Postcolonial Literature Questions
Bring on the tough stuff. There's not just one right answer.
- A lot of postcolonial literature deals with the colonial encounter between Europeans and non-Europeans. So is the term "postcolonial" literature just wrong? How postcolonial is postcolonial literature?
- Given the very different experiences of colonized peoples in different parts of the world, how good of an idea is it to lump all of these writers and literatures together as "postcolonial literature"? Aren't the cultural, linguistic, political differences just as important as the similarities?
- Literature from "settler colonies" like Australia is also often considered postcolonial literature. Is the work of a white Australian writer really the same as the work of an African or a South Asian writer? Is American literature "postcolonial," given that the U.S. was once a colony of Britain?
- What do we make of the fact that the postcolonial writers who get the most attention are the ones who write in colonial languages like English and French? If we celebrate those writers who write in colonial languages (as opposed to indigenous languages), doesn't that just mean that we're still privileging colonial culture and language over indigenous culture and language?
- Male postcolonial writers tend to get a lot more attention than female postcolonial writers. These male writers challenge colonialism in their work, but where does that leave gender? Isn't gender inequality also a problem?
- How radical is postcolonial literature, really? Are postcolonial writers using western forms and genres (like the novel) and just spicing them up a bit without actually changing the forms themselves? If these writers really want to challenge colonial culture, does that mean that they should find completely new forms and ways of writing?
- We're now in the age of globalization. Is globalization any different from colonialism? Is it a legacy of colonialism? Does that mean that contemporary writers should write about globalization in a different way from the way they write about colonialism?