LITR 5734: Colonial & Postcolonial Literature

Student Midterm 2008

Jim Steinhilber

Salvation or Mugging: Perspective

The next few pages describe thoughts and emotions generated within me through the taking of this course, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature.  Every course should be thought of as a ‘journey’ as opposed to a straight learning experience.  If one attends class with the only intention of receiving information then one might as well open an encyclopedia.  It is within the personal interaction and self-thinking that one realizes the true purpose of education.  Let’s call it a ‘renaissance’ of thinking. 

What we historically think of as the ‘formal’ Renaissance was roughly the 14^th through the 16^th centuries in Europe.  As compared to the times preceding it, social attitudes and individual questionings increased a great deal.  Society awakened to the process of questioning and self learning.  -- But it would be a mistake to saddle these centuries with the sum total of enlightened thought.  I propose there was such a renaissance that took place within the literary world in the time moving from colonial to post-colonial mindsets.

Toward the goal of continuing our own journey, we have been reading literature (this is a literature course) both from the perspectives of colonial times and post-colonial times.  Notice I use the word ‘perspective’.  Understanding this concept is important when we judge the authors and texts.  Yes, yes, we all endeavor to not judge but, candidly, we all do.  The best stated intentions and proclamations of any of us fall short of our own expectations from time to time.  And often one does not even know ‘biases’ are in play.  What is good and what is bad?  What is acceptable and what is not?  What is a ‘human’ right and what is no right at all?  Take a moment and think… are you so sure of what the answers are?

So far in this class we have read two books – Heart Of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, the former written of the times of colonization and the latter formed under the perspectives of the ones colonized (post-colonial). Trying to make sure this work does not turn into a book report, suffice it to say Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness chronicles the travels, emotions and doubts of one ‘Marlowe’, a narrator of the journey and his ‘understanding’ of what he notices.  If I may barrow from Pauline Chapman’s (this class) work of October 2005, “ Conrad’s English narrator (Marlowe) journeys into the Belgian colonized Congo and relates impressions or the colonizers, the natives and the setting”.  In fact Marlowe (who I presume is Conrad) is an adventurer and at heart that is the reason he is in Africa.  The character of Kurtz , and ivory trader, has been there a great deal longer.  But all of that is simply logistics, a frame, upon which deeper meanings (the real story) are hung.

It should be noted here that for the ‘explorers/dreamers’ (Marlowe, Kurtz, etc.) the natives of the Congo region seem like ‘extras’ and background.  They are a tool, something to be used and manipulated.  They in fact are a means to the end – what ever end that may be.  No less than the land or the encountered animals, the native population is something to be dealt with and overcome.  The assumption is that the native people either have no culture or what culture they have is not worth saving. 

Colonial attitude (all too often) – I am doing you a big favor.  I am all knowing while you are naive.  You will benefit from my knowledge.  In return (out of your gratitude) you will give to me what ever it is that I desire.  If it be that I am Big and you are Small then so be it.  The flow will be from me to you.  Oh… and I will not stand in the way of your gratefulness.  But… as we quickly come to realize, especially in the character of Kurtz, a ‘colonizer’ who comes for what ever reason (to give?) can be on the receiving end of change.  Again Chapman, “The example of Kurtz could be a warning to any Europeans who had (have) grand ideas about what could (can) be accomplished with Africa (or anywhere)”.  How best to sum these ‘rapids’ but to quote Rudyard Kipling’s poem The White Man’s Burden (1865 – 1936), stanza one,

“… Send forth the best ye breed –

Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives need;

To wait in heavy harness,..”

Kurtz (unknown to himself or un-admitted) has paid a great price in his long pursuit.  Again: big me, little you.  But, who is big and who is little?  We see that change can work both ways.

The second book we’ve read was Things Fall Apart  by Achebe – a Nigerian.  I call attention to his ancestry in order to lend the proper perception when considering his views and opinion.  Ones perspective should also be accounted for when reading Conrad, both the reader and the author.  Each man is both a product of his individual time and circumstances.  Conrad represents (supposedly unknown to him) the perspective of the colonizer and Achebe the perspective of the native society (or the colonized).  Of course that is not to excuse some behaviors, but it definitely explains them, and by such knowledge we all may modify our own judgments.

In Things Fall Apart we are introduced to Okonkwo, a respected member of the Igbo tribe.  (The ‘I’ is pronounced as a long ‘e’, do not pronounce the ‘g’ in Igbo.  Long ‘o’).  Suffice it to say the Igbo society has its own set of morays and customs guiding their continued existence.  When colonizers come (in this case Christianity) with different traditions, one set of customs is discounted.  Usually the other is ignored. 

Okonkwo of the ‘colonized’ inwardly and outwardly wrestles these new customs and mores.  The big discussion in class is Okonkwo’s beating of his wife.  From our American perspective the beating of ones wife (or anyone) clashes with our self image.  It is not acceptable within our like perspectives.  Then when we understand that Okonkwo is chastised for breaking the peace of the Week of Peace, not the beating given, we almost feel insulted.  Why, it’s bad enough someone should beet another person but when the local society in effect goes along with it?  Well, they must be colonized and made to understand!

And in the end there is the suicide.  Hmm…  Our society discounts that act.  It cannot be excused.  But, can it now be understood? 

That is what the dialogue between colonial literature and post-colonial literature offers us. – The awareness not to discount nor ignore other universes.  Thus the ‘renaissance’ continues within each of us.  Yes, although through alternative perspective we learn that what we once thought of as evil (while philosophers may yet think so) may not be, we sense an awareness that, in fact, we are ‘all’ centers of the universe and as such each has a unique perspective.  That is a lot of words to say -- I can only know myself and I can only struggle to understand you.

The ‘dialogue’ of the colonial and post-colonial perspectives accentuate the other.  Like the age old debate about whether good can exist without the counterpoint of evil, or vise versa, the attitudes and viewpoints of the colonizers and the colonized are best understood through comparison to the other.  Again, no excuses but an explanation. 

Sometimes, just sometimes, one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover…

All work referenced in this paper come from assigned texts, class handouts, or past student work.