LITR 5731 Multicultural Literature
Colonial-Postcolonial
Final Exam Essays 2009

essay 1: overall learning

Tim Assel

Post-Colonial Learning Experience: A Summary

The first "ah-ha" moment encountered in studies for this course and discussed in my midterm was establishing colonization and the novel as defining elements of modernity. Robinson Crusoe and Heart of Darkness highlight European transition into modernity, just as novels such as Lucy and Things Fall Apart highlight their respective formerly-colonial society’s transition from traditional cultures to modernity. Realizing that the relationship between colonial and post-colonial literature paralleled the relationship between colonial and post-colonial society allowed me to incorporate colonial and post-colonial literature into an active dialogue on world history which included perspectives from colonizer, colonized, and trans-national migrant cultures. Each of these cultures have a unique set of issues created by the after-effects of colonization and de-colonization, as well as the mass immigration and integration of cultures resulting from de-colonization.

One significant post-colonial issue considered in the colonial/post-colonial dialogue was the interaction between former settler and settled colonies. The interaction primarily considered and discussed in my midterm was U.S. American interactions with other former colonies, because the U.S. has also participated in colonizing other nations and has difficulty acknowledging itself as a colonizer. Being the dominant super-power in the world today, the U.S. plays a significant role in international politics and business. However, U.S. Americans tend to be disinterested in foreign cultures and dismissive of international objection to U.S. interference in foreign countries. Post-colonial literature provides a dialogue which criticizes American foreign policies and calls attention to the diversity and individualism of post-colonial societies.

As post-colonial societies have raised their voices to be heard on the world stage, Western cultures have begun to acknowledge the diversity and individualism of formerly dominated cultures. World leaders such as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have successfully organized peaceful political change using non-violence and civil disobedience, which was discussed in my second research post. The success and failures that post-colonial nations have had in organizing peaceful self-governance have been written about in novels such as Train to Pakistan and Jasmine.

Train to Pakistan chronicles the downfall of a peaceful, integrated Indian community which is disrupted by the political violence caused by the partition. As the colonial power relinquishes authority, the diverse ethnic and religious groups of the former-colony lose the common enemy uniting their cultures and fight each other for political power. This novel illustrates the failure of a post-colonial society to overcome the injustice and prejudice resulting from the prejudice and discrimination inherent in the governing system of the dominating colonial power.

Jasmine tells the story of a modern, individualistic Indian woman whose life in India is devastated by religious terrorism as her husband is killed in the bombing of a Hindu shop by a Sikh extremist. In the wake of her husband’s death, Jasmine rejects the primitiveness of the former colony’s traditional society and transitions her life into modernity by seeking a new life in the U.S. Jasmine becomes part of the contemporary third wave of trans-national migrants who mix traditional backgrounds with new-world cosmopolitanism to create a diverse and unique perspective on global concerns and cross-cultural interactions.

Novels such as Train to Pakistan and Jasmine provide the post-colonial perspective of the colonial/post-colonial dialogue with texts by colonial authors, such as Rudyard Kipling, who wrote the short story, "The Man Who Would Be King." In this story two shabby con-men "colonize" a group of tribal communities and are eventually overthrown because of their unscrupulous governing tactics. This story and other colonial novels show the colonizers’ perspective of de-colonization, which can be incorporated into a dialogue with post-colonial novels to create new counter-narratives about world history that are not normally included in the "old canon" of Western education.

Because "The Man Who Would be King" tells its story through the perspective of the colonizer, the text provides a way for colonizers to be considered as other than villains. When this text was discussed in class, some members of the class were able to sympathize with the plight of the naïve colonizers who suffered greatly at the hands of their tribal subjects once their scheme had been foiled. The class was able to discuss how the colonizers intended and attempted to improve the livelihood of their subjects from the warring tribal communities of pre-colonization to an organized, modern empire. Initially, the colonizers had some success in organizing and governing their subjects, however, greed and lust spoiled whatever good intentions the colonizers might have had and eventually led to their downfall and subsequent torture.

This tendency toward corruption usually exhibited by colonizers tends to overshadow the beneficial effects colonizers have had on the societies they have colonized. The benefits colonized societies received from colonization was discussed in Corey Porter’s 2008 Final Exam: "What Gives: The Cooption of the Colonizer by the Colonized." In this essay Corey highlights the educational and technological advancements colonized people received as a result of colonization. Two examples of these benefits mentioned in the essay were the presence of trains in Train to Pakistan and the educational and employment opportunities available to descendents of colonized people in Lucy. Realizations, like this one experienced by Corey, which take into account cross-cultural interactions and counter-narratives to world history are what I found to be the most challenging and rewarding aspects of post-colonial studies, and I would encourage any student of world literature to embark upon a similar learning experience.