, castes, genders as well as cultures. Some of the scholars believe that he is” using the term as similar word to replace proletariat, which might be codes for getting his work beyond the prison. “While others are thinking that” his work is more difficult to understand and less clears “considering that the historical past of the lower classes are far more difficult to understand than dominating groups. In his works he has 177 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
talked about the historical past of such lower classes as being continuous, periodical and not unified as they were restricted by history of the upper class. In general, the term is referring to a group of persons excluding from the social establishment for political gains and hence refused the basic needs of voicing the opinions in the societies. It means an individual or groups of persons ranking lower; it may be due to their races, classes, genders, orientations, ethnic identity and religions. Some scholars it comes in use where there is generalisation of these smaller groups and lower class. “persons rendering services without taking into consideration his or her views on the social status “From the year of 1970,the word is being used with respect to colonized individuals in the South Asian region, and slowly growing the area where the studies of cultures, historical past, geographical area, socialist approach, anthropological views as well as literary insights were taken. For those people who were not given access to supremacy were the farmer, labourer, worker and many such groups of people coming under the class of subaltern. When there is reading about historical past, it is looking into high class which was termed as officials in the history of oppression. Study of Subaltern has done rewriting of the same. It is the history which agrees that there has been overlooking neglect and differential treatments. 7.2 GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK Gayatri Spivak is an Indian thinker on literature, feminism critic, theorist on postcolonial era as well as professor of literature known for her work on philosophical works, known as” interventionism”. She is most known as a post colonising thinker; Gayatri Spivak is a multidisciplinary, philosopher who in her early stages of her profession was known for her applied deconstruction work. She made her name by translating and prefacing Derridas Grammatology in the year of 1976, after which she has been applying the strategies of deconstruction on various theories and texts, mainly related to Feminism, Marxism literature criticising as well as post colonizing theories. She asked the question “Can the Subalterns Speak?” about two decades ago, wherein she took the issues with western thinkers by confessing accounts of the inabilities of history of the elite classes and the poor. It was giving light to the complex about the people called the native informants in her publication. In similar words, the critics of the post colonizing era as well as getting them out ofthe machine of the teacher. She followed the questions further through translations of the Bengali author and activist Mahasset Devi and her fiction works which were published on the Imaginary Maps where she had added another trait to the debates on references to native informants. 178 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Her work is exploring the margin at which there is breaking away from the disciplines for entering into politics. She is interrogating the politics of the cultures from minimal view while keeping the presumptions of the profession within the dominant society. “Subaltern “as Spivak is insisting is not only a just an elegant word for the oppressed. The other being someone “who is not getting his share in the pieces of pie”. It’s what lower-class people say. In the colonising terms, everything here is restricted, so there is no accessibility to imperialist of cultures. She relooks at the problem of the lower classes within the history as few capitalistic politicians were there who were not underestimating the voices of revolution as well as divisions of the labour in the world of globalisation. She has cited the works of the Subaltern group of studies showing as to how the work is practiced, not allowing them to have their voices, but not giving them place, creating their place to raise their voices. 7.3 ‘CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK? Gayatri Spivak had developed the ideas of studies of the Subalterns to a step forward, stressing on the westernized model of social change that the historians were employing which are not giving justice to complexities in history of the insurgencies of the lower classes and the fights to recovery. Her work is reflective of her assertions as she is speaking about the issue of representing, self-modelling, strategies in politics and many more, She has been questioning the principles and ideas of educated people criticising by paying more attention to the texts available in cultures as to who the people are pushing them to the brink through the dominating westernized cultures. Her focus was on the working population, women as well as post colonized people. In such a way, she was challenging the main ideas of the existing society and its cultures. Being a postcolonial era critic, Robert Young is asserting what Spivak is thinking is well understandable in the situations of growing political debating in the country about employing the Marxism in relation to the anti-colonized uprisings as well as failures of India’s socialists in recognising the histories as well struggling of womenfolk, the lower classes, tribal as well as the farmers in the India’s society. She is also countering the ideologies and methods used in the Subalterns Groups by showing in the model of the Marxist of changing socially that historians are applying, it is not giving recognition to historical pasts about the clashes of the lower classes which are multidimensional, complex in nature and distributed. It thereby is forming barriers in the comprehensive narrations of history about women resisting in the country. She further goes to say that research on the lower classes by giving proper importance to lives and experiences of such lower strata, side-lined females who are in the history of the country but have been left out in order to get importance. She has recognised the domination of the politics, economics, culture as well as strategies for education which have come into the lives of many side-lined and non-empowered community. 179 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
She has employed breaking down as a technique for voicing the recognitions. As per her saying, the examining of the different views is empowering the readers in raising their queries on the investigation subjects, keeping the expert insights in place as well as changing the situations and requirements which is impossible into one which are not. She is writing,investigating,discovering as well as establishing a lower-class conscious seeming it to be first in the positive project, one which is assuming that it is not properly executed, it will be leading to firm grounds, in doing something that will be known There are more important changes in recovering from conscious. She has also referred to themes of otherness, a subject of post colonisation studies.Sartre has used the terms others in being and nothing to give definitions in relations between themselves and the other people. One can find that it is based on existing philosophies. Edwards’s orientalism is discussing about the theories of the others, the treatments given by the upper strata of the western countries towards the eastern nations. In his arguments, he has argued that Orient is one of the Europe’s darkest pictures of the other. The thoughts of the westerners and their cultures are restricted to few persons and such concepts unlike others are visible all through the historical narrations. The poor and the needy were looked at as threats to the civilized societies. As per Morton, In the minds of the western world, the “other” is related to any place present on the external places, going beyond reaches of the westernized world, but in this particular moment of getting freedom for oneself as well as the country” (Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak Routledge Critical Thinkers - Essential Guides for Literary Studies 37).This is leading to the act of “othering”given by Spivak for speaking about the processes by which western narrations are talking about. She is trying to get the basics stronger by talking about rigidity of one’s own self, differences in description of the lives and the struggle of the Third world nations as to how they are treating lower class women. As per Morton, in her essay she has written about the” imperialising and its sexual differences “while criticizing some feminist persons for neglecting the views of the women in the underdeveloped countries by looking at it as a societal matter. Hence, she has bought into the light, the mistakes of the system of practical truths and the understanding that is claiming that women worldwide are suffering the similar kinds of difficulties, oppressions, hesitation, and socio-geographical, cultural issues as well as crossing the language barriers just because of being gender bias towards them. She is strongly opposing the myths of global sisterhoods, as it dispels the lives and the sufferings of women in the underdeveloped nations. Within the restricted environments of the lower classes, there is an existence of biasness towards women. The questions are not about female participation in wars, there is division among labour about which there are evidence. It is a subject for the colonizer in the history as well as in cases of insurgent emergencies, the ideology is about male domination.With references to colonized production, there are no references of the 180 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
lower class, females are just existent in the background. But Lazarus has emphasized that Spivak in her work talks about investigations being conducted on the lower-class women is not all present in research of histories. The reply which she has given is that there are consequences which make the dimensions of the gender, while having a male dominating society in the history and its archives. She in her essays, Can subalterns speak? has made the terms popular. Here she says the subalterns do not speak. There is nothing in the world which lists women as a holy thing. The outlooks have still not changed. Any female intelligent person should not disown anything for flourishing in life. ” (Nelson and Gross berg 308).Spivak has managed to break the barriers between oneself and others while using the lower class for accommodating, giving flexibility to the society which is not even considering her to the part of the same. She has argued that there is no place from which people of the lowest classes can speak. She has stressed that the womenfolk are not allowed to speak as their voice and the groups are made to stay quite under the political, social and societal pressures of the Hindu religions code of conduct and making them slaves of the British colonizers. In the society having male chauvinism, there are few who want to speak out, but they are not allowed by the dominant political class. While concluding her writing of the essays, can the subaltern speak? Is criticizing the work done by the male academicians of the west. Her opinion is that it is challenging for someone looking from outside world of the people in colonizing, to give those occasions to speak their stories. This is supported by the proofs collected are through words not real experience. She says, it will produce, assumption being restricted to logo, which can lead to distraction in writing on the studies as part of the whole experiences. She is also not convinced with the intelligent people who were attempting to speak out on the behalf of lowest class by not letting their voices speak on their own. It then has led them being hurt to the colonizers by not letting them have an identity for them. She had believed that the westerns would give some positivity by their acts but what really happened was the opposite in the colonizing. She has insisted many times that it is extremely relevant to challenge the assumptions which are present in some western female thinking. History and narrations of women in the whole world are similar. It is important to create awareness about local issues, socio-cultural as well as economic conditions in order to help them in getting out of the suffering. She in conclusion has said it should be possible to get the voices of the sufferer to be heard, as it is difficult for academicians to do because it causes destruction as a whole. In the book, she is disapproving of the western intellect desires to subjective knowledge. She says that either research or the knowledge have been looked at as important reasons for 181 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
conquering the cultures of other countries and making them slaves, as part of Europe’s colonies. The scholars are presenting themselves from the books of other cultures by making it their objectives. He has shown himself having no interest, scientific knowledge which is correct or perfect. This according to her is not the introductory statements of her book. It is the knowing about the third world countries, which has damaged the economic as well as political intentions of the western nations. She is pointing to the fact that the western nations are having their identities in the form of language and many more. Similar to commodity, data or raw materials are grown in the underdeveloped nations, then taking back to the western world, to go for producing and selling, benefiting them. She has wondered if under such circumstances, it could be possible for the westerns to speak about non westerners under the colonizing era. She is not convinced with the western countries effort regarding trying to speak for others in their voices. She thinks the westerners are self-obsessed; any distortion will lead to deviating them from it. She is opposing to westerners attempts to get themselves as object of investigation with respect to those who are non-westerners. In her answer, she has said the western academic world could not correlate the others while being on their own. Her theories on subalterns can be used to analyse different small issues in the history. One such book is called Wide Sargasso Sea written by Jean Rhys. In the literature, where after going away from the colonial lines, there were growing voices in those colonization on various issues regarding identities of their own which appeared in literature where it was done in terms of socio-cultural, political and sociology themes, thereby asking the colonizers. This was the impact of the second part of the post colonization era; the writers started writing for necessary issues, using languages for the powerful by targeting the poor. (Ashcroft 1989: 23) The novel named the wide Sargasso Sea was an attempt to pressurize the silent voices by implementing method and language with the basic use of constructing the self-cultured images for the previously oppressed voice of the Creole persons. Rhys is applying these customs, traditions in the centre, such as Bronte’s Jane Eyre, to tell each other’s story. The views were not to be judged properly, not credited and were asked to remain silent in Eyre as it turning to the basic judgements in the novel. In her replies to the post colonization, Rhys has rejected the imposing powers and its ways of writing about the factions of the oppressed using post colonization, as it will be causing harm to the logics and ideology given by the westerners. In this way, the book is a mix of modern and the colonized era, which is giving replies to Jane Eyre. 182 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
