Friday, 3 April 2020
Sunday, 29 March 2020
THE DHVANI THEORY
THE DHVANI THEORY
ANANDAVARDHANACHARYA
The theory of
dhvani or suggestion was first introduced by Anandavardhana in his treatise
Dhvanyaloka in the ninth century. Though the germs of this doctrine manifest
themselves in the speculations of earlier theoreticians, Anandavardhana is the
first literary critic to give a full bodied form to the concept and to
enunciate a new principle of literary evaluation absorbing the concepts
propounded by the earlier theoreticians. The doctrine has since then been
accepted as an important principle of criticism in Indian poetics and has been
strongly recommended by Anandavardhana both for poets and critics.
Bharata, Anandavardhana's predecessor
and another renowned Sanskrit scholar, propounds the principle of rasa in
drama and literature with the basic implication that the poetic context is
creatively organised for the communication of feeling. Feeling cannot be
communicated through pro-positional statement. The feeling ultimately
experienced by the reader is his own; it is the movement of his sensibility.
Since the feeling cannot be aroused by naming it, the poet builds up a system
of objective correlatives, essentially identical with the context of stimuli in
life which can elicit the emotional reaction. Bharata uses the
word nishpatti, that is, emergence or outcome, for the appearance
of rasa when the prime and the ancillary stimuli, etc., are
creatively organised . Anandavardhana claims that this nishpatti really
means abhivyakti, that is, manifestation as the emotional reaction
is ever abiding, as a latent reactivity, in the reader. Since the manifestation
of rasa in the poetic context is not the communication of a
pro-positional meaning but the presentation of a !! sensitively organised
complex of stimuli, he affirms that stimuli and reaction , vibhavas and rasa stand
in the relation of the suggester and the suggested. Poetry gets operated
basically through the power of suggestion .
The doctrine of suggestion is founded
on three-fold division of meaning emanating from three-fold powers of words,
viz.,
§ abhidha or the power giving primary
denotative meaning;
§ laksana or the power giving secondary
derivative or indicated meaning;
§ and vyanjana from which the meaning obtained is vyangyartha,
the tertiary or the suggested meaning. This vyangyartha is
also known as dhvanyartha.
Every poem, feels Anandavardhana, has
two levels of meaning: the explicit and the implicit. The explicit, as the word
itself suggests, is the literal or derivative meaning set forth in many ways
through figures of speech, images, etc., whereas the implicit is like the charm
in ladies that "shines supreme and towers above the beauty of the striking
external constituents ... " 1 The relationship between the explicit and
the implicit differs from poem to poem, depending upon the purpose and
intention. One or the other meaning is given prominence and it is only when
after the appearance of the expressed sense, the explicit meaning completely
subordinating itself gives rise to another sense, that we name it as the suggested
meaning.
Defining dhvani Anandavardhana
writes :
That kind of poetry, wherein the
(conventional) meaning renders itself secondary or the (conventional) word
renders its meaning secondary and suggests the intended implied meaning, is
designated by the learned as DHVANI or 'Suggestive Poetry'.
Thus after the appearance of the
explicit meaning the denoted and the indicated meanings completely
subordinating themselves assign the primary position to the tertiary or the
suggested meaning and such poetry is ranked as the suggestive poetry. Semantic
meaning in this process does not contradict or hinder the poetic meaning.
Rather, the semantic meaning is a doorway to the suggested one.
Anandavardhana says : Just as the
purport of a sentence is grasped through the meaning of individual words, the
knowledge of that sense is got at only through the medium of the explicit
sense. "That sense" here is the suggested meaning and in a dhvanikavya it
is of the highest importance. "Suggestion", writes Anandavardhana,
"itself is both the quintessence of the works of all first rate poets and
the most beautiful principle of poetry". In a general poetic parlance a
poetry is classified inferior where the suggested meaning is less relevant than
the poetic intention. Anandavardhana further declares dhvani or the symbolic
content as the poetic creation and the other types of poetic endeavours are
categorised in the light of the principle of supremacy of suggestion. The best
specimen of poetic art does not keep itself confined within the narrow limits
imposed by the expression and the expressed. It transcends the limits and hints
towards the symbolic content, which proves itself as one of the inexplicable
charms, and this rise is likened to resonance or echo.
§ Thus the best poetry is that in which the suggested sense predominates
and supersedes the expressed sense. This is called the Dhvanikavya or
the poetry of Resonance.
§ The second class is that in which the suggested sense is not predominant
and this is called the Gunibhuta Vyangya or the poetry of
Subordinated Suggestion.
§ The third class of poetry which is of lower kind is the one without any
suggested meaning. This is called Portrait-like poetry or the Citrakavya.
