Post-colonial literature and western superiority
Edward Said states that the colonizer treats the colonized ‘ not even as people, but as problems to be solved or confirmed ’ . 8 In her quest to humanize Friday, Susan Barton treats his ‘inhumanity’ as ‘ a problem to be solved ’ , ironically dehumanizing him in this pursuit. Every struggle which Susan experiences trying to communicate with Friday in a western sense fails infuriates her, as Friday strays further from her idea of humanity with each failed attempt. As Paul Williams notes: ‘ Susan's attempt to free Friday with writing is also an attempt to force him to submit to her will. ’ 9 Emily Stockdale quotes Christine Voght Williams as she observes how Roy in The God of Small Things transcribes Velutha’s thoughts, noting that the language Velutha uses i s not indicative of the way Untouchables would speak: ‘ Velutha, an Untouchable, would not have had access to the kind of English Roy uses in his speech. Yet Roy reports his thought patterns and lends his speech a certain dignity by using a more or less standard variety of English. This of course contributes to the reader’s perception of Velutha not as just an Untouchable, but rather as a person with rights. ’ 10 Like Barton with Friday, Roy chooses to ‘civil ize ’ and anglic ize her authentic portrayal of a lower-caste Indian in order to make him more sympathetic to a western reader. This effort, however, cements the idea that Velutha must earn his humanity by ‘ conquering English ’ to compensate for his class. In contrast, Friday’s speechlessness is never rectified by Coetzee. Both Barton and the reader are challenged to see his humanity without being able to comprehend or categorize him. Underlying much of post-colonial literature are western- shaped, rigid caste structures. The ‘middle - caste’ post -colonial writer transgresses these boundaries simply through the honest telling of their narratives, which are ‘ essentially political ’ . 11 However, the partially westernized perspective that these novelists offer can dilute post-colonial realities. The many dimensions of post-colonial experience often fail to appease the western desire to categorize . As Rochester says of Antoinette’s homeland, ‘ everything is too much ’ . For this reason, many post-colonial writers choose to make their narratives more appealing to the western palate. However, to truly ‘ complete the process of making ourselves free ’ 12 as Rushdie states, this mentality must be entirely abandoned. Instead, as Chinua Achebe states, the experience of colonized people should be told ‘ with all its imperfections. ’ 13
Bibliography
Achebe, C. (1965) The Novelist as Teacher. Leeds Ashcroft, B. et al. (1989) The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures . London Baldwin, J. (2018) Dark Days. London Bayly, S. (1999). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age . Cambridge Cesaire, A. (1955) Discourse on Colonialism. New York
8 Said 1978: 207. 9 Williams 2009. 10 Stockdale 2008. 11 Introduction in Ashcroft et al. 1989. 12 Rushdie 1991: paragraph 15. 13 Achebe 1965: 126.
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