It was through her destructive methods, he has played with the themes, characterisation and the plot setting similar to Jane Eyre, using the same parodies as well as past methods in the modern book, which says that Wide Sargasso Sea is a clean post colonization era drama of Jane Eyre. Rhys has given her own voices to the characters that were knowingly made to remain silent in the characterisation of Jane Eyre, with the attempt to relate the characters and their stories. Among the greatest critics of Jane Eyre, was Bertha Mason who is known as the “mad lady in the attic” .She is a West Indian female, Bertha is the central character of the lower class in novel of Bronte. The huge money of Rochester’s legacy is coming from her plantations that he is controlling after their marriage. But, when Rochester is talking about his wife Bertha, he says about in very low terms about her alien nature, lower class interests, narrow thinking which is very common and cannot think beyond a limitation so as to expand to make something look bigger. His portrayal of her, signifying the outlook of superior thinking as well as not giving chances for her growth which is the result of her low ethnic belonging. Rochester’s noting about Bertha talks about her being mad, as a result of being the children of a mad people for well over three different generations reflecting in what Victoria believed. The gene relationship which the husband has drawn about his wife reflects how the Britishers thought about the lower classes, all of them being the same. The British think there are no genders, class as all such people are belonging to the lowest strata of society. The main character in Eyre’s book, Bertha’s life is the birth of disturbances and disruptions. She was about to get into marrying Rochester and thereby staying happily after that, when she was surrounded, where her dreams are turning into nightmares. How Jane describes Bertha is dehumanizing the woman in captivity as well as making her a figure that resembles animal more than human. Jane in her choices of dictions in the extracts has put Bertha on the lines in lying among humans as well as animals. In place of referencing her in termed of her, Jane has used it as accomplishing the theory of activities performed done by animal such as grooving and snatching. She was thinking positively about whether she was humanly or beastly. Spivak in her claims has said that Bertha Jason in the book of Jane Eyre is underestimating the boundaries which lie between the two in order to get her down. Such kinds of disturbances reflect the complexities of structures which have been used by the author for describing her initial look in the book. In the book, Eyre, Bertha Mason never talks and the explanations with reference to the springing from the most prominent characters. Apart from it, she was jailed in person. She was silenced symbolically in the similar type of descriptions given by the writer. She is not allowed to go around in freedom or been seen by others as the room is in as far off place, hidden in a remote place which was at a far-off place away from the real world. She was given treatment as an animal, locked up in a room with no windows which 183 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
had the worst living conditions. Her husband kept insisting that keeping her locked was a way of protecting her against the acts of society. He had not expecting Bertha to become the monster kind of person which he had created, removing her from the contacting the people as well as from her own identity. Invisible as well as not heard of Bertha portrayal in the book was like a ghostly voiceless character. She was unable to talk, have an understanding about language as a form of communications which were given in her smiles. The smiles were explained as curiously, different, formally toned and lifeless and louder voices grew to the echoes in her room. The person who was crazy in the balcony, which was the description of Bertha, given by Rochester who was describing his wife as a quite person coming from place called Bronte, coming from Creole origins and gave the people reading, describing her as woman who was of darker colour, having horrifying pictures, leading to others like COSWAY. A key character in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, where others were silencing her mad acts as retold by the Bronte’s stories about West Indian as well as Creole culture.So,it was not far for marking in the novel, the stories of others, similar to Bertha Mason or the other woman from women from Creole. In her narration on story of Bertha, Rhys is looking at story of Antonio from the West Indian origins, where he is justifying the reasons for the mad characters, questioning the intentions of the writer. It was the newer description of Eyre, who was alien to the life in Creole, about her mother named Annette, marrying Rochester and many such problems which were left as it is as given and narrated by the other people around. In spite of the stories being told again in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea which is looking like a bad story of women from Creole, going for marriage with a Britisher, through colonial attitudes present throughout, as their nature towards the people from Creole. It was just like European similarity as well as description of others. It is essentially a technique of giving definitions to the same. Similarly, the contextual descriptions given in the book, are the different version of the words othered, which gets analysed from post colonization perspectives which have been bought through the central characters such as Rochester. His orient attitudes towards Bertha and the Creole’s way of living in Africa, the issues of having personality problems with Bertha which are going to be looked at in the novel by creation of character called Antoinette cosway.Rhy has created characters on parallel lines to Mason coming from Bronte with the intention of creation of weak women who is coming from the balcony. The writer of the book has taken Rochester, as a figure of craziness which has been made due to imperial rules as well as by the patriarchy. The mad nature of Bertha, who was known as Antoinette, is related to the oppressions that she is suffering as a lady from the upper class and being a woman from the country of West Indies. The burden of the British society and their captured slaves. It was throughout the lives, she is left in conditions of getting oppressed from her husband, the harassing done not 184 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
being white in colour society of the English, from being the mad woman in the balcony. The visions of Bertha as mad individual coming from family of people who are mad.Instead,of building manly character with Rochester, who is the character in Jane Eyre, the person reading will not value the attribute and act and instead favouring those shameful moments ofactress of Creole origin. The works are big opportunities which are giving power related oppressing to the agents on the other side. Giving light on the views, Swietlik, in his writings is remembering the novel where Rhys is coming up with a different side of Eyre. The characterisation of Creole as mad has given rising to the voices, attitudes, as well as rights of telling her side of narration of the story. The main characters know the story of the mother as well as others in the family who are not properly looked at by the other people. That is why she is telling her husband that is always the other side of the story. In the attempts to give the voice to the silenced individuals, Rhys says that who was side-lined by others based on the perceptions and the other people around being more dominating, showing the relevance and importance in which, the smaller attitudes could become the centre of attraction. As per Howell” Rhy is speaking about the self-constituting meagre positioning issue relating to genders as well as colonizing differences in the fictions of resisting comprising of condition of dependency of female population.Similarly,in order to get focused on the conditions of silencing the others, in the novel. She has replied to the imperialist nature of the fictions related to the British points of views and their narratives. She is leaving a space of the view regarding the silent character and the inconsistency caused by various narratives in the most traditional methods of the postcolonial period. In the novel of the Wide Sargasso Sea, there is opposing to the first-hand accounts of Eyre where the husband Rochester, Poole in the narrations of the stories, has given the person reading to ask questions relating to reality with respect to various points of views. In the story telling, Rhys has different perceptions about looking at things, by fixing at one particular kind of view, which is raising the understanding of the people being side-lined in the new country. Spivak is relating the figures of Mason as a production of imperialist colonizers. In the colonised fictions, the writer says that being same types of the natives as well as treating them as a resource person in the text. The results of the destructive nature are that of showing marginalised pictures so as to show the moral differentiation in the characters. Apart from that, it is allowing the writers in transforming the socio-historical differences into universalised physical virtues, thereby forcing the lower classes to remain in the negative light, showing such images of the British. The result of this is of unpretending the main characters, by giving them a chance to go against people who are suppressing her. She in her reaction burned down Thorn field Halls in order to find representation. Her temper was being silenced and damaged without having any logic to it. The process at the end was about by 185 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