The epithet
of dhvani, however, is assigned not only to dhvanikavya,
but even to words, their meanings or the activity of suggestive poetry. In
short, in Anandavardhana's treatise it is taken in five senses, viz.:
1. The suggestive
word/sound which resonates meaning, that is, vyanjaka sabda.
2. The suggestive
meaning which resembles another sense, that is, vyanjaka artha.
3. The suggestive
poetry, that is, vyanjaka kavya.
4. The suggested
meaning , that is, vyangyartha and
5. The activity of
meaning, that is, vyanjana vyapara. -
Anandavardhana
elaborates his theory from the angle of what is suggested and the suggesters or
what suggests. Regarding the nature of what is suggested, Anandavardhana
divides it into three categories, viz.:
(a) Vastudhvani or
where there is the suggestion of a matter/fact or an idea,
(b) Alahkaradhvani or
where there is the suggestion of a trope, and
(c) Rasadhvani or
where there is the suggestion of a mood or feeling.
The last category
which has been taken as the cardinal principle by the Indian critics, has been
assigned prime significance by Anandavardhana also. Elsewhere, he has
categorically expressed that his subject is not merely to establish the
doctrine of suggestion but also to harmonise it with the theory of aesthetic
emotion. The theory of dhvani, as such, is a comprehensive
principle which can cover any genre that fulfils the definition of poetry and
in fact when the Indian poetics adopts the term, It includes any literary work.
The activity of suggestion in literature, whether in the East or in the West ,
has been an age-old phenomenon. Only that its conscious usage in West both as a
term and as a technique, was a later development and as Krishna Rayan suggests,
it was during the nineteenth century that "in Poe's critical writings that
'suggestiveness' is first used as a technical term".
Links & courtesy:
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
A Critical Analysis of The Color Purple
The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a
ground-breaking work in American fiction. The topic of emotional/physical
abuse, especially that endured by black American women of earlier generations
is not openly spoken about or documented in history books. By bringing focus to
this sensitive, yet saddening, experience of black women, the novel attracted
criticism, censorship and controversy. A careful analysis of the novel will
reveal several themes, symbols and motifs woven-in by the author. This essay
will confine itself to highlighting some of the major themes such as the
representation (or lack thereof) of God, the interpretation of the color purple
that is the title of the work, the symbolic value of the epistolary element in
the novel, etc.
One of the prominent themes of the novel is the
degree of suppression of the female African voice in early twentieth century
American society. This is most evident from the events and circumstances in the
life of the protagonist of the story, Celie. During her adolescent years, she
was repeatedly raped and sweared at by her stepfather. She even bears his child
through the whole term, after which the child is taken away and presumably
killed by her stepfather. The oppression and disparaging attitude exhibited by
her stepfather is obvious in the following passage:
“Well,
next time you come you can look at her. She ugly. Don’t even look like she kin
to Nettie. But she’ll make the better wife. She aint smart either, and I’ll
just be fair, you have to watch her or she’ll give away everything you own. But
she can work like a man.” (The Color Purple, Part 1, 1982)
If this was
traumatic enough, the unfolding events of her adult life are equally saddening
and depressing. Her tumultuous adult life is about finding peace and calm in an
existence that is constantly threatened by the abusive husband Albert, while
also navigating the emotional confusion cause by her sexual attraction toward
Shug. Fortuitously, though, her secret relationship with Shug serves to
emancipate Celie to a degree, as she learns to act boldly and assertively like
Shug. But the fact remains that the extent of abuse suffered by Celie is not
only shocking but also touches the limits of individual tolerance.
Another important theme/symbol in the book is that of God, to whom Celie writes
letters regularly, hoping vainly for benign divine intervention in her life. In
all the doom and gloom that is Celie’s life, the notion of God offers the only
consolation and hope. Celie’s letters addressed to God is also an effective
literary device employed by Alice Walker. Through the course of the novel’s
narrative, one can see how Celie’s interpretation of God gradually evolves. At
first, her view of God is that of a powerful white male. This naïve
representation is a product of her personal past experiences and the structure
of American society at the time. For example, she notes in one of her earlier
letters:
“Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a
lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won’t ever see again. Anyhow,
I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all
the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown.” (The Color Purple,
Part 4, 1982)
But the
friendship with Shug helps Celie to discard this view to a more nuanced
understanding of God – one who is beyond gender, race, time or space. What
Alice Walker trying to show the reader is the growing maturity and emancipation
of Celie through the content of her letters. In other words, her letters reveal
the evolution and stirrings of liberation within. Moreover, the letters act as
powerful theological symbols, drawing upon the rich tradition of Christian
epistolary.
