Literature and Empire I: Postcolonial Overview and Key Authors

The British Empire and Imperial English

1. The British Empire
2. The end of Imperial English
3. Post-colonial literature: definition and themes
4. Britain and the Caribbean

The British Empire

"Vast strategic manouvre ... half a million prisoners ... complete demoralization, control of the whole Africa ... victory, greatest victory in human history, victory, victory, victory! ... Winston had not stirred from his seat but in his mind he was ... with the crowds outside, cheering himself deaf. He looked up again at the portrait of Big Brother. The colossus that bestrode the world!" Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part III, chapter VI

Goddess that represents the idea of the British Empire - Britannia (image of global power, at the centre of the world, looked up with admiration)

The British empire was the biggest, more powerful and most long lasting of the European empires, covering over a quarter of the globe.

The Caribbean is a poli-linguistic place, there were even islands that changed colonizers.

The End of Imperial English

Causes of the End of the Empire

• Decolonization in post-war period (India, Nigeria, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados ... )

After the war there was a need for the feeling of peace (the UN was created). New era is born surrounded by peace, and the empires and domination of other countries is not reasonable anymore

Economically speaking, the colonies were no longer profitable. Canada, Australia and New Zealand were considered white dominions and not colonies, because the majority of the people living in those countries were white.

• British Commonwealth: association formed after the decolonization process to preserve the ties that bind Britain to their colonies, reflection of the global family of nations after the empire, still exists to this day.
• Post-colonial era: the literature that the new independent nations start to produce, it had a strong connection with colonialism). Due to this, English literature becomes internationalized.

Post-Colonial Literature: Definition and Themes

What is Post-Colonial Literature?

Literature produced by writers from countries with a history of colonialism. It emerges out of the experience of colonization, it articulates the tension with the imperial power, and questions colonial views.

Post-colonial literatures flourish after decolonization in the newly-independent nations. English literature becomes inernationalized

New Englishes: the way English is spoken in these independent countries

For the new nations to establish their own national and cultural identities they challenge the western view of the world and the belief of superiority that comes with colonization. The texts deal with the past (both pre-colonial and colonial) and the present. There were also a lot of people from the colonies, and their descendants that moved to Britain after the independence.

Themes of Postcolonial Literature

Independent nations need to establish their own national and cultural identities and to challenge the Western view of the world and the belief in the superiority of European culture (history, religion, language). Decolonizing the mind. Focus on indigenous perspective.

Post-colonial texts deal with the (pre-colonial, colonial) past and with the present. They may also deal with the experiences of migrants and their descendants in the 'mother country'.

Britain and the Caribbean

Post-War Colonial Migration

• British nationality act (1948) (they needed workers, a way of stop the anti-colonial feeling in the colonies [but didn't work]) - produced a large-scale migration, that was not expected and new.
• SS Empire Windrush (1948), name of a boat that named a generation of migrants, the first arrival of colonies to Britain, from the Caribbean, mostly men.
• Rise of 'multicultural' Britain. Britain becomes more multicultural than ever.
• They worked as drivers, and in manual jobs. But some migrants were also artists, and so they brought their music with them (Lord Kitchener - calypsonian, he wrote a song on the boat on his way to London). Migrant musicians gave themselves names that came from important generals, etc. from Britain.

-> Calypso comes from the African word Kaiso, meaning 'let's go' said to animate people (like fighting in Korea sort of). "London is the Place for Me".

• Poem "Colonization in Reverse".

Response to Colonial Migration

• Migration as problem, restrictions
• Notting Hill riots (1958)

"the riots hit black people like a bomb. The belief that they would be fully accepted as British citizens was badly damaged ... The image of Britain as the 'mother country' now looked like a cruel joke"

• Enoch Powell's "Rivers of Blood Speech" (1968)

Nostalgic of the days when England "underwent no organic change as a mistress of a world empire"

Dub Poetry and Linton Kwesi Johnson

1. Dub poetry
2. Linton Kwesi Johnson
3. "Di Great Isohrrekshan"

Dub Poetry

Connected to reggae - Bob Marley

• Performance poetry
• Spoken word poetry over reggae rhythm
• 'Reggae poetry'
• Purpose:
  • political, socially conscious, protest poetry, anger, comment on events.
• Language:
  • Caribbean creole, 'nation language'
  • phonetic spelling

Linton Kwesi Johnson

• Came to Britain in 1963, 11y
• "We were living in a racially hostile society that rejected us. We were able to draw on our own cultural roots and it gave us an independent identity" (LKJ)

"It Dread inna Inglan"

• George Lindo, Bradford
• Wrongful conviction (+1y)
• Campaign to free him, 1978

"Di Great Isohreckshan"

• Brixton Riots, 1981
• Economic recession
• High unemployment/crime
• Sus laws:
  • Operation SWAMP 81 (racist term).

