Eng 817 PDF

COURSE
GUIDE
ENG 817
AFRICAN-AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
Course Team Dr. Oluchi Chris OKEUGO (Course Developer/

Writer ) Department of English and Literary
Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Enugu State
Course Editor
Course Coordinator
NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

ENG 817 COURSE GUIDE
© 2022 by NOUN Press

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ii
CONTENTS PAGE
Introduction
What You Will Learn in this Course
Course Aims
Course Objectives
Working through the Course
Course Materials
Study Units
Textbooks and References
Assignment File
Presentation Schedule
Assessment
Tutor-Marked Assignment
Final Examination and Grading
Course Marking Scheme
Course Overview
How to Get the Most from the Course
Facilitators /Tutors and Tutorials
Summary
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INTRODUCTION
This course will present a comprehensive survey of the literature

produced by major writers of the black diaspora in North America (USA
& Canada) and the English speaking Caribbean. The course will equally
focus on the literary response to the history, socio-economic and
political movements during the last three hundred years and in more
recent trends in Africa-America and Caribbean Literature.
The course consists of 35 units, historical background to Caribbean

literature, historical background to African- American literature,
Caribbean Experience and return migration of the West Indians,
Postcoloniality and comparative black literature, postcolonial Feminist
Identity and the metaphors of self in African- American and Caribbean
literature, the battle against Imperialism, canonization and sexism and
ambivalent identity and self-identity in selected Caribbean works.
The knowledge of the works of major African-American and Caribbean

writers in their social, political and intellectual context, may be a pre-
requisite for this course. This course guide tells you briefly what the
course is all about, what you are expected to know in each unit; what
course materials you will be using and how you can work your way
through the material. It also emphasizes the need for tutor-marked
assignments. Detailed information on tutor-marked assignment is
contained in a file to be sent to you in due course. There are periodic
tutorial classes that are linked to the course.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS COURSE

The overall aim of ENG 817: African-America & Caribbean is to
familiarize the students with the complete process of acquainting and
understanding the trajectories in African-American & Caribbean
literature.
COURSE AIMS
The course is to equip the students with the knowledge of the voracious
and multi-dimensional nature of Black Literature, especially the basic
skills involved in realizing a wide range of literary genre in diversified
reading. This aim will be achieved by:
• Describing the central aspects of Caribbean history (slavery,
colonialism, migration) and discuss their significance,
• Describing the key concepts, themes, tropes, styles, and concerns
of Caribbean literary discourse,
• Providing an overview of the history of anglophone Caribbean
Literature,
• Discussing the scholarly reception of each literary tex,t
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• Enhancing research skills and skills in finding and assessing

teaching materials,
• Explaining the main contributions of Caribbean literature to
British and US literary traditions as well as international cultural
movements such as modernism,
• Producing the teaching materials for teaching Caribbean literature
(or history) at the college-level, including a syllabus, teaching
guides, assignments, and lesson plans,
• Producing a shared repository of teaching materials,
• Locating and assess online teaching resources for Caribbean
literature,
• Assessing strategies for digital tools for teaching Caribbean
literature.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
To achieve the aims set out above, there are overall objectives. In
addition, each unit has specific objectives. The unit objectives are
always included at the beginning of the unit. You should read them
before going through the units. You should always look at the unit
objectives on completing the unit to assure yourself that you have done
what the unit required and acquired the competencies it aimed to
inculcate.
Stated below are the wider objectives of this course. By meeting these
objectives, you should have achieved the entire aims of this course.
On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
• Define and utilize the concepts of diaspora and race, while
demonstrating an understanding of the vast application and
complexity of these concepts.
• Produce critical readings of texts from writers of the Caribbean
that demonstrate an understanding of the essential literary
processes of meaning making through character, setting,
language, imagery, structure and/or form.
• Analyze how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, migration, labor,
and political economy are related to the historical development of
various African diasporic societies and hence the literature of the
African diaspora.
• Analyze the relationships between specific historical events and
contemporary writings.
• Exhibit an understanding of the relationship between literary
production and social, political and economic issues, including,
political and revolutionary movements in the Caribbean and
African diaspora.
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• Understand the geography of the Caribbean and map connections

between regional and diasporic social and literary movements
and processes.
• Identify and apply the fundamental concepts and methods of
African and African American Studies.
• Identify and discuss important literary figures and texts from the
Caribbean and its diaspora.
• Understand, identify, and analyze different definitions of
Caribbean identity and culture.
• Understand Caribbean history, culture, and identities and how
they are represented in literary canons using academic texts,
cultural texts, and other sources.
• Distinguish the strengths, weaknesses, and point of view in
sources and texts of the course.
• Identify the main argument and focus of an author
• Analyze, compare, contrast, themes and arguments across
readings in different historical contexts and genres.
• Develop writing skills by blogging and writing papers.
• Develop critical thinking and close reading skills.
WORKING THROUGH THIS COURSE
To complete this course, you are required to read the study units, read
recommended books and other related materials you can lay your hands
on. Each unit contains self-assessment exercises, which you are
expected to use in assessing your understanding of the course. At the
end of this course is a final examination.
COURSE MATERIALS
Major component of this course are:
1. Course Guide
2. Study Units
3. Textbooks
4. Assignment File
5. Presentation Schedule
STUDY UNITS
There are thirty-five units in this course. They are as follows:
Module 1: Historical Background to Caribbean Literature

Unit 1 Slavery in the Caribbean
Unit 2 Abolition
Unit 3 The Post- Emancipation Caribbean
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Unit 4 Implication on Criticism

Unit 5 Major Writers from the Caribbean
Module 2: Historical Background to African- American and

Caribbean Literature
Unit 1 Fugitive and Ex-Slave Narratives
Unit 2 Harlem Renaissance or the New Negro-Movement
Unit 3 The Civil Rights Era and the Black Arts Movement (Black
Aesthetics 1960s-1970s)
Unit 4 The Post Modern Turn in African- American Literature and Neo-
Slavery Narratives
Unit 5 Contemporary Writers: The Literary Movements in African-
American Background
Module 3: Caribbean Experience: Return Migration of the West

Indians
Unit 1 How to Define Caribbean Literature
Unit 2 Origins of Caribbean Literature and Its Evolution in the
Twentieth Century
Unit 3 First and Second Generation, Caribbean Writers and
Themes of the Works
Unit 4 The Search for Identity
Unit 5 Caribbean Experience and Carly Phillip’s Literary
Relevance
Module 4: Comparative Black Literature and Post-colonialism:

Pillars, Periods and Themes
Unit 1 The Postcolonial Theory
Unit 2 Critical Approaches to Post-colonial Literary Texts
Unit 3 Aesthetics of Identity in Post-colonial Literature
Unit 4 The Autotelic Self in Postcolonial Literature
Unit 5 Multicultural, Hybridity and Migration
Module 5: Postcolonial Feminist Theory: An Aesthetic Model for

African-American and Caribbean Women Works
Unit 1 Time, Change and Women
Unit 2 Feminism and the Black Woman
Unit 3 Womanism and Identity in Caribbean Literature
Unit 4 Developing a New Multicultural Feminist Model
Module 6: Representations of Black Womanhood in African-

American & Caribbean Literary Realism
Unit 1 Phillis Wheatley
Unit 2 Zora Neale Hurston
Unit 3 Alice Walker
Unit 4 Toni Morison
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Unit 5 Jamaica Kincaid and Audre Lorde
Module 7: Reading Caribbean Writing: A Cross-Cultural

Approach to Representations of Selected Caribbean Works
Unit 1 V.S. Naipaul
Unit 2 George Lamming
Unit 3 Ralph Elision
Unit 4 Richard Wright
Unit 5 Diriye Osman
The essence of a comprehensive provision of the units is to guide and

ensure a painstaking and critical study of the sub-themes under each
module. The module and units provide a wide and exploratory coverage
of the course contents and course outline of the course.
TEXTBOOKS AND REFERENCES
Andrews, W. L. (1986). To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-

American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Urbana, IL: University of
Illinois Press.
Baker, H. A., Jr. (1987). Blues, Ideology, and African-American

Literature: A Vernacular Theory. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.
Baker, H. A., Jr. (1987). Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bruce, D. D., Jr. (2001). The Origins of African American Literature,

1680-1865. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Chaney, M. (2007). Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in

Antebellum Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Gray, R. (2012). A History of American literature (4th ed.). Wiley-

Blackwell.
Hourston, Z. N. (1981). Their Eyes Were Watching God. Champaign:

University of Illinois Press.
Hughes, L. (1999). The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.

Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (7th
ed.), 1025-6. Longman.
Hutcheon, L. (1988). A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory,

Fiction. New York: Routledge.
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Jacobs, H. (1988). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York:

Oxford University Press.
Huggins, N. (Ed.). (1976). Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. New

York: Oxford University Press.
Hutchinson, G. (Ed.). (2007). The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem

Renaissance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wintz, C. D. (1988). Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance.

Houston, TX: Rice University Press.
ASSIGNMENT FILE
This file contains the details of all the assignments you must do and
submit to your tutor for marking. The mark you obtain from these
assignments, will form a part of the final mark you will obtain in this
course.
PRESENTATION SCHEDULE
The presentation schedule included in your course materials gives you

the important dates for the completion of your tutor-marked assignments
and when you will attend tutorials. Remember that you are required to
submit your assignments according to the schedule.
ASSESSMENT
There are two aspects of assignments in this course. The first aspect
includes all the tutor-marked assignments, while the second is the
written examination.
In tackling the assignments, you are expected to apply the information

and knowledge you acquired during the course.
The assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment

in accordance with the deadlines stated in the assignment file. The work
you submit to your tutor for assessment account for 30%of the total
mark accruing to the course. At the end of the course, you will sit for a
final three-hour examination that will carry 70% of the total course
mark.
TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Each unit has a tutor-marked assignment. You are expected to submit all
the assignments. You should be able to do the assignments from the
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knowledge you deduced from the course, and information you acquired
from the textbooks.
When you have completed the assignment for each unit, send it along
with your TMA (tutor-marked assignment) from your tutor. Make sure
that the completed assignment reaches your tutor on or before the
deadline in the assignment file. If you cannot complete your assignment
on time, due to a cogent reason, consult your tutor for possible extension
of time.
FINAL EXAMINATION AND GRADING
The final examination for ENG 817 will be for the duration of three
hours. The examination will carry 70%. It will consist of questions that
will reflect the type of self-testing practice exercise and tutor-marked
assignments you have come across. All areas of the course will be
examined.
You are advised to revise the entire course after studying the last unit
before you sit for examination. You will find the revision of your tutor-
marked assignments equally useful.
COURSE MARKING SCHEME

The table below shows how actual course marking is broken down.
Assessment Marks
Assignments 1- Four assignments, best three marks of the four counts
4 as 30% of course mark
Final 70% of overall course marks
Examination
Total 100% of course marks
Table 1: Course marking scheme
COURSE OVERVIEW
The table below brings together, the units the number of weeks you
should take to complete them, and the assignments that follow them.
Unit Title of Work Week’s Assessment
Activity (End of Unit)
Course Guide 1
Module 1
1 Slavery in the Caribbean Assignment
2 Abolition Assignment
3 The Post-Emancipation Assignment
Caribbean
4 Implications on Criticism Assignment
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5 Major Writers from the Assignment

Caribbean
1 Fugitive and Ex-Slave Assignment
Narratives
2 Harlem Renaissance or Assignment
the New Negro
Movement
3 The Civil Rights Era and Assignment
the Black Arts
Movement(Black
Aesthetics 1960s-1970s)
4 The Post-Modern Turn in Assignment
African-American
Literature and the Neo-
Slave Narratives
5 Contemporary Writers: Assignment
The Literary Movements
in African-American
Background
Module 3
1 How to Define Caribbean Assignment
Literature
2 Origins of Caribbean Assignment
Literature and Its
Evolution in the
Twentieth Century
3 First and Second Assignment
Generation Caribbean
Writers and the Themes
of their Works
4 The Search for Identity Assignment
5 Caribbean Experience and Assignment
Caryl Phillip’s Literary
Relevance
Module 4
1 The Postcolonial Theory Assignment
2 Critical Approaches to Assignment
Post-colonial Literary
Texts
3 Aesthetics of Identity in Assignment
Post-colonial Literature
4 The Autotelic Self in Assignment
Postcolonial Literature
5 Multicultural, Hybridity Assignment
and Migration
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Module 5
1 Time, Change and Assignment
Women
2 Feminism and the Black Assignment
Woman
3 Womanism and Identity Assignment
in Caribbean Literature
4 Developing a New Multi- Assignment
cultural Feminist Model
Module 6
1 Phillis Wheatley Assignment
2 Zora Neale Hurston Assignment
3 Alice Walker Assignment
4 Toni Morison Assignment
5 Jamaica Kincaid and Assignment
Audre Lorde
Module 7
1 V.S. Naipaul Assignment
2 George Lamming Assignment
3 Ralph Elision Assignment
4 Richard Wright Assignment
5 Dirige Osman Assignment
HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS COURSE
In distance learning, the study units replace the university lecture. This
is one of the advantages of distance learning: you can read and work
through specially designed study materials at your own pace, and at a
time and place that suit you best. Think of it as reading the lecture
instead of listening to a lecturer. In the same way that a lecturer might
set for you some reading to do, the study units tell you when to read
your set of books or other materials. Just as a lecturer might give you an
in-class exercise, your study units provide exercises for you to do at
appropriate time.
Each of the study units are written according to common format. The
first item is an introduction to the subject matter of the unit and how a
particular unit is integrated with the other units and of course as a whole.
Next is a set of learning objectives. These objectives guide you on what
you should be able to do by the time you have completed the unit. You
should use these objectives to guide your study. When you have
completed the units, you must go back and check whether you have
achieved the objectives. This habit will improve your chance of passing
the course.
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READING SECTION
Remember that your tutor’s job is to help you. So, when you need help
of any sort, call on him or her. Do not fail to do so.
1. Read this Course Guide thoroughly
2. Organise a study schedule or time table. Refer to the course
overview for more detail. Note the time you expected to spend on
each unit, and how the assignments relate to the units.
3. Once you have created your own study schedule, do everything
you can to stick to it. The major reasons students fail is that they
lag behind in their course work. If you get into any difficulty with
your schedule, do let your tutor know it before it is too late for
help.
4. Turn to unit one and read the introduction and the objectives for
the unit
5. Assemble the study materials. Information about what you need
for a unit is given in the overview at the beginning of each unit.
You will always almost need both the study unit you are working
on and one of your books on your table at the same time.
6. Work through the unit. The content of the unit itself has been
arranged to provide a sequence for you to follow. As you work
through the unit , you will be instructed to read sections from
your set books or articles. Use the unit to guide your reading.
7. Review the objectives for each study unit to confirm that you
have achieved them. If you feel unsure about any of the
objectives, review the study material or consult your tutor.
8. When you are confident that you have achieved a unit’s
objectives, you can then start on the next unit. Proceed unit by
unit through the course and try to pace your study so that you
keep yourself on schedule.
9. When you have submitted an assignment to your tutor for
marking, do not wait for its return before starting on the next unit.
Keep to your schedule. When the assignment is returned, pay
particular attention to your tutor’s comments, both on the tutor-
marked assignment form and also on what is written on the
assignment. Consult your tutor as soon as possible if you have
any questions or problems.
10. After completing the last, review the course and prepare yourself
for the final examination. Ensure that you have achieved the unit
objectives (listed at the beginning of each unit) and the course
objectives (listed in this Course Guide)
FACILITATORS/ TUTORS AND TUTORIALS
There are eight hours of tutorials provided in support of this course. You
will be notified of the dates, time and location of these tutorials, with the
name and phone number of your tutor, as soon as you are allocated a
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tutorial group. Your tutor will mark and comment on your assignments,
keep close watch on your progress and on any difficulties you might
encounter and provide assistance to you during the course. You must
mail your tutor-marked assignments to your tutor well before the due
date (at least two working days are required). They will be marked by
your tutor and returned to you as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to
contact your tutor by telephone, e-mail, or discussion board if you need
help. The following might be circumstances in which you will find help
necessary.
CONTACT YOUR TUTOR IF:

• You do not understand any part of the study units or the assigned
readings
• You have difficulty with the self-tests or exercises
• You have a question or problem with an assignment, your tutor’s
comments on assignment, or with the grading of an assignment.
You should try your best to attend tutorials. This is the only chance to
have face to face contact with your tutor and ask questions which are
answered instantly. You can raise any problem encountered in the
course of your study. To gain the maximum benefit from course
tutorials, prepare a question list before attending them. You will learn a
lot from participating in discussions actively.
SUMMARY
ENG 817: African-American & Caribbean Literature simply explains

the historical background of African- American &Caribbean literature,
and its surviving contributions and roles in the comparative black
literature. By the end of this course, students should be able to answer
questions bordering on:
The Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone legacies historically

connect the entire Caribbean through the projects of modernity and
empire; and in the present former colonies have strong migration flows
to their former colonial power.
The writing in African-American and Caribbean literature reflects how

Caribeños created new cultures, languages, and identities through their
survival and resistance. This course examines prolific and sometimes
understudied writers and their contributions to Caribbean literature and
diasporic literature. The students will also learn how intersectional
oppressions affect people’s daily livelihoods and how the social
constructions of race and gender, for example, are necessary points of
inquiry. In this course students will learn how colonialism and
modernity still affect the Caribbean and how people in various islands of
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the Caribbean and its diaspora (in the U.S.A. and England, for example)
negotiate empire, post colonialism, identity, language, culture gender,
and notions of home. Etc.
The course is a captivating course that requires voracious grip and

diversified skills and comprehension. This course has been well-
designed and constructed to equip the students with these multi-faceted
components. Happy reading!
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ENG 817 AFRICAN-AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN LITERATURE
MODULE 1
INTRODUCTION
The Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone legacies historically

connect the entire Caribbean through the projects of modernity and
empire; and in the present former colonies have strong migration flows
to their former colonial power. This need to migrate, feelings of non-
belonging, experiences of oppression and discrimination, and cultural
hybridity are realities Caribbean migrants share. The writing in
Caribbean literature reflects how Caribeños created new cultures,
languages, and identities through their survival and resistance. This
course examines prolific and sometimes understudied writers and their
contributions to Caribbean literature and diasporic literature. While this
is an introductory segment, students will also learn how intersectional
oppressions affect people’s daily livelihoods and how the social
constructions of race and gender, for example, are necessary points of
inquiry. In this course students will learn how colonialism and
modernity still affect the Caribbean and how people in various islands of
the Caribbean and its diaspora (in the U.S.A. and England, for example)
negotiate empire, identity, language, culture, and notions of home. This
course also examines how diaspora influences Caribbean livelihoods
and experiences which is reflected in writing. These experiences shed
light on what it means to be a product of diaspora, how the legacies of
colonialism, imperialism, and modernity affect Caribbean nations and
people, and how migration is natural– although sometimes forced. It is
anticipated that the students will develop an understanding as to how the
Caribbean nations are similar in many ways but also unique and
dissimilar.
Objectives
At the end of this unit, you should be able to:
(1) Identify and discuss important literary figures and texts from the
Caribbean and its diaspora.
(2) Understand Caribbean history, culture, and identities and how

they are represented in literary canons using academic texts,
cultural texts, and other sources.
(3) Identify the main argument and focus of an author. Analyze,

compare, and contrast themes and arguments across readings in
different historical contexts and genres.
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MAIN CONTENT
The history of the founding and settling of the Caribbean has

implications for the societies that have emerged. Following the
accidental “discovery” of the place in 1492 by Christopher Columbus,
the Caribbean environment has been a fertile ground for writers whose
recreations and explorations of their locale as ways of examining the
relations between the land, the people, the psychological dimensions of
their situations prefigure their determined struggle to survive, and bond
together as ways of defining their humanity and dignity. This course
examines this peculiar history of the Caribbean as well as its attendant
effect on the criticism of the literature of that area. It also highlights the
various literary responses of the individual writers of this region to these
historical realities.
The history of the Caribbean is peculiar. It does not evolve gradually
and naturally out of a remote mythological and archaeological past, but
begins abruptly with the “discovery” of the Bahamas in 1492 by
Christopher Columbus. This abrupt beginning has led historians like
Eric Williams (1970) and literary artists like V.S. Naipaul (1969) to
assert that the Caribbean is merely a geographical expression which
lacks a noteworthy history. Naipaul, in particular, claims that the West
Indies is a sterile, static, manufactured society due to the accidental
nature of its discovery and the brutal mode of occupation and violence
among the colonizing forces. Many Caribbean scholars have also
concluded that the area is “historyless” and unlikely to proceed further
than its crude and violent beginnings. According to Naipaul, “history is
built on creation and achievement and nothing was created in the West
Indies”, (1969, p. 39).
This lack of creation refers to the dearth of monuments, libraries and

other visible public amenities other than the remains of old plantation
houses and memoirs of the slave experience. The European colonizers
regarded the area as one whose economic potentials were to be fully
exploited, but not a place to settle in permanently. This was why the
plantation system was entrenched and thence, the proliferation of
absentee landlords who enjoyed the fruits of their labour outside the
West Indies. And so, he problem with West Indian history does not lie
solely in its mode of discovery as there was also the problem of jealousy
and in-fighting among the colonizers who were single-minded in their
quest for quick self-profit.
Initially, Columbus thought that the West Indies would open up a

lucrative trade route for Spain. Also, because of the proliferation of gold
body ornaments on the Bahamans he had met, Columbus concluded that
there was an inexhaustible supply of gold to be obtained from the West
2
Indies. Thus, his primary interest was the economic exploitation, and not
the improvement of the area. Later on, it was discovered that the gold
supply was finite and the colonizer’s attention turned to the large-scale
cultivation of sugar which was then a highly lucrative crop.
At all times, the European presence in the Caribbean was primarily

motivated by selfish economic considerations. Because of this, they did
not hesitate to undercut one another and eventually seek all inhumane
means of obtaining a steady supply of easily replaceable labour for the
effective cultivation of their plantations.
The West Indies can be referred to as an artificially created society

because with the exception of the indigenous Indian population which
was largely swiftly exterminated, the inhabitants of the Caribbean either
migrated or were forcibly transported there. With this conglomeration of
people of different races and religious beliefs and with different motives
of being in the Caribbean, it was difficult to create a common Caribbean
ethos, especially, given the fundamental inequalities created by the
institution of slavery.
During Columbus’s second trip to the Caribbean in 1493, he brought

Spanish domestic cereals, vegetables, fruits and sugar cane to the West
Indies. It is therefore; correct to regard the West Indians as an imported
people in a largely imported environment. The early and later
imperialists in the Caribbean had the sole motive of exploiting the
natural, mineral and agricultural resources of the area both for personal
benefits and for the good of their various mother countries.
The lure of gold, sugar and slaves thus precipitated imperialist forays
into the area by Spain, Portugal, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
Each of these imperialists fought to obtain a considerable share of the
Caribbean wealth. And this gave rise naturally to piracy, double-
crossing, brutality and lack of cohesion among the powers. Each group
of Europeans had its own language, religion and political allegiances.
They were also constantly engaged in the bid to protect or expand their
territories and so had little opportunity or need to exert a unified
political and cultural control over the non-European population.
Furthermore, the Europeans’ inability to impose a common creolised

cultural ethos on the slaves who were also multi-cultural in origin was
exacerbated by the imperialists’ lack of interest in the continuous
spiritual and physical welfare of the Islands and its inhabitants. As a
result, the Negro slaves were largely left to evolve their own cultural
expressions and value systems based on vestiges of different African
traditions, various European influences and communal responses to the
new milieu.
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Slavery in the Caribbean

The Spaniards who were the original imperialists in the Caribbean
already had a system of slavery which made it easy for them to resort to
this method of procuring labour for their mines and plantations. Several
sources of labour, including aboriginal Indians, white slaves and
convicts labour were sought before blacks were brought into the West
Indies. Negro slavery was initiated by the king of Spain on September 3,
1501 and began with the transportation of numbers of Christian negro
slaves from Spain to the West Indies. African slave trade began shortly
afterwards.
The mining of gold and to a greater extent, the discovery of the great
economic potential of sugar-cultivation in the world market precipitated
the institutionalization of slavery in the West Indies. Plantation slavery
began in the 16th century and from that time onwards, the fortunes of
the Islands were greatly influenced by the price of sugar. Also, the
requirements of the sugar industry determined the nature of the West
Indian population.
The cultivation of cane was highly capital-and-labour-intensive. The

more sophisticated and efficient machines for extracting sugar were
expensive and the crop itself was highly perishable which meant that it
had to be processed shortly after harvesting. Also, the planting and
harvesting of cane required considerable labour and the manufacturing
process was arduous. The production of sugar on an economic scale
therefore, required a considerable initial financial outlay and a large
cheap labour force. Negro slavery provided easily available and
replaceable unskilled labour. It also led to a change in the racial
composition and social structure of the Islands.
Under slavery, the humanity of the blacks was progressively eroded,

especially with the arduous work hours, stringent penalties for
absenteeism and the promulgation of slave codes which gave legal
sanction to slavery. These codes deprived the slaves of the freedom of
movement and the simplest exercise of their freewill. For instance, they
could not marry without their masters’ permission, could not own
property, were considered to be moveable property and could be
punished even unto death by their masters.
This brutally indifferent method of slavery, coupled with the racial and
cultural diversity found in the West Indies and the displacement and
dispossession experienced by the African slaves helped to rob the
Negroes of a sense of historical continuity and emphasized the lack of
control over their lives. It also gave rise to such psychological traumas
as alienation, rootlessness, inferiority complex and the creation of the
colonial mentality. The cultivation of cane was thus, the basic reason for
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the institution of slavery and had important influences on the Caribbean

psyche, such as the engendering of the isolationist outlook and an
endemic and crippling sense of provincialism, all of which are difficult
to eradicate from the 21st century Caribbean mentality.
1. Discuss the history of Caribbean background and its relevance in
Caribbean literary works.
2. How does slavery contribute to the history and epoch-making

experience in Caribbean tradition?
3. How does the cultivation of cane relate to the institution of

slavery in the Caribbean psyche?
Abolition
There were three basic reasons for the abolition of slavery: economic,
political and humanitarian. By the 19th century, the cultivation of sugar
in the British and French West Indian colonies was no longer
economically viable because cheaper sugar was obtainable from India
and Brazil. Sugar producers in the colonies discovered that they
produced sugar at a greater cost than its selling price, thus making it
difficult for the plantation owners to make profit after caring for the
needs of the slaves.
Politically, the abolitionist move was part of the increasing global
moves by the industrial bourgeoisie against the landed aristocracy, such
as the French revolution of 1789 and the victory of the North over the
South in the American civil war.
On humanitarian grounds, slavery was considered the height of man’s
inhumanity to man and so, such figures as William Wilberforce sought
the legal end to the institution of slavery. Abolition Acts were passed in
Denmark in 1803, Great Britain in 1807, France in 1817 and Holland in
1818, while slavery was legally abolished in the British colonies in
1833, French colonies in 1848, and Dutch colonies in 1863.
1. What were the basis reasons for abolition of slavery in Caribbean
tradition?
2. Discuss the humanitarian grounds on the issue of slavery in the
Caribbean background?
The Post-Emancipation Caribbean