finishing of the textual natures by getting an uneasy calm towards the rulers and the socialist relations of the English people. To draw comparison and contrasts among the two different stories about the women in the country of Creole. In her work, Spivak, is talking about” the three women texting as well as critics of imperialising. “which was given appreciation by Rhys for the ambitions in the story telling of Bertha from the view of Creole people, thereby attacking the authors for side-lining the natives of the West Indies country. Thus, by having such perceptions, her reply given to writers such as Charlotte Bronte, Jean Rhys was bringing down the native people of South Africa done through sexual abusing, unreliability, extreme performing as well as downgrading the main players in the novel. In showing the main characters from the country of West Indies is nothing but letting them into a darker and abusive, minor roles, in order to identify oneself with purity and identity of the whites and the people from Creole. It is thereby very important to show that geographical locations play an important role in determine the character of the person in comparison to the others which is based on universalism propounded by Edward Said. When the mentioned societies do not sink along with the powerful western rulers, then it is said that the country belongs to the east and the rest are the others. Said has identified the oriental nature of the European culture, thereby drawing conclusions that east is inferior to the west. The oriental form he is saying that it is acting as a substitute for oneself, The projection of what east and the west lies in the attachment to itself with the traits and features. In such a way, they are able to get identified as well as acknowledged with their own identities, the west having the pure white in contrast to the people of the east. So, most of the literary work talks about features like cruel, savaged, lazy, inferior to others, corrupt to non-western people, whereas westerners were good, kind heated and hardworking. All these names were given by the writers. Another main feature of the western society towards the others as being full of mysteries, seductively were highlighted by the powerful western people, instead of giving them individuality and character. The above-mentioned colonized persons having similar traits is seen in the novel Sargasso Sea where the main characters of Rochester, a Britisher,who was dismissed from his family as they were restriction in British laws, simultaneously,seeking a coming together of Antoinette in solving the finance related issues.Rochester,in the start of the novel, was very much intrigued by the attitude of Antionette,but these illusions were till their honeymoon period, after which it was shattered when came in confrontation with his in laws,that was when thought they were of lower-class blood. After that incident, the attitude towards Antoinette began to change. He was having a self-centric attitude which mostly was diverted to his wife because that was the way he treated the people from the Carribean.In this way, the conceptual outlook of Said was that there were two different specialists who were attempting 186 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
to side-line and draw interpretation of the Western people towards the Easterners who were dominating within the characters of Rochester in the book. In the next chapter of the book, the couple stay in place called Granbois for their holidays, the superior attitude of the husband comes to light, When he gets his coffee from a servant named Christophine,he instantly does not like it as he is committed to enchantment thereby refuses the drinks. When his wife insists, he says that he likes the drink but not the languages. This statement given by him was enough to show the attitudes of the people towards the West Indian people, he loves the rich lands, the plantation, its naturally beautiful world and wild nature, which is not available in his home country.It is same with cultural similarities to the West Indies are the issues which are disturbing him, it is other persons who call Rochester as an outsider. .The disturbing cultural resemblances are referring to the native languages, traditions and the values and convictions are all related to one another, which are not like the European people or their set of values. Just as Rochester does not give appreciation to the people of the third world countries as he thinks his perception is bigger and justified universally. In doing so, he is differentiating the cultures and their regions to be just places of corruption. It is he who thinks about it before getting married to a wrong kind of person, which is not fitting into the English character being not aligned to the inferiority of the Nigerians. The different restrictive commanding attitudes of Rochester is traceable when he tries calling Bertha, which sounds more British version of the name Antoinette, a females name in Creole. It was through the novel that he rejects to the ways of clothes, hairstyles, giving her alternate western options. These acts of name change was very distrusting or changing the looks of the person, is nothing but imposing the attitudes on the identities and cultures on the post colonization era, which is giving rise to problems of individuality in the given subjects. Just as Fanon has written about, “The wreathed of the earth” in historical past, the colonized era of Europeans, devaluation of the history of the nation, pointing them as precivilization empty places from where the historical past of the nations like Europe have come around as pressurising them with a limited identities on the people by the ruler who puts pressure all the time.Similarly,a Whiteman is attempting to impose a new name as an identity, which has already present from the birth and cultures on her, which is again pushing her to becoming mad, the ways to finding peace from those people oppressing. The timing that the book looks into is extremely important. Rhys story is taking place during the year of Act of Emancipation in the country of Jamaica, the periods critical with problem of complexity and controversy. In that period, there are different community in the societies that will fire up the densities of tensions: the Blacks, the Creoles and the Community of the whites. After gaining independence, the newly formed nations are highly angered towards their leadership, who were the Creoles who were white as well as White English people. It is happening through the established societies, the anger of people slaved comes to haunt them 187 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
