LITR 5734 2008 sample student midterm

LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Midterm 2008

Tanya Stanley

February 23, 2008

Past to Present: A Journey between Colonial Literature and Postcolonial Literature

Prior to entering the colonial and postcolonial literature course, I was intrigued by the required reading list because many of my professors have referred to the books in their own lectures regarding the texts we were reading. The notion that texts have a dialogue between one another enthralls my curiosity within the study of literature. Prior to this course, I would solely focus on the philology—the human experience—of the characters in the novels and the personas in the poems I was reading, but the dialogue that occurs between the texts is quite interesting. Before the first lecture, I thought the colonial literature aspects of the course were going to focus solely on the pilgrims and the Native-Americans. I had read many short-stories from several Native-American tribes regarding the creation of the earth, tribal customs, and folklore. I had also read works by Henry David Thoreau, William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson, and Cotton Mather which represent the pilgrims’ perspectives. I believed postcolonial literature was going to represent literature of the oppressed. I had a pretty clear picture on American colonialism, but I must admit my knowledge regarding foreign countries and foreign civilizations was—and still is—limited. By examining Chinua Achebe, Joseph Conrad, and Rudyard Kipling, the course objectives become embodied with different aspects of each of the authors’ works.

Objective two in the course syllabus describes the theory of the novel insomuch that we are “to theorize the novel as the defining genre of modernity, both for early-modern imperial culture and for late-modern postcolonial culture” (2). Reading novels instead of texts wholly concentrated on facts and dates, allows the reader to become personally invested in the characters and become more eager to discover the historical accounts of those characters and the characters’ cultures within the novels rather just soaking in facts and statistics from textbooks. As a literature major, I believe I retain more information if I have a story to follow. I agree that “storytelling is universal,” and storytelling is “a defining feature of humanity” in which other cultures use storytelling through the novel as a form of history, of tradition, of entertainment (Lecture 1/24/2008). Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, invites readers to view the colonial people of Africa in their natural depictions and to view the colonizers as they disembark in an adventure into the unknown. Marlow describes the Congo River as a river “resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land” (Conrad 6). With Marlow’s description, the reader becomes enticed to continue reading because of the imagery created through Conrad’s use of language, and the reader’s attention becomes heightened because snakes can be dangerous—even deadly—just as the Congo River proves to be. Conrad’s novel eloquently describes the colonizers’ journeys, the African natives, and the African country by assisting in the continued use of the colonial novel within literature courses today further proving the theory that the novel is a defining genre of modernity.

Continuing with objective two, Chinua Achebe’s novel introduces the reader into another civilization within Africa—the Ibo tribes. Okonkwo and his large immediate family take the reader on a journey through their own societal norms, cultural traditions, and the consequences that arise after the colonizers invade Umuofia. As the reader turns each page, rather rapidly, waiting to discover what will happen next to Okonkwo or one of Okonkwo’s wives or his children, the once assumed uncivilized tribesmen become more familiar and the reader becomes personally invested in the characters and the characters’ choices. When Ekwefi, one of Okonkwo’s wives, watches the village’s priestess leave the hut with Ezinma—Ekwefi’s only child—rage, terror, sympathy, desperation—a flood of emotions—overwhelm not only Ekwefi but the reader also. Honestly speaking, I have never felt many—if any—emotions while reading textbooks. Achebe’s masterpiece constructs a passion for the people who live in Umuofia insomuch that we may not feel just by reading facts regarding Okonkwo or Okonkwo’s family. Achebe’s novel, Things Fall Apart, just as Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, creates a passion between the reader and the words of the text. The reader can view Achebe’s contribution to colonial texts as well as his contribution to postcolonial texts.

Considering objective one, part “c” of the course—“to model and mediate the “culture wars” between the “old canon” of Western classics and the “new canon” of multicultural literature by studying these traditions together rather than separately”—we can start to understand the catalysts behind the “culture wars” and begin to learn how to prevent future “culture wars” from happening.