Finally, the
color purple is also a thematic element in the story, for it represents the
pain and suffering endured by Celie. Drawing upon the idiom ‘beaten black and
blue’, purple stands for the color of clotted blood. It is also a symbol of
Celie’s sexual and physical violation, as she equates her private parts to this
color. But as a reflection of her inner transformation, the color purple is
used to represent positive things in life. This is evident in the passage where
Shug remarks to Celie in a field of purple flowers thus: “You must look at all
the good and acknowledge them because God placed them all on earth”. (The Color
Purple, Part 2, 1982) Eggplant, which takes a hue of purple, is referred in a
similar context:
“When I see Sofia I don’t know why she still alive. They crack her
skull, they crack her ribs. They tear her nose loose on one side. They blind
her in one eye. She swole from head to foot. Her tongue the size of my arm, it
stick out tween her teef like a piece of rubber. She can’t talk. And she just
about the color of a eggplant.” (The Color Purple, Part 2, 1982)
Reference:
The Power of
Narrative and Voice
Alice Walker emphasizes throughout
the novel that the ability to express one’s thoughts and feelings is crucial to
developing a sense of self. Initially, Celie is completely unable to resist
those who abuse her. Remembering Alphonso’s warning that she “better not never
tell nobody but God” about his abuse of her, Celie feels that the only way to
persevere is to remain silent and invisible. Celie is essentially an object, an
entirely passive party who has no power to assert herself through action or
words. Her letters to God, in which she begins to pour out her story, become
her only outlet. However, because she is so unaccustomed to articulating her
experience, her narrative is initially muddled despite her best efforts at
transparency.
In Shug and Sofia, Celie finds
sympathetic ears and learns lessons that enable her to find her voice. In
renaming Celie a “virgin,” Shug shows Celie that she can create her own
narrative, a new interpretation of herself and her history that counters the
interpretations forced upon her. Gradually Celie begins to flesh out more of
her story by telling it to Shug. However, it is not until Celie and Shug
discover Nettie’s letters that Celie finally has enough knowledge of herself to
form her own powerful narrative. Celie’s forceful assertion of this newfound
power, her cursing of Mr. ______ for his years of abuse, is the novel’s climax.
Celie’s story dumbfounds and eventually humbles Mr. ______, causing him to
reassess and change his own life.
Though Walker clearly wishes to emphasize the power of narrative
and speech to assert selfhood and resist oppression, the novel acknowledges
that such resistance can be risky. Sofia’s forceful outburst in response to
Miss Millie’s invitation to be her maid costs her twelve years of her life.
Sofia regains her freedom eventually, so she is not totally defeated, but she
pays a high price for her words.
The Power of Strong
Female Relationships
Throughout The Color Purple, Walker portrays female
friendships as a means for women to summon the courage to tell stories. In
turn, these stories allow women to resist oppression and dominance.
Relationships among women form a refuge, providing reciprocal love in a world
filled with male violence.
Female ties take many
forms: some are motherly or sisterly, some are in the form of mentor and pupil,
some are sexual, and some are simply friendships. Sofia claims that her ability
to fight comes from her strong relationships with her sisters. Nettie’s
relationship with Celie anchors her through years of living in the unfamiliar
culture of Africa. Samuel notes that the strong relationships among Olinka
women are the only thing that makes polygamy bearable for them. Most important,
Celie’s ties to Shug bring about Celie’s gradual redemption and her attainment
of a sense of self.
The Cyclical
Nature of Racism and Sexism
Almost none of the
abusers in Walker’s novel are stereotypical, one-dimensional monsters whom we
can dismiss as purely evil. Those who perpetuate violence are themselves
victims, often of sexism, racism, or paternalism. Harpo, for example, beats
Sofia only after his father implies that Sofia’s resistance makes Harpo less of
a man. Mr. ______ is violent and mistreats his family much like his own
tyrantlike father treated him. Celie advises Harpo to beat Sofia because she is
jealous of Sofia’s strength and assertiveness.
The characters are largely aware of the
cyclical nature of harmful behavior. For instance, Sofia tells Eleanor Jane
that societal influence makes it almost inevitable that her baby boy will grow
up to be a racist. Only by forcefully talking back to the men who abuse them
and showing them a new way of doing things do the women of the novel break
these cycles of sexism and violence, causing the men who abused them to stop
and reexamine their ways.
The Disruption of
Traditional Gender Roles
Many characters in the novel break the
boundaries of traditional male or female gender roles. Sofia’s strength and
sass, Shug’s sexual assertiveness, and Harpo’s insecurity are major examples of
such disparity between a character’s gender and the traits he or she displays.
This blurring of gender traits and roles sometimes involves sexual ambiguity,
as we see in the sexual relationship that develops between Celie and Shug.
Disruption of gender roles sometimes causes problems. Harpo’s
insecurity about his masculinity leads to marital problems and his attempts to
beat Sofia. Likewise, Shug’s confident sexuality and resistance to male domination
cause her to be labeled a tramp. Throughout the novel, Walker wishes to
emphasize that gender and sexuality are not as simple as we may believe. Her
novel subverts and defies the traditional ways in which we understand women to
be women and men to be men.