in their lives whenever the blacks try to take their anger on the others. The retaliation and the hate is much visible from the fact that they are burning the crops of the Cosway family, as, other characters in the story are playing their respective parts.Hence, it is possible to believe Spivak that in the novel, she talks about recollecting the life of a Creole woman who was in the hands of the coloniser, as she is told not to mingle with blacks in the west. It is her depiction of the black lives which is treating people differently. All the slaves in the novel have played crude, cruel, revenging attitude with no good attitudes. It was Christophine,Bertha’s black assistant, raises questioning on her dedication and stress about what Bertha was going through so that the reader knew what was happening.Similarly,Rhys has written back to create another version from the point of view of the suffering people of Creole. The societal status of the Creole people is a different matter as it was linked to the black community and the English people. The depressions which Bertha and the other characters are going through is stemming from mixing of originality which as per Homi Bhabha is called hybridity. And which results in something in between. The Creole culture of Bertha is originally belonging to the mixing of cultures called hybridity which Homi Bhabha had proposed. She does not belong to the authoritative English people in the country of West Indies and so she is stranger to the whole culture. Neither is she belonging to the black community, where she and her mother Annette live, they make fun of it throughout the novel. This aspect of Bertha’s mixed cultures is pushing her into suffering from being in-between.Hence; the Creole way of living is creating a life that fits into the important English culture or the black societies. The oppressions of Bertha in the two ways of society are visible in the book. As many relationships are developing in the book from marriage to Rochester, her relations with Christophine and Amelia, who are not obeying the orders given by her. Even the society where they are living is making Bertha and her daughter is on the lookout for rich white boys for marriage recognising their hybrid culture in the society. The patriarchal oppression is that she is going through in terms of being a women and a subject. The tortures which she has to face in order to get her voice recognised in the society, which in turn is driving her to complete madness. The hybridity is the main reason as to why she is not able to decide what her identity is, which in turns leads to ambiguity.Being a female does not bring any hope to get her individuality. Throughout the novel, she is known as the daughter of her mother, then after marriage to Rochester, Bertha is the name imposed on her by her husband. Having to look into so many different identities, she is losing her own individuality. There is a presence of identity crisis running in her mind as to where she belongs, and which is her place. Sexuality is also playing an important role in her identity. It is known fact in literature that black woman are open to sexuality, but the hybridity of the relationships is causing lots of suffering. The features of hybridity like loneliness, being in between ,in isolation,alone,estranged,lack of security,unwillingness,mistrust,lack of economic and social security,racism,partriachy,colonial oppression, sexual needs and many 188 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
more led her to a step towards getting mad. It looks as if she was pushed into the madness by her own people. In relation to this Spivak’s essay “Can subalterns speak? ‘questions the status of such lower-class women, who are being treated as colonial subjects in the post colonization era. They are not allowed to even raise their voices in concern to the dominating persons the society. After having a review of the situations, theories and the novels.Spivak has answered the same right in the beginning. She believes that as long as the westerners keep on denying giving voices to lower class women like Bertha, she will always be locked in between the crisis of oneself and the whole society. They are not allowed to raise their voices in concern, talk to the big political and economic leaders about the sufferings which they are going through so as to get independence for themselves.Hence, it is for sure that the lower classes are kept way from the elite upper class, racist attitude and legacies Their sufferings are making them mad and driving them crazy. Bertha’s revolt against the oppressions which were happening around her and her dreams, made her to set fire on the whole British prison. Any individual, whether being from the lower class like Bertha had the rights to protest against the oppressions in order to raise the voices of concern for her better life. It is just like devaluing the person and his/her identity just because of political gain. There will be some day in life when it will be awake up call for all those in power who are denying people their basic rights of freedom and speech will having the similar end like in the novel. 7.4 SUMMARY Gayatri Spivak’s original work “Can Subalterns Speak?” has transformed the analysis of colonising through elective and uncompromising arguments that have confirmed the relevance of Marxist while applying destructive methods for exploring the worldwide labour division and the world of capitalism. Her essays revolve around the history and ideological things that are destroying the possibilities of getting heard from those people in power. It is an ongoing investigation of what is the meaning of subjectivity with respect to politics, to give accessibility to the states, the suffering of burdens of differences in the system of capitalism that the promises they make are still holding good with the people. Ever since its publication, can the subaltern speak? Has been cited by many authors, discussed, debated as well as criticized. In those writings, eight of the scholars have taken cognisance of her work. They begin with conducting research on the work done for the development of the lower classes for the sake of human rights. It is the, through Spivak’s work, they are made to rework on the problems of the poor, voices and deaths. The last section talks 189 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
about the situations in the book relating to the division of labour and the politics of silencing the women from African and Asian countries. In the work done after, she herself has considered the essays are interpretations of the past and the future questioning the history which remains secretive in the original and its revised form. In her essay, Spivak fate of the lower classes and how they are pushed by the representation politics. Since the representation is given to only few elite people in the society, there is always question on the effectiveness of this representation of the lower-class people which is going waste. This is keeping the populations being marginalised, silent and being voiceless. She is of the view that they should not be allowed to speak, as lower-class people side-lined have no voices of their own where people find it difficult to even speak. The importance of Spivak’s arguments is that lower class are those people who should be represented by the elite people. They are just treated as subjects who can speak on their own. They should be investor and a master of their self-voices. It is only then can they speak for them and come out of being called subject. This is the self- reflection of the lower class. Spivak is an excellent at performing deconstruction, critic of the post colonized era, having strong opinions that are written by the elite classes sometimes, who are not learning from the positions today. It means that a representative of the lower-class facing hazards of not having accurate knowledge about others as well as their views. For the higher classes who should speak for them, there is a need for doing it ethically. The tasks have to have positivity and the strengths for people being marginalised.The only way is to give privileged position where those people can speak. She is hence of the view that there should be an interaction among the high class and the lower classes to enable representation by the privileged classes. 7.5KEYWORDS Subaltern: In the post colonized era, it means the lower class or the groups that are displaced to become just margins in the societies. Subaltern Studies: The studies analyse the single relationship of the lower classes and thus studying the interplays of dominating and subordinating people in the colonized systems, in India, through movements between nation, space and the moments in history. Postcolonial-feminist Theory: The theory states that women are suppressed by two things, legacy and the colonial leadership which is a continuous process of many 190 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
