POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE
English Literature II
RUDYARD KIPLING'S "Lispeth" & "Thrown Away"
SALMAN RUSHDIE'S "Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies" & "The Free Radio"
DORIS LESSING'S Victoria and the Staveneys
OCTOBER 2021
COLLABORATIVE ANALYSIS & COMPARISON between Postcolonial literary works:
After reading the 4 short stories by Kipling and Rushdie, plus the novella by Lessing, it is now time to compare and contrast the pieces and to share our conclusions.
1- Write your conclusions in a Word Document - A4 - doubled-spaced, Arial or Verdana , size 12, justified paragraphs.
2- Write a cover with the usual contents and in the middle, what your thesis is going to be.
Each group should choose one of the following and analyse how it is explored in the 4 literary works ( the short stories and the novella):
- A common theme in the 5 works.
- Features of Colonial / Postcolonial Literature.
- Style.
3- Your document should have an introduction (1-2 paragraphs), a body, where you develop your thesis statement and a conclusion. It should be no more than 3 A4 pages long.
4- You must quote from at least 4 of the literary works to justify your conclusions.
5- Your paper must be followed by the References and Bibliography. You should use the sources in your booklet and your are only permitted to add 1 extra source. If you do use this extra source, remember to copy and paste it in APPENDICES, the section with follows after BIBLIOGRAPHY.
6- Once your document has been marked and edited, you can post it here. Don't forget to include 1) who the members of the group are; 2) What your focus of analysis is ; 3) References & Bibliography.
Instituto Superior del Profesorado Nº 4, Ángel Cárcano.
ReplyDeleteENGLISH LITERATURE II
Analysis of Alienation in Kipling’s Lispeth and Thrown Away, Rushdie’s Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies and The Free Radio and Lessing’s novella Victoria & the Staveneys.
Group: Fabrissin, Kevin; Pérez, Milagros; Petrucci, Giuliana; Quatrín, Paula; Roldán, Julia; Zorzon, Ornela.
Introduction
Postcolonial literature addresses how the literature of the colonising countries manipulates the living experiences of the colonised people. It depicts with pride how the literature written by the colonisers has appropriated the best attributes the colonised countries have. It also describes the desperate efforts of the latter to regain their identity and recover their past, although it will never be whole again. Additionally, postcolonial literature is framed around the concept of otherness: having an identity or being different from the colonising culture and as a consequence, being labeled by the conceptions and ideas of the colonisers towards the colonised (Lye 253).
Alienation
The feature of otherness is portrayed in Kipling’s short stories. Alienation, in this case, is closely related to this genre, which can be shown in Lispeth, where the main character adopts customs from British culture such as the conversion from paganism to the Christian religion, and the habit of taking regular baths, which her own community do not do: “Lispeth took to Christianity readily, and did not abandon it when she reached womanhood, as do some Hill-girls. Her own people hated her because she had, they said, become a white woman and washed herself daily [...]” (Kipling 266). Nevertheless, she is not a white English girl. Thus, she is considered a foreigner to both cultures: “ ‘and I believe that Lispeth was always at heart an infidel.’ Seeing she had been taken into the Church of England at the mature age of five weeks [...]” (Kipling 269).
In Kipling’s short story “Thrown Away”, the young boy is presented by the narrator as a victim of civilisation. This is shown by the fact that he experiences changes in his personality and behaviour as a result of moving from Sandhurst, England, to India. This transition modifies the main character completely since he goes from having a sheltered life under the care of his parents to face difficulties to survive to the different way of life in India. Consequently, his inability to adapt to the chaos of this country, and to be included among his own people, forces him to commit suicide: “and could not understand why he was not treated with the consideration he received under his father’s roof. This hurt his feelings” (Kipling 270). In this way, the boy is the ‘other’ in the story since he found it hard to adopt some of the customs of Indians inhabitants and, as a consequence of the shame he feels, the young boy also considered himself as an alien to his own country.
In the story Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies, written by Salman Rushdie, the character Miss Rehana does not want to move to England because for her it would mean sticking to an arranged marriage with a man she barely knows, in addition to giving up the freedom and power that working means for her. Despite the fact that for most Indian women an arranged marriage guarantees a lifetime of financial stability and for her enduring this arrangement represents protection from other men who try to approach her, she still thinks: “ ‘It was an arranged engagement’ [...] ‘I have this photo, but he is like a stranger to me’ [...]” (Rushdie 283). Here Miss Rehana is exposed to an inverted role regarding socio-cultural traditions due to the fact that she does not do what is expected of her: to marry and settle down. Hence, she is trapped between the Indian and the English traditions and the impact on her lifestyle, alienating her from both societies and what they represent.
