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What is postcolonialism literature? a brief description of postcolonialism.
To understand the post-colonialism literary movement, you should understand the term colonialism. According to Merriam Webster dictionary, colonialism is, “domination of a people or area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation’s political and economic control over another people or area.” Those countries that had been invaded culturally and economically, finally gained their independence. The era after their independence is the post-colonial era. The literature of postcolonialism is very close to us since many countries gained their independence from colonizer nations in the past 2 centuries. For now, let’s get to know post-colonialism representative authors, works, themes, and style.
A brief history of what shaped post-colonialism.
It was around the 1970s that postcolonialism gained a voice among other literary movements. The second world war is one of the most important reasons for rising post-colonial literature. According to The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Great Britain lost most of its territory in the post-war wave of decolonization that began in India, South Asia. The decolonization wave spread to Africa and other parts of the world. Then, the authors had the chance to talk about the conflicts and complexities of living in a formerly colonial country. The culture and identity issues were two conflicts that changed their future behavior and culture.
Themes
Colonizers often thought they are superior to citizens of colonial countries. Guess what would happen next? Racism. One of the major themes of post-colonial literature is racism. Since no one wants to be lower than anyone, people of colonial countries started to learn and adopt colonizers’ culture and language to get closer to them. The allusion to superiority made colonizers prohibit many acts not only for colonized people but also for colonizers, like race-mixed marriages.
Before WW2, nearly half of the earth was under the control of Britain. When Britain took control of countries like India, Indian people had to know English so they could communicate with their new “Land Lords”. Speaking a new language is followed by getting to know a new culture and maybe like it and get used to it. Speaking colonizer’s language, lead to the invention of a hybrid tongue, like what Chaucer had experienced when he wanted to write a story that normal people would understand. He saw that the language people are speaking, is not French, German, or Italian, but it is a mixed version of all these languages. This is the idea of a Hybrid tongue that happens in most colonial nations.
Major authors and works
Here I listed five famous post-colonial books for further reading:
2. English Patient by Michael Ondaatje.
3. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
4. Rose by Li-Young Lee
5. A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid.
Have you ever needed a special English book, and after searching for hours, found out that it is nowhere to be found?
One of the major problems that students in Iran deal with, is the lack of access to special original books. Students may find many English novels, but they can’t trust those books since some publications will censor their content. Although these books are cheap due to circumvention of copywriting laws, their bad quality and censored content will make you put printed books aside and try pdf.
But before this grief continues, we have good news for people who need special English books but can’t find the printed form or its pdf. We can send you original books. The only thing you need to do is to contact us, then you will be a step forward to get your book!
If you are a fan of literature, you may know that it was a literature that shaped the face of history. From the very first written epic of the world to the book that was published yesterday, all and all are a part of what we call the history of humans. One of the main issues that literature carried through history was binary oppositions. From the very beginning, when we fought monsters of mountains and forests, there where binary oppositions. So, when there was good, there was bad; when there was day, there was night; and when there was war, there was peace.
What is peace?
In most cases when we want to define peace, we say: when there is no war, it is peace. The meaning of peace is so vast and active, that you may not find two people with the same definition of peace in mind. But for now, It is better to know that in general, we have two peace types, negative peace, and positive peace. The negative peace is the peace accomplished in the absence of war. Positive peace is when humans, aside from war, are looking for equality. As I mentioned before, peace is a dynamic term, but for now, whatever we said about peace is enough and we can head forward.
However, it is better to define the term in your mind and continue reading this article; this may help you to concentrate more on the literature of peace and its purposes and functions rather than the definition of peace itself.
What is the literature of peace?
When literature of war helps us to understand the war condition as we had experienced it before, the literature of peace does the same. War is defined by peace and vice-versa, that is why lots of great war pieces, are also peace pieces. One of those works is Iliad by Homer. You may remember the war scenes of The Iliad clearly, Achilles dancing with his sword while other warriors are desperately trying to stop him, Agamemnon talking to his soldiers, and the epic scene of the Trojan horse, but among all these shields and blood, there were the most attractive and effective peace scenes. Hector taking off his hamlet not to scare his little son and, his reunion with his family, is one of them. See? This is the literature of peace. As you pass by this scene of the Iliad, you can understand that these lines are trying to show peace.
Literature of peace criticism:
According to Antony Adolf in What Does Peace Literature Do? An Introduction to the Genre and its Criticism1 We should concentrate more on the criticism of peace literature. The reason is that “peace writing” and “peace writers” are rare and this is what happens unconsciously in a story, novel, play, or poem. After work is written, critics will decide whether it can be classified as a work in peace literature or not.