countries to gain independence. The womenfolk are getting colonized because of dominance of males and the imperialist attitude. Marxist: A method of social as well as economical analysing that uses the materialist interpretations of the history. Deconstruction: It is a form of philosophy and literature analysis, getting derived from French philosopher Derrida who questions the concepts of distinction and opposition. In the western philosophy, though there is a close analysis of the languages and the logic of philosophical and texts in literature. Third Space: A post colonized, socialistic theory of identities and realized through the community through languages and the education. 7.6 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Gayatri Spivak discussed in her translation of Mahashweta Devi’s and the short stories of fiction, given the understanding of the subaltern’s theories. Discuss in detail. ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2. Another of the texts can be analysed using the theory of subalterns is the book named A Thousand Splendid Sons written by Khaled as it looks into the features of neo colonising and the identity of the diaspora.Describe in detail. ……………………………………………………………………………………………. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7.7 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Write a note on Gayatri Spivak. 2. What does the term ‘subaltern ‘mean? How has it come into existence? 3. What is the relation of the ‘space’ from where Spivak is making her observation? 4. How are Feminist and Marxist theories used by Spivak? 5. Why is the subaltern not able to speak, according to Spivak? Long Questions 1. Describe the nuance differences concept of the subaltern’s theory? 2. How does the essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ help in understanding the various subaltern identities? 191 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
3. How does Spivak correlate the literary theories with subaltern studies? 4. How does Spivak bring in the space of the third world countries in the theories of post colonizing? 5. Do you support Spivak’s statements that the subalterns ‘cannot speak?’ Explain. B.Multiple Choice Questions 1. Which author’s works has Spivak translated? a. Mulk Raj Anand b. Raja Rao c. Mahasweta Devi d. Anita Desai 2. “Spivak speaks about the investigation of the history of the lower-class women during the crisis times is accompanied by much research on history” was told by a. Lazarus b. Homi Bhabha c. Chinua Achebe d. Partha Chatterjee 3. Which Indian social issue has Spivak talked about in her essays? a. Dowry system b. Sati system c. Caste system d. Child marriage 4. What is Bertha’s name in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea? a. Anette b. Christophine c. Amelia d. Antoinette 5. According to whom in Spivak’s thoughts, it is best understanding if the situation is in terms of ongoing debates in politics within the country about the Marxist theory in context of anti-colonization struggle? a. Homi Bhabha b. Robert Young c. Ranajit Guha d. Partha Chatterjee 192 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Answers 1-(c), 2-(a), 3-(b), 4-(d), 5-(b) 7.8 REFERENCES Textbooks Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2013). Post-colonial studies: The key concepts. Routledge. Brontë, C. (2008). Jane Eyre. Oxford University Press. Rhys, J. (1992). Wide Sargasso Sea. WW Norton & Company. Spivak, G. C., & Riach, G. (2016). Can the subaltern speak? (p. 254). London: Macat International Limited. Spivak, G. C. (1985). Three women's texts and a critique of imperialism. Critical inquiry, 12(1). References Achebe, Chinua (1975) Morning Yet on Creation Day. London: Heineman, New York: Doubleday. Anderson, Benedict (1983) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso. Brathwaite, Edward Kamau (1984) History of the Voice. London: New Beacon. Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin (1998) Key Concepts in Postcolonial Studies. London: Routledge. Ross Robert L., ed. (1999) Colonial and Postcolonial Fiction: an Anthology. New York: Garland. Websites https://www.jbe-platform.com/ https://www.academia.edu/ http://www.transcultural-english-studies.de/ 193 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
UNIT 8: INTRODUCING HOMI BHABHA: CONCEPTS OF AMBIVALENCE AND HYBRIDITY Structure 8.0 Learning Objectives 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity 8.3 ‘Postcolonial Reading of Texts’ 8.4 Summary 8.5 Keywords 8.6 Learning Activity 8.7 Unit End Questions 8.8 References 8.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, student will be able to: Recognize Homi K Bhabha's theory in the realm of postcolonial thought. Explain the concepts of Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity. Repeat in postcolonial reading of texts using Bhabha's theories. Interpret postcolonial reading of texts using Bhabha's theories. 8.1 INTRODUCTION Homi K Bhabha as a theoretician of postcolonial studies has already been discussed in previous units. He is quoted by historians, philosophers and linguists. In his works, H.K. Bhabha makes impact on various topics such as: nationalism, writing practice, postcolonial literature, the problem of the city in the global era, translation studies, hermeneutics, postmodernism, phenomenology in exploring the history, culture and philosophy of third world countries. However, the keyword to characterize his research activity is still \"postcolonialism\" (post-colonial studies). 194 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
Primarily, Bhabha perceives the way interactions taking place between the colonizer and the colonized in terms of psychoanalytically and from a in a different perspective; it could be put forth as the theory by Bhava is to focus away from it. Another statement in this regard states that ‟ pay emphasis on the colonizer and the focus by Fanon is on the colonized, Bhabha has a different standpoint, and his stance is towards the colonizer and the colonized. The Location of Culture (1994) has several important essays, in which Bhabha has developed many concepts regarding culture making attempts to diminish the binary oppositions and splitting the world as self and other. The concepts developed by him like hybridity, ambivalence, mimicry, liminality, uncanny, unhomely, and subaltern have influenced the postcolonial discourse to a large extent. Here, he argues for a theoretical position which escapes the binary oppositions of centre and margin, civilized and savage. Homi K. Bhaba demonstrates a fundamental theoretical base of postcolonialism. His study of dominations, subjugations, oppressions, colonial traumatic feelings, and impact of other powerful factors which produce another culture, creed, doctrine, habit and civilization; is deeply influenced by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Edward Said, Jacques Lacan and Jean-Paul Sartre. The fundamental concepts of Bhabha can be summarized in four words: liminal, hybrid, mimicry, and ambivalent which would be further explored in this unit. 8.2 MIMICRY, AMBIVALENCE AND HYBRIDITY Ambivalence as a term has its inception first time in psychoanalysis is to express a scenario of frequent fluctuation between longing for one thing and at the same time looking for the opposite. It also gives an indication of attraction towards an object/person/action and repulsion from it concomitantly. Adapted in accordance with the colonial discourse theory developed by Homi K Bhabha, it explains the intricacies of attraction and repulsion characterizing the relationship of colonizer with colonized. The relationship is ambivalent in nature as the colonized subject is not so simple and outrightly opposed to the colonizer. Instead of making presumption that certain colonized subjects have the attributes like ‘complicit’ and ‘resistant’, it gives a mixed feeling of the presence of complicity and resistance in an unstableassociation within the colonial subject. Further, ambivalence characterizes the method of colonial discourse is in context to the colonized subject, thereby it could exploitative and nurturing, or representing as nurturing. Ambivalence in Bhabha’s theory interrupts the distinct authority of colonial domination since it muddles the plain relationship between colonizer and colonized. Hence, ambivalence is an unwelcome aspect related to colonial discourse favouring the colonizer. The issue with the colonial discourse is, it needs developing compliant subjects who in turn reproduce its habits, 195 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