Reference:
A Critical Analysis of J M Coetzee’s Disgrace
Introduction
“One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to
anybody.” (Mother Teresa)
Disgrace
is the first novel by J.M. Coetzee to be set in post-Apartheid Africa. Ever
since this seemingly political and Booker prize winning South African novel was
published in 1999, it has stirred up a lot of controversy and drawn out a
response both emotional and political from many readers and critics throughout
the world. Many people have out rightly condemned this deceivingly small novel
as a racial text whereas some have also appreciated the author for drawing an
anxious, comfortless picture of the post-apartheid South Africa.
Coetzee
has very brilliantly incorporated many themes within this 220 pages long book,
but the most important one is how the people in South Africa are dealing with
change in the racial hierarchy now that the apartheid is over. Coetzee also explores the issue of sexuality,
violence and the inhumane treatment of animals at the hands of the human
beings.
Summary
Disgrace revolves around its
main „white‟ protagonist David Lurie, a divorced fifty-two year old Professor
of Communications at a university in Cape Town. Quite an interesting set of
contradictions, Lurie‟s own personal life is devoid of any kind of passion even
though he teaches romantic poetry. This professor of communications also
ironically isn‟t quite the best in communicating with the people that are the
closest to him especially his daughter. As an idolizer of the famous poet Lord Byron,
Lurie sees himself as an old-fashioned Casanova who he thinks has “solved the
problem of sex rather well” for his age.
Initially in the novel, David is dependent on a
prostitute named Soraya for the fulfillment of his sexual desires but this
arrangement comes to an end the moment he tries to pry into her private life.
Now left wanting and driven by his own egoistical image of a seducer, David
forces himself upon an undergraduate student of his, Melanie Isaacs, despite
knowing that for her it is
„undesirable
to the core‟ but this time he is not able to get away with it as he might have
been able in the past. This affair soon becomes the main reason for his
disgrace and ends his career as a professor when it becomes public and charges
of sexual harassment are filed against him. The main reason behind it being his
stubbornness to show repentance of any kind and he even term the experience as
“enriching” before the hearing committee.
After being ostracized from Cape Town in disgrace,
Lurie seeks refuge in his daughter Lucy‟s countryside haven in Salem. Here‟s in
comes the character of Petrus, a black neighbor of Lucy‟s, who introduces
himself as the „dog-man‟ to Lurie.
Petrus who used to work for Lucy early on is now steadily climbing up
the rungs of the social ladder since the apartheid has ended. Taking advantage
of the reversal in the social order, Petrus is no longer a „dog-man‟ but
instead owns a substantial amount of land. During his stay with his lesbian
daughter, she is attacked and raped by three black Africans at her home while
David is locked up in the bathroom, his head set on fire and the dogs in Lucy‟s
kennel are killed. Despite all this Lucy refuses to leave Salem and doesn‟t
report the rape to the police. She even goes ahead and decides to have the
child after she gets pregnant as an outcome of the attack. The tension between
father and daughter reaches an all-time high as David tries to confront her to
report the rape to the police. Meanwhile David also starts an affair with Bev
Shaw at the animal shelter as he now starts taking care of Lucy by working
there but the tension between him and Lucy finally forces him to go back to
Cape Town. On his way back, Lurie goes and apologizes to Melanie’s father Mr.
Isaac but also finds himself attracted to Melanie’s younger daughter Desiree.
He comes back to Salem after finding that his home at Cape Town has been
vandalized and a new replacement has been chosen for him at the university. The
novel ends with Lurie, now back in Salem, as he watches over his daughter while
she is working stooped over in the fields. He sees her as a peasant; he
understands that all the centuries of white rule and progress in the country
have come to naught.
Transition
and Racism
The
novel tries to show how the people are dealing with the shift in social order
in a postapartheid South Africa. The whites no longer hold any significant
power but the status of the blacks is rising day by day as evident in the
character of Petrus. He initially refers to himself as the “dog-man” and he
indeed used to be that once upon a time – A disenfranchised black man who did
nothing but work in Lucy’s garden and fed Lucy’s dogs. But now in the „new‟
South Africa he is the one who is in power – the one with majority of the lands
and influence over the area.
Despite
this transition from the old to the new, The black people in South Africa seem
not to have forgotten what they were victims of in the past as such remarks
keep popping up in the novel. Once such instance is when one of the commission
members claims Lurie‟s sexual harassment of Melanie to be racially motivated.
