LITR / CRCL 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature
Student Sample Student Midterm 2003

Ginger Hilton
LITR5734: Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Dr. Craig White
June 7, 2003

Concepts of Colonial and Postcolonial Literature, a. k. a. Cross-Cultural Texts in Dialogue

            What concepts lie in the students' hearts of darkness as they sign up for this course? Many incorrectly conceive the course as a focus on American texts written by authors of Colonial America before and after the American Revolution. However, the course objective #1 sheds new light on how to analyze classic literature of European colonialism and emerging literature from the postcolonial world through dialogue with each other. Consequently, this dialogue becomes a stimulating response by other voices and traditions and results in a revelation of sociological and cultural perspectives. Through hybridization where "indigenous traditions combine with imperial remnants to create something newly post-colonial" (Makaryk 156), a cross-cultural identity emerges: we are exposed to the other side of the story. Furthermore, as noted in course objective #1e, we can mediate the "culture wars" between the "old canon" of Western classics and the "new canon" of multicultural literature through a cross-over study of these traditions together rather than separately. This cross-over method of study enables students to understand changing worlds from different perspectives and voices. The voices might be criticism, conversation, or layered through characterization in the text, but the effect is a language that unveils the cultural attitudes of the colonizers and the colonized. Americans are, in fact, a hybrid of the course: we were colonized, and we are colonizers. We are a world power, but we do not think about it. This course encourages you to take a good look at conquest and power as well as the cultural, political, and economic hybrids of society that eventually develop. Their development includes learning our language  which is the thrust of this course; otherwise, their novels would be written in their native language and cultural wars would not exist.

Achebe's Things Fall Apart written in response to Conrad's Heart of Darkness is an example of how the "new canon" faces off the "old canon" in the culture wars. Noting that the authors and the characters are cosmopolitan hybrids guarantees a diverse saturation of cultures and mindsets. After years of studying Literature, it is exciting to be exposed to some new terms and concepts. This is not your standard Literature course; it is a refreshing comparison of two unknown worlds - the colonizer and the colonized - as told by known "classic" authors and new "modern" authors.

As I look back on what I've learned, it is obvious that a newfound respect for the colonized peoples of Africa has taken root. Their histories, cultures, religions, economies, pleasures, and futures were dissolved into the main flow of Western civilization. The  mixture is a compound of cultural relativism, modernity, socioeconomic growth, and political power. I have also learned that there are three waves of power: in the first wave, the colonists from England (first world) go to the third world; in the second wave, postcolonialism, those countries throw out the British, Belgians, etc.; in the third wave, immigration, peoples from the third world countries reverse the tide and move to first world countries as seen in the film Mississippi Masala. The novel, however, has been the main vehicle through which these waves unfold. Two such novels are Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad published in 1899 and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe published in 1959.

Hence, the second objective of the course is to theorize the novel as the defining genre of modernity versus formalism. Keep in mind that in the old canon, there was less emphasis about culture; it was read for formal literary reasons such as theme, setting, voice, or technique. In the new canon, however, more emphasis is on the representation of cultural attitudes and identities.

To mediate the "culture wars," two ideas must be kept in mind: first, the culture you are from depends on another culture to define itself as Chinua Achebe states in "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness:" "the West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilization and to have a need for constant reassurance by comparison with Africa" (261). The West is thereby defined as what it is not. For instance, Conrad describes the Congo as "depths of darkness" (21), "silent wilderness….something great and invincible, like evil or truth" (26), with the "smell of mud, of primeval mud" (27), and "you thought yourself bewitched and cut off for ever from everything you had known once - somewhere - far away - in another existence perhaps" (35). The contrast, of course, is civilization and order, which is the point Conrad makes in his novel.

In addition, he begins the novel with a heroic offering of the Thames as "[h]unters for gold or pursuers of fame…messengers of might within the land, bearers of a spark from the sacred fire. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth?…The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires" (8). Conrad assures the reader that "greatness" and "germs of empires" traveled the Thames. In addition, Marlow reflects back "'when the Romans first came here…They were no colonists…They were conquerors…What redeems it is the idea only…an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to…'" (9-10). The "idea" is that of nation - another concept learned in the course - which involves unity, capitalism, and growth.