The post-emancipation period did not usher in immediate fundamental
changes in the lives of the slaves. Financially, they were ill-equipped for
freedom, yet many preferred to survive through subsistence farming or
seasonal itinerant labour rather than work long hours for meagre wages
5
in the plantations of their erstwhile masters. This created a vacuum in

the labour force which was later filled by the migration of indentured
Indian labourers to the West Indies. This waves of migration started in
1838 and ended in 1924 within which period approximately half a
million Indians migrated to the Caribbean. This introduced new racial,
linguistic and cultural complications into the already diversified West
Indian society. The Caribbean thus, became a deterministic society
where social status was predicated on skin pigmentation and people
were divided into exclusive water-tight colour compartments. This
situation intensified the psychosis nurtured by a sense of racial and
cultural void or inferiority which began with the slavery.
Education in the early period of colonial rule was designed to impart the
rudiments of reading, writing and moral instructions to the blacks. That
which was initially organized by the missionaries underscored the
subordinate and acquiescent status of the negroes, vis-a-vis their white
masters. Later on, the blacks were tutored in foreign history, literary and
musical traditions and even the value system of the Metropolis was
imposed wholesale on them.
The blacks responded in several ways, which included the total

acceptance of foreign values which pre-supposed a negation of one’s
racial roots. There was also the rejection of Western values and a
nostalgic attachment to vestiges of folk tradition, or, a judicious blend of
the best of both cultures. This situation gave rise to the creation of a
plural society.
The post-emancipation West Indies was thus, still strongly under foreign
domination through colonialism. As a result, there exists in the
Caribbean a complex situation created by the existence and interlocking
of two different sets of cultural values. There is a foreign derived
metropolitan culture which is mostly seen among the upper and middle
classes and the black Creole culture which contains many African-
derived elements and is practised mainly by the lower classes. Thus, the
various social classes act and think differently and one class is elevated
and aspired towards, to the detriment of the other. The upper and middle
classes speak Standard English, contract legal marriages and practise the
religion and culture of their former European masters. The lower classes
on the other hand, generally speak the Creole dialect, engage in fetish
practices such as the worship of gods like Shango, gold, and Ifa and
usually do not contract legal marriages.
The Caribbean has, therefore, been described as a plural society made up

of people displaying different modes of behaviour and who are held
together by economic reasons, rather than by a sense of belonging to a
common culture. This divisive unity was the result of different responses
6
and modes of adjustment to the void created by dispossession. The slave

ancestors had been dispossessed of their motherlands and forced to live
in an alien and hostile milieu in which they were made to feel racially
and culturally inferior. This deep-seated sense of inferiority and lack of
confidence became intensified by the focus of colonial education which
encouraged further amnesia and shame about the African past and
pushed the blacks towards accepting Europe as good.
There have therefore, been various literary responses to the realities of

the Caribbean historical experience. Some writers, especially, white
West Indian writers are apologetic about this history. Some reject the
West Indies and claim Africa as their spiritual home, while others reject
the concept of Africa and take their cues from Europe. The various
writers also hold different concepts about West Indian history. They
generally act as spokespersons of their society. They analyze and
interpret societal ills and consistently endeavour to make the people
aware of their endemic shortcomings and seek positive and enduring
responses to the milieu.
And so, there is in Caribbean literature the predominance of the

alienation theme in various forms: homelessness, rootlessness and exile.
It is a situation of being a part of what you could not become. So, the
primary cultural commitment of Caribbean writers remains the search
for identity and self-discovery. George Lamming describes this situation
as paradoxical since it insists on roots and rootlessness; home and
homelessness at the same time. The fragmented nature of the society
gives the West Indian an acute sense of exile and because the literature
of this area reflects and attempts to come to terms with the consequences
of colonization, Edward Baugh describes it as "colonial literature",
(1978, p.13). Caribbean literature then, was to celebrate a new ethos and
identity. It established the West Indian identity as different from the
European, and neither is it African, Chinese nor Indian but a strange and
pleasurable mixture of all these. The writer in the New World then, is
engaged in an attempt at articulating a trueness of being.
1. The wave of migration started in 1838 and ended in 1924, during
the Post-Emancipation Caribbean. Discuss the historical concerns
of Post-Emancipation Caribbean.
2. What was the characterized educational subject that was tutored

during the Post-Emancipation Caribbean? Discuss extensively.
3. What is the new ethos and identity Caribbean literature

celebrates? Discuss.
7
Implications on Criticism
Bearing the burden of this debilitating history and environment, the
criticism of Caribbean literature has often been jaundiced. Primarily, the
criticism encapsulates an attitude which sees the visions expressed by
the writers as "pessimistic", especially with regard to Naipaul's works.
As artistic mediators of their locale and historical experience, the
argument seems to have been that the unrelieved gloom of their
circumstances, the apparent absence of any controlling moral centre,
makes the only logical, possible, realistic portraiture absurd, depressing
and hopeless. For instance, commenting on the burden of a depressing
West Indian history, Rose Acholonu observes that "the dehumanizing
influence of colonization... is as damaging as it is permanent" (1987,
p.78). An important implication of this observation is the view that the
Caribbean man cannot live down the problem of imposed acculturation.
However, contrary to the above assertion, time and events have proved
that the Caribbean man can evolve a new image in the modern world out
of past and present experiences and thus, transcend his alien
environment. The emergence in the first place of Caribbean literature as
distinct from European, African, Chinese or Indian literature is a step in
the positive direction and shows that the West Indian has a future. As
Derek Walcott points out, history is not only that which is celebrated by
"ruins of castles and forts but is also the chronicle of the past of the
common man and his deeds the fisherman with his mongrel walking
on the beach" (Brodber, 1983, p.13). Creative history also accounts for
the present and projects into the future. Walcott continues: "you who
feel the pain of historylesness, look at the work patterns, the dances, the
dreams, the songs and the memories of your forefathers, analyze these
and you will be writing your history" (Brodber, 1983, p.3). Walcott also
advises that it is the duty of the West Indian to possess his land, tame
and cultivate it and finally produce something original, for the West
Indian "behind all his roles and faces, possesses the possibility of a rich,
complex and an integrated self which is his by virtue of his exile"
(Hirsch, 1979, p.285). As Gerald Moore notes, "...even if the West
Indians had created nothing else, they have certainly created a people"
(Moore, 1969, p.8). Walcott insists that it would be abhorrent to him to
say "I wish we were English again" or "I wish we were African again",
that the reality is that, one has to build in the West Indies (Hirsch, 1979,
p.285).
Walcott's position became vindicated when in 1992 he got the world's

highest literary acclaim by winning the Nobel Prize for literature, a feat,
which was repeated by Naipaul a few years later. This, apart from being
a reward and recognition of individual excellence, is also a celebration
of Caribbean literature, and since literature is a celebration of life, the
Nobel Prize indirectly proclaims and recognizes Caribbean life as valid
and authentic. And so, quite contrary to the claim that history exerts a
8
definitive influence on the creative imagination, it is evident that the

Caribbean man can live down the vagaries of history and transcend his
alien milieu.
The terms "Caribbean" and "West Indian" are used interchangeably by

many people in discussing the literature of this particular portion of the
earth. However, "Caribbean" embraces the literature in all the languages
of the area English, French, Spanish and Dutch but by “West
Indian”, it is meant only the writings of those Island and Mainland
territories where English is the official language and the chief medium
of literary composition. In this study, therefore, by "Caribbean" it is
meant the literature of the English- speaking Caribbean, otherwise
known as West Indian literature.
1. Discuss the critical pains Caribbean Literature held on criticism.
2. Discuss the predominance and influence of Walcott and Naipaul
in Caribbean literature.
3. Simply explain the intersecting bond between Caribbean and
West Indian.
Major Writers from the Caribbean

While the major writers from the Caribbean are Derek Walcott, Edward
Brathwaite, V.S Naipaul, Samuel Selvon, George Lamming, Roger Mais
and Michael Anthony, others include V.S. Reid, Orlando Patterson, Earl
Lovelace, Jean Rhys, Martin Carter, Geoffrey Drayton, Edgar
Mittleholzer, Merle Hodge, Zee Edgell, Alvin Bennett, Errol John, John
Hearne, H.D. Delisser, Jacques Roumain, Ian Mcdonald, Joseph Zobel,
Denis Williams, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Glissant Garth St. Orner.
It is important to note that the Caribbean authors are of the belief that
servitude to the muse of history can only result in a literature that is
sociological, self-pitying and full of revenge. To him, history is fiction
which is subject to the vagaries of memory and thus, opens to mis-
interpretations or re-interpretations. He, therefore, ignores the claim that
history exerts a definitive influence on the creative imagination and
rather conceives of the New World Negro as an “Adam” who has
suffered amnesia of the past and is therefore, free to move forward in
time and have a new life for himself in his New World. Poet, dramatist
and Nobel laureate for literature, Walcott's publications include: T-Jean
and his brothers (1970), Dream on Monkey Mountain (1970), The Sea
at Dolphin (1970) and several volumes of poetry.
Edward Brathwaite, another writer from the Caribbean however, sees

the task of the Caribbean writer as being the rehabilitation of the
colonial mind through making the West Indian accept folk ways, music
and orature and more importantly, shape these things into a tangible
9
literary tradition from which other writers can draw inspiration.

Brathwaite believes that the black man who rejects his racial memory is
doomed to endless migrations and rootlessness because he can neither
define himself in terms of an attachment to Africa, nor in terms of
Europe which exploits and manipulates his life. He therefore, suggests
very strongly a recapitulation of the past, but since this, according to
him might not be easy and will involve the excavation of painful
memories, Brathwaite does not hold out any ready or easy solutions for
the dispossessed New World black. The arrivants (1973) which is a
trilogy is one of his major publications.
Often referred to as the prophet of doom, (Richards, 1991, p.32), V.S.

Naipaul sees the history of the Caribbean as a recurrent void which is
characterized by brutality, sterility and lack of visible achievements.
According to Naipaul, "history is built on creation and achievement and
nothing was created in the West Indies" (1969, p.43).
A dominant feature of Naipaul’s writing is the presentation and

exploration of characters who are either failures because of their
inability to express and realize their full potentials, or characters who are
charlatans and mediocre but who, nevertheless, are precipitated into
success by the sheer mediocrity and formlessness of the society. To
Naipaul, the Caribbean is a place which deliberately denies itself his
heroes and is incapable of recognizing and nurturing artistic potentials.
Also, the diverse groups of people who inhabit the Islands in Naipaul’s
view are not bound by any sense of belonging to one culture. As a result,
there is the creation of the formless, casual society with haphazard
standards and the emergence of the confused, unaccommodated man
who is helpless and cast in a sterile and unfriendly landscape. His works
include: A Bend in the river (1979), A flag on the island (1969), An area
of darkness (1968), Guerillas (1975), In a free state (1971), Miguel
street (1974), Mr. Stone and the knight’s companion (1963), The mimic
men (1967), The suffrage of Elvira (1969), The middle passage (1969),
A House for Mr. Biswas (1969) and The Mystic masseur (1971). Clearly,
Naipaul is the most prolific Caribbean writer.
The direct opposite of Naipaul's vision is Samuel Selvon's. As a writer,

Selvon's historical sense is informed by his optimistic vision of man's
ability to transcend the drawbacks of a debilitating past, hence, his being
referred to as the "optimistic visionary "parexcellence" (Acholonu,
1987, p.87). Selvon’s fictional world centres around the life, customs,
beliefs and speech patterns of the peasant West Indian. He reveals the
strengths and weaknesses of this world and projects a possible blend of
the best of both West Indian and Western ways as the ideal way of
coping with a changing contemporary world. Selvon consistently shows
that without a fundamental attachment to the beneficial aspects of
10
folkways, the West Indian, whether in Trinidad or abroad is liable to

become adrift. He also shows that an inherited sense of racial prejudice
is detrimental to progress in the modern world and projects a future in
which West Indians will be able to ignore racial differentiations and
work for the general good. This vision is conveyed mostly through his
fiction which includes: An island is a world (1955), Moses ascending
(1984), Moses migrating (1983), The lonely Londoners (1989), Ways of
sunlight (1979), A brighter sun (1979), and Turn again Tiger (1979).
George Lamming’s vision is similar to Brathwaite’s. Like the latter,

Lamming believes that history is continuous and holds salient lessons
for the contemporary society and that without a positive recapitulation
of the past, the contemporary Caribbean will be unable to respond
positively to his milieu. And so, an intimate contact with the past is
necessary in order to chart the path of future progress. This vision is
conveyed through his In the castle of my skin (1953).
Roger Mais is another renowned writer from the Caribbean. Mais’s

fictional world is specifically that of the urban dispossessed in Kingston,
Jamaica, but his observations about human life are universal.
Accordingly, Mais sets his novels like The hills were joyful together
(1953) and Brother man (1974) in urban slums in Kingston, and exposes
the lives of the yard-dwellers in all their stark, squalid, deprived and
dehumanized horror: they are rootless, hopeless, brutalized, poor, and
have broken homes. They also engage in all forms of moral laxity. At
the same time, Mais shows the possibility of the existence of positive
emotions and intentions in this world. And so, his fictional world is one
of paradoxes in which defeat and success, sloth and industry, piety and
lawlessness, caring and hatred exist simultaneously. Mais projects that
man is trapped in a tragic world of continuous sufferings and reversals.
Man's actions, Mais maintains are without apparent reasons and his
fortunes are at the mercy of an abstract, indifferent and often merciless
universal force called "fate". But directly contrary to this is the author's
conviction that man holds the key to his salvation and that the very
existence of the paradoxes of experience testifies to the possibility of
man improving himself in the face of tremendous odds. Fundamentally,
therefore, Mais's vision is that in their confrontation with an implacable
and unpredictable fate, the urban dispossessed of the West Indies need
to rely on themselves and seek redemption either from within
themselves or within their group.
Another popular writer from the Caribbean is Michael Anthony although

his works generally avoid the exploration of contemporary socio-
political issues and also rarely reflect a well-defined sense of
commitment to the future of the West Indies. In the stories in Cricket in
the road (1965) and The year in San Fernando (1973), the author
11
highlights different facets of traditional life in such a way as would

imply that he advocates the upholding of the values of this world while
grudgingly acknowledging the inevitability of the incursion of Western
values. He projects a vision of a traditional and practically untouched
West Indies which West Indians must be encouraged to appreciate.
Anthony appears to consider the writer's responsibility as being
predicated on his obligation to make West Indians aware of the inner
beauty and integrity of the traditional milieu. Consequently, his
presentation of this world is simplistic, idealistic and precludes any
intense critical analysis of the merits or otherwise of traditional life so
that while being aware of the inevitability of change, Mais does not
appear to be actively engaged in preparing West Indians for the positive
and negative repercussions of this change. Ultimately, Anthony’s vision
centres on the assumption that the attachment to traditional roots,
irrespective of their drawbacks is the most viable means of confronting
incipient change. He also suggests that the destruction of this traditional
way of life or abdication from it would be tantamount to metaphorical
death. His other titles include: Green days by the river (1973), The
games were coming (1977) and All that glitters (1983).
Conclusion
The profuse exploration so far, has provided her readers a critical
discourse embodying the peculiar history of the Caribbean as well as its
attendant effect on its literature and criticism since Caribbean literature
is also to some extent, a response by the individual writers to the
historical realities of the area. It is evident to the assertion that history
exerts a definitive influence on the creative imagination (as it is argued
by some scholars), the Caribbean man can live down the ravages of
history and transcend his alien milieu.
Summary
Since Caribbean literature is largely a response by the individual writers
to the historical realities of the area, Derek Walcott believes that the
West Indian must move towards refashioning the present. The West
Indian, Walcott believes, must overcome the sense of inferiority and
lack of cohesion which is the heritage of dispossession and alienation.
Walcott also tackles the issue of the West Indian loyalty to at least two
cultures: one, indigenous, and the other, foreign. He maintains that for
true nationalism to exist and for the authentic Caribbean personality to
emerge, one cannot adopt one culture to the neglect of the other. Walcott
consistently blends elements of the two cultures in his works and even
attempts to re-evaluate certain aspects of colonial history.
12
1. Discuss four prominent influential biographical writers from
Caribbean literary background.
2. What is the subject matter of Walcott’s works as concern

Caribbean society?
3. Caribbean literature is a response by the individual writers to the
historical realities of the Caribbean society. Justify or contradict
this claim with your plausible response.
Reference / Further Reading

Acholonu, R. (1987). The West Indian Novelist and Cultural American
Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences
Baugh, E. (Ed.) ((1978). Introduction in Critics on Caribbean Literature

(pp.1-9). London: George Allen and Unwin, 1978.
Brodber, E. (1983). Oral Sources and the Creation of a Social History of

the Caribbean. Jamaica Journal: Quarterly of the Institute of
Jamaica, 16(4), 31– 43.
Figueroa, J. (Ed.) (1970). Introduction in West Indian Poetry, Vol. 2

(pp.1-7). London: Evans Brothers Ltd.
Lamming, G (1953). In the castle of my skin. London: Michael Joseph.
Lindo, H. E. L. (1969). The Commonwealth as seen from the Caribbean.

Commonwealth Journal, XII(4), 50 – 62.
Mais, R. (1953). The Hills were Joyful Together. London: Heinemann.
Mais, R. (1954). Brother Man. London: Heinemann.
Naipaul, V.S. (1979). A Bend in the River. London: Andre Deutsch.
Samuel Selvon and Ernest Emenyonu. (Ed.) Artistic Vision Black

Culture and Black Consciousness in Literature (pp. 63 – 71).
lbadan: Heinemann .
13
MODULE 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF AFRICAN-

AMERICAN LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
African- American literature as a course, explores the major genres,
themes and criticisms which compose the literary and cultural traditions
of African Americans. Selected oral narratives, essays, slave narratives,
poetry, short stories, autobiographies, drama and novels will be critically
studied. Attention is given to historical, cultural and socio-political
backgrounds. It emphasis will be placed on the shaping influences of the
island's rich mystical heritage and on questions of personal identity. The
effects of slavery, African cultural survivals, and the role played by the
English, French and Spanish colonials, white creoles, mulattos and
blacks in forming the cultural mosaic of the island will be studied.
Objectives
The objectives of this unit is to make us see detailed illustration and

elucidation will be given in order to have a clear and unambiguous
knowledge and understanding of themes and thoughts developed by the
Black writers. Writers have their own viewpoints considering the
history, society and political set-up of the period. The present topic
encompasses the analysis and interpretations of the historical
background of African American writings.
Main Content
The African-American literary tradition implies the culture and tradition

of suppressed people. The suppressed and oppressed people of African
American race and society are placed in the literary writings of the
writers. The writers exhibit the plights and pathos of the people with
their artistic and creative expressions in the form of plays, poems,
fictions and stories. The creations are well recognized in the intellectual
scenario of the world.
The African American writers are socio creative artists. It is an artistic

form directly emanated from the collective social situation in which the
Afro-American found himself. It is directly connected to the historical,
economic, educational and social growth and development of people and
as such maintains a unique position in the literature of world.
The socio-creative art is what the black writers bring into existence
when they sit down to reflect. They ponder on their grievous situations.
Their artistic expressions are the results of their deep thoughts and
critical analysis of their tragic circumstances. Their lives and their art in
the same struggle and every black writer is a product and part of black
14
community. When he addresses his audiences, he will be in part

expressing the life and needs of their community. The frame of
reference to which he relates is his community. They are what they are
because of their peculiar nature of the people of the country.
Before understanding the origin of African American literature, it is
important to know the main issues of that period. The issue of race and
tensions of color pushed African Americans to use writing to establish a
place for themselves in that community. The English contributed to the
issue of segregation. They had developed the ideas of inferiority and
distinction through drawing on preconceptions rooted in images of
blackness and physical differences between the two peoples (Bruce 02).
Those negative images were created by English adventurers and traders
who visited the African Continent. The literature read at that time in
England offered a negative portrayal of Africans and their ways of life.
The Africans were described as brutal and ugly people (01). Early in the
18th century, laws excluded the testimony of the black in court
especially in the South. In several colonies, the free black paid punitive
taxation and were prohibited from owning property. In Virginia, some
blacks lost the right to vote .They were brought against their will and
many wives were separated from their husbands and were given to
others (64).
African Americans were given different names like ‘Colored’ ‘Negros’

‘Black’ and ‘African American’. In fact, African American literature
embodies novels, poems and plays showing the status of race as a
whole. The writers’ works reflect their identities (Warren 05). African
American literature presents a wide range of writings from the colonial
period to the present. It is related to different literary periods: The
colonial period (1746-1800), antebellum period (1800-1865), the
reconstruction period (1865-1900), the protest movement (1960-1969)
and contemporary period (1970-present).
The Colonial Period (1746-1800)
During the colonial period, African-American literature represents the

divided self of Africans who were forced to go to colonial America
.They were lost between their home land and their new identity. Some of
them survived and the others died because of sickness and suicide. In
1700, Sewall declares that “It is likewise most lamentable to think, how
in taking Negros out of Africa, and setting them here, that which God
has joined together men do boldly rend asunder; Men from their
country, husbands from their wives, parents from children” (Bruce 17) .
One of the captured slaves who were transported to colonial America
was Wheatley. In her writings, she focuses on the contrast between
slavery and freedom (Jarrett 22). Due to the issue of racism, many
African-American writings were not recognized as authentic works such
15
as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs. Through poetry, sermons,

letters and slave narratives, African American literature of the colonial
period was a means of breaking the bonds of slavery.In New England,
those slaves who were close with their masters’ families exchanged
stories and experiences with the audience. They described their lives
before slavery in Africa and their daily activities. They portrayed the
suffering felt by husbands and wives separated from each other as well
as the separations of brothers from sisters and children from parents.
Those stories suggest a kind of awareness of the issues of slavery
(Dickson 20).
Most slaves adopted the religion of their masters which played an

important role in early African American literature. “The religious
concerns of early African-American writers reflects life in puritan
America which dictated that literature be used, it served as a means of
moral instruction” (77).
During the colonial period, African-American slaves were prohibited

from learning some skills such as reading and writing. Thus, they used
their creative abilities such as songs, folk tale and oral storytelling to
talk about slavery. These works incorporate the dialect of early black
Americans (Smith &Jones 07).
During the American revolutionary war (1775-1781), both Americans

and Black soldiers participated together to fight the British. They wanted
self-rule, equality and freedom. African-American writers of the period
such as Wheatley Lucy Terry Prince, George Moses Horton tackled the
status of African Americans and asked for freedom from the British
tyranny (07). They discussed white Americans ‘self and not slavery.
The issue of slavery and the revolutionary war led to the development of
African American writings. Their poems and letters reflect the African-
Americans’ suffering.
The African-American literary tradition implies the fact that African-

American culture is the culture of suppressed people. The history of
African- American people is marked with slavery (1619-1865) which is
characterized by continuous dehumanization, humiliation, racial
segregation, and exploitation.
African-Americans were viewed as people with no history, no cultural

heritage, no tradition, and no identity in white America. For centuries
Europeans and Americans advanced racial theories of inferiority, this
ascribed African- Americans to the lower species and ignored their
ownership of cultural, ethic, and linguistic values. In an interview, one
of the leading contemporary African- American authors, Toni Morrison
16
states that prejudice and racism against African-Americans has had two
purposes: it has been a distraction against recognizing the unfair class
differences in the country, and it has united as Americans all other
immigrants, who can claim to be white and therefore part of the
mainstream simply because they are not black (Morrison, 2008, 53).
However, according to Morrison, America would not be what it is
without the presence of blacks. The writer believes that America was
“incoherent” without the inclusion of African-Americans’ contributions
to the forming of the nation, its history, language, literature, and culture
(Christian, 2000, 75). She presents a similar view in her book of essays
on the presence of blackness in American literature Playing in the Dark
(1992) in which she is trying to prove that Africanism is an inseparable
part in defining Americanness. Thus Morrison views black American
history as the history of whole American experience (Morrison, 1993,
14).
Slave trade was greatly related to racial prejudices and racial

segregation. Although in 1865 slavery was abolished in America, the
South was still governed by white politicians. Ku-Klux-Klan, an
organization established in 1865, oppressed and terrorized the blacks.
Racial inequality and stereotypes were imposed on all aspects of Black
Americans’ lives-education, literature, music, art. Black women had to
face a twofold struggle because they suffered both racial prejudice and
sexual abuse by the white masters and black males. African-American
women treated as slaves were depicted as animals and prostitutes, and
this treatment created the imposed derogatory image of Black Jezebel.
Likewise, the numerous literary portrayals and treatment of black-
skinned people as the “Other,” as failing to live up to the standards of
“normalcy” of white people by imposing negative meanings and
stereotypes on them, were meant to legalize hierarchical racialized
system and justify oppression in a white hegemonic American society.
The negative stereotypes which defined and objectified them and which
were internalized by many African-Americans (during the years of
slavery until, roughly speaking, the Civil Rights Movement and the
Black Power Movement in the 1960s) were their natural, inborn
depravity, laziness, carelessness, irresponsibility, aggressiveness,
illiteracy, docility, physical ugliness, and the like. In addition, Black
women’s allegedly uncontrolled sexuality, their passionate nature was
used to justify Black women’s sexual exploitation. Thus the
objectification of Black Americans and their internalization of the
stereotypes imposed on them allow one to speak about a “racialized”
identity of African- American people.
Tradition advocates essential values, verbal and written monuments,

which defy time, and are passed from one generation to another.
Tradition also has a correlation between preservation of cultural heritage
17
and its innovation. Literary tradition is made of recurrent themes and

forms of expression, whereas innovation and experiments can only be
recognized against the tradition and manifests itself through the
principle of intertextuality (Uzielienė, 2002, 1-2).
The African-American theorist, critic and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
claims that intertextuality is central to the African-American tradition.
He emphasizes similarities of African-American texts, especially genre
forms and linguistic models which fall into these traditions, since writers
have the tendency to read and revise the works of other writers.
Therefore repetition, careful study of previous cultural heritage, is
reflected in the process of signifying, which marks the essence of
African-American literary tradition. However, Gates goes on to claim,
repetition and revision occurs with a signal difference. Signification
manifests primarily through hidden textual meanings and is loaded with
parody and pastiche, which in their turn correspond to motivated and
unmotivated Signifying respectively. The author argues that traditional
African-American texts have double formal antecedents, the Western
and the Black, which gives double-voicedness to African-American
literary tradition (Spikes, 1997, 44).
In African-American culture there is a link between the past and the

present, a combination of cultural memory, the African experience and
cosmogony (the origin of the universe, or a set of ideas about this). In
the United States, the African tradition and experience was modified by
the Christian one, a new type of culture and literature was being formed.
Uzielienė states that the intentions to define Afro-American literary
tradition have always led to contradictory questions, such as: what is
uniquely Black or American about the literature by Black authors? What
is the Black protagonist’s identity – is it American or African-
American? What is the African-American identity? Is Black literature of
a racial or a more universal nature? What does it mean to be Black in
White America? Therefore, at the heart of the Black experience there is
the problem of double-consciousness (Uzielienė, 2002, 10). In the
history of the African- American literary tradition there are two
opposing cultural theories regarding the problem being confronted. One
theory is “integrationist” and argues that the Black man must strive to
integrate into the American experience; it chooses priority of American
values over the Black ones. The other theory considers integration as
impossible because America is not a homogeneous country to integrate
into. Thus they speak in favor of group solidarity, ethnic independence
and the “negritude.” Historically, the African-American writer has
always oscillated between these two aesthetic theories. Gates remarks
that the African-American tradition, unlike almost every other, “was
generated as a response to 18th and 19th c. allegations that persons of
18
African descent did not, could not, create literature” (Rivkin, Ryan,
2004, 987).
As an academic area African-American studies first emerged during the

1960s. Ethnicity and race appeared as an important new approach to
literary study in the late 1960s and early 1970s in America. Writers of
different ethnic minorities – African-Americans, Asian Americans,
Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans – were concerned with the
problem of representing the experiences and the lives of the “others”,
those who had been marginalized. Writers of many literary genres
reflected on the conditions of the life of ethnic American minorities in a
society that was dominated by white supremacy. Those years witnessed
the rise of previously “silent”, marginal groups characterized by racial,
ethnic, gender, class differences as well as by sexual preferences. There
are a few noticeable periods of African-American literary tradition: the
early period (18th c.–early 1920s); the Harlem Renaissance (1920-
1940); the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Arts (or Black
Aesthetic) Movement of the 1960s and 1970s; a postmodern moment in
African-American literature (roughly speaking, it started in the 1970s
and continues to the present day). One more conspicuous trend within
the body of African-American literature is African-American women’s
literary tradition, the flowering of which in the 1970s and 1980s scholar
and critic Joanne Braxton characterized as the “Afro-American
renaissance” (Stein, 2009, 14).
Fugitive and Ex-Slave Narratives
A study of African-American literature and culture should be started

with the analysis of the African-American oral tradition (which includes
work songs, rhymes, jokes and riddles, spirituals, blues, legends, folk
tales, in which they reflected on their own circumstances as an enslaved
group, the “call and response” of spiritual leaders) and slave narratives
(autobiographies, recollections, memoirs) which had a considerable
influence on its formation, and which “comprise one of the most
influential traditions in African-American literature and culture, shaping
the forms and themes of some of the most celebrated and controversial
writing, in both autobiography and fiction, in the history of the US”
(Gray, 2012, 126).
Narratives by fugitive slaves before the Civil War and by former slaves
in the post-bellum era are essential to the study of all 18th and 19th c.
American history and literature. Autobiography became a dominant
literary genre in the 18th c. In the US, “narratives of the escaped slave”
rose to prominence in the 3rd decade before the Civil War.
In defining the slave narrative, Gates claims that it grafted together the
conventions of two separate literary traditions – the novel of sentiment
19
(confession) and the picaresque and became its own form (Spikes, 1997,
50). Another great influence upon the slave narrative, according to
Gates, is the American romance, as like in other American romantic
modes of narration, the language of the slave narrative is primarily an
expression of the self, a conduit for particularly personal emotion
(Spikes, 1997, 59). Thus the slave narrative as a literary genre combines
elements of the novel of the sentiment, the picaresque, and the American
romance. Generically the slave narrative can be linked to a variety of
forms – from 17th c. captivity narratives and 18th c. autobiography to
the domestic novel of the 19th c.
The general pattern of the slave narrative – an account of the life or a

major part of the life, of a fugitive or former slave (written or orally
related by the slave himself or herself) – documents of the slave‘s harsh
conditions of life under slavery, the physical, psychological, moral, and
spiritual damage that he suffered from white “Christian” slaveholders,
his acquisition of literacy, a certain crisis (turning point) in his life and
an eventual escape from the slavery and the South (restriction) to the
freedom of the North (opportunity) which (a journey to the North), in
the words of Gates, is a leitmotif in these texts of the “evolution of
consciousness within the slave – from an identity as property and object
to a sublime identity as human being and subject” (Spikes, 1997, 48).
The vast majority of slave narratives’ titles have the subtitle of “Written
by Himself or Herself”, as their authors felt authorship was important
for their white readers of the mid-nineteenth c. Literacy and the ability
of independent literary expression were powerful ways to dispel the
main proslavery myth that slaves were incapable of mastering the arts of
literacy. Also, in America of the middle of the 19th c. literacy was a sign
of social prestige and economic power.
Many slave narratives have prefaces (sometimes appendices) and

introductions by white amanuensis to prove that the black narrator has a
good character and is reliable as well as to draw the reader’s attention to
what the narrator will reveal about the abominations of slavery, and very
few 19th c. narratives have a preface by a person of African descent.
However, in both cases the prefaces seek to confirm the veracity of the
narratives that follow them. Despite their similar narrative features, the
slave narratives have differences of the narrator’s experience,
geographical situation, public recognition etc.
Morrison claims that they range from the adventure-packed life of

Oloudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah
Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1782)
to the quiet desperation of Harriet Jacob’s (Linda Brent‘s) Incidents
in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself (1861); from the political
savvy of Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick
20
Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) to the

subtlety and modesty of Henry Bibb’s Life and Adventures of Henry
Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1849) (Morrison, 2008,
65-66). A white Unitarian minister claimed that despite certain
differences in slave narratives, the story that the formerly enslaved ones
had to tell had a universal value – these were stories of human struggle,
stories of enslavement that actually proved to be stories of the essential
importance of freedom, and they were stories “calculated to exert a very
wide influence on public opinion” (Graham, Ward, 2011, 95-6).
Three major groups of slave narratives can be singled out:

1. Tales of religious redemption;
2. Tales to inspire the abolitionist struggle;
3. Tales of progress.
From the 1770s to the 1820s, the slave narratives generally described a
spiritual journey leading to Christian redemption. The authors usually
characterized themselves as Africans rather than slaves, as most were
born in Africa. These early slave narratives include accounts of brutality
and deliverance, and, as a critic notes, the pervasive metaphor for all
life-writing of this kind was the teleological journey – a purposeful trek
from birth to death, which is ultimately redeemed spiritually and
artistically by the guidance of Providence and the earthly agents of God.
The masterpiece of early slave narratives, as well as the earliest slave
narrative which received international attention, is the aforementioned
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano which
describes Equiano‘s simple, plain, and blissful life in his native land
(Eden), his captivity, the terror of the Middle Passage and time spent in
enslavement (the Fall), and recounts his attempts to become an
independent man, his rising up from slavery, his learning to read, and his
purchase of his freedom.
Finally, Equiano experiences a religious vision, and is “born again” to

become one of “God’s children” (Redemption). The narrator believes
that all the good things of his life are due to the workings of divine
Providence. Equiano’s text established the form of the slave narrative
and, indirectly or otherwise, it has influenced American writing and
African-American writing in particular – to the present day. The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano is “the first in a
great tradition of American narratives that juxtapose the dream of
freedom with the reality of oppression, the Edenic myth (...) with a
history of fall and redemption” (Gray, 2012, 74).
From the mid-1820s, writers consciously chose the autobiographical

form whose one purpose was to inspire the abolitionist movement by
recounting their hardships under slavery and the atrocities of the
21
institution to a white audience. The two most exemplary

autobiographical (slave) narratives of this type include Frederick
Douglass’s (1817-1895) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass:
An American Slave, Written by Himself and Harriet Jacob’s (1813-
1897)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Douglass‘s –

the most important 19th c. African-American writer - Narrative, which
is recognized not only as the most influential of all slave narratives but
also as “one of the classic texts of African American, American, and
world literatures” (Cain, 2004, 1009), established him as one of the
leading spokespeople for the abolitionist cause. Douglass‘s
autobiography (mediated by white writers abolitionists – one wrote a
preface, the other – a letter) belongs to the tradition of fugitive-slave
narratives popular in the North before the Civil War. Douglass’s
autobiography follows the conventional narrative structure of most
narratives written at the time: he provides a first-person account of his
life spent in slavery, his learning to read and write a turning point in his
life which strengthened his determination to escape from bondage. His
arrival in the North and eventual success as an orator, is dedicated to a
black liberation movement. We learn in the Narrative that while
working for one of his white masters, Douglass finds the means
necessary to be himself. The central moment in the Narrative is
discovery. He recounts the cruelty of his master who submitted everyone
to unremitting work, starving and beating them, though he prayed and
pretended to be devotional. Douglass recalls: “I was broken in body,
soul, and spirit”; “the dark night of slavery closed in upon me, and
behold a man transformed into a brute!” (Douglass, 1986, 35). But then
came the turning point, an illumination which made him make up his
mind to stand up for himself. Douglass reveals to the reader: “You have
seen how a man was made a slave, you shall see how a slave was made a
man” (Douglass, 1986, 47). The narrator remembers the time when his
master tried to beat him and he resisted and describes this battle as “the
turning point in my career as a slave” (Douglass, 1986, 54). It was the
moment when Douglass was ready to express his selfhood, his sense of
his own worth and dignity at the expense of his life if necessary. The
incident, as he admits, revived within him a sense of his own manhood,
and the departed self-confidence as well as a determination to be free.
Douglass’s recovery of selfhood is described as his spiritual rebirth.
After this Douglass spends four more years in slavery and tells the
reader about the ways the brutal and hypocritical slave system
dehumanizes not only the slave but also the master. Douglass’s text is
not only historical – it also has a literary value as he shapes his
characters and circumstances to communicate his ideas about slavery.
His other important works include The Heroic Slave (1853), which is
considered the first novella in African American literature; My Bondage
22
and My Freedom (1855); and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

(1881).
An abolitionist speaker and reformer Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography

Incidents which was written under the pseudonym of Linda Brent (the
book was edited by Maria Child) gives her the reputation of the first
woman to author a fugitive slave narrative in the US. Jacobs states at the
beginning of her own book: “I was born a slave” – a classic opening of
slave narrative. She continues, however, in a different vein: “but I never
knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away.” Jacobs
(Linda Brent), a former slave and a fugitive, recounts her comfortable
life in a “comfortable home” where she lived together with her parents
and a brother, as her father was allowed to have his own trade though
they were all slaves - the thing she found out after her parents’ death and
had to go not only through the general hardships of slavery, but also
suffer sexual abuse of her white master.
One of the central themes of Incidents is betrayal of different kinds.

Betrayal was the experience of Jacobs’ great-grandmother and
grandmother who, when freed, were captured and sold back into slavery,
Jacobs’ dying mother was betrayed when her white mistress promised to
set all her children free but did not keep her promise. Jacob‘s Incidents
is not that different from Douglass‘s Narrative. And yet there are
differences in the general meaning and tone of the two works.
InIncidents there is more emphasis on family ties, blood relationships
within the black community, than there is in the Douglass story. In
addressing the reader, for example, there is more appeal to sentiment, to
the reader‘s sympathy than to some abstract principles or feelings of
anger. In Incidents women play a more important role than men: heroic
women, like Jacobs’ family women and evil women who betray
promises. The tale focuses on the female experience of slavery and thus
uses the techniques of the sentimental novel as well as those of the slave
narrative. And, in the words of one critic, at the center of the narrative is
“that familiar protagonist of sentimental fiction: the young woman
affronting her destiny – and, in due time, faced with a dangerous seducer
(she became the object of her white master‘s sexual pursuit and to
escape it, she became the lover of another white man and bore him two
children – D.M.) The female orphan making her way in the world”
(Gray, 2012, 132). In the episode of escape, Jacobs did not flee to the
North (as Douglass did). Instead, as she confesses to the reader, she hid
in a small attic of her grandmother‘s house for seven years to be close to
her children who lived there (she watched them through a hole she had
made). Thus unlike Douglass, Jacobs achieves personal freedom not in
lonely flight, heroic battle, or recovering manhood, but in being with her
family, even if in separation from them. However, after seven years in
hiding she finally fled to the North where she was reunited with her
23
children and had their freedom bought. In recounting her sexual affairs
as a slave woman, making a kind of confession and justifying herself,
Jacobs shows that black female slaves could not conform to the
traditional ideals of the “Cult of True Womanhood” (piety, purity,
submissiveness, and domesticity) proclaimed in the antebellum decades
of the 19th c. as they had been robbed of the traditional roles of woman,
mother and wife. However, in William L. Andrews‘s words, “Harriet
Jacobs turned her autobiography into a unique analysis of the myths and
the realities that defined the situation of the African-American woman
and her relationship to 19th c. standards of womanhood. As a result,
“Incidents” occupies a crucial place in the history of American women‘s
literature in general and African-American women‘s literature in
particular” (Andrews, 1997, 889).
Other significant narratives of the period include a memoir and a slave

narrative Twelve Years a Slave, Narrative of Solomon Northup, 18531;
The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of
Canada, as Narrated by Himself, 1849 – a slave narrative written by
Josiah Henson, who later became famous for being the basis of the
character of Tom from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, 1852; a slave narrative The History of Mary Prince, a West
Indian Slave, by Mary Prince, 1831 – the first account of the life of a
black woman which was published in the United Kingdom where she
was living at the time.
After the defeat of the slave states of the Confederate South (the end of
Civil War in 1865), the authors had less need to show the horrors of
slavery and gave accounts of the narrator’s adjustment to the new life of
freedom. The writers focused on the story of individual and racial
progress rather than that of securing freedom. This period in African-
American autobiographical literature is best represented by Booker T.
Washington (1856-1915) – the founder of Tuskege Institute a thinker,
educator, and the most prominent black leader of his day who succeeded
Frederick Douglass as the chief African- American spokesperson. He
became prominent for his attempts to improve the lives of recently freed
;black Americans by involving them in the mainstream of American
society (this policy was outlined in his famous speech at the Atlanta
Exposition in 1895).
Washington is considered one of the most controversial of race leaders

because of his often “accommodationist stance.” In contrast to his
famous contemporary African American sociologist, historian and civil
rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois, who had a more confrontational attitude
toward ending racial strife in America, Washington believed that Blacks
should first prove themselves the equals of whites before asking for an
end to racism.
24
Washington’s most significant published work is his autobiography Up

from Slavery (1901) which is partly a slave narrative and partly a
collection of speeches he had made in the years after the founding of
Tuskegee Institute. The work gives an account of more than forty years
of his life: from slave to schoolmaster to the face of southern race
relations. The word “Up” in the title emphasizes Washington’s firm
belief that African Americans can move upward if they use advantage of
the opportunities offered to them and work hard to achieve a place of
substance in the world. As with many slave narratives or life stories,
there are accounts of the hardships of slavery, barrenness and desolation
of the slave experience. However, what is unusual about Washington’s
account is that there are no any negative feelings about the institution of
slavery or those who supported it. He does admit that slaves wanted
freedom: “I have never seen one who did not want to be free, or one
who would return to slavery.” However, unlike the authors of other
slave narratives who saw slavery as hell (especially Douglass),
Washington tended to emphasize its educative role. Slavery, according
to him, was that “school” which helped prepare African Americans for
the role they had to assume after the Civil War. He claims that “thanks
to the school of American slavery Negroes…are in a stronger and more
hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously,
than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of
the globe.” James Robinson notes in his Introduction to Washington’s
autobiography that, “throughout the entire book, (Washington) is
conciliatory and forgiving toward southern whites and their system of
racism and oppression” (Gray, 2012, 176). On the other hand,
Washington stresses the big importance of education for blacks in
achieving success. He describes his efforts to instill manners, breeding,
health and a feeling of dignity to students. His educational policy
emphasizes combining academic subjects with learning a trade. In this
text, Washington achieves social and financial success through hard,
manual labor, a good education, and his relationships with great people.
The narrative is modeled on the archetypal American success story: a
man (Washington) rises to prominence through his hard work, thrift,
diligence and then reveals the secret of his success to his reader to
enable him to rise as well. Washington’s book Up from Slavery was a
bestseller, and in 1998 the Modern Library listed the book at number 3
on its list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the 20th c.
Other works of note which fall into the category of post-bellum “Tales
of Progress” are The Underground Railroad Records by William Still
(1872) who is known as the Father of the Underground Railroad. Still
carefully compiled and recounted the stories and methods of those who
he had helped escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad and
included them into the book. One of the few post-Emancipation
published slave narratives is From the Darkness Cometh the Light, by
25
Lucy Delaney, 1892, which is the first-person account of a successful

“freedom suit.”
This early period of the African-American literary tradition can be

characterized as the advancement of the “integrationist” theory of art. It
can be argued, however, that this “integration” was controversial as it
had two aspects: positive and negative. As has been explored above,
the aims of the authors of slave narratives were to render their personal
experience of being a slave, to give an account of the dehumanizing
nature of the institution of slavery in the hope of reaching the hearts and
minds of white readership, to show that Black slaves were also human
beings capable for perfection; by writing they asserted equality. The
negative aspect of the “integrationist” theory was that a number of
African- American authors who wrote in other literary genres sought
assimilation. And to be able to assimilate the Black writer had either to
make his Black characters “less black” or to depict Black people as
whites wanted to see them. Some of the writers of the period (L.
Dunbar, C.W. Chestnut, and J.W. Johnson) reinforced the stereotypes of
the “nigger”: the contented slave or the comic Negro, the exotic
primitive who does not question his inferior status, or the brute. The
character of the “tragic mulatto” was the result of his wish to imitate
whiteness, or “to pass”; his tragedy also lay in the fact that he could not
completely fit in the white society or the black society and was equally
scorned by both.
Tutor Marked Assignment

1. What were the reasons for writing slave narratives? What were
their settings?
And who were the authors?
2. Why was it important for white readers of the mid-nineteenth to

see the “Written by Himself or Herself” subtitle in these
narratives?
3. What is the significance of the prefaces and introductions found
in many?
4. Slave narratives?
Harlem Renaissance or, the New Negro Movement

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic explosion, a
flowering in African-American life, and African-American intellectual
reawakening in the 1920s which began in the New York district of
Harlem and ended with the Great Depression in the early 1930s, though
many of its ideas lived on much longer. Although the movement of
Harlem Renaissance included numerous Black social thinkers, artists,
jazz and blues musicians, it is best known for its literary production.
Broadly speaking, the Harlem Renaissance was regarded to be a rebirth
26
of African-American arts. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines a

“renaissance” as a “rebirth” or “revival.” However, some historians and
critics believe that what took place during the years of Harlem
Renaissance was not a rebirth, as such, but only another stage in the
evolution of African and African- American art that had begun with the
inception of African presence in America (Bernard, 2011, 269). Among
representatives of the movement there was a growing sense that black
America was on the verge of a second Emancipation which would be the
result of the will and achievements of artists and intellectuals.
The Harlem Renaissance was inspired by the Great Migration. At the

turn of the 20th c. African-Americans faced many factors that made
them leave the South and move toward the North. These factors
included great racist violence, suppression, natural disasters, and very
few job opportunities. Migration from the American South to such big
Northern urban cities as Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, or Washington
DC opened up new economic opportunities, especially when at the
outset of World War I in 1917, many white men left their jobs and
joined the armed forces. The North was also the place which offered
more cultural possibilities for those “who wanted to make the African-
American voice heard” (Gray, 2012, 476).
The Harlem Renaissance was also closely associated with the New
Negro Movement which was as much concerned with the creation of a
fresh American identity as it was with the demise of the old (Bernard,
2011, 268).
The New Negro Movement was an effort to define what it meant to be

African- American by African-Americans themselves. A crucially
important event in African - American literature at the beginning of
Harlem Renaissance years was the publication of The New Negro2
established and edited by Alain Locke in 1925 (alongside with others,
for example, V.F. Calverton’s An Anthology of American Negro
Literature). Its contributors included men and women, black and white
people of all generations. This collection of literary works – fiction,
poetry, drama by African-Americans, essays on African-American art
and literature alongside broader social issues advocated, as Locke called
it “a spiritual coming of age”, sought to declare the growth of a
“common consciousness” among African-Americans and to show that
“the American mind must reckon with a fundamentally changed Negro”
(Gray, 2012, 477), as well as described a new sense of racial pride,
personal and racial selfhood, and claimed that black is beautiful.
Then how was the “Old Negro” characterized? For example, as the
writer A. Phillip Randolph explained, the “Old Negro” included
“political conservatism, accommodationist politics, opposition to
27
organized labor, and dependence upon white benefactors who had

nothing but disdain for the working class,” and they “stood in the way of
racial progress (…) because of their involvement with the “Old crowd of
White Americans – a group which viciously opposes every demand
made by organized labor for an opportunity to live a better life”
(Bernard, 2011, 273). One such, as Randolph pointed out, was an
essayist, a novelist, and a political leader W.E.B. DuBois. For Locke,
the “Old Negroes” were sambos, pickaninnies, bucks, mammies, Uncle
Toms – stock figures that dominated the cultural landscape of the
American South in broadsides, advertisements and minstrel shows
(Bernard, 2011, 274).
The Harlem Renaissance tried to reject the notion of the “Old Negro”
and his self-hatred. Negative images of black people were being
replaced by the positive ones.
The New Negro Movement sparked off debates about the relationship
between race and art. And notwithstanding the fact that the Black artists
shared many ideas about the transforming power and future of the “New
Negro” and his role in the advancement of African-Americans’ social
and cultural life, they adopted different stances on this point. For
instance, Langston Hughes was one of those Harlem Renaissance
writers who affirmed the notion of a purely black identity and claimed
that black American experience lay in a direct line to the Motherhood
(Africa); whereas writers as Countee Cullen and Jean Toomer
questioned the term “black writer” itself, as they did not affirm the
concept of a black identity as such. And indeed, what could Africa mean
for African- Americans with mixed ancestries and bloodlines or for
those who had no direct experience of it and for whom Africa was only
an abstraction, and blackness – a puzzle? They envisioned an American
identity that would transcend race. Thus some Harlem Renaissance
authors claimed that a Black writer’s work should be restricted to his
black identity and black experience, whereas others attempted to rise
above their race and embrace more universal aspects of human
existence.
Among the most prominent writers of the period were a poet, novelist
and short story writer Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, who worked
in a great variety of genres, poet Countee Cullen, fiction writers Zora
Neal Hurston and Nella Larsen, fiction writer and poet Jean Toomer.
In their work they reconsidered Black history and Black identity,
explored Black folklore, the dialect forms of language, oral tradition.
They attempted to explore the theme of Black experience using a new –
modernist experimental and novel – artistic form (modernism was a
dominant trend in literature and the arts both in America and Europe in
the first decades of the 20th c).
28
Folklorist, playwright, anthropologist, and novelist Zora Neale Hurston

(1903-1960) is considered an early feminist, a forerunner of African-
American women’s movement who inspired and influenced such
contemporary African- American writers as Alice Walker and Toni
Morrison, especially through her autobiography Dust Tracks on the
Road (1942). In her works Hurston was trying to make the point that a
human being creates and defines himself through his art of speaking. In
other words, she was convinced that individuals and communities “voice
themselves into being, that they achieve identity and continuity through
the telling of themselves” (Gray, 2012, 481).
Hurston’s masterpiece novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) is

a depiction of a beautiful mulatto woman’s maturation, - discovery of
her true identity. Her aim in this book (and in her other works) was to
revise and adapt vernacular forms to give voice to women: to create a
genuinely democratic oral culture, or, as she put it, “words walking
without masters” (Gray, 2012, 481), as she had noticed that African-
American women in particular were denied access to the pulpit and
porch – the privileged sites of storytelling – and hence the chance of
self-definition. The central character of the novel Janie Crawford
concludes: “Two things everybody’s got tuh do for theyselves, they got
tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves”
(Hurston, 1991, 34).
The irony is that she has to win the right to see and speak about living
for herself. Janie has to resist the humiliating stereotypes and definitions
imposed on her by society as a black person and a woman. She has to
disobey the order of one of her husbands not to engage in “porch talk.”
What Janie has to do is to claim her own voice, and in the process her
own self and rightful place in the vocal community. Her grandmother
Nancy, an ex-slave, tells her that “De nigger woman is de mule uh de
world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston, 1991, 56). However, being
dignified, Janie does not give up her desire to realize herself through
two, though loveless, marriages. She finally finds love and joy in her
third marriage as well as the opportunity to be her own self and to speak
for herself. And although the marriage ends tragically – her husband
dies a violent death, Janie is an already changed, singular, and mature
woman who can participate in the “porch talk” of the community. She
has found her true speech and thus her true self. Hurston’s other works
of importance include the novel Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1934) in which
the main character – a poet and a preacher – establishes his identity
through art; a collection of African-American folk tales, songs, games,
and hoodoo practices Mules and Men (1935).
African-American culture contributed greatly to the rise of jazz in the

1920s, what came to be called the Jazz Age, or the “Roaring
29
Twenties.” Alongside with the extreme popularity of jazz music, the

Jazz age was marked by a glamorous life-style, the New York nightlife
dominated by cabarets, buffet flats, ballrooms, speakeasies, nightclubs
which presented such black performers as John Coltrane, Duke
Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, and others.
Many Harlem Renaissance writers and artists were greatly influenced by
jazz music (as well as blues) and employed elements of jazz in their
work One of the many talented writers of the Harlem Renaissance was
Langston Hughes (1902-1967). He was versatile and worked in many
literary genres – poetry, fiction, drama, autobiography, and the essay.
But it was his poetry that left an indelible mark in the African-American
literature of the period. Hughes’s collections of poems The Weary Blues
(1926), Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927), Harlem (1942), Montage of a
Dream Deferred (1951), and Ask Your Mama (1961) reveal his deeply-
felt commitment to the idea of a separate and distinctive black identity
that he spoke about in his influential essay The Negro Artist and the
Racial Mountain (1926). In the essay he wrote: “To my mind, it is the
duty of the young Negro artist to change through the force of his art that
old whispering ‘I want to be white’ hidden in the aspirations of his
people, to ‘Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro – and
beautiful” (Hughes, 1999, 1025). Hughes explained that this does not
mean that the black writer should simply idealize black life. “We know
we are beautiful and ugly too,” he observed. What he meant was that
black writers’ should uncover the rich heritage – the power and glory –
of African-American traditions. In his attempt to embrace the multiple
layers, the pace, and diversity of African-American life, the poet speaks
through multiple voices, for example, through the voice of a young
schoolchild in “Theme for English B,” a dying man in “Sylvester’s
Dying Bed,” or a smart and sassy older woman in “Madam’s Past
History.” Hughes was a socially committed poet and always stressed his
devotion to black community and culture.
In many of his poems, Hughes employs elements of African-American

jazz music, blues, spirituals, folklore, and colloquial speech. Hughes
admitted that many of his poems had a racial theme, and in many of
them he tried to grasp and hold some of the meanings and rhythms of
jazz. Hughes believed that the essence of jazz was that it was
improvisational, subversive, and open-ended and therefore challenged
the closed structures of the dominant white culture (Gray, 2012, 489).
Hughes argued that jazz was a heartbeat, “this heartbeat is yours.” Jazz,
as he saw it, was a vast sea “that washes up all kinds of fish and shells
and spume with a steady old beat, or off-beat.” And by the sea he must
have meant the source of African American oral cultural traditions -
spirituals, work songs, field hollers, and shouts as well as the source of
blues, ragtime, gospel, and roc and roll that helped release a myriad of
feelings and emotions: joy, sorrow, pain, nostalgia, and suffering. Jazz
30
for Hughes was also an act of rebellion. Some of the author’s best
poems in which he incorporates rhythms, themes, and vocabulary of jazz
and blues include “Seven Moments in Love,” “Still Here,” “The Weary
Blues,” “The Cat and the Saxophone,” “Montage of a Dream Deferred.”
The complex dilemma that Hughes presents in his essay The Negro
Artist and the Racial Mountain, is about whether one is a poet or a
Negro poet, that is, whether race is an essential feature or a social
construct of a black writer’s identity. How big is the difference between
American and African-American? This dilemma continues to exist in
our own time and is reflected on in the works of many contemporary
African-American writers. However, the Harlem Renaissance was still
partly based on the “integrationist” premises as the publication of the
work by black authors largely depended on the taste and priorities of
white publishing-houses. The artists and intellectuals of Harlem
Renaissance had faith in the future of the “New Negro,” they believed in
democratic reforms and in the power of art and literature to effect these
changes. However, Harlem Renaissance ended with the start of the
Great Depression in the early 1930s, which questioned the importance
and centrality of culture, unrelated to economic and social realities.