Why our world is craving the literature of peace?
It is difficult to claim that we know the meaning of the ultimate human peace. But what we believe in is that through literature, we can reach an acceptable form of our idealistic ultimate peace. Unfortunately, since peace is in contrast with war, it cannot be understood without it. Also, war cannot be understood without peace. That is why we need the literature of peace in today’s world. The idea of human modernism led us to believe that the era of physical war is over, but when we see humans are still waking up with the sound of bombs, we will get disappointed. Literature can act as an analyst here. Authors from all around the world will write about the experience of war and its disastrous effects on the next generation. This kind of literature will inform people and act as the historical memory of humanity. No matter where you live and what is your mother tongue, people will read your stories and think.
Major problems with the literature of peace and its effectiveness:
One of the major problems with the effectiveness of peace literature is that its written forms may not find their audience. Movies and songs are more used by people than books. The peace literature should be delivered through these mediums_ songs and movies_. Writing hundreds of books and poems will not move a single leaf on a tree as long as it is heard.
Can we write literature of peace?
Previously, we noted that “peace writing” and “peace writers” are rare, but still, you can consciously write about peace. Creating work with the purpose of delivering the idea of peace to people is important. If you are among those people who think you can be effective in this era, pick up your pen, engage with the paper and build your own peace lessons.
Sources:
‘Poets Unite Worldwide’ represents, in my mind, an invitation and an appeal
(“Poets worldwide, unite!”), and it is more an open group of poets, an
independent community, than a formal association —but still an ‘Association’
of over two hundred free minds and spirits.
I’d say that this comes, first, from my own nature: I consider myself not
just an Italian, but a Citizen of the World —born in Italy by chance—, equal
to everybody else: all human beings on planet Earth, in brotherhood. I have
an independent mind and the utmost respect for the human values of freedom,
justice, privacy.. and I dislike almost all kind of formalities: for such reason I
stay away from anything that sounds bureaucratic.
Although living in different countries and continents, we all feel a
kinship, being part of this poetic drive for worldwide peace and brotherhood.
In such a way, we work together for the highest purposes, as all mankind
should do.
I can say that ‘Poets Unite Worldwide’ was born, in its extended form,
in the Autumn of 2015, when I invited tens and tens of poets, worldwide, to
join me in writing a poetry compilation on (against) terror, in response to the
bloody Paris events of November 13, 2015.
I felt the urge, that time, to begin working on a new ebook, ‘Poetry
Against Terror‘, and I enlisted ‘my’ community of poets worldwide to help,
since I wanted it to become a large collective work: the voice of poets from
many different countries, worldwide, who stand up and speak aloud, but
without hatred, against the bloody madness of terror. Astonishingly, 64 Poets
from 43 countries lent their pens in the effort, and I wrote, in the introductory
Note to the book, “we—poets of the world—wish to make our voices resonate
in the minds and hearts of all women and men who refuse to be silenced by
hate and violence.” Pamela Sinicrope and Daniel Brick, both of Minnesota,
USA, along with Richard Thézé, England, co-edited the collection of diverse
poems about terrorism —in Paris and around the world. Cover art was by
Galina Italyanskaya, Russia.
The project came together quickly, with poets coming from countries in
all continents, including Arab/Islamic countries: Australia, Bangladesh,
Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Egypt, France, Germany,
Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Kenya,
Morocco, New Zealand , Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines,
Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka,
Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uganda,
United Kingdom, USA, Zimbabwe.
Poem topics range from a focus on the liberty of France, to the musings
of a mother who does not want her child suffering from terrorism, to a young
woman who incessantly searches Google for the answers to the terrorism
problem, to the story of African villagers who drink from a cow’s horn under
a peaceful moon until terrorism takes over. Many of the poets have
experienced terrorism first-hand, and this witness is expressed in their
writings and their biographies. As Pamela Sinicrope said, “We’ve all been
touched by terrorism. For some, the topic hit home after the events in Paris,
but for others, terrorism has been a disturbing part of everyday life —these
facts are borne out in the poems. The poems speak for themselves.”
Yet, as a group of poets collaborating together on a variety of projects,
we didn’t stop with that first book. We do have a blog, that Udaya Tennakon
created, as well as a Fb page (see below). Since then, we’ve been continually
publishing and growing, and –hopefully– improving as writers.