„We are again going round in
circles, Mr Chair. Yes, he says, he is guilty; but when we try to get
specificity, all of a sudden it is not abuse of a young woman he is confessing
to, just an impulse he could not resist, with no mention of the pain he has
caused, no mention of the long history of exploitation of which this is part.‟
Even
Lurie seems to think that Lucy‟s not reporting the rape to the police is due to
her “wish to humble” herself “before history”. He believes that she thinks she
has to compensate for the past atrocities on the blacks all by herself and they
are even allowed to take revenge from them. She just sees the rapists as
„debt-collectors‟. This is indeed a very bleak picture of the „new‟ South
Africa where although the apartheid has ended the oppressed has become the
oppressor. This is one of the main reasons that this novel has been claimed to
be racially skewed.
Despite
all such claims Coetzee just refers to race only once in his whole novel. This
happens in Petrus‟ party where Lurie notices that they are the only “whites” in
there. This I believe is very significant as it makes us the readers to make
our judgment for the whole mankind itself and not just the whites or the
blacks.
Violence
and Animals
Violence
especially sexual violence can be seen throughout the book. Disgrace holds out
little hope for the „new‟ South Africa as it first displays the rape (presumably)
of non-white woman (Melanie) by a white man (Lurie) and then later on the gang
rape of a white woman (Lucy) by the three black men one of whom is Petrus‟ kin.
This does highlight the fact that even though the apartheid may be over, the
racial problems still aren‟t. The scene when Lucy is raped is perhaps the most
violent in the whole novel.
“A blow catches [Lurie] on
the crown of the head… He is aware of being dragged across the kitchen floor…He
is in the lavatory, the lavatory of Lucy‟s house….The door opens; knocking him
off balance…„The keys,‟ says the man…The man raises the bottle…
[Lurie] speaks Italian, he
speaks French, but Italian and French will not save him here in darkest
Africa…Mission work: what has it left behind…Nothing that he can see…Now the
tall man appears from around the front, carrying the rifle. With practiced ease
he brings a cartridge up into the breech, thrusts the muzzle into the dogs‟
cage…There is a heavy report; blood and brains splatter the cage.”
Animal
suffering at the hand of the men no matter what color they are has also been
shown in the book - May it be the goats that are slaughtered for Petrus‟s party
or the common dog. The most growth in Lurie‟s character takes place while
working at the animal shelter. At the shelter his job is to get rid of the
bodies of the dogs after they have been put to sleep and this is where he finds
his penance. Now “[h]e has learned…to concentrate all his attention on the
animal they are killing, giving it what he no longer has difficulty calling by
its proper name: love.”
Conclusion
Disgrace is a novel about a person‟s humiliation, his
punishment and the human nature and finally the redemption that he seeks in a
country that has been riddled with problems of racism from a very long time.
The picture which Coetzee offers seems to be very bleak. As Lucy tells
Lurie near the end „Perhaps
that is what I must learn to accept. To start at ground level. With nothing.
Not with nothing but. With nothing. No cards, no weapons, no property, no rights,
no dignity … like a dog.‟ This indeed is quite disturbing. But I think the real
solution would be the one that Coetzee presents much earlier in this
brilliantly written novel when a white (Lurie) person and a non-white (Petrus)
person are working together in a drained storage dam in the fields. There they
are together shoveling out the shit as one even though they may not want to.
This picture isn‟t in the least hopeless. At the end Disgrace is indeed a
pitiless and straight to the point novel which I think quite efficiently
exposes the basic state of humanity at the end of twentieth century though most
of it might be applicable even today.
Reference:
An Introduction to Edward Said Orientalism
Edward Said's signature contribution to academic
life is the book Orientalism. It has been influential in about half
a dozen established disciplines, especially literary studies (English,
comparative literature), history, anthropology, sociology, area studies
(especially middle east studies), and comparative religion. However, as big
as Orientalism was to academia, Said’s thoughts on literature
and art continued to evolve over time, and were encapsulated in Culture
and Imperialism (1993), a book which appeared nearly 15 years
after Orientalism (1978). Put highly reductively, the
development of his thought can be understood as follows: Said’s early work
began with a gesture of refusal and rejection, and ended with a kind of
ambivalent acceptance. If Orientalism questioned a pattern of
misrepresentation of the non-western world, Culture and
Imperialism explored with a less confrontational tone the complex and
ongoing relationships between east and west, colonizer and colonized, white and
black, and metropolitan and colonial societies.
Said directly challenged what Euro-American
scholars traditionally referred to as Orientalism. Orientalism is an entrenched
structure of thought, a pattern of making certain generalizations about the
part of the world known as the 'East'. As Said puts it:
“Orientalism was
ultimately a political vision of reality whose structure promoted the
difference between the familiar (Europe, West, "us") and the strange
(the Orient, the East, "them").”