The second idea to keep in mind is language or voice in the telling of tales. Achebe points out in his essay that "Conrad appears to go to considerable pains to set up layers of insulation between himself and the moral universe of his history. He has…a narrator behind a narrator. The primary narrator is Marlow but his account is given to us through the filter of a second, shadowy person" (256). Likewise, in Things Fall Apart, "the white man….spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man, though his dialect was different and harsh to the ears of Mbanta…He said he was one of them, as they could see from his color and his language" (144 ). Furthermore, one of the oldest members of the umunna told Okonkwo that he fears for the youth who have no idea what it is to speak with "one voice" (167). The concept of voice, or language, is one of the identifying themes in colonial and postcolonial literature. Language is the key of understanding cultural relativism. In other words, through reading diverse texts against a backdrop of the old canon, we derive at answers to untold questions. Dale Marie Taylor's presentation noted the following quotations supporting how language has power: "In my view language was the most important vehicle through which that power fascinated and held the soul prisoner. The bullet was the means of the physical subjugation. Language was the means of the spiritual subjugation" (Thiong'o 287).

Values are the basis of a people's identity, their sense of particularity as members of the human race. All this is carried by language. Language as culture is the collective memory bank of a people's experience in history. Culture is almost indistinguishable from the language that makes possible its genesis, growth, banking, articulation, and indeed its transmission from one generation to the next…" (Thiong'o 289).

            Taylor's posting on the class web page sums up "that language works in Achebe's text to deconstruct notions of African inferiority. Yet there were hints of a culture struggling to understand African culture in Conrad's text. Language then served as a means of producing the hybridized culture that brought Achebe's text to us." As Hamlet said, "Ay, there's the rub" (Shakespeare). The "rub" is the irony of defeat: the language of the colonizers is used to support the lost or conquered culture and bring it to the surface through novels. Furthermore, these responsive novels consider the cultural aspect over the traditional read; in other words, more insight and cultural relativism surfaces. The conquered are not truly conquered as long as language unveils the truth.

            One aspect of language as seen in Things Fall Apart is through conversation and proverbs. Achebe states that "among the Ibo the art of conversation is regarded very highly, and proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten" (7). Most of the text fluctuates between silence, drums, music, and language or a combination of these elements. For example, Okoye's visit to Unoka is a prime example of communication through silence and language. Okoye talked in proverbs asking Unoka to pay back two hundred cowries. His reaction was laughter and "his visitor…sat speechless. At the end, Unoka was able to give an answer back in proverb: "Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them" (8). Through a language of proverbs and silence, the men understood each other. Unlike Conrad's viewpoint that "they shouted…strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language" (66). Contrary to Conrad, Achebe illustrates how Ibo proverbs communicated language. The ambiguity of language appears in Kurtz' scribbling of "'Exterminate all the brutes!'" (51). Is it fair to assume "brutes" means the Africans, or could he mean the colonizers? Language can be misleading in Conrad's text; however, Achebe's text is clear and to the point.

A combined communication through language, silence, drums, and music occurs in Things Fall Apart when the "crier gave his message, and at the end of it beat his instrument again" (9). On a moonlit night, "the happy voices of children" (10) could be heard, and "old men and women would remember their youth. As the Ibo say: 'When the moon is shining the cripple becomes hungry for a walk'" (10). Here, again, is a proverb used to communicate. Notice the voices in the marketplace: "about ten thousand men were there, all talking in low voices. At last, Ogbuefi Ezeugo stood up…and bellowed…And ten thousand men answered 'Yaa!'…Then there was perfect silence…The crowd…shouted with anger…Many others spoke" (11). Observe how "ten thousand men" or "many others" spoke in low voices, loud voices, and through silence; also notice how "the crowd…shouted with anger" in unison as one voice. The Ibo were organized in their meetings with a vocalized leader and a vocalized response from individuals and the group as a whole. Obviously, if they had a problem, it was solved through language rather than, for example, violence or outright anarchy. This scene illustrates how messages were sent and decisions made regarding injustices against their society. We can conclude that they had a structure within their society as well as language to support that structure.