In Rushdie’s short story The Free Radio, the radio symbolizes the feeling of being part of the new Indian nation due to the fact that it was a gift to those who went through the sterilization programme. By being mocked by the government promises and the arm branded militants, Ramani is alienated not only from his national identity but also from the society where he lives. He is considered naive for waiting for the radio and also insane for foolishly becoming involved with the widow, a character in the story who is as well as Ramani, considered the "other" and his circumstances further alienates him: "But after that Ramani and the thief´s widow were seen everywhere, shamelessly, in public places, and I was glad his mother was dead because if she had lived to see this her face would have fallen off from shame." (Rushdie 285).
DeleteIn the novella Victoria & the Staveneys by Doris Lessing, racism goes along with alienation. The character of Victoria knows since she is a child that she is different from the other people. While other children have a bedtime and sleep in pajamas, she goes to sleep in her day clothes when her aunt goes too. Furthermore, when other children go to school and sit for their exams, she stays at home and cares for her dying aunt, a situation that forces her to be at a disadvantage at school: “She was always being rushed back for treatments that left her sick and weak. Victoria looked after her. After school she did not go to other children’s homes to play, but came straight back to be a nurse” (Lessing 305). Moreover, Victoria's state of inferiority and otherness remains present when she enters the Staveneys’ house for the first time, where she finds herself surrounded by plenty of rooms in comparison with the council flat where she lives with her aunt. This tiny space is all she knows and that is the reason why she cannot understand that in such a big house lives only Ms Staveneys with her two children. As a consequence of several factors such as the colour of her skin, the major changes in her lifestyle when she got in contact with the Staveneys, her education, her financial status and her personal background, she constantly has a feeling of loneliness and desolation.
Conclusion
To conclude, the feeling of alienation is a common theme in Postcolonial literature and it is present in all four short stories and the novella. Alienation is considered to be a physical or psychological state in which a person, or in this case character, does not feel at home. Throughout these five literary works the authors portray how the characters are alienated or alienate themselves by feeling inferior or nor able to cope with the situation they are in. It does not only occur when cultures clash, but also within their own city, language and cultural practices (Mambrol 4, 5, 7).
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DeleteReferences
DeleteKipling, Rudyard. Plain Tales from the Hills. Books, INC. Publishers: USA, 2001. Pp. 11-37. Print.
Lessing, Doris. The Grandmothers. Harper Perennial: London, 2003. Pp. 59-129. Print.
Lye, John. “Some Issues in Postcolonial Theory (1998)”. Brock University. April 30, 2008. September 22, 2021.
Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Postcolonial Novels and Novelists”. Literary Theory and Criticism. March 8, 2019. September 26, 2021.
Rushdie, Salman. East, West. Vintage Random House: London, UK, 1995. Pp. 5-32. Print.
Bibliography
Kipling, Rudyard. Plain Tales from the Hills. Books, INC. Publishers: USA, 2001. Pp. 11-37. Print.
Lessing, Doris. The Grandmothers. Harper Perennial: London, 2003. Pp. 59-129. Print.
Lye, John. “Some Issues in Postcolonial Theory (1998)”. Brock University. April 30, 2008. September 22, 2021.
Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Postcolonial Novels and Novelists”. Literary Theory and Criticism. March 8, 2019. September 26, 2021.
Rushdie, Salman. East, West. Vintage Random House: London, UK, 1995. Pp. 5-32. Print.
Instituto Superior de Profesorado Nº4 “Ángel Cárcano"
ReplyDeleteEnglish Literature II
“Racism in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature”
Students: Bublitz, Ailen; Corti, Carolina; Ledesma, Diego; Moreyra, Fabio.
Introduction to Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
Postcolonial literature focuses on written works of colonisers and colonised people. These works portray the people’s reality and experiences showing the notable difference between colonisers and the colonised, the latter being excluded and oppressed at the hands of these occupying forces. They are considered to be inferior in more than one aspect: ethnicity, religion, education as well as skin colour.
Since colonisers populated countries, they also appropriated their literary features. Hence, the newly developed literature into the postcolonial period is “a self-conscious literature of otherness and resistance from local experience” (Lye 253).
This literary hybridity can be found in the short stories of Rudyard Kipling’s “Lispeth”, Salman Rushdie’s “Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies” and “The Free Radio”, and a short story from Doris Lessing’s novella, Victoria and the Staveneys. We intend to discuss the way these writers explore racism in all these literary works.