1. What were the reasons for the emergence of Harlem Renaissance
in the 1920s?
2. Comment on the literary and cultural scene of Harlem
Renaissance. What ideas did the writers and artists share and how
did their opinions differ? (Consider their attitude to the role of the
black writer in relation to his art).
3. Why was the Harlem Renaissance called the “New Negro”
movement?
4. What caused the end of Harlem Renaissance and why?
The Civil Rights Era and the Black Arts Movement (Black
Aesthetic) (1960s-1970s)
The 1960s can be considered a turning point in American social,
political, and cultural life. The emergence of counterculture, anti-war
movements, the movement of ethnic minorities, women’s liberation
movement, the Feminist revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, which
caused widespread civil unrest in the country, the assassinations of
president John Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and a
civil rights activist Malcolm X, made Americans reconsider sets of
values they had adhered to before. During the late 1960s and early
1970s, African-American poets, literary critics, and theorists produced a
large body of works which reflected the spirit of Black Power self-
determination and African-American expressive culture. Two seminal
31
books Black Fire: An Anthology of Afro-American Writing (1968) and

The Black Aesthetic (1971) were published which included the work of
creative artists and intellectuals who committed themselves to producing
artistic and cultural works to black audiences. The former work had an
especially powerful effect upon the black audience when it was released
in 1968, as the contributors in the collection seemed to embody the spirit
of rebellion and revolution all over the country when black people rioted
in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. The
anthology illustrates the idea of the Black experience revitalized in the
powers of Soul, which dissolves the boundaries between art and life
(Morrison, 2008, 54). Negritude and Soul reflect a special concept of
African-American spiritual condition, the ever changing state of art and
soul, the rejection of the Western dichotomies of reason vs. heart,
concrete vs. abstract, action vs. thinking, individual vs. group etc. Some
literary works published in the two anthologies had a racist, militant, and
nationalistic character. For instance, Marvin X (Marvin E. Jackmon)
ends his poem “That Old Time Religion” with the line “LET THERE
BE BLACKNESS OVER THIS LAND LET BLACK POWER SHINE
AND SHINE.” .Another author addresses a white authority figure by
saying “Man, your whole history / Ain’t been nothing but a hustle.” And
Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoy Jones), who was considered Father of the
Black Arts Movement, wrote: “The black man is the future of the
world,” “Let black people understand that / they are the lovers and the
sons of lovers and warriors and sons of warriors.” In a poem called
“Black Art,” he says: “we are black magicians, black art / & we make in
black labs of the heart /…/ … we own / the night.” (Gray,2012, 641).
These nationalist and confrontational statements as well as an emphasis
on the superiority of blackness, black pride and black aesthetic, were
characteristic of many African-American writings during the 1960s and
1970s. The bulk of this kind of writing is permeated with race pride. The
contributors of the two anthologies included such prominent Black Arts
era figures as Amiri Baraka (LeRoy Jones), Sonia Sanchez, Ed
Bullins, Don L. Lee (Haki Madhubuti), Gwendolyn Brooks, and
others. The essence of the works included into the two anthologies was
defined as the Black Arts Movement. The origins of the Black Arts
Movement and Black Aesthetic discourses are multifaceted and deeply
rooted in African-American political and literary thought (Smethurst,
Rambsy, 2011, 406). Artists of the New Negro Movement of the 1920s
and later generations of black writers produced literary works that
stressed Black nationalism and critiques of white racism. Yet, the terms
the “Black Arts Movement,” “Black Arts,” “Black Aesthetic” emerged
due to the aforementioned events that took place in the middle of the
1960s. The majority of artists of the Black Arts Movement claimed the
specificity of African-American art, suggested aesthetic separatism,
advocated a nationalistic approach to literature, viewed art as a weapon,
and had intentions to withdraw from the dialogue with White society.
32
The artists of the Civil Rights Movement period Richard Wright

(1908- 1960), James Baldwin (1924-1987), Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)
try to balance between the demands of being a Black writer and various
tensions. They present “Black material,” however, at the same time they
tend to move away from racial focus in literature and try to stress the
universal human experience, pointing out the fact that an artist can
reveal, or at least attempt to reveal the experience of all people. Wright’s
Native Son (1940) and Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) enriched the
African-American literary tradition with philosophical existential depth.
Their work highlight themes of a black man’s alienation, discrimination
and humiliation in white society, however, at the very center of their
fiction is a character’s loss of identity and his desperate attempts to
discover his true self, and in case of failing to do that, at least “invent”
himself. In his two autobiographical books Black Boy (1945) and
American Hunger (1977), Wright traces his life from childhood in his
native South to adulthood in the North, - a journey in search for identity.
For Wright, identity was a social and cultural construct, not natural: it
had to be won, struggled, and suffered for. He believes that all African-
Americans had been denied a similar knowledge. In Black Boy he
speaks about “the cultural barrenness of black people,” “the essential
bleakness of black life in .America,” as, according to him, “Negroes had
never been allowed to catch the full spirit of Western civilization.”
Wright claims that the most severe blow they received from white
society was their exclusion from a sense of fully being in the world.
However, the author believed that he had made himself. He realized his
blackness, his belonging to the black race when at the same time he
managed to go beyond the restrictions of race. Black Boy and American
Hunger,constitute one of the great retellings of the American myth of
personal reinvention, the making of an identity” (Gray, 2012, 500-1).
Wright’s most important book was the novel Native Son. The
protagonist of the novel – an uneducated black youth – mistakenly kills
his white master’s daughter, burns her body, and murders his black
girlfriend, fearing she will betray him. Fear is the emotional condition of
the character’s life. This second act is seen as the product not of will, but
of circumstance and the violence it engenders. Waiting in prison for his
trial, the protagonist feels free for the first time in his life as, he believes,
he has broken out of the prison of himself. He finally comes to realize
his emotional state as well as his motives, reasons for his violence, and
arrives at the conclusion that “what I killed for, I am!” Thus he realizes
his true essence and identity.
In Wright’s later works, there are noticeable traces of existentialism, for

instance, in the novel The Outsider (1953) which centers on a young
black intellectual’s search for identity. In his later nonfiction works
(Black Power 1954, White Man Listen! 1957), there is a move toward
Black Nationalism. The writers of Black Aesthetic of the 1960s
33
considered him their forerunner, as they saw his militancy and the
willingness to use art as a weapon. Wright argued, however, that
although black writers’ mission was to influence “human affairs” with
their art, writing had a certain professional autonomy. He was convinced
that if a literary work is too didactic, “the artistic sense is submerged.”
For him, literature was coextensive with life, but they were not to be
confused with each other. Every first rate novel, poem, or play “lifts the
level of consciousness higher.” Thus, according to him, imaginative
writing was a vital agent of awareness and luminous revelation of
change – an enabler of life (Gray, 2012, 502-3). Baldwin, too, dealt with
issues of race in his work, explored the theme of African-American
identity, - many of his characters oscillate between the necessity to
integrate themselves in the mainstream of American society, accept
White standards of living and thus gain recognition, and a sense of
security and being their own selves. Baldwin’s major concern, however,
was about sexuality. In many of his stories and essays he examined what
it meant to be both Black and homosexual at a time when neither was
accepted by American culture. Baldwin’s best known work is the
autobiographical novel Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) about a
youth who seeks self-knowledge and religious faith. His other important
works include Another Country (1962) which centers on racial issues
and homosexuality, and Nobody Knows my Name (1961) – a collection
of personal essays about racism, the role of the artist, and literature.
In the genre of prose, Ellison’s only novel Invisible Man6 was a highly
original and important event in the history of African-American
literature since World War II. The main theme of the work is the black
protagonist’s search for identity and individuality both as an African-
American and a human being. It is an account of a young black’s
awakening to racial discrimination and his battle against the refusal of
white Americans to see him apart from his ethnic background, which in
turn leads to his humiliation and disillusionment. The novel is set in the
1930s and describes the experiences of its anonymous protagonist (who
is also the narrator) as he travels through America in search of his
identity trying to cope with the dilemma that Ellison summed up in one
of his essays: “the nature of our society is such that we are prevented
from knowing who we are” (Gray, 2012, 652). The main metaphor of
the novel is human invisibility. First, white society ignores the
individuality and humanity of the blacks and views them as stereotypes.
They are exploited and their needs are disregarded. Thus black
Americans become invisible. Secondly, the protagonist is white oriented
and feels inferior and ashamed of his dark skin color. Thus he is part of
the crowd of people who comply with the rules and customs prescribed
by white society. All throughout the novel, the Invisible Man forms his
life according to other people’s life models, imitates them and refuses to
question his own choices and preferences. Therefore, he ignores his own
34
responsibility in his development and acknowledgment as a visible man.

The novel also reflects upon the socio-historical factors of life in the
middle of the 20th c. America. It shows all the cruelties, humiliation and
injustice that a black man had to face in white society. Believing that
“white is right,” and black is unimportant, the protagonist does not see
the extent of his invisibility and authenticity until the end of the novel.
He is constantly betrayed by all people who he trusted, and finally he
realizes that he has to distance himself from other people in order to see
and understand himself. In this way he searches for a solution. The
protagonist understands that he himself is responsible for his identity
and acknowledgement by other people.
Invisible Man has features of postmodern novel with regard to the main
theme, - the protagonist is not only African-American, he is also a
universal human being melted and assimilated in a consumer society
which obliterates all individuality of a person. The novel is also an
example of a Bildungsroman in that it is a character’s journey to self-
understanding and selfhood. Viewed in this context, the author seems to
emphasize the idea that individual should find the strength to resist the
oppressive power of (modern / postmodern) civilization. In Ellison’s
view, if individual accepts the norms and opinions imposed on him, if he
fears to be different from the mob and allows others to rule his life, he
has no chance to become a genuine and visible personality.
Tutor- Marked Assignment

I. Discuss the ideas of Existentialism in Richard Wright’s novel
Native Son.
2. What event prompts the narrator to write to his brother?
3. What does the narrator’s mother ask him to do for Sonny? Does
the older brother keep his promise?
4. The major characters in this story are called Mama, Daddy and
Sonny (the older brother is never named or even nicknamed).
How do these names affect our sense of the story?
35
The Post-Modern Turn in African-American Literature and Neo-

Slave Narratives
In 1970 there was a burst of literary activity in African-American
literature: twenty-five novels, major dramatic works, and volumes of
poetry were released. This event has been called by some critics the
beginning of the second renaissance of black women’s writing, whereas
others consider this moment as the emergence of black literary
postmodernism (Dubey, Goldberg, 2011, 569). Black postmodern
literature shares many features common to all postmodernism(s), – it is
characterized as self-conscious, self-reflexive, and it first of all aims to
revise history, identity, and aesthetics.
One of the aims of postmodern African-American literature is to

“provoke critical self-reflection about the demands for racial
representation that have been historically been placed on black writers”
(Dubey, Goldberg, 2011, 569). From its beginnings in the 19th c. slave
narratives and all black literature has been expected to realistically
depict the race – African-Americans – and speak about their experience
as a whole.
Postmodern African-American writers self-consciously revise the

dominant traditional literary forms of racial representation by parodying
these forms and revealing them to be textual constructs, and not true-to-
life reflections of black life. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing
interest in the historical past as well as the implications of this past for
Post-Civil Rights explorations of black identity. It should be noted that it
was the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s that introduced a cultural
redefinition of blackness that was in part responsible for the literary
innovations of postmodern African- American authors. However, these
authors also rejected Black Arts ideals of racial identity and community.
Literary and cultural critics broadly agree that postmodernism in the
African-American context is “defined by a heightened attention to the
intra-racial differences (of class, gender, and sexuality) that had been
suppressed in black cultural nationalist discourse” (Dubey, Goldberg,
2011, 566).
As far as dominant postmodern paradigms of identity and aesthetics

are concerned, a number of innovative formal strategies were used in an
attempt to represent a post-1970s black “poly consciousness” in
literature. These formal strategies include textual fragmentation
(which reveals a character’s split consciousness, or, poly consciousness,
his fragmentary mind), linguistic bricolage, and the transgression of
generic and cultural boundaries. Postmodernism questions the idea of
objectivity and “objective truth,” especially historical truth. How do we
know what is fact and what is fiction? Postmodern writers working in
the genre of the novel revise significant points of history by critically
36
rewriting traditional narrative forms, especially slave narratives and

narratives of migration. They often use parody to show the unreliability
of the official historical account of slavery. Such novels are referred to
as works of historiographical meta-fiction (a genre of postmodern
novel) – the literary theorist and critic Linda Hutcheon’s term for
postmodern novels concerned with history.
Historiographical meta-fiction raises the question “How do we know

the past?” and acknowledges the need to question the received versions
of history. It does not seek to tell the truth but considers the question of
whose truth gets told. It questions the authority and objectivity of
historical sources and explanations. In postmodernism, both history and
fiction are treated as cultural sign systems, ideological constructions.
Historiographical meta- fiction reflects the postmodern view that we can
know “reality” only as it is produced and sustained by cultural
representations of it (Hutcheon, 1998, 123).
In the 1960s the historical archive of slavery expanded, and this inspired
the literary works of realist historical novels of slavery that drew on oral
tradition as a “way of recovering the subjective experience of slaves”
(Dubey, Goldberg, 2001, 598). The first African-American novel which
dealt with the return to the historical moment of slavery was Margaret
Walker’s Jubilee (1966) - a literary adaptation of her great-
grandmother’s oral tales of slavery. From the 1970s onward there have
been several major texts of the slave narrative told from the first or third
person point of view of the slave himself or herself, for instance,
Barbara Chase-Riboud’s novel Sally Hemings (1979) about Thomas
Jefferson’s longtime slave mistress, with whom he had several children;
Alex Haley’s Roots (1976); Anne William’s Dessa Rose (1986).
Contrary to the aforementioned novels, most neo-slave narratives
experiment with narrative form and voice to examine the legacy of
slavery which continues into the 20th c. As an example, one can
mention Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved (1987), which tells the story of
escaped slave Margaret Garner. Here the author employs postmodern
techniques such as fragmentation of linear time to piece together
traumatic memory, what Morrison’s characters call “re-memory.” The
novel’s concern with temporality is a “striking manifestation of the
specifically African American expression of postmodernism” (Dubey,
Goldberg, 2011, 599).
Other novels that illustrate this particular approach to time and trauma
include Gayl Jones’s Corregidora (1975) and Octavia Butler’s
Kindred (1979) which is considered the postmodern slave narrative in
her use of time-travel device. Timothy Spaulding defines the
postmodern slave narrative as “that proliferating sub-genre of late
37
twentieth-century novels of slavery that violate the conventions of

narrative realism.” He goes on to explain that “the break from realism in
recent narratives of slavery disrupts the governing protocols of historical
representation, in particular calling into question the positivist truth-
claims of modern historiography” (Spaulding, 2005, 18-19) A number
of African-American writers in post-1952 fictional creation, like the
ones before them, look to the South for its imaginative inspiration. And
this kind of fictional creation has been called the neo-slave narrative, a
term first coined by Bernard Bell.
Ashraf Rushdy’s book Neo-Slave Narratives: Studies in the Social

Logic of a Literary Form (1999) provides the most comprehensive
study of the genre to date. Rushdy defines the neo-slave narrative as that
body of “contemporary novels that assume the form, adopt the
conventions, and take on the first-person voice of the ante-bellum slave
narrative.” For some authors, slavery serves as a textual layer to their
fiction, whereas for others, slavery is the incentive for their literary
creations. Trudier Harris divides neo-slave narratives into four
categories (Harris, 2011, 475): the texts by women writers for whom
slavery serves as the center of their narratives as they represent their
female characters (Margaret Walker’s Jubilee (1966), Sherley Anne
Williams’ Dessa Rose (1986), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), J.
California Cooper’s Family (1991). In these texts, the experiences of
the characters are contemporary with the chronology of slavery and its
immediate aftermath.
In the second category, characters in the 20th c. find themselves haunted

by and / or experiencing the conditions of slavery (Gayl Jones’s
Corregidora (1975), Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979), David Bradley’s
The Chaneysville Incident (1981), and Phyllis Alesia Perry’s Stigmata
(1998). In the third category, slavery is the subject of satire (Ishmael
Reed’s Flight to Canada (1976), Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage
(1990). The writers of neo-slave narratives, in which the characters
experience slavery directly and chronologically with it, reveal new
aspects of the condition of slaves (during or after the slavery), of the
relationships between black slaves and their masters, between a black
female slave and her white master and a white mistress, and between the
blacks themselves. Some authors of these neo-slave narratives show
instances of black slaves’ heroic resilience and defiance against their
white masters; mutual sexual desire of persons who could be attracted to
each other in spite of race, class, or previous condition of servitude; the
possibility of black female slave’s friendship with a white woman; the
jealousy that existed between white women and attractive black women
on plantations as well as the black woman’s jealousy towards the white
woman who becomes the mistress of the black man she loves. As it has
been noted, another feature of neo-slave narratives is depicting
38
characters in the 20th c. who are returned back into slavery or who are
so haunted by it that they have difficulty living healthy lives in the 20th
c. The family histories of characters in each of these texts are different,
and each character haunted by the memories of the historical past (by
the memories of the lives of his / her ancestors), has to find his or her
own way to shake off the burden of the past in order to live at peace.
Jones’s Corregidora could serve here as an example. The main
character Ursa Corregidora is locked into memories of slavery because
of mother love. Both her grandmother and great-grandmother were
raped by the same Brazilian slaveholder Corregidora who then turned
them into prostitutes. He observed no morality that could prevent him
from having sex with his daughters and granddaughters, so he burned
family records in order to erase his immoral actions. To counter that
erasure, the women vowed to give birth to daughters and to pass on the
narrative to their daughters; and thus the story has come down to Ursa.
Her family history in slavery and after it is a heavy burden to Ursa, who
can hardly imagine what life will be like when she is made barren after
being pushed down a flight of stairs. In this narrative, the past always
intrudes into the present and oppresses her psychologically, though she
cannot identify the reason. Remembering the past is praiseworthy, it
should heal a person, but the past here features only a violent white male
ancestor. Thus here memory is not a healing power, for it has an aura of
vengeance, and not self- revelation or self-improvement. Memory
imprisons Ursa more than it frees her, she is tied to a static history rather
than to a dynamic one. Thus Ursa is challenged to put the past into
perspective, to recognize that her own body cannot continue to be the
instrument for retaining negative historical memory, that she, as an
individual, has a right to move forward no matter how horribly her
ancestors were treated. Ursa must find a way to cope with the past, with
the memories without them destroying her future. She must find another
means of procreation. Also, she must put the past in perspective and
push aside the weight of the past and make space for herself instead of
living her life for her ancestors.
Although the characters of these narratives are haunted by different

memories of the past, what the authors make them do is understand that
the past is merely the past. They are forced to accept - and then embrace
- the claims that the past makes upon them. In other words, the
characters have to relive the past, reconsider it, and go on with their
lives. Other authors of neo-slave narratives (Reed, Johnson) treat the
serious subject of slavery with light humor. They claim that slavery, as a
racial institution, also had a rich, double-edged tradition of humor.
Humor was a central, creative means through which African-Americans
survived and confronted centuries of oppression. As Glenda Carpio has
noted, humor can at once be a strong critique of racial injustice, but at
the same time “give life to the whole storehouse of fantasies produced in
39
the hothouse of a racially divisive past and an equally – if differently –

divisive present” (Carpio, 2008, 27). Reed and Johnson challenge the
reader to better understand the problematic relationship between an
African-American racial history and humor, which may “complicate the
distinctions between polite and popular representations of slavery”
(Carpio, 2005, 28).
In his novel Flight to Canada, using anachronism (the protagonist takes

an airplane ride out of slavery), Reed employs historical figures and
historical types of plantation owners. The author reveals the seamier
sides of slavery and shows the perversion throughout the institution. He
hints at a sexual relationship between the plantation owner and the black
slave (Mammy Barracuda) as well as his sister. There are also hints of
the plantation mistress’s perverse relationship to Mammy Barracuda.
The author also broaches the subject that some blacks were complicit in
slavery. However, Reed shows that everything and everyone associated
with the institution is a fair game. He demonstrates the absurdity of
slavery by representing it in an equally absurd way. Reed uses
anachronisms to draw parallels between the historical past (the period of
slavery) and the 20th c. racial politics. By using the parodic mode the
writer raises the question about whether the realistic form of
representation can convey the full meaning of slavery today, many years
after its official end. The topic of slavery continues in the 21st c. The
most outstanding example is Edward P. Jones’s novel The Known
World (2003). Although the primary focus of the book is on slavery, it is
the first narrative in which an African-American writer chronicles the
holding of enslaved persons by a man of African descent. One of the
major purposes of the neo-slave narrative was to show the enslaved
people as agents possessing complex humanity. In this novel, however,
blacks stand out as villains, and as cruel as whites.
The variety of representations and interpretations of the institution of

slavery by writers of neo-slave narratives confirm the fact that the
panorama of slavery provides the rich material on which to rewrite,
reconsider, and re-envision History.
1. Discuss the differences and similarities between 19th c. slave
narratives and 20th c. neo-slave narratives.
2. What new aspects of slavery are revealed in neo-slave narratives
and what purpose do they serve?
3. How does the realist slave narrative differ from the postmodern
slave neo-narrative?
40
Contemporary Writers: The Literary Movements in African-

American Background
African- American writers shed light on many phases of black life in the
state of America. They were looking for their identities. Their works
such as poetry, autobiographies, fiction and essays helped to form the
African American literature. Consequently, black writers made a change
by affecting their social reality and the literature that had been produced
in response to it. The latter witnessed a change from the period of
slavery to the present century.
Poetry, oral and slave narratives gave richness and diversity for the
writing of the twentieth century. The Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights
and Black Arts Movements played a great role in the development of
African American literature. Many well-known black writers appeared
including Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Cullen, Wright, Ellison, Baldwin,
Amiri Baraka and Brooks. They wrote about their personal experiences
and the situation of the blacks in the American society. They used their
fiction and poetry to end segregation and protect civil rights. The writers
of Harlem Renaissance were influenced by the style of European and
American literature (High 212). They created works of high quality.
African American literature has attempted to tell uncomfortable truth. It

began with slave narratives. Thus, prose was transformed during the
nineteenth century into the protest novel (King & Moody-Turner xi).
During the contemporary period, African American authors and artists
represent an important part of American literature. Their works were
rejected for a long time till the twentieth century. Contemporary African
American literature was the beginning point for a new change as slavery
and racial segregation became less important subjects (xi). This period is
supposed to be the golden age of African American literature. Black
American writers want to prove their skill and express the pride of being
black. In comparison to the previous generation of writers, there was a
remarkable difference in their works.
During the twentieth century, black American writers have produced all
literary genres. For instance, Toni Morrison’s beloved (1987) is an
example of fiction representing the new imagining of slavery rather than
presenting the tale of a male slave beginning with Frederick Douglass’
The Heroic Slave in 1853(26).
Contemporary African American literature changed the world. Toni

Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for her masterpiece regarding
the slave era. A new generation of writers appeared. They were the first
African American writers to produce works in the post- Civil Rights era.
In the twentieth century African American literature was prominent.
Contemporary writers asked new questions and represented new ways of
41
discovering their society. “African American literature is a living

dialogue of ideas; contemporary African American literature is a lively
discussion” (King & Moody-Turner 01).
In the early twentieth century, W.E.B.DU Bois and the other younger
generation of artists such as Langston Hughes, Zola Neale Hurston,
Wallace Thurman and Richard Bruce tried to delimit the meaning of
their art. These writers did not search to be believed by whites, but they
still had to depend on criticism of the white. Many whites started
thinking about blacks’ tragic past; some black writers like Nikki
Giovanni do not want the white to pity them. She says: “I really hope no
white person even has cause to write about me because they never
understand… and they will probably talk about my hard childhood and
never understand that …. I was quiet happy” (221). Contemporary
African American literature is characterized by tension as Shockley
suggests that:
…we should think of contemporary African

American literature not in terms of how texts do or
do not conform to one aesthetic; rather, we should
consider how the African American literary
tradition is characterized by multiple aesthetics
accompanied by varied and diverse, rather than
monolithic, strategies for grappling with questions
of race, gender, identity and tradition (02)
In other words, contemporary African American writers tackle subjects

in a different way to express criticism and produce a debate.
The Main Literary Movements

African American writers represent novelists, short story writers, poets
and playwrights. They began using different forms from slave narratives
to fiction. They are represented in American literary movements
including realism, naturalism and modernism.
African American Literary Realism (1865-1914)

Realism has been given many definitions. According to the Oxford
Companion to American Literature, realism is a “term meaning truth to
the observed facts of life”. Howells states that realism came as a reaction
to the changes taking place in America in the nineteenth century. It is
more than a reflection of social reality; it is its reconstruction William
Dean Howells refers to American realism as “the truthful presentation of
materials” (01). African American literature is a distinct form that
flourished after the end of the Civil War. During this time, it ignored
notion of romance and used realism as a literary device. Before the war,
Americans asked for human rights and the abolition of slavery.
42
However, early nineteenth century American writers, including African

Americans attempted to write prose involving realism (Francis 10).
Most of the African American authors of the Harlem Renaissance used
realism. Many of them employed this literary device to fight racial
issues. However, others used realism to portray African American life
(01).
American realism has been neglected by black writers as they gave more
importance to the romantic works between the Civil War and First
World War. The novelist Chesnutt claims that “there have been few
realist fiction of African American life” (186).
During this period, black authors did not focus on mainstream realism
which exposes race relation in the South to maintain the white audience.
The main realistic authors were Chesnutt, Pauline Hopkins and Paul
Lawrence Dunbar. Thus, black writers produced a literature that portrays
blacks as deserving equality with whites. As a result, they mixed
between romance and realism (Jarrett 189). Some critics generally
associate realism with a realistic setting, an unobtrusive narration and a
focus on the characters’ psychological development. Realistic authors
use the language to create disgust toward black mistreatment. Realistic
African writers’ works are based on observations of the aspects of
African American life including criminality and illiteracy (189).
African-American Naturalism
Naturalism is a literary approach that explores the themes that have a
relation with the growth of science in the late nineteenth century. “It
meant that human behavior is solely under the control of heredity and
social environment” (Hakutani 02). During this time, scientific discourse
led to the emergence of literary naturalism. Naturalist writing often
depicts the limitations and restrictions imposed on individuals’ freedom.
In fact, the stronger example of the denial of freedom is revealed in the
system of slavery in the United States and the continuous linkage of the
slaves’ position with inferiority (258). During the nineteenth century, the
scientific discourse led to the emergence of literary naturalism. The
perpetuation of slavery and racial segregation pushed African American
naturalists to criticize slavery and the effects of racism (258).
Naturalism had shown African American writers such as Wright, Ralph

Ellison and James Baldwin. These writers tried to avoid rebellion, anger
and protest. They were influenced by the philosophy of naturalism
which helped them to develop their own versions of human rights. They
attempted to liberate their fellow human beings from rules imposed on
them. As an example, Black Boy, which is a novel written by Wright,
has a great impact on African American literary criticism (02).
43
Other black writers like Ellison began to believe that literary naturalism
was a burden. It was not a technique for expressing African American
reality. In this context, Pizer claims that “naturalism in its own day was
often viewed as a threat to the established order because it boldly and
vividly depicted the inadequacies of the industrial system which was the
foundation of that order” (201).
According to Pizer, African American naturalists took the responsibility

of addressing legal and scientific distinction as they became affected by
the political and economic system (Dudley 258).
African -American Modernism

Modernism is a movement in art and thought that started in Europe and
America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Recently, it
has been shaped by African American contributions primarily in the
field of music with ragtime, blues, and jazz (Jacques Preface).
Modernism emerged when a minority of African Americans lived
among the whites in the cities by sharing less public space. It was the
moment of the emergence of the racial ghettoes inhabited by African
Americans (01).
Artists used modernist poems and songs to transmit truth. One of the
achievements of modernism is its ability to convey meaning in ordinary
language. In this context, Karl suggests that “Language is no longer the
primary agent in its old form of communication or as creating subject-
object relationships” (16). He adds that “The page or territory is
primary, on which language wanders like a lonely adventurer hoping to
survive emptiness and whiteness”. Thus, he claims that language turns
into a form of music, becoming not only a visual image but an aural one
as well (16).
The tactility of language appeared through African American vernacular

speech which is part of the larger culture (Karl17). Modernism
represented the African American imaginary aiming at rethinking of the
status of black culture within the American culture (16).
In the modernist era, the use of African American music in written
works did not show the author’s awareness of racial matters. In fact,
music such as blues and jazz was used by authors for various purposes
including social commentary and political protest. Thus, there is a
connection between music and literature. Hence, music or jazz in
particular reflected the hopes of African Americans for finding a new
life (15).
The Neorealism Movement (1970-Presesnt)

The neorealism movement is related to European realism that was
established in the nineteenth century. It describes life as it is actually
44
lived rather than giving an idealized portrait of the world. It explains the
material nature of life as it is. African American literature started to
depict realistic life. Slave narratives and autobiographies were the main
genre of this period. In this era, writings emphasized on the life of a
society and the pressure of their community (Dickson-Carr 177). They
were very important because they were based on truth and they were
used to talk about the black in a racist country. Therefore, neorealism in
African American literature focuses on the real life experiences of black
people (Smith 742). Contemporary African American neorealism
generally focused on the purpose of giving reflections of the life of
African American communities.
During this period, there was diversity in African American literature.

