POST COLONIAL LITERATURE AS THE LITERATURE OF MARGINALISED

Postcolonial literature as the literature of Marginalised

Introduction

In this essay I provide the multi polar dimensions of postcolonial literature. I seek to explore various notions, concepts, theories which are born out of postcolonial literature. It explains the various ideas and discussions related to culture and the literature with the perspective of postcolonial eye view. Postcolonial is both epistemological and epistemological category. How did occur the cultural transactions among the various countries and the different civilizations? The societies mingle each other and amalgamate the values between them and they cultivate new ideologies and the moral principles. That might have happened in the African and most colonized countries. Thus the culture is most discussed matter among the literary world of the discussions.

Literature of the marginalized

Colonialism again created the marginalization among the society. But the issue of marginalization and its process cannot be thrown completely towards the colonization but the process existed as the heritage of that country also. Bhabha (1994:171) sees postcolonial critique emerging from colonial

experiences. He argues:

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. They intervene in those ideological discourses of modernity that attempt to give a hegemonic “normality” to the uneven development and the differential,often disadvantaged, histories of nations, race, communities, peoples. According to Young (2001:1-11, 57-69), postcolonial critique is concerned with the history of colonialism “only to the extent that history has determined the configurations and power structures of the present.”

As the tribal population of India is about one-sixth of the total population of the country” and yet the tribals in India have not been part of decolonization, even though “they have paid the price”. As it is denoted through the work of Mahasweta Devi. “Frames of Marginalisation in Mahasweta Devi’s Outcast: Four Stories” in this anthology that Mahasweta Devi’s stories can be read as “the voiced articulations of the tribal. Eventhough India has got freedom the society adivasi and others s the dalits still wait for the freedom. The writings of Kancha ilaiha clearly spoke about the marginalized society of India. Her words deeply analyze and reflection upon how the power structures that engender marginalization are replicated in the texture of the society of the marginalized.” Outcast: Four Short Stories deals with the fate of four women characters that, belonging to the ‘Other’ world, are doubly marginalized and looked down upon even by those who are usually regarded as marginalized in Indian society. The term colonizer denotes the power who dominate and the word colonized denote that the power which has gone under the domination or the process of the marginalization. These marginalization even effected the daily life of the common people.

In the drama Ubu and Truth Commission” a conversation between two characters shows how crucial was their common life.

Ma ubu: I see that prices are still rising.

Pa ubu: what rising?

Ma ubu: Today, everything costs an arm and a leg.

In the drama of Maeshe Maponya brought the labour issue in his drama “The Hungry Earth” as Beshawana says that: you are stranger, a foreigner. By your labour you merely repaid your debt to our country that extended its hospitality to you for two hundred years. Even the colonization reached the marginalizing till they threaten the survival of colonized countries.

As the colonization oppressed the people and dominated on them through various ways it caused to arouse remonstrations and protestations against the colonial powers. It is clearly picturised in all the three dramas. Jane taylor uses the human like puppets and the animal puppets to depict the protest through the action and the texts. The symbolical reference of the puppets is in a protesting manner against the agitation. In the drama of maponya the characters directly says to leave the country as Ushiviko says: Your are about to leave this country with all the wealth we sweated our lives for.