Just
to be clear, Said didn't invent the term 'Orientalism'; it was a term used
especially by middle east specialists, Arabists, as well as many who studied
both East Asia and the Indian subcontinent. The vastness alone of the part of
the world that European and American scholars thought of as the
"East" should, one imagines, have caused some one to think twice. But
for the most part, that self-criticism didn’t happen, and Said argues that the
failure there –- the blind spot of orientalist thinking –- is a structural one.
The
stereotypes assigned to Oriental cultures and "Orientals" as
individuals are pretty specific: Orientals are despotic and clannish. They are
despotic when placed in positions of power, and sly and obsequious when in
subservient positions. Orientals, so the stereotype goes, are impossible to
trust. They are capable of sophisticated abstractions, but not of concrete,
practical organization or rigorous, detail-oriented analysis. Their men are
sexually incontinent, while their women are locked up behind bars. Orientals
are, by definition, strange. The best summary of the Orientalist mindset would
probably be: “East is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet”
(Rudyard Kipling).
In
his book, Said asks: but where is this sly, devious, despotic, mystical
Oriental? Has anyone ever met anyone who meets this description in all
particulars? In fact, this idea of the Oriental is a particular kind of myth
produced by European thought, especially in and after the 18th century. In some
sense his book Orientalism aims to dismantle this myth, but
more than that Said's goal is to identify Orientalism as a discourse.
From
Myth to Discourse. The oriental is a
myth or a stereotype, but Said shows that the myth had, over the course of two
centuries of European thought, come to be thought of as a kind of systematic
knowledge about the East. Because the myth masqueraded as fact, the
results of studies into eastern cultures and literature were often
self-fulfilling. It was accepted as a common fact that Asians, Arabs, and
Indians were mystical religious devotees incapable of rigorous rationality. It
is unsurprising, therefore that so many early European studies into, for
instance, Persian poetry, discovered nothing more or less than the terms of
their inquiry were able to allow: mystical religious devotion and an absence of
rationality.
Political
Dominance. Said showed that the
myth of the Oriental was possible because of European political dominance of
the Middle East and Asia. In this aspect of his thought he was strongly
influenced by the French philosopher Michel Foucault. The influence from
Foucault is wide-ranging and thorough, but it is perhaps most pronounced when
Said argues that Orientalism is a full-fledged discourse, not just a simple
idea, and when he suggests that all knowledge is produced in situations of
unequal relations of power. In short, a person who dominates another is the
only one in a position to write a book about it, to establish it, to define it.
It’s not a particular moral failing that the stereotypical failing defined as
Orientalism emerged in western thinking, and not somewhere else.
Post-colonial
Criticism
Orientalism was a book about a particular pattern in western
thought. It was not, in and of itself, an evaluation of the importance of that
thought. It was written before the peak of the academic ‘culture wars’, when
key words like relativism, pluralism, and multiculturalism would be the order
of the day. Said has often been lumped in with relativists and pluralists, but
in fact he doesn’t belong there
Reference:
Overview of Ania Loomba’s: Colonialism/Post Colonialism
Ania Loomba received her B. A. (Hons),
M. A. and M. Phil. degrees from the University of Delhi, India and her Ph. D.
from the University of Sussex, U.K. Ania Loomba currently holds the Catherine
Bryson Chair, Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Ania
Loomba’s research focuses on Renaissance literature and history, which she
examines through the lenses of gender studies and colonial and postcolonial
studies. She is currently working on a book which examines real and imagined
English exchanges with Turkey, the Moluccas, North Africa and India in the
early modern period. These early global conversations are crucial for
understanding English drama and culture as well as for rethinking the histories
of race and colonialism in the present moment when empire has again become a
fashionable term.
She examines the key features of the
ideologies and history of colonialism, the relationship of colonial discourse
to literature, the challenges to colonialism, surveying anti-colonial
discourses and recent developments in post-colonial theories and histories and
how sexuality is figured in the text of colonialism, and also how contemporary
feminist ideas and concepts intersect with those of post-colonialist thought.
Her achievement, in some senses, is the most considerable of all, because she
works mainly in the most prolifically minded and competitive field within
English Studies, namely Shakespeare. Loomba's achievement, in some senses, is
the most considerable of all. Her book, entitled Colonialism/Postcolonialism,
has been translated into Italian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.
Postcolonial theory deals with the
reading and writing of literature written in previously or currently colonized
countries, or literature written in colonizing countries which deals with
colonized peoples. It focuses particularly on:
Ø The
way in which literature by the colonizing culture distorts the experience and
realities, and inscribes the inferiority, of the colonized people.
Ø On
literature by colonized peoples which attempts to articulate their identity and
reclaim their past in the face of that past‘s inevitable otherness.
Ø It
can also deal with the way in which literature in colonizing countries
appropriates the language, images, scenes, traditions and so forth of colonized
countries.
