Application of Postcolonial Theory to American Literature

 Application of Postcolonial Theory to American Literature

Dr Manisha Patil 

After World War II, the process of decolonization started all over the world. It became easier for the colonies to overthrow the power of Western metropolitan centers like Great Britain and France whose military and economic power had weakened due to the heavy toll of the war. Along with political freedom these colonies also asserted their autonomous cultural identity. It was a period of unprecedented optimism and resultant flourishing of creative nationalist anti-colonial writings. From the mid-1960s, all the literature that came out from the British colonies during and after the era of imperialism was called ‘Commonwealth Literature’ – ironically re-inscribing the colonial relationship of center and periphery between Britain and its former colonies. ‘Commonwealth Literature’ was an umbrella term because it included the literatures of such diverse nations as white settler colonies like Australia, Canada, New Zealand; administrative colonies like Indian subcontinent and the combination of both like South Africa where apartheid was legalized. Significantly, the literatures of England and USA were excluded from this umbrella because they were (and are) supposed to be above these bundle of new literatures – England because it was the ‘mother’ country and USA because this daughter had declared its independence far, far back in 1776 and in fact after World War II emerged as a superpower pushing back the mother on periphery. In the 1990s the nomenclature changed from ‘Commonwealth Literature’ to ‘Post colonial Literature’ – foregrounding the oppositional stance of the newly independent nations toward the former imperial center instead of the continuing colonial link between the two. Still, American literature has retained its aura of separateness, specialness and sacredness. This situation is arbitrary and awkward because Canada who shares not just the border but much socio-cultural-political-economic interests and policies of the USA is included in postcolonialism. The authors of ‘Empire Writes Back’ try to justify this arbitrariness as follows: 

‘We use the term ‘post-colonial’, however, to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonization to the present day. This is because there is continuity of preoccupations throughout the historical process initiated by European imperial aggression…So the literatures of African countries, Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Caribbean countries, India, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Pacific Island countries and Sri Lanka are all post-colonial literatures. The literature of the USA should also be placed in this category. Perhaps because of its current position of power and the neo-colonizing role it has played, its post-colonial nature has not been generally recognized. But its relationship with the metropolitan center as it evolved over the last two centuries has been paradigmatic for post-colonial literatures everywhere.’8

The above remark for not including USA under postcolonialism is unsatisfactory. It assumes that USA is a homogenous country and all the people in it are privileged and in a position of power. It ignores the fact that even within the borders of USA, not all the people are free and equal. Slavery, an extreme form of colonization and its legacy racism had been and continues to be a burning issue even today. In fact, USA is an odd combination of colonialism and anti-colonialism. Historically, America was the first colony to break away from the ‘mother’ country England and declare its independence. At the same time, as a settler colony it established itself by displacing the original inhabitants. This paradox has entered the very genes of America. On one hand, it declared itself as free country; a land of opportunity and on the other practiced institutionalized slavery. During the World War II, it fought against the Nazis and Fascists as a great defender of humanity but still followed ‘equal but separate’ policy at home questioning the full humanity of the African Americans. Even today we can see this irony. On one hand there are the ‘neo-cons’ who wish to establish the American empire all over the world and on the other, there are those minority groups – feminists, homosexuals, African Americans, Hispanics, environmentalists – who oppose the hegemony of Protestant, white, male American in various ways and inspire the marginalized people all over the world to fight for their rights. Especially the African American literature and literary theory has been inspirational to various literary and political movements. For example, Harlem Renaissance instigated Negritude movement in Africa and black literature in America motivated Dalit literature in India. In fact there is a lot of interaction among anti-colonial movements in the whole world including USA. To cite another famous example Martin Luther King adopted the non-violence technique of Mahatma Gandhi and in turn influenced Nelson Mandela. 

African Americans are the community which has very consciously thought about its own enslavement and has also theorized it. In its reflections about slavery and racism African American literary theory anticipates many of the post-colonial concerns like hegemony, displacement, stereotyping, resistance, subversion, hybridity etc. ‘Hybridity’ the most important concept in post-colonial theory and a condition which is supposed to be the hallmark of post coloniality is perhaps applicable first and foremost to the African Americans. They were the people who had double heritage – racially they were essentially African but white blood had undoubtedly mixed into it. Similarly, culturally every attempt was made to wipe out their African language, culture and heritage and to turn them into a ‘tabula rasa’ by the white masters; yet African culture continued to be a very powerful undercurrent beneath the apparently pure European culture. In fact eventually African culture molded the European culture itself in such a way that during 1920s emerged a new trend known as ‘modernism’ which broke away from the European tradition completely. To go one step further, indeed ‘modernism’ and even ‘postmodernism’ are the products of slavery. Toni Morrison says,

‘…modern life begins with slavery…From a woman’s point of view, in terms of confronting the problems of where the world is now, black women had to deal with post-modern problems in the nineteenth century and earlier. These things had to be addressed by the black people a long time ago: certain kinds of dissolution, the loss of and the need to reconstruct certain kinds of stability. Certain kinds of madness, deliberately going mad…as one of the characters says in the book, “in order not to lose your mind.” These strategies for survival made the truly modern person.’9 

Thus, when there are so many affinities between African American literature and postcolonialism, to treat them as totally separate is to succumb to ‘divide and rule’ policy of dominant white ideology whose interest lies in segregating people according to race, sex, class etc. and thereby yield its own power over them. I chose Toni Morrison’s novels as the main area of study because as an African American woman writer her work is informed by the ‘geometrical oppression’ (Barbara Smith’s term)10 – race, sex and class oppression – and it readily gives way to the post-colonial analysis when the vivid experiences of her characters are discussed under the headings like hegemony, displacement, stereotyping, resistance, subversion and hybridity. Indeed, her canon itself reflects the pattern of colonization and decolonization. Her early work (first four novels) struggles with the effects of colonization on African American individuals and the community while her later work (her trilogy) moves into an exploration of decolonized African American culture and history. 

Dr Manisha Patil