All the genres were presented. The most famous African American
women writers of the twentieth century are Maya Angelou, Alice
Walker and Gloria Naylor (745).
African American neo-realists believe that blacks are social beings who
must not to be separated from the; social and historical context which
develops their potential and highlights their significance as individuals
and giving them more hope (Dickson-Carr 7).
The United States was founded as a country based on justice and

equality but it failed to apply these values on African Americans. Hence,
the black liberation movement emerged. Literature was a way for black
Americans to defend their social situation. It has described the struggles
of African Americans with slavery and racism. It contains the portrayals
of African American experiences. This kind of literature has been given
different names such as black literature, Negro literature, colored
literature as well as African American literature which was a response to
the lived reality and the fact of segregation.
African American writers shed light on many phases of black life in the
state of America. They were looking for their identities. Their works
such as poetry, autobiographies, fiction and essays helped to form the
African American literature. Consequently, black writers made a change
by affecting their social reality and the literature that had been produced
in response to it. The latter witnessed a change from the period of
slavery to the present century.
Conclusion
In the voracious topics discussed so far, we have been drilled into
understanding that the history of African American people is marked
with slavery (1619-1865) which is characterized by continuous
dehumanization, humiliation, racial segregation and exploitation.
African Americans were viewed as people with no history, no cultural
45
heritage, no tradition, and no identity in white America. For centuries

Europeans and Americans advanced racial theories of inferiority, that
ascribed African-Americans to the lower species and ignored their
ownership of cultural, ethnic and linguistic values.
The African American theorist, critic and writer, Henry Louis Gates Jr.
claims the intersexuality is central to African American Literary
Tradition. He emphasizes the similarities of African-American texts,
especially genre forms and linguistic model which fall into these
traditions, since writers have tendency to read and revise of the works of
other writers. Therefore, repletion, careful study of previous cultural
heritage, is reflected in the process of signifying, which marks the
essence of African American literary tradition. Gates goes on to claim,
repetition and revision occurs with a signal difference. Signification
manifests primarily through hidden textual meaning, African past and
present.
Summary
African American literary tradition is a combination of cultural memory,
the African experience and cosmogony (the origin of universe, or a set
of ideas about this).In the United States, the African tradition and
experience was modified by the Christian one, a new type of culture and
literature was formed. The intentions to define Afro-American literary
tradition have always led to contradictory questions, such as:
What is uniquely Black or American about the literature by Black

authors? What is the Black protagonist’s identity- is it American or
African –American? What is African –American identity? Is Black
literature of a racial or a more universal nature? What does it mean to be
Black in White America? Therefore, at the heart of the Black
experience, there is the problem of double-consciousness. In the history
of African-American literary tradition, there are two opposing cultural
theories regarding the problem being confronted. One theory is
“integrationist’’ and argues that the Black man must strive to integrate
into the American experience. It chooses priority of American values
over the black ones. The other theory considers integration as impossible
because America is not a homogeneous country to integrate into. Thus
they speak in favour of group solidarity, ethnic independence and the
“negritude” Historically; the African –American writer has always
oscillated between these two aesthetic theories.
1. Discuss the central idea in the works of contemporary African-
American writers using any author’s work of your choice to
buttress your point.
2. Discuss their main literary movements as noted in their works
46
3. Do a comparative analytical study of the main strands in their

literary movements.
Reference/ Further Reading

Andrews, W., Foster F., Harris, T. (Eds.). (1997). The Oxford
companion to African American literature. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Baker, H.A.Jr (1987) Blues, Ideology. and African-American Literature

A vernacular Theory , Chicago,IL :University of Chicago Press
Baker, H.A. Jr (1987 ) Modernism and Harlem Renaissance ,

Chicago,IL: University of Chicago Press
Bernard, E. (2011). The Cambridge History of African American

literature, 268-287. Cambridge: University Press.
Bruce,D.D. (2001), The Origin of African American Literature,

Charlottesville :University Press of Virginia
Carpio, G. (2008). Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of

Slavery. New York and London: Oxford University Press.
Dubey, M. Goldberg, S. E. (2011). New Frontiers, Cross-Currents and

Convergences: the Emerging Cultural Paradigms. The
Cambridge History of African American Literature, 566-617.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Douglass, Fr. (1986). Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an

American slave. New York: Penguin Press.
47
MODULE 3 CARIBBEAN EXPERIENCE: RETURN

MIGRATION OF THE WEST INDIANS
INTRODUCTION
This module is aimed at exploring the experience of Caribbean migrants
in Britain by critical analytical reference to Caryl Phillip’s selected
novels that are concerned with Caribbean migrants and their experience
either in Britain or back on their island of birth. Caryl’s works mainly
deal with issues of identity and belonging. The critical perspective is
historical-biographical. It is necessary to introduce the history of
Caribbean migration to Britain to be able to understand what migrants
had to experience and what their situation is like nowadays. It is also
important to present the British writer of Caribbean origin – Caryl
Phillips, whose works address Caribbean experience in Britain, and to
define his place in Anglophone Caribbean literature as he has been
selected as its representative.
Objectives
The objectives of this unit is to make us see that Caribbean society were
systematically discriminated in all areas of their lives and they were
constantly exposed to racial prejudice which gradually turned into verbal
and physical violence. During decades of racial riots West Indian
migrants were struggling for recognition and integration. In the end,
Britain had to accept the fact that it has become a multicultural society
and that the mingling of various cultures may be beneficial after all. It
will equally enable us to define and clarify the body of Caribbean
literature written in English. While tracing its origins and follows its
development particularly throughout the twentieth century.
Main Content
British West Indies are the states in the Caribbean sea which were
previously under British control and most of which are currently
independent countries. The majority of them have also decided to join
the Commonwealth of Nations after they gained independence.
Historically, these islands were grouped into: the British Leeward
Islands, the British Windward Islands and Jamaica with its
dependencies. There have been continuous attempts at creating
federations and unions of which the most famous was the West Indian
Federation. However, it did not survive long, it only lasted from 1958-
62. Its purpose was to form a single state and become independent of
Britain. Unfortunately, it collapsed and the states had to continue their
struggle for independence each on their own. The first island to separate
from Britain was Jamaica in 1962 and the last one was Saint Kitts and
Nevis in 1983. There are certain countries which are still under British
rule in the present; they are so called British overseas territories.
48
Before moving to the Caribbean migration, we have to introduce the

British colonization of the West Indies, the decline of the British
Empire, its subsequent decolonization and the foundation of the Old and
the New Commonwealth. The area of the West Indies started to interest
the colonial powers basically since the voyage of Christopher Columbus
at the end of the 15th century. The islands were gradually colonized by
the British, the French, the Dutch and the Spanish. The British
colonization of the West Indies took place during the 17th and the 18th
century and Britain introduced on the colonized islands both classical
and slave trade. The slaves were mainly brought from Africa to work on
the West Indian sugar plantations. Slavery was finally abolished by the
Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. As a result of the fierce competition
among the European imperial powers, the First World War broke out
and it caused the decline of the British Empire which gradually lost
almost all its colonies. The decolonization happened in two main phases:
between the two world wars and after the Second World War. The first
phase involved the so called Old Commonwealth countries, such as
Canada or Australia, which have a strong cultural link to Britain. The so
called New Commonwealth countries gained independence during the
second phase and they denote the recently decolonized countries such as
those in the Indian subcontinent or the Caribbean. Nowadays, the
Commonwealth of Nations represents a loose association of the United
Kingdom in charge together with its former colonies which have
voluntarily decided to join in and whose membership ensures their equal
status.
An interesting phenomenon related to Caribbean migrants is the return

migration which describes the process of return to the country of origin.
Return migration tends to be permanent and irreversible as opposed to
transnational mobility which refers to continual and temporary
migration between Britain and the country of origin. In general, the
movement from the Caribbean tends to be long-term and one-
directional. Return migrants to the Caribbean generally fall into two
categories: the pre-retirement returnees and the retirement returnees. On
the one hand, there are people who return prior to retirement, usually to
earn a living in the region, and, on the other those who return at
retirement. The differences between the two categories are mainly based
on the length of their stay in Britain. “Short-stay” migrants tended to
return within fourteen years and were back in the Caribbean by the early
1970s. Meanwhile, “long-stay” migrants had spent, on average, over
thirty years in Britain. The return of “long-stay” migrants is a
phenomenon of the late 1980s and the 1990s.
The majority of returnees appear to delay return until they retire and
their pensions provide a secure income in the Caribbean. On the other
hand, the pre-retirement returnees often come back “home” with the
49
vision of establishing their own businesses. There are various factors

affecting the return migration, especially the economic and socio-
cultural ones which seem to be inseparable. One of the chief economic
factors is the cost of living back in the Caribbean compared to that in
Britain. The housing type is closely related. There has been inflation in
land prices in the Caribbean since the 1980s, therefore those who had
not invested in housing in the preceding decades or those who owned
property neither in Britain nor in the Caribbean, found it extremely hard
to return back home and settle there. As most returnees need to convert
either property or savings in Britain into homes and perhaps businesses
in the Caribbean, it is likely that property owners will predominate
among returnees. The income upon return also plays a crucial role in
return migration. The migrants are expected to be wealthy after so many
years spent abroad; however, the reality is often exactly the opposite.
Since in most cases they had to settle for a lower job status and they
often had to send remittances to their families and relatives left behind,
they did not manage to save enough to ensure a secure life back in their
country of origin. They also learnt that many of those who had stayed in
the Caribbean built large houses and seem to be prosperous. Social
networks also influence the return of migrants. Those who left their
relatives behind feel a considerably stronger tendency to return than
those who have set up their families in Britain. This return migration is
demonstrated in Caryl Phillips´ selected prose fiction that will be
concisely analyzed towards the later end of this module.
How to Define Caribbean Literature

As has been said albinitio, the term Black British literature also covers
Caribbean/West Indian literature, therefore it is reasonable to start with
the definition of this more general term. By Black British literature we
usually understand literature “[…] created and published in Britain,
largely for a British audience, by black writers either born in Britain or
who have spent a major portion of their lives in Britain.”50 The very
essence of the term suggests a racist connotation by using the term
“black”. It is irrelevant to classify and define a particular literary
movement on the basis of the writer´s skin colour. Moreover, the term
black usually refers to any non-white authors, including African, South
Asian and Caribbean authors. By labelling this literature as Black
British, the British academics again suggest that literature produced by
black authors is not part of the mainstream British literature. If we want
to define Caribbean literature in English, we can find a number of
definitions, none of which seems to be fully satisfactory. When defining
it, we also have to consider a number of criteria we base our definition
on. According to David Dabydeen´s definition, “West Indian literature’
is that written by people from the West Indies (a geographical entity) on
subjects relevant to West Indian history and cultures.”51 We can
immediately see a few gaps in this definition. Firstly, people from the
50
West Indies may produce literature which has nothing to do with West
Indian history or culture, secondly, there may be non-West Indian
authors who, on the contrary, are concerned with West Indian subjects in
their works and thirdly, there may be authors of West Indian origin who
emigrated very early in life and therefore spent a considerable part of
their life out of the Caribbean, moreover, they may not touch upon West
Indian themes either. Therefore, it seems almost impossible to offer an
adequate definition of this specific body of literature and if we do define
it eventually, we should be aware of the limitations to our own or
another author´s definition.
Another aspect to be considered when defining Caribbean literature is

the various criteria there are to be considered. Should we base our
definition on the location where a work is produced, on the origin of its
author or on the language in which it is written? Again, none of these
criteria seems to be sufficient and reliable, we should rather consider
several criteria at once. Caribbean literature does not necessarily have to
be written by a Caribbean author, the second or third generation of
migrants from the Caribbean already possess, a British citizenship and
some of them may have never been to their parents´ homeland before.
Caribbean literature was originally meant to target on black readership
only, however, since the 1950s it has become increasingly popular even
among white British readers. As far as the content of Caribbean
literature is concerned, there is not a particular theme that would be used
universally by all authors. What we can say almost for sure is that this
literature reflects very often on the authors´ first or second-hand
experience and it explores the theme of migration and the subsequent
reception of immigrants by the British society. The authors try to control
the representation of Black community by means of their literary
production. Obviously, there will be quite significant changes in the
subject matter in the works by first and second-generation Caribbean
writers for their experience differs quite a lot. More on the authors and
their themes is to be found later in this chapter. As we can see, it is
extremely difficult to define the Caribbean literature which has
undergone a long and complicated development since its origins in the
eighteenth century to the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, it has
experienced a sort of a “boom” since the 1950s and it becomes more and
more popular among Another aspect to be considered when defining
Caribbean literature is the various criteria there are to be considered.
Should we base our definition on the location where a work is produced,
on the origin of its author or on the language in which it is written?
Again, none of these criteria seems to be sufficient and reliable, we
should rather consider several criteria at once. Caribbean literature does
not necessarily have to be written by a Caribbean author, the second or
third generation of migrants from the Caribbean already possesses a
British citizenship and some of them may have never been to their
51
parents´ homeland before. Caribbean literature was originally meant to

target on black readership only, however, since the 1950s it has become
increasingly popular even among white British readers. As far as the
content of Caribbean literature is concerned, there is not a particular
theme that would be used universally by all authors. What we can say
almost for sure is that this literature reflects very often on the authors´
first or second-hand experience and it explores the theme of migration
and the subsequent reception of immigrants by the British society. The
authors try to control the representation of Black community by means
of their literary production. Obviously, there will be quite significant
changes in the subject matter in the works by first and second-generation
Caribbean writers for their experience differs quite a lot. More on the
authors and their themes is to be found later in this chapter. As we can
see, it is extremely difficult to define the Caribbean literature which has
undergone a long and complicated development since its origins in the
eighteenth century to the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, it has
experienced a sort of a “boom” since the 1950s and it becomes more and
more popular among another aspect to be considered when defining
Caribbean literature is the various criteria there are to be considered.
Should we base our definition on the location where a work is produced,
on the origin of its author or on the language in which it is written?
Again, none of these criteria seems to be sufficient and reliable, we
should rather consider several criteria at once. Caribbean literature does
not necessarily have to be written by a Caribbean author, the second or
third generation of migrants from the Caribbean already possesses a
British citizenship and some of them may have never been to their
parents´ homeland before. Caribbean literature was originally meant to
target on black readership only, however, since the 1950s it has become
increasingly popular even among white British readers. As far as the
content of Caribbean literature is concerned, there is not a particular
theme that would be used universally by all authors. What we can say
almost for sure is that this literature reflects very often on the authors´
first or second-hand experience and it explores the theme of migration
and the subsequent reception of immigrants by the British society. The
authors try to control the representation of Black community by means
of their literary production. Obviously, there will be quite significant
changes in the subject matter in the works by first and second-generation
Caribbean writers for their experience differs quite a lot. More on the
authors and their themes are significant in Caribbean writings. As we
can see, it is extremely difficult to define the Caribbean literature which
has undergone a long and complicated development since its origins in
the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, it has
experienced a sort of a “thriving” since the 1950s and it becomes more
and more popular among readers all over the world and the academics
pay more and more attention to Black British literature, publishing
studies, offering courses at universities etc.
52
Origins of Caribbean Literature and its Evolution in the Twentieth

Century
Some scholars date the beginnings of Anglophone Caribbean literature
from 1948, the date of publication of Derek Walcott´s first book. It is
true that since the 1930s there have been tendencies to create a West
Indian national literature written by their own people in the Caribbean
creole as a reaction to the educational dominance of the British who
ignored the West Indian literature.52 However, the true origins of
Caribbean literature date back to the eighteenth century when the
dominant literary genres where: slave narratives, autobiographies,
memoirs and letters. The two most famous pioneers in these genres are
Olaudah Equiano with his The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa published in 1789 and Ignatius
Sancho with his The Letters of Ignatius Sancho (1782). In a way, their
experience of rejection and hostility can be likened to the experience of
the 1950s immigrants to Britain.
Caribbean literature since the 1950s has experienced a kind of “boom”

due to the massive immigration of West Indians, beginning with the
Empire Windrush in 1948. Most of the authors who decided to write
about their arrival in Britain and their shattered illusions shared the
experience of colonization, displacement, slavery, emancipation and
nationalism. They came to Britain in search of a better life and
opportunities for themselves and their families. They believed in the
common heritage with the mother country (Britain), however, they soon
realized that they had been mistaken. In the 1950s and 1960s emigration
was the major theme of Caribbean literature, writers also examined their
colonial experience and the issues of the post-independence period (the
independence mainly took place in the 1960s, e.g. in Jamaica and
Trinidad). The 1950s and 1960s are associated with the first-generation
writers who were primarily novelists. It was not until the 1970s and
1980s that the Caribbean poetry emerged with its forms based on
indigenous models and mostly on the oral tradition. This period also
witnessed the emergence of women´s writing as opposed to the 1950s
dominated by male West Indian writers. The 1980s period is typically
associated with the second generation of Caribbean writers who explore
the metropolitan experience and the condition of being black in the
modern world. At the same time many of these authors like to return to
the past and examine the history of black experience as the past
experience often shapes our present lives.
Frank Birbalsingh proposes in his Frontiers of Caribbean Literature in

English that the Caribbean literature in English has come in four stages:
the first half of the twentieth century; from 1950 to 1965; from 1965 to
1980 and from 1980 to the present. These stages may overlap. The pre-
53
1950 writers are generally colonial in their outlook, although there are
exceptions, notably C. L. R. James, while the 1950-65 writers probe and
question this outlook. Writers after 1965 (the third stage) espouse post-
Independence interests, while writers after 1980 (the fourth stage) are
concerned either with the fate of immigrants living on external frontier,
or with the fate of the others like them.
First and Second Generation Caribbean Writers and the Themes of

their Works
Migrant literature denotes either works produced in the time of
migration or works reflecting on migration, therefore both the first and
second generation writers can be called migrant writers if their work is
concerned with the issue of migration in one way or another. Very often
migrant literature mirrors the writer´s experience, either first-hand or
second-hand, since migration and displacement have considerably
affected the second half of the twentieth century. Caryl Phillips is a
migrant writer par excellence, exploring the themes of identity and
belonging in his works. He seems to bridge the works of first and second
generation writers in that he reflects on the experience of his parents´
migration as well as on his generation´s experience, thus his work spans
the second half of the twentieth century up to now. Among the
pioneering male West Indian authors who dominated the 1950s we can
cite: Andrew Salkey, Kamau Brathwaite, Wilson Harris, James Berry,
George Lamming, Samuel Selvon and V. S. Naipaul, the last two being
of Indo-Caribbean origin.This generation of writers share their struggle
to assimilate in the hostile British society, their attempts at being
accepted and the reality of not being accepted. Since their arrival they
are put under the pressure of racial prejudice and systematic
discrimination. The feeling of alienation, unbelonging and isolation are
common to them. The first generation is typically associated with the
dream of returning home. Since most of the migrants came for economic
reasons and they meant to get a well-paid job and save some money,
they intended to return one day and ensure a better standard of living
back home. Most of them left their friends and relatives behind and they
relied on re-joining them a few years later. They tended to maintain a
strong cultural identity and they did not wish to adopt the British
lifestyle and customs unlike the generation of their children. We can
often find the use of imagery and colours and objects from the home
country (an island in the Caribbean) in their works. In contrast, this
imagery is completely unfamiliar for most of the second generation
writers who prefer using English images and references.
The second generation Caribbean writers generally consider themselves

as being part of British society because unlike their parents they came to
Britain at a very early age or they were even born in Britain, therefore
they do not know any other home than Britain. They grew up in Britain,
54
they were educated there and it is natural they feel more at home in
Britain than in the West Indies where only some of them return on
regular basis. The fact that they feel a part of British society does not
mean that they have never experienced racism and discrimination so
common to their parents. They have lived through the 1970s and 1980s
racial riots and anti-immigration policies but they have learnt to fight for
their recognition and integration by participating in various black
movements and public protests. They too experience problems with
identity and belonging, however, in most cases they do not feel the urge
to return to the Caribbean. The writers explore themes of the frontier
experience, sometimes they return to the time of their parents´ arrival in
their fiction but in most cases they share their personal experience of
being black (migrant) in contemporary Britain. Among these second
generation writers belong: Joan Riley, Caryl Phillips, Mike Phillips,
Merle Collins, Meera Syal, Diran Adebayo, Zadie Smith, Courtia
Newland and Bernardine Evaristo. To sum up, “The impossibility of
achieving a sense of belonging in a racist, white society is the central
theme of much black British writing.”55 On the other hand, this theme
cannot be universal across different authors´ works.
In essence, the new generation of black writers in Britain cannot write

about some faraway home from a position of remembrance; they write
about Britain from their own British viewpoints and put their own
British spins on the world as seen from their very own perspectives.
What characterized an earlier black British literature, the migrants´
otherness, emanated from their coming to England and searching for a
particular kind of perceived Britishness that did not necessarily exist.
Black writers born in England have none of these illusions. They are
developing within the British landscapes and social groups that they
have been born into, writing about their own impressions of Britain from
a new British perspective.
While first generation Caribbean writers reflect on their experience of

migration from ex-colonies to the racist Britain they thought to be their
homeland to some extent, the second generation writers either return to
the history to highlight its impact on their present identity or they
explore the lives of black people in contemporary Britain. The first
generation is more concerned with alienation and displacement whereas
the second generation is more concerned with belonging and acceptance.
Unit 4: The Search for Identity

The issue of identity (ethnic, cultural or national) and belonging is a
crucial one for migrants. The fact that they left their home to live in a
completely different country whose society feels antipathy and even
hostility towards them has a considerable impact on their identity and
sense of self. Migrants from very remote parts of the Caribbean are
55
suddenly brought to a close proximity and they often create tight

communities which give them at least a little security. The experience of
living in a strongly racist Britain forges a new black identity. The
identity formation is a dynamic and long-term process. “Race
consciousness has been awakened in these black migrants thanks to the
racism of the society into which they have entered. A new identity has
been forged in the crucible of racist Britain.”77 British people simply
distinguish between two races: white (“we”) and black (“them” or “the
other”). Coming to Britain with great expectations and with the idea in
their mind that Britain is a sort of “home country” for them, their
illusions are gradually shattered to pieces. They realize they do not and
very probably will not belong in Britain and the only message they hear
all around is “go back home”. “His presence in England dispels two
principal ideas, first that the West Indian and the British do not make up
“the same flag” and “the same empire”, and second, that England is no
home for the West Indian. […] Their only achievement in London is the
education they receive that they are the other – they are inferior and
different.”78 As far as their cultural identity is concerned, it is also very
dynamic as it keeps changing over time and it is primarily influenced by
the process of migration and the subsequent (mostly negative)
experience in the host country. There exist two types of cultural
interaction: one is inter-Caribbean culturation which refers to the
interaction between cultures from various parts of the Caribbean, and
intra-Caribbean culturation which refers to the interaction between
Caribbean and British cultures.79 The level of maintaining links with
the original culture influences cultural continuity. In case of second
generation migrants, we rather speak about cultural erosion since they
seem to be influenced more by British culture than by the West Indian
culture.
Caribbean Experience and Caryl Phillip’s Literary Relevance

Phillips´s first two novels: The Final Passage and A State of
Independence respectively, will be compared and contrasted and
eventually, parallels will be drawn between the protagonists´ experience
and Phillips´s own (mainly based on his essays). As for the genre and
theme of his first two novels, they can be covered by an umbrella term
“migrant writing”, more precisely they are travel discourse/travel
narrative. They are based on the displacement of Black people which
dates back to the history of slavery and colonialism. These displaced and
uprooted people are in a constant search for “home”, which oscillates
someplace between Africa, Caribbean and Britain. The journey that the
protagonists of the novels have to undergo is both a physical and a
spiritual journey. While in The Final Passage, Leila and Michael move
from an island in the Caribbean to Britain, Bertram Francis from A State
of Independence moves in the opposite direction – from Britain back to
St Kitts. What follows from Phillips´s early pieces of fiction is the fact
56
that he does not reduce his works to one setting only but he addresses
both the Caribbean and Britain.
Literary Relevance of The final passage and State of Independence

The title of the novel refers to the “Middle Passage” – the process of
bringing Africans as slaves from Africa to the Caribbean across the
Atlantic. In the novel Leila undergoes the passage from her island in the
Caribbean to Britain (London). Apart from the physical journey, the
passage may as well be regarded as that from innocence to experience.
Only when she has left her home country does Leila realize where her
real home is. The passage is final for Leila´s mother who moves to
England to undergo medical treatment, however, she dies there. On the
other hand, Leila contemplates returning to the island at the end of the
novel.
The novel is set on a nameless island which, however, is very probably

based on Phillips´s island of birth – St Kitts. Another setting is London
where the two protagonists move with their baby boy in order to start a
new and hopefully a better life. England is simply associated with great
hope and high expectations. The migration takes place roughly in the
1950s, during the period of great migration from the former British
colonies. It is Phillips´s family who came to Britain at this point.
Although the ending of the novel is ambiguous, it is very likely that
Leila would move back to St. Kitts with her little son and the second
baby on the way.
The novel tells the story of a nineteen-year old mulatto woman Leila
who wants to escape her aimless life and dysfunctional marriage by
moving to England with her husband and their little son Calvin.
Throughout the novel we learn about her motifs for leaving her native
island. She also wants to join there her mother who is seriously ill and
who came to Britain to undergo medical treatment. Leila imagines that
they would be able to live together happily and she would look after her
mother. Unfortunately, their stay in England is a big failure from the
beginning to the end. Leila´s mother is in hospital, they have nowhere to
stay, their relationship gets even worse and they end up living in a house
that is falling apart. Michael puts all the blame on Leila and he soon
abandons her. After her mother´s death and her separation from
Michael, Leila gives up all her hopes and illusions and she thinks of
going back to St Kitts where at least she felt secure and welcome.
The story is narrated in the third person, however, it is seen from Leila´s
perspective. Therefore Phillips paradoxically offers a female point of
view despite the fact that Leila can be considered a passive character
since she represents the submissive role of women in the Caribbean
57
society. Phillips largely focuses on individual experience by presenting

individual histories.
The novel has a clearly disjointed (cyclical) structure, mixing the past
with the present. This fragmented narrative should evoke the
displacement of its characters. “This disjointed narrative configuration
demonstrates the broken histories in the lives of the characters. More
than this, it created for the reader a sense of isolation, desperation and
loss as depicted in the novel.”82 It consists of five parts which do not
follow a chronological order. The first part called “The End” deals with
Leila´s preparation for the journey to England. The end obviously refers
to the end of her life on the island and at the same time a new beginning
in London. The second part “Home” goes back to Leila´s life on the
island and it makes us understand why she finally decides to leave this
life behind and start from the scratch elsewhere. We learn about her
relationship with Michael whom she marries despite her mother´s
warnings. They have a baby boy together, Calvin, whom Michael cares
little for. He is rather busy having affairs with other women. Combined
with her mother´s illness and her unexpected “trip” to England, Leila
sees her life as a complete failure and so she decides to move to England
to make a new start there. “The night before, Leila had decided that if
England was going to be a new start after the pain of last year, then she
must take as little as possible with her to remind her of the island.”83
England is a place of hope for many people from the Caribbean,
including Leila. Unfortunately, she does not realize the consequences
this decision can have for their future lives. Not that her relationship
with Michael does not improve in London, it even gets worse and he
blames her for any trouble that they encounter. The third part called
“England” is devoted to their stay in London. It makes the reader follow
them from their very first steps until the end. Shortly after their arrival,
they start looking for Leila´s mother and a place to stay. They find out
that she is in hospital and they spend a few nights at her landlord´s small
place. Discrimination and racial hostility become a common part of their
lives. They end up living in a rented house which is nearly falling apart
and so is their marriage. Michael stays in the house less and less until he
abandons Leila and Calvin for good. He does not support Leila even
during the worst time of her life – when her mother dies and her dreams
fall into pieces. The fourth part looks back at their journey to England
on board of a ship. It follows their arrival in England, their search for
Leila´s mother, for accommodation and a job for Michael. The final part
symbolically called “Winter” refers to the physical coolness of this
season, but also to the coolness with which they are treated in England.
Last but not least, it represents the coolness of their relationship. Leila
ends up deserted, defeated and disillusioned. Having lost her mother,
having been abandoned by her husband and being pregnant with a
second baby, this time she decides to get rid of all the possessions
58
reminding her of England and she thinks of going back to St. Kitts
where at least she feels secure and welcome. “She began to feed the fire
with the objects and garments that reminded her of her five months in
England.”84 Although the novel´s ending is ambiguous, one thing is
clear – Leila´s hopes and dreams of a new and better life turn sour. “At
the end of the novel Leila´s quest for love, a better life, and happiness
remains unfulfilled.”85.
It is exactly the issue of belonging which appears across Phillips´s

works. He portrays characters who, for one reason or another, do not
seem to belong and who feel the urge to migrate and look for a place
they could finally call “home”. Leila still has a chance to come back
home and settle there again, supported by her lifelong friends. However,
the situation is much worse for return migrants who have spent decades
in Britain and who eventually decide to move back to the Caribbean.
What is more, they often feel strangers back “home” and they end up
torn between two countries, belonging to neither of them. This is the
case of Bertram Francis, the protagonist of Phillips´s second novel A
State of Independence. Phillips is preoccupied with the search for
belonging and identity throughout his works of fiction as well as non-
fiction. He can draw inspiration from his own experience of migration:
he was born in St Kitts grew up in Britain and he currently keeps
moving between Britain, the Caribbean and the United States.
Conclusion
The aim of this module was to introduce and demonstrate the West
Indian experience in Britain by means of exploring migrant writing in
English written by Caribbean authors. Caryl Phillips and his selected
prose fiction have been selected as outstanding examples of this genre.
Since Phillips was born in the West Indies but brought up and educated
in Britain and since he currently travels between Britain, the USA and
the Caribbean, he is entitled to address the issues of identity and (not)
belonging. His characters are frequently displaced, isolated and torn
between the country of their birth, the host country (Britain in this case)
and the homeland of their ancestors (Africa). Like Phillips himself, they
feel the urge to move from one place to another to find a place where
they could finally settle and lead a peaceful and meaningful life.
Although Phillips has achieved a major literary success, the protagonists
of his first two novels keep wandering and they never really achieve
anything. He never provides a ready-made conclusion since his novels
often end in an ambiguous way.
Significantly, a historical, sociological and demographic perspective of

the phenomenon of West Indian migration to Britain was explored. We
need to understand when, how and for what reason West Indian had
started coming in large numbers in Britain since 1948. The arrival of
59
Windrush triggered a massive influx of migrants which continued up to

the early 1960s when the anti-immigrant policy was launched. The
chapter further follows the lives of these migrants in a new country they
considered so long to be a sort of their “mother country”. They had
come with high expectations of which eventually stayed only shattered
illusions. Having had to face systematic discrimination in all fields of
life, their self-confidence was undermined and their identity insecure. As
a result, most migrants put the hope into their return, however, many of
them simply could not afford it. West Indian migrants often ended up
doing poorly-paid and unskilled jobs and living in terrible housing
conditions. The situation seems to be slowly improving these days,
nevertheless all those years of racial violence and terror cannot be easily
forgotten.
Summary
The entire discourse here is already devoted to the literary portrayal of
West Indian migrant experience. Caribbean historical background,
experiences and writings have been voraciously explored in this module.
As a related and relevance representative of this movement, we have
chosen Caryl Phillips, a young and promising British writer of West
Indian origin. Before familiarising the reader with this writer and his
early works in particular, Anglophone Caribbean literature has been
introduced. However, if we want to provide a definition of Caribbean
literature in general, we discover it is a complicated matter. We come
across a number of various criteria which could be considered such as
the language of the work, the origin of the author, subject matter, etc. It
is therefore complicated to decide which author still belongs and which
one does not. A brief overview of the Caribbean literature in English has
been included as well. Phillips´s biography can facilitate our
understanding of his works since he often includes details of his own
life. It is also advised that his novels be read together with his essays (or
other non-fiction works). Phillips has undoubtedly achieved a major
success with his works due to his diligence, talent, originality and his
ability of empathy.