In
Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Ania
Loomba discusses the different meanings of terms such as colonialism, imperialism
and postcolonialism. Here she also discusses the controversies around these
concepts. She further introduces the readers to aspects of post-structuralist,
Marxist, feminist and postmodern thought which have become important or
controversial in relation to postcolonial studies. Ania Loomba also considers
the complexities of colonial and postcolonial subjects and identities. She asks
many questions with a view to opening up the larger debate on the relationship
between material and economic processes and human subjectivities. She has
examined the processes of decolonization and the problems of recovering the
viewpoint of colonized subjects from a ‘postcolonial’ perspective. Various
theories of resistance are observed for considering the crucial debates they
engender about authenticity and hybridity, the nation, ethnicity and colonial
identities. Theories of nationalism and pan-nationalism and how they are
fractured by gender, class and ideological divides are considered. Finally she
considers the place of postcolonial studies in the context of globalization.
This book, for some years, has been accepted as the essential introduction to
vibrant and politically charged area of literary and cultural study. With new
coverage of emerging debates around globalization, this book will continue to
serve as the ideal guide for advanced students and teachers in regard with
colonial discourse theory, postcolonial studies or postcolonial theory.
Colonialism/Postcolonialism
is a remarkably comprehensive yet accessible guide to the historical and
theoretical dimensions of colonial and postcolonial discourses. It is the
essential introduction to the vibrant, crucially important areas of literary
and cultural study usually known as postcolonial theory, postcolonial studies
and colonial discourse theory. Building on her widely acclaimed first edition,
Ania Loomba examines: the key features of the ideologies and history of
colonialism, the relationship of colonial discourse to literature, challenges
to colonialism, including anti-colonial discourses, recent developments in
postcolonial theories and histories, issues of sexuality and colonialism, and
the intersection of feminist and postcolonial thought, debates about
globalization and postcolonialism, and fully updated for the second edition,
with an entirely new discussion of globalization. Colonialism/Postcolonialism
should be on the shelf of every student of literature, culture or history.
Loomba argues
that post-modernists and post-colonialists celebrate and mystify the workings of
global capitalism. She adds ahead that the narratives of women, colonized
people, and non-Europeans revise our understanding of colonialism, capitalism
and modernity. These global narratives do not disappear but can now be read
differently. Finally she expects that critics across many language communities
should have a dialogue about the genuine difficulties generated by the
interdisciplinary, cross-cultural nature of colonialism/postcolonialism,
because in the wake of recent developments, it is clear that the issues raised
by the study of colonialism remain urgent and vital today.
Reference:
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/4107/10/10_chapter%205.pdfBrief Introduction of Bill Ashcroft Gareth Griffiths Helen Tiffin The Empire Writes Back Theory and practice in post-colonial literatures
The
postcolonial era has marked its specialty in the evolution of postmodern
discourses which have cross-cultural impacts on the contemporary society. The
effects of imperialism and colonialism have shaped the Third World countries in
the political and economic grounds. These countries experience a cultural
hegemony which is better revealed in postcolonial writings. The term colonial
refers to the period during colonisation and the term postcolonial according to
Bill Ashcroft covers “all the culture affected by the imperial process from the
moment of colonisation to the present day”. The unequal forms of caricaturing
the previously colonised Third World countries invoke criticism from the former
colonies. Postcolonial literatures oppose this inequality by deconstructing the
European structures of philosophy, history, literary studies, anthropology,
sociology and political science. Homi K.Bhabha is right as he asserts that, “A
range of contemporary critical theories suggest that it is from those who have
suffered the sentence of history – subjugation, domination, diaspora,
displacement – that we learn our most enduring lessons for living and thinking”.
Ashcroft
further adds that the literatures of former colonies like African countries,
Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Carribean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New
Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific Island countries and Sri Lanka
contribute to postcolonial literatures. Postcolonial writers take into account
the inaccuracy of the European theories to deal with the “complexities and
varied cultural provenance”, and they make an attempt to reveal the “cultural
traditions” that are concealed by the European theories. Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and
Helen Tiffin discuss the various kinds of experiences like “migration,
slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender,
place, and responses to the influential master discourses of imperial Europe”.
Postcolonial works are a response to the historical and cultural dilemma of the
colonies after the departure of the empire. Using the English language which is
common across the world, postcolonial writings bear with them the concern of
the particular regions of the former colonies. It is ironical that the English
language which has been mastered from the empire is used for literary purposes
to criticise the cultural inequalities powered by the empire:
Postcolonial
criticism bears witness to the equal and uneven forces of cultural
representation involved in the contest for political and social authority
within the modern world order. Postcolonial perspectives emerge from the
colonial testimony of Third World countries and the discourses of ‘minorities’
within the geopolitical divisions of East and West, North and South.