assumptions, and values, i.e., ‘mimic’ the colonizer. Instead, it generates ambivalent subjects, and their mimicry is far from mockery. Ambivalence thus describes the swinging connection between mimicry and mockery because it is fundamentally causing anxiety to colonial dominance. In this regard, it can’t be seen as less powerful for the colonial subject; rather ambivalent, i.e., or ‘two-powered’. The ambivalence effect (concurrent attraction and repulsion) is for causing a great disturbance to the dominance of colonial discourse. Therefore, ambivalence leads to a contentious proposition in the theory by Bhava. It happens as the colonial linkage remains ambivalent consistently and it becomes the base for its own destruction. This is actually controversial since it indicates that the colonial relationship might go for disruption irrespective of any resistance or rebellion by the colonized. Bhabha argues that colonial discourse is forced to be ambivalent as it isn’t in support of colonial subjects exacting replicas of the colonizers, otherwise it appears intimidating.Take for example, Charles Grant wanted Indians to follow Christian religion in 1792. However, at the same time he was concerned about people might be violent for liberty.Grant was looking for a solution in terms of propelling Christian doctrines to divisive caste practices so as to create some kind of reform and it might appear the mannerism as followed by the English.Bhabha wants to demonstrate the conflict if any exist in the imperialism would lead to its own downfall: because the ambivalent situation is developed leading to disrupting its presumption for getting monolithic power. Robert Young has otherwise to state in this regard. He is of the opinion that ambivalence theory by Bhabha is his method of turning the tables regarding imperial discourse. The centre considers periphery as ‘the borderline, the unclassifiable, the marginal, the doubtful’ gives response by stating the centre as an ‘equivocal, indefinite, and indeterminate ambivalence’. However, it is not the case of a turnaround of a binary as it appears, for Bhabha it exhibits colonizing and colonized subjects are subjected to implication in the ambivalence of colonial discourse. The concept appears hybridity as like ambivalence ‘decentres’ authority from its power, resultantly authority could be hybridized if positioned in colonial context where it finds itself to deal with, and mostly inflected through other cultures. The hybridity involving Charles Grant’s suggestion given above could be taken as a feature of its ambivalence. In this matter, the engagement of colonial discourse with respect to colonized cultures upon which it dominates leads to an ambivalence that is responsible for disabling its monolithic dominance. The discourse on post-Enlightenment English colonialism misleads. If colonialism is empowered in the realm of history, it exercises its authority again and again through the farce figures. Now have a brief on the historical intention behind the civilizing mission, \"human and not wholly human\" as stated by Lord Rosebery, \"writ by the finger of the Divine\" that mostly produces a content having the traditional attributes related to l’oeil, mimicry, irony, and repetition. Mimicry has emerged as one of the greatest evasive and impactful approaches 196 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
involving colonial power in the comic turn from the colonial imagination to its low mimetic literary effects. Within the stifled economy of colonial discourse, Edward describes it as the strain among the synchronic panoptical vision of domination, stasis-and the contextual pressure of the history of change over the years, the demand for identity, difference - mimicry represents a scathing compromise. Supposing that we adapt Samuel Weber's articulation on the marginalizing vision of castration, then colonial mimicry becomes the yearning for a reformed and recognizable; others as a subject of a difference remains the same to some extent. Means, the discourse on mimicry revolves around an ambivalence to be very effective. Further, mimicry should produce its slippage on perennial basis, its excess as well as difference. The authority of the then colonial discourse could be called as mimicry that is stricken through an indeterminacy thereby mimicry represent a difference which itself is a process of disowning. If one goes through colonial literature in addition to postcolonial, ‘Mimicry’ is seen when people from a colonized society (like Indians or Africans) imitate the language, politics, dress, or cultural attitude of other colonizers (such as the British or the French). Mimicry is considered as leveraging the behaviour advantages in colonialism and with respect to immigration. It is about following and replicating the person in authority with the intention of getting to access to the same. However, while mimicking one shouldn’t disclose his or her cultural identity. It has been observed that in certain stances, immigrants in addition to colonial subjects get confused with their cultural encounter and it becomes hard to suppress own identity. Generally, mimicry is seen as disgraceful something shameful. And if it is performed by a black or brown person, then he or she becomes the subject of ridicule.Likewise, there are numerous offend or slander people do informally which are considered as mimicry. For instance, a brown person is referred as “coconut” – because he/she behaves as if belonging to white community. Similarly, a person from black community is referred as “oreo”. All these sorts of insults are done in the name of mimicry. There is no doubt, mimicry is a good concept considering the fact of the alliance between colonizing and colonized people.Majority of the people have been mocked as mimics/ mimic-men. Still, nobody describes himself/herself as engaging in mimicry in good spirit. Rather it is presented as something else which might not go well with some people. Most of the times, mimicry is cited with reference to the “been-to,” i.e., somebody has gone to the west and returned home and appeared complete change.Frantz Fanon mocked and pretended like Martinician \"been-tos\" in Black Skin with White Masks. It makes cultural confusion to Nyasha and her family members in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions becomes the focal issue in the novel. The characters as portrayed in Nervous Conditions who have not experienced travel to a western country identify the desire of those who returned but 197 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
trying to impose their English values, religion, and language on everyone they come across looks bemused and offensive. Nonetheless, mimicry is that bad as perceived. In the essay “Of Mimicry and Man,” Bhabha explained mimicry at times as unintended subversive. As per the thoughts of Bhabha, which has its origin from the deconstructive reading of Jacques Derrida and the performative idea of J.L. Austin. According to them, mimicry is all about performance which in turn exposes the figurative expressions of power pretendedly. To better understand this aspect, consider an Indian is trying tomimic the English, then it reflects something remaining in obsession withspecific codes related to Englishness, like the British colonial infatuation with the sola topee, his performance involvingthose codes might appearhollow.It could be feasible but is usually not seen in the literature belonging tocolonial and postcolonial period. However, it gives some kind of conjecture as one can’t willingly employ the subversion method.There are numerous instances ofpostcolonial literature exhibitingsubversioneffect. There is one more sincere and powerful way where mimicry appearssubversive or empowering. It happenswhen it is about imitatingfreedom, justice,and the rule of law as followed in western countries.A Passage to India by Forster is a fine example in this regard, wherea minor character having nameMr. Amritrao, is a Calcutta based lawyer,but he is a matter of fear or concern for the British Anglo-Indians.He becoming the dreadis not for his unfair character but his knowledge on the principles of the British law is equally applicable to the British, as it is applicable for Indians.Actually, he