            Another form of communication through language included the Oracle of the Hills and the Caves "called Agbala, and people came from far and near to consult it…His priestess stood by the sacred fire which she built in the heart of the cave and proclaimed the will of the god" (17). Later, the clansmen also need an interpreter to understand the missionaries message from God: "When they had all gathered, the white man began to speak to them. He spoke through an interpreter who was an Ibo man" (144). The connecting force through songs is evident when "the missionaries burst into song. It was one of those gay and rollicking tunes of evangelism which had the power of plucking at silent and dusty chords in the heart of an Ibo man" (146). There is a captivating force or power in songs: "It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow" (147). Perhaps the spiritual connections are the fourth world as Whitman emphasizes in his poem, "Passage to India:"

O Thou transcendent,

Nameless, the fibre and the breath,

Light of the light, shedding forth universes, thou centre of them,

Thou mightier centre of the true, the good, the loving,

Thou moral, spiritual fountain - affection's source - thou reservoir…

How should I think how breathe a single breath, how speak, if, out of myself,

I could not launch, to those, superior universes?

            Whitman sees the connecting force of spirituality and the need to transcend the boundaries of earth and "launch, to those, superior universes." The superior universe of spirituality appealed to the Ibo and gave them a connection with the missionaries through transcendence toward another world. However, let's not forget that along with religious intolerance "the white men had also brought a government" (174). Upon seeing this, Okonkwo wonders why "they lost the power to fight" (175). Again, the power is a "productive force" (Makanyk 613) not a destructive force of annihilation.

As a cross-over, Achebe purposely responded to Conrad's Heart of Darkness to illustrate that the Ibo culture was, in fact, productive and full of law-abiding "citizens." In Conrad's book, the Africans are depicted as mindless creatures, without purpose, little language, and no value whatsoever - "no more account than a grain of sand in a black Sahara" (51). Conrad sets out to swelter the pride of Englishmen through an image of bestial creatures unable to think or live without guidance since "[t]hey still belonged to the beginnings of time - had no inherited experience to teach them" (42).  He refers to the natives' movements to be "like ants" (18); they wore rags "round their loins and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails" (19); they are "black shadows of disease" (20), "brother phantom" (21), "creatures" (21), "faithless pilgrims" (26), "bewitched pilgrims" (29), and "prehistoric man" (37).

Further, Conrad depicts Marlow as "savior-like" on a mission: "Something like an emissary of light, something like a lower sort of apostle" (15). However, the Eldorado Exploring Expedition is described as "reckless…greedy….and cruel…To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe" (33). Thus, on one hand, there is the Christian aspect but on the other hand, the capitalistic aspect of colonizers. This homology is effectively an idea of nation.

As seen in the poem, "New World," by Derek Walcott, he recognizes this homologous concept: "Adam had an idea! / He and the snake would share / the loss of Eden for a profit. / So both made the New World. And it looked good" (Walcott 300). In this poem, Adam represents the Christian aspect while the snake, of course, is the capitalistic aspect. There is the loss of Eden, but the profit will come with a new nation. "And it looked good" echoes the scripture which further underlines the Christian perspective.

Another homology is found in Heart of Darkness when Marlow states, "It appears however I was also one of the Workers…something like a lower sort of apostle…I ventured to hint that the Company was run for profit" (Conrad 15-16). The word "apostle" represents Christianity and the word "profit" represents Capitalism. Further reference can be seen in Things Fall Apart: "The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia" (Achebe 178). The "religion" represents Christianity and "much money flowed" represents Capitalism. In this case, like Walcott's poem, "New World," there is a "loss of Eden" but there is a "profit" (300). There is a price to pay for capitalistic gain.