1. Discuss identity, self and belongingness as a critical issue that
concerns Caribbean literary tradition.
2. What forms the subject matter of the first and second Caribbean
writers and their common themes in Caribbean literature?
3. From the origin of Caribbean literature and its evolution in the

20th century, discuss some of the prominent scholars that are
indispensable literary representatives of that era.
60
4. Discuss the literary relevance and sterling contribution of Caryl’s

Final Passage and State of Independence in Caribbean literature.

Arana,Victoria R., and Lauri Ramey.(2004).Black British Writing. New
York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Birbalsingh, Frank.(1996).Frontiers of Caribbean Literature in English.

London: McMillan Education Ltd.
Byron,Margaret, and Stephanie Condon. “A Comparative Study of

Caribbean Return Migration from Britain and France: Towards a
Context-Dependent Explanation.” Transactions of the Institute of
British Geographers 21 (1996): 91-104. Accessed March 2, 2013.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/622927.
Cockin,Katharine, and Jago Morrison (2009). The Post-War British

Literature Handbook. London: Bloomsbury 3PL.
Dabydeen, David. (1998).A Reader´s Guide to West Indian and Black

British Literature. London: Hansib Publishing.
Donnell, Alison. (2005).Twentieth Century Caribbean Literature.

London: Routledge.
Hope, Elizabeth Thomas. (2008). Freedom and Constraint in Caribbean
Migration and Diaspora. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers.
James, Louis. (1986).”The Final Passage.” Wasafiri 4: 32-33.

James,Winston, and Clive Harris. (1993). Inside Babylon: The
Caribbean Diaspora in Britain.
London: Verso.
Kato, Tsunehiko. “Caryl Phillips as a Black British Writer: the

Experience of Caribbean
Immigrants After World War II.” Ritsumeikan Annual Review of
International Studies (2002): 121-132. Accessed March 2, 2013.
Phillips, Caryl.(2004) The Final Passage. Great Britain: Vintage.

Phillips, Caryl.(1986) A State of Independence. New York: Vintage
International.
Procter, James (2000). Writing Black Britain 1948-1998: An
Interdisciplinary Anthology.
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Walters, Erika J. (2009). Paradise Revealed: Readings in Caribbean

Literature. Maine: Maine Humanities Council Press.
61
MODULE 4: COMPARATIVE BLACK LITERATURE AND

POST- COLONIALISM: PILLARS, PERIODS AND
THEMES
INTRODUCTION
This module introduces the theoretical framework that is been
prominently used in African-American and Caribbean literary discourse.
This segment also sees it consequential to get abreast with the
mainstream of post-colonial theory.
Postcolonial Literary theory is a literary interpretation of post-

colonialism that is, a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and
societies. It is a literary approach that gives a kind of psychological
relief to the people (the colonized) for whom it was born. Post-colonial
literary theory aims at not only to expose the oddities of colonialism but
to reveal and discuss what independent nations especially the African
and Caribbean make of themselves even after the demise of colonialism.
Objectives
At the end of this module, you should be able to understand the
following:
1. It aims is to investigate how African-American and Caribbean

literary tradition strategically maps, re-maps, and then textualizes
the operations of power relations to challenge the workings of
colonization and to assess the relationship between authenticity
and selfhood.
2. To search through the power of the imagination, a Caribbean
narrative of hitherto silenced past challenges the Western
articulation and what role it plays, if any, in the recovery of a
Caribbean voice and sense of authentic self-hood.
3. To re-examine the power of postcolonial language, seen from the
perspective of an operation of discourse, as a tool of enslavement,
of liberation and of transformation.
4. To ascertain how the use of cross-rhythms, of interweaving of
narratives and discourses, of crossing of borders at the heart of
the Anglophone Caribbean novel challenges an essentialist,
traditional vision of reality and identity. How this enables a
transcultural perspective on identity to be envisioned.
Main Content
Whenever we hear the names: Chinua Achebe, Homi Bhabha, Ngugi wa
Thiong’o, Wole Soyinka, Gayatri Spivak, Franz Fanon, Buchi Emecheta
… etc, we directly think of postcolonial literature. Mark Stein, in his
book, Black British Literatures: Novels of Transformation, said: ―Post-
colonial literatures can be defined as those Europhone literatures that
62
have arisen in the wake of European colonialism (Stein 2004: 201). In

the Oxford dictionary of literary terms, we find this definition:
―postcolonial literature, a category devised to replace and expand
upon what was once called Commonwealth Literature. As a label, it
thus covers a very wide range of writings from countries that were
once colonies or dependencies of the European powers. (Oxford
Dictionary). Another distinct definition is that of Marie Rose
Napierkowski who said that “postcolonial literature seeks to describe
the interactions between European nations and the peoples they
colonized.
However, the controversies with these definitions is that the process of

colonization in itself is not the core of postcolonial studies, and that
many postcolonial works were written during colonization so it would
not be correct to say that it is the set of works written after the
independence of these countries. Besides, most of the independent
countries are still dependent on their former colonizers in a way or
another. Another fact is that saying that postcolonial writers were
influenced by western studies is not exactly how these writers wanted to
be remembered.
History has become a crucial issue in literature thanks to postcolonial

literature, and we can see that through its definition. Cultural and
ideological implications of a literary text also have become important
since the emergence of postcolonial studies. The postcolonial text serves
as a vehicle to transmit the identity and national interest of a society.
Besides, postcolonial literature attempts to get rid of the fact that it has
no history or literature, a quality which was attributed to it by many
imperial texts. These facts make the themes in postcolonial literatures
widely varying: place and displacement, language, hybridity, identity,
colonialism, resistance … etc.
With time, scholars have tried to refine the definition of postcolonial

literature to make it more plausible, such as the following:
Postcolonial literature (or Post-colonial literature,
sometimes called New English literature(s)), is a
body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse
of colonization. Post-colonial literature often
involves writings that deal with issues of de-
colonization or the political and cultural
independence of people formerly subjugated to
colonial rule. It is also a literary critique to texts
that carry racist or colonial undertones. Postcolonial
literature, finally in its most recent form, also
attempts to critique the contemporary postcolonial
discourse that has been shaped over recent times. It
63
attempts to re-read this very emergence of

postcolonialism and its literary expression itself.
(Online Encyclopedia)
Other scholars say that the postcolonial writers subvert the colonial
discourse by using specific techniques such as telling a known story
from the view of an oppressed character in it. Also, it is generally
recognized that the main characters in postcolonial literature are always
struggling to construct their identity feeling trapped between their native
culture and the newly hybridized dominant culture.
In the MA English-Literature essays, they say that postcolonial literature

represents any writings after independence which tackle one of these
subjects: the new cultural identity of the colonized (that is to deal with
the occurring cultural and social changes within postcolonial societies),
the notion of independence in itself (whether these postcolonial societies
are really fully independent or not), and the issue of marginalization and
alienation ( within the western society, or their own postcolonial
society). So, no matters how variant are the ways scholars perceive
postcolonial literature, they always get close around the same
perspectives.
In The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature, Drabble and
Stringer define postcolonial literature as follows: ―post-colonial
literature consists of a body of writing emanating from Europe‘s
former colonies which addresses questions of history, identity,
ethnicity, gender and language (Drabble and Stringer, 2003), they add
that looking for a national political and cultural awakening, postcolonial
literatures relied on popular resistance to abolish colonial rule, in a way
to unveil the truth that there is no such a thing as a passive native.
Another important definition is that of Ashcroft et al in The Empire
Writes Back, who think that, semantically speaking, the term
postcolonial literature is used to describe the literatures interested in the
national culture after independence. To point at national literature
people used to say “modern Canadian writing” or “recent west Indian
literature”.
Consequently, Postcolonial, as a term, suggests resistance to “colonial”

power and its discourses that continues to shape various cultures,
including those whose revolutions have overthrown formal ties to their
colonial rulers. Postcolonial theory, therefore, focuses on subverting the
colonizer’s discourse that attempts to distort the experience and realities,
and inscribe inferiority on the colonized people in order to exercise total
control. It is also concerned with the production of literature by
colonized peoples that articulates their identity and reclaims their past in
the face of that past's inevitable otherness. The task of a postcolonial
64
theorist is to insert the often ‘absent’ colonized subject into the dominant
discourse in a way that it resists/subverts the authority of the colonizer.
Post-colonialism emerges as a result of colonialism. It refers to the
discourse that deals with “the effects of colonization on culture and
societies” (Ashcroft, et al., 2007: 168). It concerns with the culture after
the period of colonialism until the present days or, in other words, the
post-independence period. During or precisely after the colonial period,
the colonizer’s thoughts, particularly Western thoughts, have dominated
world’s culture and marginalized the colonized culture (Selden and
Widdowson, 1993: 189). The colonizer’s culture is seen as the higher
and superior one, above the colonized culture that is seen as the ‘Other’.
Post-colonialism then gives another perception in seeing the relation
between the colonizer and the colonized. It questions the validity of the
assumptions that the colonizer’s culture is better than the colonized
culture. Since there are many people in many countries in the world that
had experienced colonialism, post-colonialism provides a crucial way in
expressing the realities of the colonized people.
Postcolonial literature comes from the broadest term post colonialism

which deals basically with the period of colonialism and its aftermath.
The editors of The Empire Writes Back state that postcolonial literature
and post colonialism in general, also deal with the resultant of
colonialism which is cross -cultural discourse and its effect on the
literature produced in the postcolonial world. (2) That’s why Post
colonialism appeared as a literary theory to study literatures of the
formerly colonized nations, mainly those colonized by European powers
such as Britain. It takes also into consideration the literature of colonial
writers who make of the portrayal of colonized citizens their subject
matter.
In addition, post colonialism depicts the identity of the colonized

society; it deals with the huge challenge of building a national identity
following a harmful experience and how writers talk about and celebrate
that identity, often reclaiming it from, and maintaining strong
connections with the colonizer. They do it through producing a literature
that debates cultural identity and criticizes the change that occurred
during colonization and in the present state of the postcolonial societies.
Postcolonial literature deals with the cultural change that occurred in the
postcolonial societies and led to a cross-cultural state in literature and
society.
However, this focus on the quest for identity has been widely criticized.
Some scholars claim that this has become an obsession for postcolonial
writers with this issue while others argue that identity is an important
aspect of understanding the self and in identifying with society and the
rest of the world. It is obvious that characters and mainly protagonists in
65
postcolonial novels are often pictured as struggling to figure out who

they are, and attempting to find their place in between the old native
world and the imperial world. These literary works written by
postcolonial literary authors like: Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiongo,
Alice Walker, Jamaica Kincaid, Audre Lorde, George Lamming, just to
mention but a few, depict the crucial question for postcolonial writers
and their people about the nature of the newly emerging identity. They
arise a broader and more complicated question about where do they fit
in this new world order.
This quest for identity in the postcolonial literature has been revolving
around the key features that forge and build an identity. These key
features overlap; that is, when tackling one of them we find ourselves
unconsciously talking about the other. Some of these key features
consist of the notions of migration, hybridity, multiculturality and
otherness. The African-American and Caribbean literature is in fact a
very striking example of postcolonial literature since it explores the
struggle for the quest of identity.
Themes of Post-colonial literature

Barry (1995: 193) states that there are four themes of postcolonial
literature. The first characteristic is “an awareness of representations of
the non-European as exotic or immoral ‘Other’, which is still related to
Fanon’s idea of reclaiming one’s own past or pre-colonial era and thus
rejecting the modern or the colonial era. Here, post-colonial writers
create a pre-colonial version of their nation without referring to the
colonial era which has been tainted with colonial knowledge.
The second is the concern with colonial language. Since it is originally

the colonizer’s language, postcolonial writers feel that the language
belongs to somebody else. They also feel that the language should not be
moved around, changed, or modified without permission. Therefore,
using it will involve an agreement in colonial structures.
The third is the recognition of an identity as double or hybrid. It

concerns with identity issues. Post-colonial writers often have double
identity, one identity as the colonizer and the other as the colonized, and
it is reflected in their writings. As post-colonial literary criticism is
aware of the representation of other cultures in literature, it can
recognize the presence of such double identity.
The last is the emphasis on ‘cross-cultural’ interactions, as postcolonial

writers seem to make a transition from the European models into
African or Asian forms. The transition has three phases (Barry, 1995:
195). The first is ‘adopt’ phase, when the writers adopt the European
form as it stands because it is assumed as universally valid.
66
The second is ‘adapt’ phase, when the writers adapt European form to
African or Asian matters. The last is ‘adept’ phase, when the writers
remake the form with its own characteristics, without reference to
European form.
The main subject matter in the earlier phase of post-colonial criticism

was about the West’s perception towards the East. At the beginning,
post-colonial criticism tried to criticize the limitations and biases which
are presented in the West’s perception only. However, in the latter
phase, post-colonial criticism is also concerned with the explorations of
the post-colonial societies and celebrates diversity, hybridity, and
difference. Therefore, it is not always about the ‘rivalry’ between the
colonizer and the colonized.
However, for Ashcroft et al, the term postcolonial literature is used to

denote all literature covering the culture influenced by imperialism from
the beginning of colonization till now. On another hand, they hesitate to
place the literature of the United States under this category, and they
argue that it is due to its relationship to a colonial centre (Britain) that it
could be seen as postcolonial.
What is important is that these literatures share the characteristic ―that

they emerged in their present form out of the experience of
colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension
with the imperial power, and by emphasizing their differences from
the assumptions of the imperial centre (Ashcroft et al 2002: 2) and this
is the quality which emphasizes their postcoloniality.
According to The Postcolonial Studies Reader, postcolonial literature

faces a great dilemma which is replacing „English literature” by “world
literature” through the process of changing “Anglo-centric
assumptions”. For Ania Loomba, books written on postcolonial
literatures concern themselves only with ―literatures written in
English, or widely available in translation, or those that have made the
best-seller lists in Europe and the United States (Loomba 1998: 93), a
fact that has to be reconsidered. In the Encyclopedia of Literature and
Criticism, Coyle et al say that postcolonial literature is passive and
subjugated in the view of Anglo-European studies, but in their own view
this literature is neither passive nor isolated, and we cannot account for
it appropriately without taking into consideration its textual relations.
Postcolonial literature went through phases matching the development
of the national uprising and strong desire to split from the metropolitan
centre. During colonization writings were produced in the colonizers‟
language by ―a literate elite whose primary identification is with the
colonizing power (Ashcroft et al 2002: 5). These texts were primarily
produced by writers who represent the colonizing centre: settlers,
67
travelers, soldiers … etc. These writings, according to Ashcroft et al,

cannot be classified under the category of indigenous culture or native
culture, despite the fact that they write about the colonized countries,
they seem to privilege the colonizing centre. And these literatures’
loyalty to imperialism is hidden under their claimed objectivity which
hides the imperial discourse where they were born.
After that period, the “natives” and the “outcasts” produced a literature
which was given license only by the empire. Like the ninetieth century
literature produced by the “English educated upper class” and the
“African missionary literature”. Such a category of writers felt they were
advantaged because they had at hand the colonizer’s language and
education.
These literatures did deal with subjects like ―the brutality of the
convict system […] the historical potency of the supplanted and
denigrated native cultures […] or the existence of a rich cultural
heritage older and more extensive than that of Europe (Ashcroft et al
2002: 6) but they could not fully develop the theme of subversion or
explore their anti-colonial orientation. These literatures were produced
under colonial control which granted permission concerning what is
appropriate or not, and concerning the distribution of the work, Ashcroft
et al add to this: ―texts of this kind come into being within the
constraints of a discourse and the institutional practice of a patronage
system which limits and undercuts their assertion of a different
perspective (Ashcroft et al 2002: 6). The literature produced by those
who wanted to end these restrictions and use their writings for different
and more efficient objectives appear in what Ashcroft et al call “modern
post-colonial literatures”.
Besides the issues of language, hegemony and what have been discussed
before, postcolonial literature discusses the issue of place and
displacement in which, as Ashcroft et al think, ―the special post-
colonial crisis of identity comes into being; the concern with the
development or recovery of an effective identifying relationship
between self and place (Ashcroft et al 2002: 8). So, and as Lazarus
postulates, to say that a writer or a piece of writing is postcolonial was to
date it back to a certain moment or to relate it to a specific period in
time, or to relate it to a certain community or identity, but with time, this
scope has broadened and the reference has changed, and this could be
seen in its relation with the world.
On the relationship of postcolonial literature with the western literary

canon, John Marx in The Cambridge Companion to Postcolonial
Literary Studies says that he identifies three sorts of relationships but he
deals only with two of them which he thinks are familiar to everybody
68
else. The first one is that postcolonial literature repudiates the canon.
According to him, the universal audience has become experienced and
well trained in considering the colonized literature as the “antithesis” of
the literature of the canon and as an effective way to restore the
traditional literature and culture that the colonizer tried to erase.
The second point is that postcolonial literature is trying to make a

revision of texts and concepts belonging to the canon. And here Marx
explains that the audience considers that postcolonial literatures criticize
Western literatures by using many techniques like rewriting some
works, or appropriating some genres … etc. He adds: ―the fact that a
writer‘s capacity to represent a place and its people is widely
considered relevant to determining canonicity suggests how
dramatically postcolonial literature has changed what we mean when
we say ―the canon (Lazarus 2004: 85)
Postcolonial Literary Theory

Postcolonial Literary theory is a literary interpretation of post-
colonialism that is, a study of the effects of colonialism on cultures and
societies. It is a literary approach that gives a kind of psychological
relief to the people (the colonized) for whom it is conceived. Post-
colonial literary theory aims at not only to exposing the oddities of
colonialism but to reveal and discuss what independent nations
especially the African-American and Caribbean people make of
themselves even after the demise of colonialism.
Consequently, Postcoloniality, as a concept, suggests resistance to

“colonial” power and its discourses that continue to shape various
cultures, including those whose revolutions have overthrown formal ties
to their colonial rulers. Postcolonial theory, therefore, focuses on
subverting the colonizer’s discourse that attempts to distort the
experience and realities of the colonized, and inscribe inferiority on the
colonized people in order to exercise a literature of total control. It is
also concerned with the production of literature by colonized peoples
that articulates their identity and reclaims their past in the face of that
past's reduction to otherness. The task of a postcolonial theorist or critic
is to insert the often ‘absent’ colonized subject into the dominant
discourse in a way that it resists and subverts the authority of the
colonizer.
Chinua Achebe, Edward Said, Helen Tiffin ,Frantz Fanon and Homi
K. Bhabha to mention but a few, have popularized the theory in the later
years. Chinua Achebe a pulsating postcolonial voice has pointed out the
abysmal nature of colonialism which needs to be abhorred with an
overwhelming passion and prejudice if the African truly recognize the
gravity of the evil associated with colonialism and its history. Achebe in
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his prominent and outstanding article “The Novelist as a Teacher”

unequivocally asserts that;
Postcolonialism is born at the very first
moment of colonial contact.It is the speech
of oppositionality which colonialism brings
into being.The postcolonial literature shows
the upshot of colonialism and reveals the
nostalgic self of the colonized. For a
colonized is bound to put up with the
different disconcerting situations. He has to
have high resistance and fortitude against
lots of uncalled entrapment and enslavement.
(137)
In approaching the concern of postcolonial literary theory, Edward Said

depicts that “postcolonial literature knocks on the door of the colonized
intending to commune with them. For it aims at entering the inner
sanctum and bringing into picture their cries of loss and their
proclamation of birth” (25).
Speaking further on the concept of postcolonial literature, Helen Tiffin

justifies that “postcolonial literary theory indicates a new way of
thinking in which cultural, intellectual, economic or political processes
are seen to work together in the formation, perpetuation and dismantling
colonialism”(13).
Elucidating further on the issue of postcolonial literary theory, Frantz

Fanon presents that “through the postcolonial discourse, a hysterical
violence and radical resistance is captured especially in the Caribbean
people where violence is understood as an attack on the callous culture,
ideas, and value systems of the colonial people” (10).
Emphasizing more pertinently on the concept of postcolonialism, Homi

K. Bhabha denotes that “postcolonial literary theory analyses itself with
the metaphysical, ethical, and political concerns of the colonial people
and the quest for identity concerns itself with the study of the
colonization which began as early as the Renaissance and involves
winning back and reconstituting the native cultures” (17).
Among the Caribbean literary artists, Kincaid’s novels and essays have
played crucial roles in the growth of postcolonial literary theory and
indigenous knowledge inclinations.
The ancestry of postcolonial criticism and theory can be traced to Frantz

Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, both
published in French in 1952, and 1961 respectively. Fanon was a
70
Martinique–born black psychiatrist and anti-colonialist intellectual who

wrote from the perspective of a colonial subject in the thick of
decolonization, addresses other colonial subjects. He places the cultural
aspect of colonial and postcolonial history at the centre of his
discussion. Various anti-colonial theories have influenced the oppressed
peoples of the world; but The Wretched of the Earth has articulated
more effectively, profoundly and lastingly than any other anti-colonial
work on behalf of and in service to the extensive life of the colonized.
In Bhabha’s own terms: ‘colonial discourse produces the colonized as a

social reality which is at once an ‘other’ and yet entirely knowable and
visible (101)’. According to Bhabha, ‘hybridity’ is a kind of negotiation
between the colonizer and the colonized.
He seems to stress the idea that both the colonizer and the colonized are
interdependent, both politically and culturally. His concept of
‘otherness’ is derived from Lacan’s ‘Other’ and Fanon’s idea of ‘Other’
as binary opposition between White and Black.
Postcolonial studies often involve a prolonged engagement with issues

such as terrain, people and their relationships, wealth, power and its
resistance, historical continuity and change, representation and culture,
knowledge and its construction. Though post colonialism is ‘the
discourse of the colonized’ as described by Ashcroft, it has the potential
to assemble new communities with political and ethical commitment to
challenging and questioning the practices of domination and
subjugation, the whole idea of cultural hegemony. Theories of colonial
discourses play a very influential role in the development of post
colonialism. They explore how representations and modes of perception
are used as fundamental weapons of colonial power to keep the
colonized subservient to them. Colonialism creates the notion in the
mind of the colonized that it is their birth right to rule over other peoples
and there is a deliberate process of colonizing the mind. They do it by
persuading the colonized to accept and internalize its logic and speak its
language.
It is obviously established that postcolonial literary theory evolved as a

literary interpretation of the growing postcolonial theorization of the late
60’s and 70’s. Literary texts were therefore analyzed based on ethno-
historical tools for deciphering the dialects of cultural forms and politics
of power, colonialism and apartheid.
In postcolonial theory we find a focus on how hybrids are conceived.

Hybridization is seen in a binary way, the mixing of races and the
alienation of some races to point at ―the Victorian extreme right
which regarded different races as different species […] according to
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Robert Young (Loomba 1998: 173) and this also gives ground to
criticism arguing that the notion of “hybridity” underestimates ―the
clash between the colonizer and the colonized and therefore
misrepresent the dynamics of anti-colonial struggle (Loomba 1998:
181). And again she gives the example of nationalist movements like
“negritude” which are alienated and cannot conform to such a notion as
hybridity. Another criticism to this theory is that it has a pessimistic tone
since it is, as the writer says, the child of postmodernism.
On the importance of using postcolonial theory, Lang at, A. K. in the

article presented to the Australian Association for Research in Education
(AARE) in 2005, relying on the views of many scholars like Gandhi,
summarizes it into the following points: rethinking “self”,
deconstructing the discourse of the “regimes of othering”, reconstructing
“historical self-invention”, and recreating or deleting the “painful
memories of the colonial era” and its consequences after independence
like the imperial linguistic, literary and cultural domination.
In the section entitled Decolonizing Culture in The Postcolonial Studies

Reader, Katrak says that some critics try to use what he calls
“fashionable theoretical models” for two reasons: the first one is to
substantiate postcolonial literatures and to emphasize their worthiness
by using “complicated Eurocentric models, and the second one is , as
Katrak states, ―to succumb to the lure of engaging in a hegemonic
discourse of Western theory given that it is difficult‘ or challenging,‘
often for the sole purpose of demonstrating its shortcomings for an
interpretation of postcolonial texts. (Ashcroft et al 1995: 256).
In addition to that, Martin Denyer, a visiting lecturer in visual culture at

Middlesex University, in his essay entitled What and Where is
Postcolonial Theory?, says that it examines the European domination of
non-European peoples, lands, and cultures. However, it examines
essentially the immanent views implemented by imperial colonization
about Europe being superior to the countries it has once colonized, and
the damages it has caused to their self-identity. He adds that the issues
of ethnicity, hybridity, and displacement … etc constitute only three
topics in postcolonial theory which lead to discuss the vast topic of the
diversity of cultural identity. So, this makes of national identity a main
issue in postcolonial theory.
It is known that this theory has emerged with the publication of Edward
Said’s Orientalism in 1978, which in fact, according to Leela Gandhi,
developed in a quite poststructuralist environment incarnated by the
figures of Derrida and Foucault. She argues that Said’s ideas relied
essentially on the work of Foucault, and that Spivak’s work dealt with
―the task of dialogue and negotiation with and between Derrida and
72
Foucault (Gandhi 1998: 26-27). So, it is due to poststructuralism and

postmodernism, and their relation to Marxism that postcolonial theory
exists. She blames this theory for its limited constituency and its
excessive focus on politics rather than theory.
Gandhi adds to this that its first phase is Orientalism. Postcolonial

theory is concerned with defending the “marginalized other” living
within “repressive structures” of domination. It is also concerned with
reversing the existing order of gender, culture, and race. In a way or
another, Gandhi tries to say that postcolonial theory is an extension to
western theory. In the section entitled The Limits of Postcolonial Theory
she says: ―postcolonial theory is situated somewhere in the interstices
between Marxism and postmodernism/poststructuralism (Gandhi 1998:
167).
Professor John Lye, in his essay Some Issues in Postcolonial Theory,

said that postcolonial theory depends mostly on the notion of otherness
and resistance. He says: ―Post-colonial theory deals with the reading
and writing of literature written in previously or currently colonized
countries, or literature written in colonizing countries which deals
with colonization or colonized peoples. The main concerns of this
theory are how the literature produced by the colonizers changes the
reality of the colonized and immortalizes the sense of inferiority within
them; and how the literature of the colonized tries to express their
identity and tries to regain their lost past exterminated by the new past
which put them in the column of “otherness”. If we look for the
definition of postcolonial theory in any encyclopedia, we would find this
definition: ―Post-colonialism (postcolonial theory, post-colonial
theory) is a specifically post-modern intellectual discourse that
consists of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of
colonialism. (WIKIPEDIA)
Postcolonial theory tries to answer questions about the notions of

language, home, identity, hybridity and so on, on the basis that the
colonizer wants to achieve his control and effect on those notions
through the process of “knowing” the other, as Ashcroft says in The
Postcolonial Studies Reader: “to name the world is to “understand” it, to
know it and to have control over it” (Ashcroft et al 1995: 283). And as
David Washburn in his essay thinks that ―knowledge is power, and
words, whether written or spoken, are the medium of exchange, using
words incurs responsibility.
Ashcroft et al also define postcolonial theory as a discussion of ―

migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference,
race, gender, place, and responses to the influential master discourses
of imperial Europe […] and the fundamental experiences of speaking
73
and writing by which all these come into being (Ashcroft et al 1995: 2).
Washburn says that the critical nature of postcolonial theory brings
about the disturbance of western thought, and thus giving room to the
marginalized people to make their voices heard and find alternatives to
the dominant voices.
Furthermore, Colin Wright in one of his essays said that Terry Eagleton
in one of his articles has accused postcolonial theory of: obscurantism,
narcissism, solipsism, political disorientation, and complicity with
American Cultural imperialism. Many postcolonial theorists think that
the colonizer still exercises control over the colonized even after
independence, so, as Cotey Binns points out: “by exposing a culture’s
colonial history, postcolonial theory empowers a society with the ability
to value itself”. Postcolonial theory emerged from the writings of
counter-colonial resistance writers such as Fanon, Said and Spivak. As
stated in the Oxford dictionary of literary terms:
Postcolonial theory considers vexed cultural‐political questions of

national and ethnic identity, otherness, race, imperialism, and
language, during and after the colonial periods. It draws upon post‐
structuralist theories such as those of deconstruction in order to
unravel the complex relations between imperial centre and colonial
periphery, often in ways that have been criticized for being excessively
abstruse. (Oxford Dictionary)
As mentioned in The Empire Writes Back, the very idea of a

postcolonial theory comes out of the incapacity of the existing European
theory to handle the complexity and cultural diversity of postcolonial
writings. According to it, the political and cultural monocentrism of the
colonizer emerged as a consequence of the “representation” system of
Europe. So, the notion of expansion grew up in Europe which caused a
cultural subservience. The reaction to this was the development of what
Ashcroft et al call “identifiable indigenous theories” which was the
cause of a growing national consciousness.
Critical Approaches to Postcolonial Texts