has had his education in a foreign country, and he speaks English very well even being an Indian. In this scenario,he could be a matter of mockery but itthere is a concernthat the British legal system is not up tothe expectation of justice. In fact, the novel by Forster where the character played by Amritrao is a matter of political debate. It provides many instances of anti-colonial nationalist movements taking place in the countries of Africa and Asia which reflect mimicking the political ideas from western countries. As per the statement by the historian Partha Chatterjee, Indian nationalism is the outcome of a “a derivative discourse”, i.e., a transcript of western nationalism modified to the Indian context. It has been witnessed over the years that the derivative idea of justice, democracy and equality used by various activists appeared to get reshaped as per the local culture. Feasibly, Mohandas K. Gandhi did this task better than anybody else. Gandhi symbolized Indian austerity and lucidity (like traditional Indian dress and fabric) along with western based socialism and put to use that new blended ideas for mobilizing the mass movements in India, where majority of the Indians have no frontal relationship with the British. Indian patriotism by Gandhi could have initiated as a “derivative” of nationalism in the west but remained as distinctively Indian. 198 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
So, mimicry is a sign of double articulation; a complicated approach for reform, discipline, and regulation that \"appropriates\" the others as it envisages power. Mimicry is again an indicator of the inappropriate; however, a recalcitrant approach clings the authorities’ strategic function of colonial rule, expedites surveillance, and gives rise to a potential imminent threat to both \"normalized\" knowledges and those in disciplinary powers. The influence of mimicry on those authority involved in colonial discourse is very intense and disturbing. For in \"normalizing\" the colonial state/ subject, the vision of post-Enlightenment civility turns away its own liberty and gives rise to other insights of its norms. The ambivalence informs us this strategy is being discernible; for e.g., the second Treatise by Locke splits for exposing the constraints of liberty where he has used the word \"slave\" in two ways: first descriptively being the base of a legalized ownership, then as the trope for an unacceptable and illegalpracticeof power. Thearticulated aspect here refersto the absolute and imagined dissimilaritybetween the \"Colonial\" State of Carolina and the Original State of Nature. So, to point out the spacebetween mimicry and mockery is the emergence ofreforming and civilizing mission is getting threatened by thegaze of its disciplinary double leads tocolonial imitation of mine.They have shareda discursive process wherethe excessgenerated throughthe ambivalence of mimicry (nearly same but not quite) doesn’t\"rupture\" the discourse. However, itgets transformed toan uncertainty of sort thatconnects with the colonial subject as a \"partial\" presence. By \"partial\" we mean\"incomplete\" as well as\"virtual.\" It looks likethe emergence of the \"colonial\" is relyingfor its portrayal oncertainstrategic limitation/ prohibition that remains inthe authoritative discourse.The achievementof colonial appropriation relieson a multiplicationof inappropriate objectsmaking it sure its tacticalfailure. Hencemimicryat one point of time being considered asmenace. A classic workon partiality could be referred in this regardis Charles Grant's \"Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of Great Britain\". It gotsuperseded toHistory of India by James Mills as the most powerfulin the initial period ofnineteenth-century related to Indian manners includingmorals. Grant's dream foran evangelical system on educational missionwas performedin English. Thus, it was believed to bepolitical reform along with Christianityand to some extentan awareness that the expansion as percompany rule in India neededa system of \"interpellation\"--a reform on manners, as put by Grant,that would givethe coloniala sense of personal identity.Grant found himself somewherebetween the inclination to bringreligious reform and the concern ofthe Indians being violentfor liberty, he states thatthe \"partial\" diffusion of Christianity, and the \"partial\" domination of enhancing moral will develop t a specific form of colonial subjectivity. Thesuggested thing is a reform process through which Christian doctrines could conspirewith divisive caste practicesfor preventing vicious political alliances. Without aware of ground reality,Grant comes up witha knowledge of Christianity considering it as a social control thatconflicts with the proclaiming assumptions meant for authorizinghis discourse. The 199 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
ludicrous overspending of Macaulay's Infamous Minute gothighly influenced as per the observation by Charles Grantmakes a derisionof Oriental learninguntil encounteredwith the challenge of devising a \"reformed\" colonial subject. Then it is apparentthat the greatEuropean humanism iscapableof ironizing itself. Between the conjecture ofEuropean learning and colonial power, Macaulay couldconceive only\"a class of interpreters amongus and the millions of Indians governed by usexcept English in tastes,opinions,morals andintellect\". It could be stated otherwisea mimic man nurtured\"through our English School,\" as a missionary educationist penned something interestingin 1819, \"to form a corps of translators and be employed in different departments of Labour.\" The line of descent regardingthe mimic man is foundin the worksby Kipling, Orwell, Forester,and Naipaul among others and one can refer this in the recent work byBenedict Andersonon nationalism on the lines ofBipin Chandra Pal. He is the outcomeof a distortedcolonial mimesis, where it needsto be Anglicized, but it is notin English. The figure of mimicry can be traced from the work ofAnderson and he describes it as \"the inner incompatibility of empire and nation.\" It complicatesthe racial signsand cultural priority, resultantlythe \"national\"no longer remains naturalizable. The writingemerges out ofmimesis and mimicry which is away of representation, that is responsible for marginalizingthe immensehistory, mocks simplyits power to become a model, that power enables it imitable. Mimicry keeps on repeatinginstead of representingand where in leads todiminishing perspective.Decoud's superseded European vision of Sulaco as the incessant civil conflictwhere folly appearedeven strongerto bear as compared to than its embarrassment ... the disorder of a population irrespectiveofcolours,races, barbarism,tyranny and so on. America can’t be ruledor Ralph Singh's treachery in Naipaul's The Mimic Men: We imaginedto be real,learning andpreparingfor life, while do so, we mimic people fromthe New World, where corruption remains as an unknown aspect in this regard, and it came very fast in this new. Both Singh and Decoud,in context to ways followed byMacaulay and Grant are the satirist of history. Though havingtheir motivesand citations they mention the colonial text wrongly, erratically and irregularlyacross a sensible bodythat refuses to representin a narrative and that deniesbeing representational. The intention behindemerging as \"authentic\" by means ofmimicry, -through a process involvingwriting and reiterating -is perhaps the last irony of partial representation.Mimicry to me is not about the as usualperformanceof relying oncolonial relations through self-obsessed identificationas Fanon has seen thatthe black man ceases to beaperform oriented person for,the white man could only represent his self-esteem. Mimicry hidesno identity behind themask: it is not likeCesaire’s narrationas \"colonization- thingification\" is the baseto the presence of Africaine. The perilof mimicry hasdouble vision, one isrevealing the ambivalence of colonial discourse and another is disruptingits authority. Moreover, its binaryvision is due tothe partial representation or recognition of the colonial object. Grant's work on colonial as partial imitator, Naipaul's colonial politician as play-actor, 200 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)
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