Commonwealth
literature otherwise known as the Third World literature has paved the way for
the origin of postcolonial literature owing to the inadequacy in dealing with
the creative writings of the Third World. Commonwealth literary studies focus
on the form and style of British literature, thereby marginalising the writings
of the formerly colonised nations.
Postcolonial
writers, who follow the native traditions and values have contributed to its
origin and thereby dismantle the hegemony of the West. The European yardstick
has proved to be fatal to the cultural traditions of the Third World. The West
categorises the Third World based on their race, colour, gender, culture and
economy. Resistance to these subjectivities and discriminations has led to the
origin of postcolonial literature which celebrates the plurality of the
cultures of the previously colonised societies. Rushdie himself celebrates this
new genre as he says that the writers from these societies which include the
poor countries and “deprived minorities” contribute new writings to world
literature. He further rejoices saying, “it’s time to admit that the centre
cannot hold”.
Postcolonial
writing is an international field which focuses on cultures which are alienated
across borders. Indian Writing in English has earned fame across the globe
through a number of literary giants like V.S.Naipaul, Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh,
Anita Desai, Jumpa Lahiri, Vikram Seth, Vikram Chandra, Arundhati Roy, Shobha
De and others. Their novels are great sociological records which reflect the
cultural changes and the socio-political turmoil in the Indian society - “The
global nature of post-colonial literature means that the reader needs to be aware
of a variety of contexts. Because of the influence of migration and the
availability of global travel, writers may not belong to or identify with one
geographical region, but cross both regional and cultural boundaries through
their writing”
Culture is a
strategy with a broader capacity to capture the ways of life. Cultural studies
have thrived as a contemporary segment of world literature in cutting across
various socio-political interests. It is a location which holds on the
differences between nations and races thereby estimating the plurality of
cultures in a global platform. Cultural studies have been influenced by the
vast cultural domain of the whole world. This genre can never be asserted into
a specific area as its coverage is vast and diverse. It encompasses multiple
trails and imbibes different disciplines. The mass movements and migration of
people from their nations are evident historical truths of colonisation and
induce tremendous changes in the Third World societies. This further instigates
cross-cultural exchanges which have happened throughout history. Colonialism
has generated migrants, labourers and refugees giving rise to cross-cultural
crisis. These diasporic populations substantiate their cultural flows and
facilitate the changing social relations, thereby defining the complexities of
home and nation.
Postcolonialism
projects a challenge by writing back to the imperial centre. This postcolonial
approach is crystallised in The Empire
Writes Back by Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin. They plan the cultural hegemony
of the colonised countries which is manifested in postcolonial writings. The
socio-historic pressures of the Third World nations have made the postcolonial
writings an outlet for contemporary realities. The Empire Writes Back exposes the rejection of the aged colonial
rules. Their new “english” is completely different from the English of the
imperial powers. These different linguistic practices assert the empowerment of
the varied vernacular tongues of englishes from the Third World.
Ashcroft,
Griffiths and Tiffin focus on the intricate ways in which language has been
made different in postcolonial societies. They add up their views on the
differences between the English of the British and the englishes of the Third
World countries. The Standard English usage is rejected by the postcolonial
communities and they adorn “transformed and subverted” english to state their
sense of difference. The english of the postcolonial societies has shattered
the original essence of English by displacing the original value system of the
language. The postcolonial writings offer new values and identities declaring
their separation from the “Received Standard English” which radiates from the
centre. The antiquity and rich cultural tradition of the English literary
writings face serious challenge from the postcolonial world:
In
practice the history of this distinction between English and english has been
between the claims of a powerful ‘centre’ and a multitude of intersecting
usages designated as ‘peripheries’. The language of these ‘peripheries’ was
shaped by an oppressive discourse of power. Yet they have been the site of some
of the most exciting and innovative literatures of the modern period and this
has, at least in part, been the result of the energies uncovered by the
political tension between the idea of a normative code and a variety of regional
usages.
The
power structures and social hierarchies set by the imperial authorities cast
their influence over the Third World. A long history of colonial influence has
reshaped the cultural norms of the formerly colonised societies. The
major features of postcolonial studies deal with issues on diasporic
displacement of the native migrants across the globe. This displacement
challenges the cultural belonging of the migrants and places them in the grip
of alienation and identity crisis. Issues like hybridity, transculturalism,
transnationalism, mimicry, ambivalence and creolization capture the in-between
status of the migrants. These issues churn the cross-cultural crisis of the
migrants in alien countries. Colonisation and imperialism have forwarded the 10
displacement of natives and this generates new identities and unprecedented
changes over the Third World. The new social spaces created by displacement
expose the mixing of various cultures affecting the migrants’ identity.
Reference:
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/193335/6/06_chapter%201.pdf
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