Racism
A commonly mentioned theme all over the postcolonial transition is Racism. This is because Europeans constantly regarded black people as a subordinate class, claiming that they did not deserve to experience the same rights or benefits they had (UKEssays 3). The English writer Doris Lessing perfectly represents this aspect of prejudice against race in her novella Victoria and the Staveneys. Victoria is a poor little black girl who after her aunt’s illness stays at Edward Staveney’s house with his rich and white family. Two antagonist realities are presented where racism seems almost inevitable. In one event, Edward is approaching his task of collecting Victoria, when his thoughts are influenced by societal ideas of the third world. The environment he lives in influences his judgement because “Edward was the child of a liberal house, and he was in the throes of a passionate identification with all the sorrows of the Third World” (Lessing 295). Nevertheless his intentions are good, he abandoned Victoria in the playground because “He had in fact seen a little black girl, but he had been told to collect a little girl, and for some reason had not thought this black child could be his charge.” (Lessing 295). With this quote it can be said that Edward is racist unintentionally: he went to school expecting to find a white child with his brother Thomas but “he had not really seen her because Victoria was black. But he had seen her”. (Lessing 271).
People are all equally human and the fundamental concepts of a person's rights is their freedom, equality and a dignified life. Therefore, ethnic and race preferences are remarkable infringements of these rights. (UKEssays 1-2)
DeleteRudyard Kipling, the English writer, also portrays racism in his stories, as is the case of “Lispeth”, an orphan girl who is raised by a Missionary family but she is still not considered worthy enough to choose who to marry because “it was "wrong and improper" of Lispeth to think of marriage with an Englishman, who was of a superior clay” (Kipling 268). She is not only discriminated against by her adopted family but also by her own people, because living with missionaries made her adopt new customs. Her own people hated her because she had, they say, become a white woman and washed herself daily”. (Kipling 266)
Racial discrimination can be found in more than one aspect. For instance, it can be recognised in institutions (UKEssays 1-2) like it is shown in the case of Rehana, the main character in the short story “Good advice is Rarer than Rubies”. This was written by Salman Rushdie, a highly acknowledged contemporary writer. His work tells the story of a woman who is trying to obtain a passport to reach England, when she decides to go through an interrogation at the British Consulate in order to obtain her legal documents, Muhammad Ali - the advice ‘wallah’ - “told her that the sahibs thought that all women who came on Tuesdays, claiming to be dependents of bus drivers in Luton or chartered accountants in Manchester, were crooks and liars, and cheats” (Rushdie 280). In this story we can perceive how official institutions, such as a consulate, practice not only ethnic but also gender racism.
In addition, Rushdie’s short story “The Free Radio” depicts another discrimination against natives who are induced to sterilize so as to control population. They encourage natives to take this decision by giving them a radio. Ramani, the main character “had gone voluntarily to subject himself to a humiliation” (Rushdie 288) since: “[H]e was to receive a highly special and personalised gift from the Central Government in Delhi itself, and this gift was to be a brand-new first-class battery-operated transistor radio”. (Rushdie 287)
One of the main aims of postcolonial literature is to emphasize racial diversity, on account of Europeans threatening the natives’ culture with the elimination of costumes and folk identification, thus giving the colonised a chance to tell their own story, in their terms but in the language learnt from the colonisers so that it can reached a wider audience(UKEssays 3)
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be said that racism is repeatedly mentioned as a visible theme portrayed in Kipling, Rushdie and Lessing’s works. The difference between colonisers and the colonised is represented in the customs, the culture and the racial aspects mentioned in each story. The immeasurable gap between these two worlds at that time is clearly portrayed with main characters affected by this racist world as. Thus, making a contribution to raise awareness of the situation lived by the colonised at the time.
References
DeleteBiography.com Editors. “Rudyard Kipling Biography.” The BIography.com website.
A&E Television Networks. April 2, 2014. September 5, 2021.
Lye, John. “Some Issues in Postcolonial Theory (1998)”. Brock University. April 30,
2008. September 5, 2021.
Rushdie, Salman. East, West. Vintage Random House: London, UK, 1995. Pp. 5-32.
Print.
The British Council Editors. “Salman Rushdie - Biography.” The British Council. Org.
N.d. Web. September 6, 2021.
UKEssays. "Racial discrimination and colonization in literature". ukessays.com.
November, 2018. Web. October 26, 2021.
Bibliography
Biography.com Editors. “Rudyard Kipling Biography.” The BIography.com website.
A&E Television Networks. April 2, 2014. September 5, 2021.
Lye, John. “Some Issues in Postcolonial Theory (1998)”. Brock University. April 30,
2008. September 5, 2021.
Prasad, Ajnesh, and Tanvir Qureshi. ”“Race and Racism in an Elite Postcolonial
Context: Reflections from Investment Banking.”. Work, Employment and
Society. April 2, 2017. September 26, 2021
Rushdie, Salman. East, West. Vintage Random House: London, UK, 1995. Pp. 5-32.
Print.
The British Council Editors. “Salman Rushdie - Biography.” The British Council. Org.
N.d. Web. September 6, 2021.
UKEssays. "Racial discrimination and colonization in literature". ukessays.com.
November, 2018. Web. October 26, 2021.