Postcolonial literature is an important part of contemporary literature. A great diversity of colonized peoples accounts for differences in their nature and in their traditions. Their individual and cultural identities are still being developed. Having a mixture of customs, languages and other cultural aspects from the colonizing and the colonized, their culture is considered Hybrid. Their literature conveys their search towards understanding their cultural and self identity.
The literary works that were to be discussed this week in our seminar address issues related to cultural hybridity. Jack Mapanje's poems are true examples of this feature. In Another Fools's Day touches down: shush , the speaker returns from from graduate school to his village, noticing the changes he has gone through. He acknowledges the cultural differences that now exist between his people and himself. Moving on to the next poem, in These Too Are Our Elders, the speaker seems to be haunted by an ancestral spirit who questions his hybrid cultural practice, as the speaker, most likely male, now works in a position once owned by the White, and which originally would have been the function of the elder; the guidance of his people. The speaker's schooling, along with other alien ways is criticized by the haunting spirit. The latter, could be said to symbolize the speaker's own conscience, influenced by his people's cultural heritage, which makes him ponder about his deeds in relation to his people's beliefs. In a similar line of thought, The Return, by Ngugi Wa' Thiong'o, narrates the story of a boy who had become a political prisoner and returned to his village, now as a man, only to find out that his wife had left him and that he was not even expected back. Life, customs, and even the location of the village had changed while he had been away. The idea of dynamic cultural development is suggested in this, as well as the previous texts.
In the literary works that are considered postcolonial, the individual judges society and its beliefs, and at the same time society judges the individual in relation to his or her commitment to cultural traditions. Changes from what these Peoples were, what they became and what they are now will surely be present in most of these works. The difficulties that arise for both society and the individual in a climate of cultural hybridity make up an important part of the issues addressed by postcolonial literature.
The literary works that were to be discussed this week in our seminar address issues related to cultural hybridity. Jack Mapanje's poems are true examples of this feature. In Another Fools's Day touches down: shush , the speaker returns from from graduate school to his village, noticing the changes he has gone through. He acknowledges the cultural differences that now exist between his people and himself. Moving on to the next poem, in These Too Are Our Elders, the speaker seems to be haunted by an ancestral spirit who questions his hybrid cultural practice, as the speaker, most likely male, now works in a position once owned by the White, and which originally would have been the function of the elder; the guidance of his people. The speaker's schooling, along with other alien ways is criticized by the haunting spirit. The latter, could be said to symbolize the speaker's own conscience, influenced by his people's cultural heritage, which makes him ponder about his deeds in relation to his people's beliefs. In a similar line of thought, The Return, by Ngugi Wa' Thiong'o, narrates the story of a boy who had become a political prisoner and returned to his village, now as a man, only to find out that his wife had left him and that he was not even expected back. Life, customs, and even the location of the village had changed while he had been away. The idea of dynamic cultural development is suggested in this, as well as the previous texts.
In the literary works that are considered postcolonial, the individual judges society and its beliefs, and at the same time society judges the individual in relation to his or her commitment to cultural traditions. Changes from what these Peoples were, what they became and what they are now will surely be present in most of these works. The difficulties that arise for both society and the individual in a climate of cultural hybridity make up an important part of the issues addressed by postcolonial literature.
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