Achebe describes Heart of Darkness as a novel which “projects the image of Africa as “the other world,” the antithesis of Europe and therefore civilization” (“Image of Africa” 338). Achebe directs the reader to Conrad’s passage on page thirty in which Marlow describes the Congo River—meaning Africa—by stating “going up that river was like traveling back to the earliest beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings” (30). Achebe claims Conrad focuses on the silence of Africa and the frenzy of Africa in Heart of Darkness (“Image of Africa” 338). Achebe’s focus on Conrad’s depiction of Africa as a prehistoric earth furthers the notion of “old canon” versus “new canon” such that Achebe declares that the meaning of Heart of Darkness is Western civilization’s fascination with the other world: “What thrilled you was just the thought of their [the Africans] humanity—like yours…Ugly” (“Image of Africa” 339). I must confess that I—like other students in the class—did not see racism as a constant within Conrad’s novel. After reading Achebe’s novel, I reread passages in Heart of Darkness with the notion of racism in the background. On February 7^th, Erica Shillings’ dialogue presentation between Heart of Darkness and Things Fall Apart discussed the notion that we, as readers, take different approaches to texts depending on our previous knowledge of the authors, the text, or the criticisms of the text. Erica states that Okonkwo “takes care of his wives and children, and provides crops and livestock for his elders and ancestors…[and when Okonkwo is] compared to Marlow he is uncivilized, but when placed in his own surroundings Okonkwo is seen as civilized” (Shillings 2/7/2008). I agree with Erica that each reader assumes a different responsibility with the texts. After my first reading of Heart of Darkness, I did not focus on the issue of racism, and after my first reading of Things Fall Apart, I did not focus on the anti-feminine issues at hand. In both texts, I read without a preconceived notion of the criticisms available; however, I believe I read each of the novels with an individual standpoint and saw the novel through the eyes of the narrators and the characters—not the postcolonial critics. I believe the postcolonial writers have much to say and must be taken seriously in their criticisms in order for readers to grow independently and for a nation to grow into a more multicultural society—the hybrid. As active readers and learners, we cannot disregard the colonial texts or the postcolonial texts, but nevertheless, we must study the “old canon” and the “new canon” together in order to create a dialogue between the past and the present.

Taking a closer look at the syllabus objective three, “to witness Americans’ difficulties with colonial and postcolonial discourse…and learn from this perspective” and objective three, part “a,” asking ourselves if America is “an imperial, colonial, or neo-imperial nation, or an empire in denial,” we can analyze Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The White Man’s Burden” (3). Americans shy away from their forefathers as being remembered as those who brought famine, death, and war to the continent. The persona in “The White Man’s Burden” speaks about “The savage wars of peace— / Fill full the mouth of Famine / And bid the sickness cease;” (Kipling 18-20). In the poem, the white man—the colonizer—is the one responsible for war, even if the war is held to have peace in the future. War is war. War causes death and destruction. Kipling’s use of language with “wars of peace” encourages the reader to view the poem from different perspectives (18). Some view America as colonial which implies a positive inclination; however, some view America as an “empire in denial” which creates the static between others’ views on America versus Americans’ views on America, the ideal (Niall Ferguson). If you consider Achebe’s view on the colonizers of the Congo River within Heart of Darkness, or Achebe’s view of the colonizers within his own novel, Things Fall Apart, the colonizers are the bane of the existences of the natives.

Throughout the duration of the colonial and postcolonial literature course, I have been introduced to several terms which help to explain the theory of texts talking to one another and the effects that occur as results of the dialogue between texts and the cultural exchanges between cultures. Objective one introduces the term intertextuality which promotes the notion that texts are not always “timeless, autonomous, universal masterpieces” (2). The Research Link provides more in-depth information on the notion of intertextuality as an aspect which “provides a simultaneous other perspective” versus a single perspective or censorship (Columbia University). Intertextuality refers to dialogue instead of a monologue. Another term I have encountered is historicism which strives to enhance knowledge and identify “persistent oppositional themes or identities in cross-cultural dialogues” (2). Historicism suggests modernity versus tradition, first world versus third world, or national/ethnic “purity” versus “hybridity” (2). Hybridity, which references to the term Eurasian, are the two other terms I became aware of this semester. Hybridity can suggest the infusion of multiple aspects into a single concept which can involve a type of college course, a cultural exchange, and more. Eurasian is a term that is easy to depict if you dissect the word. Eurasian implies people who descend from those of European ancestry and Asian ancestry. Colonial and postcolonial literatures encompass many different and interesting directions within the study of literature.