What price does Marlow or Kurtz pay in Heart of Darkness? There is the fearful recognition that we stem from or are somehow innately connected with the same ancestry as the Africans on the Congo. His message clearly defines how the heart of darkness is within all of us as Achebe states in his essay:

When Marlow's African helmsman falls down with a spear in his heart he gives his white master one final quieting look. 'And the intimate profundity of that look he gave me when he received his hurt remains to this day in my memory - like a claim of distant kinship affirmed in a supreme moment.' It is important to now that Conrad, careful as ever with his words, is concerned not so much about distant kinship as about someone laying a claim on it. The black man lays a claim on the white man which is well-nigh intolerable. It is the laying of this claim which frightens and at the same time fascinates Conrad, '…the thought of their humanity - like yours…Ugly' (257).

Another example of his connectedness to the African is when he states "white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be" (19) and "[t]he man seemed young, almost a boy, but you know with them it's hard to tell" (20). Neither he nor the African is distinguishable; therefore, they are alike.

            This course enables me to consciously compare the two texts in terms of traditional vs. modernity; furthermore, I not only understand the author's purpose but must keep in mind his scope of understanding. In a traditional culture, there is a modeling of the past through proverbs or rituals as seen in Heart of Darkness. In addition, traditional cultures are oral, have a hierarchical set-up in the clan as well as the families or extended families, and there is sense of group or community. Okwonko represents the traditional culture in Things Fall Apart. He refuses to give up his sense of identity and chooses to kill himself; on the contrary, Kurtz gives up his sense of identity leading to social suicide and death. Their deaths represent the death of self at the hands of "progress" or Capitalism. In other words, the ultimate price to pay is loss of self.

On the other hand, modernity contrasts the traditional perspective. There is written language such as the "faded pencil-writing" on the wood with a signature" (39) or Kurtz' book Marlow found entitled An Inquiry into some Points of Seamanship which was "an extraordinary find…amazing antiquity" (39). Curiously, Conrad refers to the writing as "antiquity" when in fact it represents modernity. In Things Fall Apart, the Commissioner plans to write a book entitled The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger (209). Still more evidence of modernity is the sense of the individual or equality rather than what is good for the group. Most importantly, there is a modeling of the future or an explicit need for change. The concept of nations falls in the middle since it is founded on the past, delivers and supports equality and individualism while at the same time embodies the theory of family, group, and unity.

            In a sense, the theories of modernity can be a template for any literary criticism. The perspective of the modern reader who picks up a classic text in the old canon knows that its author was not prone to multicultural concepts or design. By reading modern texts in the new canon of multicultural literature, responsive literature, you can establish dialogue between these cultural wars as respects nations. Instead of national or ethnic purity, the dialogue becomes cross-cultural. It is interesting to notice the hybridity of the authors as well as the characters in various texts and how that hybridity affects us historically. The authors denote the cosmopolitan and thereby knowledgeable source. They come from mixed backgrounds, lived in several different areas of the globe, and might be exposed to layers of languages. In effect, they are taken seriously because of their wordly exposure.

By comparing cosmopolitan authors such as Conrad and Achebe, we notice how Conrad's African culture is profoundly undefined while Achebe sheds light on the darkness. How else would we know the impact of Achebe's Africa unless we had read Conrad's novel? There is a sociological theory that a society cannot be pure - you have to have corruption in order to know the good. In that vein, we have to read the old canon in order to understand the new canon. In addition, by noticing the homology of Christianity and Capitalism, a deeper understanding arises about the motives behind colonialism and postcolonialism. By taking this course, literature takes on a new meaning through comparative analysis as a means of understanding texts as well as humanity. Like Marlow said, "the inner truth is hidden" (36); language is the key to unveiling what is hidden.

How does the scope of study empower me as a student? Now I am prepared to methodically analyze texts with a new perspective - like a hybridization of my own thought process. Reading the new canon in response to the old canon through a process of dialogue between the two texts sharpens my analytical and sociological pencil, so I can better understand the cultural responses in relation to colonial and postcolonial efforts. We are being exposed to the other side of colonization: the colonized. This course is a valuable tool for understanding and interpreting literature across the cultural wars. Just like food groups meet the nutritional needs of our bodies, the literary diet must encompass language groups: the bland voice of the old canon and the spicy voice of the new canon. Otherwise, as a body without food becomes deficient in vitamins and minerals, our knowledge without different voices will be deficient.