Summary of Caribbean Writing

Encounters, entanglements, frictions

• Calypso:
  • a traditional Caribbean form transplanted to Britain and used to articulate new experiences in the 'mother country'.
• Dub poetry:
  • a new type of poetry born in Britain that blends reggae and spoken word poetry.
• "Colonization in reverse":
  • a poem that has a strong oral quality, drawing on the Caribbean oral tradition, and uses Caribbean creole.

Chinua Achebe: African Literature Pioneer

• A landmark postcolonial novel
• A pioneer of African literature in English
• Pre-colonial society + encounter British/ Igbos

1. Brief introduction to the history of colonization in Africa and Nigeria
2. Chinua Achebe:
   • Life
   • Motivation for writing
   • Works

Brief Introduction to the History of Colonization in Africa and Nigeria

Europe and Africa: Contact

• Before the XIX century?
  • The Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Colonization:
  • Berlin Conference, 1884

Chinua Achebe

• Igbo, Ogidi village, probably Christianised.
• Church Missionary Society, born in a Christian family (converts).
• Albert Chinuabumogu Achebe
• Education
• Essay "Named for Victoria, Queen of England"

Motivations for Writing

• Mister Johnson, Joyce Cary
• Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conra
• Pedagogical
  • Essay "The Novelist as a Teacher".

Works by Achebe

• Things Fall Apart, 1958
• No longer at Ease, 1960
• Arrow of God, 1963
• Chike and the River, 1966
• Girls at War and Other Stories, 1973
• Morning yet on Creation Day, 1975
• The Education of a British Protected Child, 2009
• There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, 2012

Nigeria and International Mobility

• Nigeria: Broadcasting Corporation, Prof. U. of Nigeria
• US last 15 years
• Dies in Boston in 2013

Wole Soyinka

Nobel Prize for Literature 1986 First African writer to receive it

Chinua Achebe: Lectures 1-2

1. Setting and time
2. Structure
3. Title
4. Characters
5. Language
6. Importance of oral tradition
7. Igbo cosmology

Setting and Time in Achebe's Work

• Umuofia (his father's village) (is part of a group of 9 villages, we begin to see how people organise themselves in these villages), Igboland- Is part of a territory which is inhabited by Igbos.

Umuofia is an idealization based on Achebe's own village Ogidi.

• Dignity of Igbo village life > Another village becomes important - called Mbanta (setting of the second part of the novel). Mbanta is the village of Okonkwo's mother. This culture has gender divisions.

Late nineteenth century 1890s - arrival of the British colonizers.

Structure of Achebe's Novel

It is quite simple, 3 parts:

Part I: Pre-Colonial Past

• It is the largest.
• Dedicated to the pre-colonial past ... - Attack the notion that history before the arrival of the British "Not one long night of savagery ... ".
• If you give someone Kola, it is seen as hospitality.
• Umuofia.
• Traditional, non-Christian way of life is presented with a lot of dignity. He wants to emphasize the dignity of this type of life.
• Dignity of Igbo village life.
• Everyday life of villagers and community. Strong sense of community in the book. It is a sort of strength. Anyone interfering with the community has to be punished.
• Social, economic and political organization. They have a system of organization, they are not savages. E.g. how they do their weddings, celebrations, farmers are farming, and also different seasons (e.g. harmatan), how they carry out justice. They Have their own version of civilization.
• Traditions, religion, values and beliefs.
• Adaptability. They are able to adapt and to change in their own way, to make progress, they are not modern in a European sense of the world, but they make progress.
• Igbo culture is not idealized, troubling aspects. He wanted to give a truthful vision of the story. THE GENDER ISSUE, the society is very patriarcal, the protagonist is particularly hostile with women (this is a defect). He is a hypermasculine figure.

Achebe's Knowledge of Ancestral Past

The life described is the life of Achebe's great grandparents, he had been told about it by members of his own family. There were also things that still exist in his time. Also through the oral tradition. He had learnt much about the stories.

Part II: Arrival of Missionaries

• He goes to Mbanta because he is punished, 7 years in exile.
• Arrival of the missionaries. They arrive in Umuofia and also in Mbanta. They begin to spread around the different villages.

Part III: Consequences of Colonization

• He returns to Umuofia to see how things are falling apart, changing, how the traditional way of life is breaking up, and how the village is taken up by the colonizers. It intensifies the consequences.
• Changes after establishment of white man.

Title of Achebe's Novel

It is not original. Poem "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats - Irish poet, published in 1919. The epigraph of the novel is taken from this poem "Things fall apart". The falcon and the falconer are a symbol of order. An apocalyptic vision of life. Anti-Christ - a beast