In the field of critical literature, according to Figueira, there is no clear
agreement among scholars on how to approach postcolonial texts or
what makes the canon of postcolonial criticism. She claims that with the
definitions of postcolonial criticism which we have at hands, we can
understand the reason behind this disagreement. For this reason, we
shall deal with a sample of these definitions to make the latter idea clear.
Ashcroft et al define it as follows: ―postcolonial criticism ―covers all
the cultures affected by the imperial process from the moment of
colonization to the present day (cited by Figueira 2008: 31); Mishra and
Hodge say that postcolonial criticism “foregrounds a politics of
74
opposition and struggle, and problematizes the key relationship

between centre and periphery (cited by Figueira 2008: 31).
The current definitions are given by, as Figueira mentions, anthologies

or interpreters to key theorists who never question the attitudes that lead
to this refusal to define postcolonial criticism in any way. This
ambiguity, she thinks, lies in the relation of postcolonialism to
postmodernism and their compatibility, especially in matters like
rejecting fixed meanings and stable identities.
Harrington presumes that postcolonial criticism emerges from the

assumption to anthropological studies of art. It identifies the irrelevance
of indigenous cultures with western aesthetics. He adds that, it deals
with the ethnocentric view of other cultures by western discourses and
their relationship, and with the exclusionary cultural discourses. Kamada
cited what Young observed that ―since Sartre, Fanon and Memmi,
postcolonial criticism has constructed two antithetical groups, the
colonizer and the colonized, self and Other … a Manichean division
threatens to reproduce the static, essentialist categories it seeks to
undo (Kamada 2010: 128).
Dirlik says that the field of postcolonial criticism has evolved during
this last decade. He says that this kind of criticism has evolved bearing
the traits of the early postcolonial discourse, putting the emphasis again
on the ethnocentricity of the colonial experience, but this criticism left
early discourse behind by questioning the very meaning of colonization.
Ross Murfin and Supryia M. Ray, on the origins of the postcolonial
criticism said:
Postcolonial criticism has been influenced by
Marxist thought, by the work of Michel Foucault
[…], and by deconstruction, which has challenged
not only hierarchical, binary oppositions such as
West/East and North/South but also the notions of
superiority associated with the first term of each
opposition. (Bedford Books: 1998)
The fact that the majority of postcolonial intellectuals belong to the

category of English studies, makes of postcolonial criticism of a
worldwide interest, since it enhances the universal audience to read in
translation. For postcolonial critics, their task is to clarify, unveil, and
deconstruct the ―themes of citizenship and the modern state (Figueira
2008: 33). She adds that if we study the literature which makes the
concern of postcolonial criticism, we would find to which extent the
ideological attitudes ―reifying critical jargon and strategies of self-
representation (Figueira 2008: 38) have restricted the intellectual
severity and development of that study or analysis. For her, the task of a
75
postcolonial critic is to reveal the concept of violence exercised by

western art and history over subaltern people. She adds that,
postcolonial criticism together with socialist and feminist criticisms hold
the position about the “mutually reinforcing significance of class,
gender and ethnicity as dimensions of hegemony and domination
(Figueira 2008: 52).
Dirlik, on contemporary postcolonial criticism, said that it repudiates the

Third-World division implemented by developmental meta-narratives. It
also favors the marginalized figures of the excluded societies. Dirlik
adds that:
Postcolonial criticism has moved past ―Manichean divisions
between the colonizer and the colonized, […], to stress ―borderlands
conditions, where the domination of one by the other yields before
boundary crossings, hybridities, mutual appropriations, and […] the
everyday resistance of the colonized to the colonizer. (Dirlik 2002: 433)
Fegueira criticized postcolonial criticism by saying that it removes the

postcolonial people from their historical and class identification, and
thus perpetuates structural racism. While Parekh and Jangne use what
Barber proclaims, to criticize postcolonial criticism, that it consigns
“indigenous language expression to the background, paradoxically by
an inflation of its role as source and resource to the Anglophone
written tradition (Parekh and Jangne 1998: 4) thus explores the insecure
area of exaggerating and at the same time simplifying the impact of the
domination of European languages , and transforming the colonizer to a
static “monolith” and the colonized to homogenous “token”.
On this aspect, Dirlik says that postcolonial criticism dehistorizes

colonialism, a fact that blurs the relationship between the period of
colonization and its aftermath which has been the reason for the
emergence of the postcolonial discourse in the first place. However, he
comes back to the reason behind the spread of postcolonial criticism and
says:
Contemporary postcolonial criticism derives much

of its force and plausibility from radical changes in
the world situation, changes that are in part
consequences of decolonization, and also of
transformations in capitalism provoked by
anticolonial struggles of the past (Dirlik 2002: 439)
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Aesthetics of Identity in Post-Colonial Literature

Postcolonial Identity is a central theme to postcolonial literature since it
is the result of the process of colonialism; a thing that justifies all the
debates and controversies that underlie this notion and which have been
dealt with earlier. This identity is forged by the colonial history and the
post-colonial predicament a thing that led to the emergence of cultural
and spatial elements that affected the postcolonial identity and
postcolonial writers. As Albert.J Paolini postulated in Navigating
Modernity: ―If postcolonialism forms part of a struggle over
discursive power in the constitution of identity, then history, in
particular colonial history, also pay a significant part. (Paolini 1999:
51)
In fact, one of the main reasons that pushed colonized peoples to rebel
against colonial powers is the feeling that they begun loosing the
components that forge their identity. As Paolini reports Stephen Slemon
―to continue the resistance to (neo)colonialism through a
deconstructive reading of its rhetoric and to achieve and reinscribe
those post-colonial traditions… as principles of cultural identity and
survival. (Paolini 1999: 64). He carries on postulating that this
resistance to colonization and this search for a distinct independent
identity constitute some of the basic elements of post -colonialism. So
post -colonialism is a notion that came to stress the role of postcolonial
peoples in the world and to bring to life their voices as distinct from
their colonizers’ voice. It came to highlight the postcolonial identity as
different from the colonial one. For this, Paolini says the postcolonial
“Other” comes back in a newly formed identity that is far away from
western identity, he reports Helen Tiffin’s words that:
Postcolonial writers ―rehabilitate the self against European
appropriation. In fracturing imposed European master narratives and
perspectives, Postcolonialism replaces them with an ―alternative
vision. This is particularly the case for ―indigenous peoples (India,
Africa) who are able ―to challenge European perspectives with their
own metaphysical systems. (Paolini 1999: 79)
This postcolonial identity can be defined through various elements that

constitute it; for instance Otherness which is a key concept in defining
the postcolonial identity as referring to how colonial and postcolonial
subjects see each other, or more accurately how the West sees the rest
and vice versa; and also how postcolonial subjects perceive themselves
within their own societies. For, as Couze Venn said: ―identity is an
entity that emerges in relation to another or others; it is a plural self…
(Couze 2006: 2)
Not only Otherness is a key feature that defines postcolonial identity,

there is also the issue of language and place. John McLeod reported
77
Bhabha’s words talking about place and its effect on postcolonial

identity when saying that: ―we find ourselves in the moment of transit
where space and time cross to produce complex figures of difference
and identity (McLeod 2000: 217). The issue of language is widely dealt
with since it is a really controversial issue when it comes to studying
postcolonial literary works which constituted a unique identity through
the hybrid language used by postcolonial writers; that’s why hybridity is
also one of the key features that forge the postcolonial identity.
It has been profusely knitted in that postcolonial theory for instance

examines the imposed superiority that the colonizer exercises on his
colonial subjects, a fact that intensifies their sense of inferiority and
damages their self-identity; a thing that led postcolonial writers to write
against it and try to reinforce that identity. Postcolonial theory also deals
with issues like hybridity, ethnicity and miltuculturalism.
So, the term postcolonial literature was used only to determine the
historical period of colonialism and independence that many
postcolonial writers covered through their works. It was also used to
denote only literatures written in English, or commonwealth literature,
however this term is broader than that since the European languages are
not the only means of expression of this literature.
This term also entails, through what has been seen in the debate over its
meaning, the representation of identity in the modern world, it deals
with cultures and literatures influenced in a way or another by
imperialism since the moment of colonization till the present day. To
this end, therefore, post colonialism does not only denote the
decolonization of lands, but also the decolonization of cultures. And
through this process the identity of the postcolonial subjects comes to be
affected by that experience and thus changed.
The question of identity is very important to any nation because it

shapes its international relations and dictates its behavior. According to
Ninkovich “an identity crisis is a period of disorientation in which
values and relationships once taken for granted are thrown into question.
Questions of self-adjustment that bedevil individuals caught up in an
identity crisis like” who am I?” and “where do I belong?”(Ninkovich
2001,16).
The question of postcolonial identity forms a large disagreement among

postcolonial theorists because, according to Hawley, there are two
antithetical sorts of identity. The type of identity as viewed by
essentialists and that as viewed by constructionists. Essentialists bear the
view of nationalists who go for the establishment of a pre-colonial
identity on a specific racial basis that is harmless to individual
78
differences; whereas constructionists think that identity is shaped by

external forces such as society, and this fact causes a “split” in the
identity(240).
But the fact of achieving an establishment of a pre-colonial identity for

Vermeulen and D‟haen is practically impossible, and they argue by
what Simon Gikandi thinks that this abolishment of the influence of
colonization is a way to legitimize the failure of nationalists to
“transcend the imperial legacy” (Vermeulen and D‟haen 2006, 150)
since they use the same principles to highlight one side of national
identity over the other sides (150). So, as Leonard Orr in his book Joyce,
imperialism, and post colonialism said, the ―[…] Question of national
identity affects anyone brought up in the shadow of imperialism (Orr
2008, 77).
“Colonization=chosification” (Césaire 1955, 12), this is how Aimé

Césaire describes the process of colonialism. He said that people
describe it as development, cured illnesses, and high standards of
life…etc while Césaire considers it from a completely different angle.
He sees hollow societies, stamped cultures, confiscated lands, artistic
magnificence wrecked…etc, and above all he sees millions of men who
were inculcated fear and the complex of inferiority (12).
The experience of imperialism has been translated textually through the

novels of the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Accordingly, Boehmer, in his book Colonial and Postcolonial

Literature: Migrant Metaphors, the beginning of the European
colonization was characterized by the people’s need to use ancient
stories in creating a new world. The early literature of colonization
sustained the idea of exploring, translating and interpreting different
countries to enhance their audience to conquer and explore their gains.
So, these colonizers experienced an exceptional mobility of people for
hunting their accumulations. Thus, through literature, the colonial
thought spread in an unprecedented way, and the whole world was
actually under colonial control.
This domination resulted in the rise of national resistance in all ways

including literature. So, nationalist movements sought to defy “self-
representations” of the colonizer through creating a “self-defining
story”. (13-15). Then, as Kumar Das postulates, the colonial process
proceeded through postcolonial and cultural imperialism, but post-
colonialism overcame them ―by resisting and subverting former
colonizer. Hence, myth and history, landscape and language, self and
other, [became] the ingredients of post-colonialism. (Kumar Das
2007,30).
79
As Blum has reported Chattered words, it is under postcolonialism that

“nationalism lunched] its most powerful, creative, and historically
significant project: to fashion a “modern” national culture that is
nevertheless not western”(Blum 2007,37). As Blum defines it, it is a
“two-step process” where they mixed the cultural and material
accomplishments of the west together with their customs and tradition to
“unify” and “legitimize” the change they opt for. To do so, they revived
their native culture since it is a “timeless repository of national truth”.
These attempts make the strategies of hybridization perfect, extend
hybrid “national identity constructs”. (37) The attempt to adopt western
ways also is a try to legitimize this change, and this, for Blum, is an
“embarrassing degree of assimilation”, because by doing so they give up
their national identity.
This seems to be a burden on postcolonial authors. As Tiffin notices,

postcolonial writers want to abolish or “deconstruct” European identity,
and their novels depict the implication of European domination over
postcolonial societies, and to generate their identities. As argued in the
essay entitled Literature and Postcolonial Discourse, “the text” may be
seen as a symbol of nation and identity, and Eagleton thinks, if we
consider this text as postcolonial, we would find that this symbolism
could be viewed as an ideology of its own.
The Autotelic Self in Postcolonial Literature

It is the ideology of self that Professor Mahaly Csikszentmilhalyi has
described as “the autotelic self-------a self that has self-contained
goals”.(27) It is a self that fiercely asserts and guards the validity and
intergrity of her experience, validity and integrity that requires no other
validation either morally, socially, or culturally. The epitome of this self
is revealed most trenchantly in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Kincaid’s
Lucy, Annie John, At the Bottom of the River and George Lamming’s In
the Castle of my Skin, to mention but a few. The protagonists of the
listed authors appear to be autotelic personalities that reflect the
characteristic image of postcolonial literature. In the context of a
heterogeneous society, where the colonized often live with their former
colonizers, postcolonial writers try to reassign new ethnic and cultural
meanings to marginalized groups. Its literature attempts to construct new
identities against these outwardly imposed borders.
Postcolonial literature knocks on the door of the colonized intending to

commune with them. It aims at entering their inner sanctum and
bringing into picture their cries of loss and their proclamations of birth.
It is not a literature to show the colonized as the victims, but it shows
their confused sense of belonging. They find themselves in cultural,
racial and historical hybridity, which make them oscillate between
80
present and past. This oscillation can lead to poor meaningful

communication. Through the postcolonial discourse colonial violence is
understood as including as ‘epistemic’ aspect, which is an attack on the
culture, ideas and value systems of the colonial peoples. Postcolonial
discourse indicates a new way of thinking in which cultural, intellectual,
economic or political processes are seen to work together in the
formation, perpetuation and dismantling colonialism. Since Africa and
Caribbean have been the focal point of the colonizing super powers
under different pretexts, it has, with the passage of time, created a sense
of disintegration and fragmentation within the African community and
consequently given birth to a number of rebellious critical writers.
Among the African writers Chinua Achebe’s novels and essays have
played crucial roles in the growth of postcolonial literature and
indigenous knowledge systems. But these essays are primarily by-
products of his creative practice which expressed itself in the novel
form. It is a tribute to Achebe’s art that the studies of his novels, as well
as his own essays, are among the landmarks of the scholarship on
African literature.
The demonstration here can be shown in one of the most prominent and
outstanding articles, “The Novelist as a Teacher”, published after his
celebrity novel Things Fall Apart. Achebe, in this article, declared to be
a committed and dedicated artist, whose pivotal responsibility as a black
writer at that movement in Africa’s evolution was, to save the African
society from degradation and the hemiplegic attack on its social-cultural
and historical values, he further claims that:
The writer’s duty is to explore in depth the human
condition; African people must know and value
their heritage, understand their history and possess
a strong ethical code that condemns injustice and
corruption wherever they occur. In African case,
therefore, novel and history are the same - the novel
is history, it is a record of the history as Africans
have seen and lived it. (P 24)
Achebe is not only a conscious voice but something more than that, who
understands the duty of a writer in African society, a society which was
going under a natural decline, affected by various influences of colonial
past, a society which tries to stick to its religious beliefs and rituals in
order not to fall apart.
The postcolonial writers bring into light the suppression of a vast wealth
of indigenous cultures beneath the weight of imperial control. As
Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin , pertinently assert:
… All post-colonial societies are still subject in one
way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-
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colonial domination, and independence has not

solved this problem. The development of new élites
within independent societies, often buttressed by
neocolonial institutions; the development of
internal divisions based on racial, linguistic or
religious discriminations; the continuing unequal
treatment of indigenous peoples in settler/invader
societies—all these testify to the fact that post-
colonialism is a continuing process of resistance
and reconstruction. (P.2)
One could concur that a colonized is bound to put up with the different
disconcerting situations. He has to have high resistance and fortitude
against lots of uncalled-for and inevitable conflicts.
In a region made ominously intelligible because of systems of

domination, in which origins are obscured or degenerate into self-
serving fictions, traumatized by dependency, the quest for autotelic self
and redefinition is the only valid imaginative response of the writers of
the postcolonial literature. The postcolonial writer is haunted by the
darker implications of these polarities. His imagination is constantly
drawn to these contrastive mental spaces, which symbolically reflect the
relationship between power and the promise of its subversion. The
individual artist's unsettling focus on these precarious dichotomies
ultimately constitutes a tradition built around redefining the subject,
reacting against cultural and psychological estrangement, and in its most
visionary manifestation, creating a poetics of speaking voice, and
establishing a defiant and autotelic personality.
Multicultural, Hybridity and Migration

The new generation of postcolonial writers faces the problem of
identifying itself culturally unlike the first generation. For, according to
B.T. Williams, this new generation attempts to write beyond borders and
constructs its cultural identity basing itself on the basis that it has no
“clear sense of home”, their writings keep on wandering from one place
to another giving us the feeling that they are displaced, or that they live
in nowhere. As Sunetra Gupta puts it:
I think one has to be comfortable with the notion
that one has one‘s own cultural identity and that
one hasn‘t necessarily to be at ―home, so to speak.
[…] I think we have to accept that we are going to
be perpetually wandering. I mean we can‘t be at
home. Even if we sit at home, we are forced to
travel just because of what is going on around us.
[Sunetra Gupta (interview)]. (B.T. Williams, Juvert
1999).
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This generation of writers (and the one preceding it) has been given
different labels such us: Black-British writers, African-American
writers, or Maghreban writers. This kind of labels, Williams adds, could
be understood as a new way of marginalization towards migrants, or
towards “those not recognized as part of the dominant culture’s
discourse”.
This generation of writers, especially the migrant ones, try to produce a

literature which is neither different nor assimilative to the literature of
the center. Their attempt is aimed at the hybridization of the universal
discourse, and the claim that cultural identity now is in fact multicultural
and flexible. For them identity has no limits, and can’t be defined by
matters of borders; there are no such terms as center and periphery, or a
dominator and a marginalized.
This generation of migrant writers has been divided by Mark Stain in his
book Black British Literature: Novels of Transformation into two types;
the “wind rush generation” to denote those writers who migrated in the
1940‟s and 1950‟s and began writing during that period; and the “post-
wind rush generation” to refer to the generation of writers who were
born in Britain (36). According to Andrew Smith, migration became a
marker of the new world order, it is growing everyday, and it is the basic
reason for the quick change that is going on in the world today. This
mass migration has many reasons and these migrants who came from
different backgrounds have different reasons to migrate and go through
different experiences. This migration started with the rush for power, or
imperialism, and has affected local literatures, which has forcibly,
because of colonization and cross- culturalism, become multicultural, or
universal.
With the beginning of imperialism, many Europeans travelled to Africa

and Asia. These travelers wrote about their experiences there, and drew
a picture of these continents in the minds of their peoples. They had
written accounts about the traditions and values of these places making
them seem savage and uncivilized, and planting the idea of the
superiority of Europeans over other races.
These travel writings has shaped the European governments as civilizing

powers through their colonizing process, or as Smith calls it:
“humanitarian intervention”. Consequently, many writers began writing
against colonization and against European powers, thus presenting a
new kind of literature and a new type of readership to the world. This
lead to an ongoing interest in the way a distant writing about a specific
social and cultural experience may influence culturally different
societies.
83
In the twentieth century, one can notice the growth, both in number and
in importance, of ―figures who address the metropolis using the
techniques, the discourses, the very weapons of scholarship and
criticism once reserved exclusively for the European, now adapted for
insurgency or revisionism at the very heart of the Western centre [Said
1990: 29]” (cited in N. Lazarus 2004: 244). But still, many writers still
opt for the idea that Western culture and civilization are pure. But with
the mass migration, and the prominence of migrant writers, the claims
that the identity of a person is not bound to his culture, race or ethnicity
have taken place. As Smith adds: “At the very least it is clear that we
can no longer hold comfortably on to the notion of a closed national
culture, complete within and for itself” (Lazarus 2004: 245).
Out of this idea, postcolonial scholars hold the claim that; with the
movement of people towards many places, logically the cultural centre
moves into many directions, and is not static and specific to one society
and one culture as some writers claim. So, migration has changed the
world’s static perception, and brought the notion of mixing cultures to
form hybrid literary and cultural works that seem to be present in many
places and periods at the same time.
One of the roles of the migrant writer in postcolonial literature could be

to uncover what Smith calls “the protected arenas of national culture”
through talking about their history and their native people’s experiences
of all kinds. Thus, the mobility option that migrants enjoy helps them
produce works free of censorship and state control; and far away from
borders and linearity that many other writers are bound with. They are
free, boundless, and limitless and they have no one-sided view of the
world around them. However, and as Smith thinks, the people of the
world conceive this notion of migration in different ways; some see it as
a liberating experience and a domination factor since it has a price like
any other merchandise in the world, while others see it as a terrible
choice to take. Still, the works of a migrant writer are seen as fluid
through exploring the other world and introducing the native culture and
thought to the other. Or in Smith’s words: […] migrancy becomes […]
a name for how we exist and understand ourselves in the twenty-first
century (Lazarus 2004: 247).
Besides, migrant works are limitless, fluid and free of linearity; their
works are explorative and broader in perspective since they mix
different cultures and social values. Their works are free of censorship
and transcend national boarders and limits. This idea could be backed up
with what Homi Bhabha said: “[…] there is “no necessary or eternal
belongingness” (Bhabha 1994: 179)” (cited in Lazarus 2004: 248). For,
he rejects such dichotomies as local/migrant, and the idea of cultural
purity, since he thinks that the so called “cultural difference” that
84
divides and distinguishes between societies is in fact nonexistent; and he

assumes that identities, no matters how different they are, are implicated
in each other.
So; migration constitutes one of the central interests of postcolonial

studies since it brought into being a new way and a different perspective
to view identity. The question of identity, as studied by postcolonial
scholars, is no more bound to questions of nationality or ethnicity; as
imperialism and displacement has lead to the emergence of this new
category of people who mix a variety of cultures and traditions, and who
changed the notion of belonging to force the introduction of a new
concept to the world: that of hybridity.
Migration has created a new way to view identity, and has contributed to
making identity a crucial theme in postcolonial literature (242-248). For,
the crisis of identity in postcolonial societies, as the editors of The
Empire Writes Back pointed out, comes out of the tight link between the
place and the self. The mass migration caused by colonization and after
colonization periods, deliberate or undesired, hinders the sense of self;
and by undesired or forced migration we mean slavery.
These migrants have been appropriated a sense of inferiority and lost

their self-esteem; they have lost their cultural pride to and because of the
so-called dominant cultures or the centre. They have been inserted the
feeling that they are always the other in their homelands or in the others‟
lands. (8-9)
In addition to that, we have the notion of hybridity which most of the

postcolonial writers deal with in their works, since not only migrant
suffer from this dilemma but also people in their own homelands. So,
postcolonial literature, as Andrew Hammond asserted, made of this
notion of hybridity a very crucial one in its context, as it deals with
picturing out how the postcolonial subjects hold their original practices
together with imperial ones. This notion raises other important elements
in the forging of postcolonial identities like the notion of Otherness.
(222).
It is however claimed by Lars Eckstein that this “postcolonial hybridity”

does nothing but privileging the colonial centre in a way or another.
Since it injects the idea that only literatures that criticize and challenge
the Western cannon deserve merit, whereas literature that investigates
African or Asian modernity are given a minimized attention. This
hybridity in literary texts comes out of the transcultural contact that
postcolonial writers hold with the West. It is the way postcolonial
literature employs multicultural traditions, religions, and ideologies in
its texts to show the multicultural hybrid feature of its societies. (23)
85
So, as Nayar postulated, not only migrants are hybrid people.

Postcolonial literature strives to hyphenate the notion that natives also
became hybrid because of the process of colonization which has affected
their identities. This encounter with the colonizer have eliminated the
existing identity and replaced it with a new one. In addition, the
experience of colonization had led to the existing feature of
multiculturalty in the postcolonial societies, since these latter ones have
been implanted another language besides their native one, new cultures
and beliefs and new traditions.
The fact that they want to create a space where they can reconcile their
original identity and their newly forged identity is thus a quest that is
strongly present through the postcolonial fiction. Writers such as Ngugi
Wa Thiong’o attempt to depict that hybrid nature but at the same time
they attempt to find solutions to avoid this hybridity and
multuculturality through their characters and regain an “authentic
identity”, a quest which seems quiet impossible with the demands of the
modern world we live in today, this world which notices a lively
mobility of people which interact with each other and give it its hybrid
multicultural feature.
Conclusion
One could concur that a colonized mind could put up any assuring
weapon to resist his colonizer’s antics. The ancestry of postcolonial
criticism and theory can be traced to Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White
Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, both published in French in 1952,
and 1961 respectively. Fanon was a Martinique–born black psychiatrist
and anti-colonialist intellectual who wrote from the perspective of a
colonial subject in the thick of decolonization, addressing other colonial
subjects. He placed the cultural aspect of colonial and postcolonial
history at the centre of his discussion. Various anti-colonial theories
have influenced the oppressed peoples of the world; but The Wretched of
the Earth has articulated more effectively, profoundly and lastingly than
any other anti-colonial work on behalf of and to the colonized.
In Bhabha’s own terms: “colonial discourse produces the colonized as a

social reality which is at once an‘other’ and yet entirely knowable and
visible” (101). According to Bhabha, ‘hybridity’ is a kind of negotiation
between the colonizer and the colonized.
He seems to stress the idea that both the colonizer and the colonized are
interdependent, both politically and culturally. His concept of
‘otherness’ is derived from Lacan’s ‘Other’ and Fanon’s idea of ‘Other’
as binary opposition between the White and the Black.
86
Postcolonial studies often involve a prolonged engagement with issues

such as terrain, people and their relationships, wealth, power and its
resistance, historical continuity and change, representation and culture,
knowledge and its construction. Though post colonialism is ‘the
discourse of the colonized’ as described by Ashcroft, it has the potential
to assemble new communities with political and ethical commitment to
challenging and questioning the practices of domination and
subjugation. Theories of colonial discourses play a very influential role
in the development of post colonialism. They explore how
representations and modes of perception are used as fundamental
weapons of colonial power to keep the colonized subservient to them.
Colonialism creates the notion in the mind of the colonized that it is
their birth right to rule over other peoples and there is a deliberate
process of colonizing the mind. They do it by persuading the colonized
to accept and internalize its logic and speak its language. It is obviously
established that postcolonial literary theory evolved as a literary
interpretation of the growing postcolonial theorization of the late 60’s
and 70’s. Literary texts were therefore analyzed based on ethno-
historical tools for deciphering the dialects of cultural forms and politics
of power, colonialism and apartheid.
Summary
The postcolonial literatures, when looked at from within their own
perspectives, however, do not justify colonial entrapment, racism,
subjugation and irrational inclinations. Despite Caliban's transformation
by postcolonial writers such as Chinua Achebe, Frantz Fanon, Aime
Cesaire, George Lamming, Jamaica Kincaid to mention but a few,
Caliban remains an ambiguous symbol for the autotelic self of the
colonized. Active self-formation or 'autotelic self ', is a major concern of
postcolonial literature.

1. What is the relevance and substitute of postcolonial theory in
colonial literature?
2. Discuss the background of postcolonial literature using prominent
theorists of postcolonial theory in your discourse.
3. What are the critical approaches to appreciating and analyzing
postcolonial literary texts? Discuss elaborately
4. The autotelic self is a special self of its kind. Discuss this type of
self using any Caribbean protagonist character of your choice to
buttress your points explicitly.
5. Justify or contradict postcolonial theory as an assuring weaponry
of a colonized mind.
87
Reference/Further Reading
Ashcroft, Bill; Griffiths, Gareth; Tiffin, Helen. The Empire Writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures. Hoboken:
Taylor and Francis, 2003. 79. Ebook Library. Web. 10 May.
2014.
Bhabha, (1996).Nation and Narration. New York: Routledge. 1990

Biographical Encyclopedia. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 2. Detroit:
Yorkin Birbalsingh, Frank. Frontiers of Caribbean Literature in
English. London: Macmillan.
Bhabha, Homi K. (2004). ―Of Mimicry and Manǁ. The Location of

Culture. London, New York: Routledge.
Boehmer, Elleke. (1995). Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford

& New York: Oxford UP.
Brook, Peter. (1993). Body Work: Objects of Desire in Modern

Narrative. Cambridge: Harvard UP.
Brydon, Diana, and Helen Tiffin (1993). Decolonising Fictions. Sydney:

Dangaroo Press.
Butler, Judith. (1989). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of

Identity. New York London Press.
Carby, Hazel (1997). White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the
Boundaries of Sisterhood. In Heidi Safia Mirza , Black British
Feminism: A Reader. London: Routledge.
Childs. Peter & R. J. Patrick Williams.(1996). ―Introduction: Points of

Departure,‖ in An Introduction to Post-Colonial Theory, Prentice
Hall.
Csikszentmilhalyi, Mihaly. (1193). “The Autotelic Self” Reading

Critically, Writing Well 3rd Edition Ed Rise B Axelrod and
Charles R. Cooper. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Cullen, Gruesser, John. (2005). Postcolonialism, African American

Literary Studies, and The Black Atlantic, Athens and London,
The University of Georgia Press.
Eagleton, T. (1996). Literary Theory: An Introduction, Second Edition.

Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
88
Fanon, Frantz. (1961). ―On National Cultureǁ ―The So-Called

Dependency Complex‖ and ―The Fact of Blacknessǁ in Black
Skin, White Masks. Pluto Press.
Said, Edward. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Senghor, Léopold Sédar. (2005). ―Negritude,ǁ in Postcolonialisms: An

Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism. (Eds). Gaurav Desai
& Supriya Nair, Oxford: Berg.
89
MODULE 5: POSTCOLONIAL FEMINIST IDENTITY: AN

AESTHETIC MODEL FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN &
CARIBBEAN WOMEN WORKS
INTRODUCTION
This module aims at introducing Postcolonial feminist theory as a theory
that is primarily concerned with the representation of women in once
colonized countries and in Western locations. It concentrates on
construction of gender difference in colonial and anti-colonial
discourses, representation of women in anti-colonial and postcolonial
discourses with particular reference to the work of women writers. The
postcolonial feminist critics raise a number of conceptual,
methodological and political problems involved in the study of
representation of gender. At the end of this unit (module) it is expected
that the students should be able to understand and distinguish between
postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminist theory.
Objectives
The objectives of this segment is to make the students see that
postcolonial feminist critics raise a number of conceptual,
methodological and political problems involved in the study of
representation of gender. She has to resist the control of colonial power
not only as a colonized subject, but also as a woman. In this oppression
her colonized brother is no longer her accomplice, but her oppressor. In
his struggle against the colonizer, he even exploits her by
misrepresenting her in the nationalist discourses.
Main Content
Postcolonial feminism emerged in response to colonialism and the
Eurocentric view of feminism and women. Postcolonial feminism rejects
the idea of oppression against women being universal and instead
encourages us to take a feminist intersectional approach towards the
issues. The division of first world and third world feminism allows third
world women to critique the way in which first world feminism tended
to generalize women and oppression of them as a whole, not taking into
consideration economic, geographical and historical differences.
John McLeod writes in Beginning Postcolonialism that the term "first

world" feminism should be seen as useful when looking at problems and
possibilities of using first world feminism in a colonial context (200).
Postcolonial theory is about the third world woman taking back agency
and re-writing the history from which they were excluded. The main
idea is for the women who were formerly colonized to be able to critique
the ways that colonized women of colonialism were re-produced or
made invisible by colonialism and patriarchy. Caribbean postcolonial
feminism in literature has since the rise of the Caribbean woman writer
90
dealt with issues of the de-centering of the male subject, the symbol of
the Caribbean mother and the subject formation of the individual in a
colonized context.
Postcolonial feminist theory is primarily concerned with the

representation of women in once colonized countries and in Western
locations. It concentrates on construction of gender difference in
colonial and anti-colonial discourses, representation of women in anti-
colonial and postcolonial discourses with particular reference to the
work of women writers. The postcolonial feminist critics raise a number
of conceptual, methodological and political problems involved in the
study of representation of gender.
While postcolonial theorist struggles against the maiden colonial

discourse that aims at misrepresenting him as inferior, the task of a
postcolonial feminist is far more complicated. She suffers from “double
colonization” (a term coined by Kirsten Holst Peterson and Anna
Rutherfold and refers to the ways in which women have simultaneously
experienced the oppression of colonialism and patriarchy). She has to
resist the control of colonial power not only as a colonized subject, but
also as a woman. In this oppression her colonized brother is no longer
her accomplice, but her oppressor. In his struggle against the colonizer,
he even exploits her by misrepresenting her in the nationalist discourses.
Not only that, she also suffers at the hands of Western feminists from
the colonizer countries who misrepresent their colonized counterparts by
imposing silence on their racial, cultural, social, and political
specificities, and in so doing, act as potential oppressors of their
‘sisters’. In this article, I explore these challenges of a postcolonial
feminist, for it is in her struggle against the ‘postcolonial’ and ‘feminist’
theorists that she can assert her identity as a ‘postcolonial feminist
subject rather object self’.
Postcolonial feminist theory exerts a pressure on mainstream

postcolonial theory in its constant iteration of the necessity to consider
gender issues. Post colonialism and feminism have come to share a tense
relationship as some feminist critics point out that postcolonial theory is
a male-centered field that has not only excluded the concerns of women,
but also exploited them. Postcolonial feminist theorists have accused
postcolonial theorists not only of obliterating the role of women from
the struggle for independence, but also of misrepresenting them in the
nationalist discourses. Edward Said’s seminal study Orientalism itself
accorded little attention to female agency and discussed very few female
writers. Homi K. Bhabha’s work on the ambivalence of colonial
discourses explores the relationship between a ‘colonizing’ subject and a
‘colonized’ object without reference to how the specifics of gender
might complicate his model. Critics such as Carole Boyce Davies who
91
are suspicious of the male-centered bias of postcolonial critique often

ask “where are the women in the theorizing of post coloniality?( 80).’
The necessity for relief functions as one of the most powerful weapons
for resisting colonialism, and for establishing the space of a postcolonial
identity.
Undeniably, the findings of postcolonial feminist theory formed an

important framing and structural apparatus that illuminated the inner life
of African-American& Caribbean protagonists. This being the case,
after the initial attempts to bring postcolonial feminist theory to bear on
black literary works , their works found itself under the nationalist
critical trend and its preoccupation with the search for national and
cultural identity and with the foundation of national tradition that was
supposed to offset imperialism. Nationalistic and cultural critics
enquired in what ways the black literary works have anchored the
imaginative re-workings of mother/daughter tensions within the culture
of their homeland is worth considering closely. For instance, Jamaica
Kincaid’s reading concentrated not so much on the psychic development
of the girl-child or the acquisition of appropriate gender roles, as on how
Kincaid imaginatively combined the theme of the daughter’s resistance
to the mother with the theme of her resistance to the colonial culture.
This research agrees with McClintock’s affirmation that ‘the global

militarization of masculinity and the feminization of poverty have thus
ensured that women and men do not live ‘post-coloniality’ in the same
way, or share the same singular ‘post-colonial condition(634)’.
Postcolonial feminism is primarily concerned with the representation of

women in once colonized countries and in western locations. When
applied to literary studies, Helen Tiffin, Helen Gilbert and George
Lamming, interpret postcolonial texts to discover and understand the
situations and experiences of women that keep them at the mercy of
patriarchy.
I explore these struggles of a postcolonial feminist such as, Alice

Walker, Audre Lorde, Jamaica Kincaid, Gloria Naylor , to mention but
a few , survived because their struggle for the postcolonial and feminist
theorists stand an enduring chance of re-inventing a strong sense of
selfhood.
Time, Change and Women

To explore the origin of feminism it is important that one notes the
changes that greatly affected the development of the female within the
social sphere. The past social roles for both men and women remain
subconsciously imbedded within our modern construct of the world. We
find it humanely reasonable that there are simply things that men are
92
designed to do while leaving other responsibilities to females. The

ambiguity here is founded on the precipice that this construct did not
always exist.
Historians offer evidence of the many ways in which women were not
second class when compared with men. In her book No Turning Back:
The History of Feminism and the Future of Women, Estelle B.
Freedman begins her discussion of feminism by noting historical
accounts of women working outside the dated female paradigms. For
instance, she relates how pre-colonial Africa women took part in more
than the upkeep of the home. Women worked the land alongside men.
The ability of the women to assist in the production of food “represented
a form of wealth” (Freedman 26).
Despite the fact that the social makeup did not look as our society does
today, this proves that there was a sense of shared responsibility and
power among men and women within old societies. Women within a
myriad of cultural contexts could own property, run businesses, work as
clergy, farm, and take charge of the home still, this power was not
universally spread across the globe. This may be evidenced by
examining women in old Asian culture. Women in China were like
many others in Asia who found themselves bound from birth. As queer
as it seems, women were not universally bound around the world. How
then did seemingly all women find themselves equally stripped of power
and designated as second class beside their male counterparts?
One may place blame here to the rise of imperialism and with it, the
spread of European ideals throughout the world as colonialism took root.
Thus women who were in power found themselves lacking while
women who had no power to begin with found themselves in greater
captivity. Freedman explains: “The world before feminism offers ample
evidence that men had more power than women... listen to folk wisdom
or read sacred texts, we learn about the virtues of sons and the lesser
values of daughters” (18). A closer examination sheds further light on
the need for feminism. There are numerous old proverbs and colloquial
sayings that negatively reference women. A Zulu quote notes: “A girl is
merely a weed” (Qtd. in Freedman 19). While a Dutch proverb reads: “a
house full of daughters is like a cellar full of sour beer” (Qtd. in
Freedman 19).
Upon examining Asian culture, one may find many quotes about women
including this one referenced by Freedman: “a girl lets you down twice,
once at birth and the second time when she marries” (19). Such
ideological references to women strangely coincide with religious
precepts, which placed the woman below the male. Exulted scientist and
evolutionist Darwin added to the stripping of the female’s persona as he
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sought to use science to prove the superiority of the male over female,
including even male species of animals to further drive the point.
Women, caught between the proverbially rock and a hard place, had the
choice of accepting their marginalization; instead they used the few
tools to break down the previously established barriers.
Freedman explains one of the by-products of imperialism was the

availability of education. Again, just as colonialism may be traced back
to Europe, one may trace the roots of the enlightened female to there.
Pioneers like Mary Astell and Mary Wollstonecraft would help to
empower a new generation of women, or more appropriately, feminists.
In their wake, the new feminists would make strides in declaring the
rights of other women like them. These women would go on to acquire
equal access to education, political power, and financial stability while
reconstructing the definition of womanhood.
Ironically, the procurement of privileged European descended women

did not include other women. To an extent, less privileged women were
excluded; furthermore, we discover that women of color were usually
not included within these new feminist models. The famous words of
pioneering feminist Sojourner.
Truth saying: “Ainʼt I a woman?” is indicative of a shift in time and the

burgeoning changes occurring for women. Sadly, many of these changes
brought to question the aforementioned question posed by sojourner
truth. Women were making significant changes, yet these changes did
not readily apply to women of color who found again that they were
different; this time they were simply different by the supposed genetic
differences that made them racially inferior.
Feminism and the Black Woman

Modern culture thrives on its ability to provide multiple outlets.
Whether one is searching for a particular type of movie, artistically
styled music, or fashion apparel item, one will find that there are a
plethora of choices. Within the realm of the literature there are multiple
genres as well as multiple methods of study, and for that matter,
multiple methods of criticism. Writings by women usually have often
fallen in line together as they must constantly fight the hegemonic ideals
floating throughout the established literary canon.
These works by women must stand the coming onslaught of a

traditionally male canon and its proponents who act as skilled surgeons,
entering the bodies of work created by women and dissecting them. The
slightest indication is all that is required before the surgeon passes
judgment: if the work is careful to abide by the largely patriarchal tenets
of the literary canon, it receives a clean bill of health. Fortunately, there
94
is help for those works upon which the surgeon finds diseases spread by
Amazonian calls of sisterhood. The application of literary theories
derived from established feminist theories allow such works to receive a
second opinion of sorts and in many cases, the works may find that the
second opinion provides a method for validation they would otherwise
not have. Such theories have been protective of a base, which consists
largely of white females.
Women of color, and for this matter Black women, are left without a
second opinion and thus, their works are usually dismissed or excluded
for portraying the realities of black women, which may not coincide
with the lived existence of whites.
Neville and Hamer explain the need to develop a new niche within
feminism or feministic literary criticism that is inclusive to black women
as well as women of color. Their “Revolutionary Black Feminism”
theory helps to align works that would, otherwise, be excluded from the
protection provided by feminism; instead its choice for inclusion is
derived from the very qualities that general feminist theories would use
to support exclusion. The women note that their purpose “is to address
the gaps in the literature” (438). The gaps, mentioned here are likely the
result of a lack of true development in the areas associated with the
theoretical development of black feminism. Meaning: current models of
feminism, even those which include black women, fail to bolster their
work. The “introduction” of Revolutionary Black Feminism by Neville
and Hamer revolves around the following tenets: Revolutionary Vision
is Dynamic; Racial, Gender, and Sexual Oppression are reconfigured
within periods of capitalist restructuring; and Oppression consists of
structural and ideological components.
The first tenets is about how dynamism is rooted ideally in the belief
that change is inevitable. Thus, as things inevitably change, so, too, must
precepts within any ideological constructs. Therefore, Revolutionary
Black Feminism, as proposed by Neville and Hamer, will grow and
change with its audience. It will not require that those it seeks to protect
change to fit its mold. However, the dynamic mechanisms at play will
not admonish those things, which remain constant. As evidence, Neville
and Hamer note the sexual abuse instigated by white slave owners,
which has strangely continued to remain a trend in modern society as
they note “the overwhelming majority of sexual assaults in the United
States are intraracial” (439). Therefore, a work like Their Eyes Were
Watching God would not supercede or negate a work such as Naylorʼs
The Women of Brewster Place. Despite their differences, the works
would be accepted on the basis that they illustrate different points.
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Neville and Hamerʼs second tenet argument begins profoundly by

stating: “Black women’s experiences are, in part, shaped by a myriad of
interlocking systems of oppressions that are framed within the context of
the political economy of a given society” (440); that is to say, capitalism
molds the experiences of those whom it affects. Thus there is no
question that black women are affected on dual levels: first directly, and
secondly by black males. To an extent, children (especially black
children) are affected by their disproportional placement at the bottom
of the global capitalistic scale. The characters Claudia, Freida, and
Pecola of Morrisonʼs The Bluest Eye, offer examples of life for children
of color who find that their father has been beaten by society, and in turn
he beats his wife who thus reigns power over her children.
The third tenet proposes that we remain in touch with the social
structures within a postcolonial society. It is, after all, the multiple levels
within society that provide a variance in the experiences of women. This
truth is evident for black women as well. Women at the bottom of the
societal structure are often affected the most, while women at the middle
or the top find that there are certain areas for which they have been
granted immunity; they remain untouched by plights which women at
the bottom attend as if they were normal.
The tenets proposed by Neville and Hamer are adept in their inclusion of
specific intricacies that other methods of feminism have failed to
include. Although their work is not an end all solution, it does highlight
the occasional or situational problems with general feminism, which
begs the question: what elements of feminism should remain as they are
without excluding women of color?
Womanism and Identity in African-American & Caribbean

Literature
The term womanism was coined by Alice Walker in her collection of
essays titled In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
(1983). Womanism sums up the aesthetics of black female literary
experience. According to Julia Hare quoted by Hudson Weems
(1998:l812), “women who are calling themselves black feminists need
another word to describe what their concerns are ....Women of African
descent who embrace feminism do so because of the absence of a
suitable existing framework for their individual needs as African
women.”
According to Alice Walker (1983: xi - xii), a womanist is:

A black feminist or feminist of color... A woman
who loves other women, sexually and/or non
sexually. Appreciates and prefers women's culture,
women's emotional flexibility (values tears as a
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natural counterbalance of laughter), and women's

strength. Sometimes loves individual men sexually
and/or non- sexually, committed to survival and
wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a
separatist, except periodically for health.
Traditionally universalist. Loves music. Loves
dance. Loves the moon. Loves the spirit. Loves
love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves
the folk. Loves herself. Regardless: Womanist is to
feminist as purple is to lavender.
The term womanism was also used by Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi in

1985 to describe the African female experience. Ogunyemi, as quoted
by Mary Kolawole (1997:24), defines womanism as “a philosophy that
celebrates Black roots, the ideal of Black life, while giving a balanced
presentation of Black womanism. It concerns itself as much with the
Black sexual power tussle as with the world power structure that
subjugates Blacks.” African -Americans in advocating womanism as a
black outgrowth of feminism, present womanism as a global ideology
that defines the experiences of blacks in the Diasporas, as well as, those
residing in the continent. The use of the term black is somehow elastic.
Some critics have applied the term black to mean all those people who
are nonwhite by descent. Such people may be black Africans or not.
Womanism as an alternative theory is distinguished by its focus on the
black female experience. Benard Bell (1987: 242) observes that the
preoccupations of African American female writers include:
Motifs of interlocking racist, sexist and classist
oppression, black female protagonists, spiritual
journeys from victimization to the realization of
personal autonomy or creativity, a centrality of
female bonding or networking, a sharp focus on
personal relationships in the family and community,
deeper, more detailed explorations and validation of
their epistemological powers of emotions,
iconography of women's clothing and black female
language.
Three things are central to womanist writings. They include racial

issues, classist issues and sexist issues. These are not central to feminist
writings. Bell Hooks (1998: 1845) insists that “racism abounds in the
writings of white feminists reinforcing white supremacy and negating
the possibility that women will bond politically across ethnic and racial
boundaries.”
To womanist writers, racial and classist oppression are inseparable from

sexist oppression. Many womanist writers even portray racial and
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classist oppression as having precedence over sexist oppression. This is

because the womanists believe that the emancipation of black women
folk cannot be achieved apart from the emancipation of the whole race.
Womanists therefore believe in partnership with their menfolk. This
characteristic distinguishes womanism from feminism which is mainly a
separatist ideology.
Audre Lorde: An Archetypal Womanist

Audre Geraldine Lorde, a black feminist/womanist writer, not only
presents the quest for female voice and subjectivity but redefines
womanhood in one of her literary works, The Black Unicorn (1978), a
collection of poems. In this volume she attempts to redefine womanism
and the black feminine self. To her, the black feminist is not like the
Anglo-woman, the woman is not a weaker sex here but a warrior, a
fighter and when she talks people pay attention. That is the reason why
Lorde dresses like Africans, putting on African big head-tie (gelé) and
she is popularly known as the warrior poet and a lesbian feminist writer
of colour. She is called warrior poet because after visiting West Africa;
she says, ‘I have found out something – I have found it. I don’t need to
look up to United States to define a woman.’ She defines a woman from
the African concepts because to her in Africa women are warriors.
One of the recurrent themes of women’s poetry and fiction is the

rejection of traditional phallo-centred (men-centred) values. For instance
a male child is more important than a female child, and the subsequent
search of alternate description of reality which affirms female
experience, to look for a way to tell their women stories without
depending on the values that suppress women existence. Phallo is the
male organ (penis) and men have been using the possession of their
male organ to value themselves more than women, saying that they are
more powerful and superior but Lorde asserts that possession of the
male organ is nothing. It is just the brain washing of women’s psyche
centuries ago.
Therefore, one of the recurrent themes that one finds in Audre Lorde’s
poems and fiction is that she writes the bible of Lesbian Feminism that
is used all over the world. She invents black lesbianism. Audre Lorde
joins other feminist poets to explore the ways in which the dominant
discourse (male discourse) silences women.
Contemporary feminist writers including Audre Lorde have

demonstrated the vital link or connection between narrative control and
self- realization. For them if one can control one’s own stories, she
realizes herself. To realize the female self nobody has to tell her story.
Men who present women as the weaker sex (suppress women) are not to
tell women’s stories. In her poem ‘The women of Dan with swords in
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their hands to mark the time when they were warriors’, she presents
women as warriors and not as the weaker sex the whites presented them.
Developing a new Multicultural Feminism Model

As changes have surfaced within the global community perhaps now is
the time to begin the true development of a new multicultural
feminism. A key argument of this presented research stems from the
proposal to create and define a new multicultural feminism. Steps
toward defining multicultural feminism are not entirely indistinct. There
has been previous scholarship, which not only supports the development
of multicultural feminism, it seeks to explain how the initial groundwork
is already in place. Becky Thompsonʼs article “Multiracial Feminism:
Recasting the Chronology of Second Wave Feminism” discusses the
next step in casting literary feminism outside that of the previously
mentioned hegemonic feminism. Thompson reiterates the claims that
hegemonic feminism “is white led, marginalizes the activism and the
world views of women of color, focuses mainly on the United States,
and treats sexism as the ultimate oppression”(337). Within her body of
research, Thompson explicates the rise of an international movement
dating back to the 1970ʼs. Essentially, it is this movement that began
early to unite women from multiple ethnic backgrounds with antiracist
whites. Accordingly, white women may not have realized that their
quest to unite was built upon a psychological construct of inherited
white privilege. Thus, they had been privileged in many ways due to the
fact that they were white, and could not always understand the
peculiarities associated with being a minority.
Thompsonʼs research is careful in its reminder that the development of a

new multi-racial feminism is inclusive to all women. This may however
contrast with direct protestations to define ethnic modes of feminism,
and to a degree, feministic literary criticism. This would include the
likes of Alice Walkerʼs womanist theory. A theory built upon the very
idea that the lived experiences of black women make them different
from other women. Essentially, Walker is not wrong here. It would seem
that if women are to truly unite under a new feminism model, one must
first learn to appreciate the specific peculiarities created by ethnic
differences without using those differences to create a divisive wall. The
development of a new model would therefore find the many
commonalities between the lived experiences of all women. Prudently, I
would like to make a note here of three key commonalities shared
amongst all women.
All Women Suffer from Societal Oppression

No matter what background a woman comes from, she is, from birth,
oppressed by the very factors upon which her birth negates. The female
sphere is designed and constructed by patriarchal forces that extend
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natural authority to males. In the case of black women (as well as

women of color), their male counterparts, though seemingly stripped of
any power within the world are given authority over their women.
Consequently, a woman must maneuver the social sphere by first
overcoming the genetic defects associated with her birth as a female.
This would include any of the unique features inherent to being a
female: sensitivity, compassion, beauty (male proposed), understanding,
and mothering. A woman must know her place or else she may find
herself reprimanded or punished for her actions. The act of silencing is
another method of oppression that also seeks to punish women. Women,
like children, should be seen and not heard right?
All Women Have Been Abused

The lived experiences of black women are decorously noted by
recurring bouts of abuse. However, more often than not the abuse of
white women has largely been left unexplored or discussed to the same
degree that other women have been. Whereas blacks and other women
of color have been vocal about the forms of abuse for which they have
suffered, white womenʼs stories of abuse are no less prevalent. The
forms by which the abuse takes place may be different, yet that does not
dispel the fact that some form of abuse occurs. If one is oppressed, then
they are consequently abused. In this fashion, women are again united
by the common association of their experience with abuse, physical
and/or psychological but essentially abuse.
Women Work Harder than Men to Establish Place

The act of establishing place in the world is fundamental step in one’s
psychological maturation. Women, who are again born outside the
privilege of manhood, must exert greater effort in establishing place
within society. Naturally men have a genetic advantage as that the
subconscious mantras that permeate the existence of life are generally
male. Thus, a male finds the world a place where they must make their
mark while women are immediately confronted with the problem of
knowing where they can make their mark. The world itself remains
largely the realm of the patriarch; furthermore, it is through the
manipulation of usually masculine principles that one achieves success
and contentment in the world. Femaleʼs therefore must find their way in
world wherein they simply act as accents, decorative pieces in the
world’s living room of man.
Conclusion
By examining the account of shared commonalities between the lived
experiences of all women it should therefore seem unquestionable that
there exists a divided front within the realm of feminism, and to a lesser
extent feministic criticism.
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The established models of feminism have become outdated in a

globalized world. Colonialism has touched everyone. Literature, alone,
provides a firm testament to the lives of women. Black women, as well
as other women of color have been affected differently, yet it does not
override the fact that all women have been affected. Perhaps time will be
the deciding factor in bringing together a truly united front that does not
separate the Celieʼs and Noraʼs of the world. Instead one will finally
acknowledge that they are all women and equally included and protected
by a united multicultural feministic front.
Summary
On multiple levels all women have been oppressed. Despite the varied
effects of that oppression on women of color, and to a degree, black
woman, the oppression has had the same effect of pushing women to the
point where they must go above and beyond in order to counter the
attempts to silence and marginalize them. The silencing and
marginalization that has occurred among women-despite changing
conditions-continues to present a problematic situation.
Black women, and for that matter women of color, have come a long
way in their journey to find not only acceptance but also to define a
space that has been long denied to them. The battle lines created by the
threats of imperialism, canonization and sexism may have blurred yet
the existent problems have yet to dissipate.

1. What is the essence of postcolonial feminism especially in Black
women writing? Elucidate profusely.
2. Is postcolonial feminist theory worth sustaining the relegation
and negligence of a black woman or women in general in a
contemporary world? Justify or contradict.
3. How would you reconcile time, change and women in their
overwhelming pursuit of independence and identity in
comparative black literature?
4. What is womanism? And how has it helped in projecting the
image and identity of African-American and Caribbean women?
5. Discuss the idea of developing and establishing a new
multicultural feminist model as sustenance to women in
contemporary world.
101

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MODULE 6: REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK WOMANHOOD

IN AFRICAN-AMERICAN &CARIBBEAN LITERARY
REALISM
INTRODUCTION
This segment aims at introducing the students to the suppressions and
negations of both, white feminism and black liberation and their
discursive constructions of subjectivity, agency and a potential for
resistance, through the writings by black women. Their profuse
representative writings had created a powerful moment of social and
cultural awareness which reverberates - even though in many contexts
rather as an underground existence - until today and has been
resurfacing in the contemporary interest in and attraction of theories of
intersectionality.
However, despite the noticeable current regard for the crossroads or

interconnected axes of analysis framed by race, class, gender and
sexuality though, the particular generative power of black women's
writing as the crucial impulse to that critical development has, beyond
the African-American &Caribbean context, gone missing. With a
selection of contemporary criticism, this issue of gender forum wants to
draw attention to the manifold contributions of black women's writing
both to a cosmopolitan literary and cultural heritage of women, as well
as to international gender studies.
Objectives
The objectives of this segment are to make the students see that female
writers continue to remind us of the differences between themselves and
males and the separate struggles they face. For a woman, the task of
liberation through writing must include also a thrash against the
establishment created by male power, in this case, white-male power.
Writings by women must be successful in relaying the unique female
experience; one unlike that of their male counterparts. However, the
works by women of color are constantly attacked and often dismissed as
feministic, sexist, one-sided and the like. Fortunately, this has not
discouraged the female “voice” from emerging. Writers such as Alice
Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Jamaica Kincaid, Audre
Lorde and countless others have created a new space for the discussion
of the female experience within postcolonial feminist setting.
Main Content
Black feminists operating in literary collectives from 1979 to 1990 stole
the key term "motherhood" out of its heteronormativized function and
instead used it to create a cultural politics of presence which both frames
the political practice of black feminist publishing and scholarship in the
1980's and provides a framework for how black feminist scholars,
104
writers and publishers today can engage a legacy that will still be in the
making.
Katharina Gerund examines the impact of Audre Lorde's work as

writer/activist on the development of Afro-German women's
communities. Her essay analyzes transatlantic dialogues and
interactions, which are primarily based on gender and black solidarity
and outlines Lorde's seminal role for Afro-German women as well as the
meaning of Lorde's work in Germany within the context of the African
Diaspora.
To this end, therefore, black women's writing is characterized by

expressive multiplicity in three major ways: intertextuality, intergeneric
textual strategies and the collective first person. Despite feted single-
author publications by individual black women, it was the anthology, a
collective expression of black womanhood as in the form of I and I,
which ushered in the idea of black women writers as a discrete
politicized and aesthetic phenomenon. The black women’s writings
project the aesthetics of renaissance, identity, selfhood and rediscovery
in women thereby acting as both an institutionalizing platform and a
metaphor of "the black woman" the anthology embodies and encourages
the formation of a collective subjectivity.
Phillis Wheatley & Zora Neale Hurston

To begin a discussion of the plight of African American female writers
it is not only easy but important to begin with the first African to have
his or her works published in America: Phillis Wheatley. Wheatley,
whose reputation is only hindered by the sheer amount of criticism her
work acquired upon its release acted as a precursor for what other
women like her could expect. Furthermore, her life as a writer sheds
light on the duality of literature by women of color. That is, the writing
must be expressive and combative.
The preface of Phillis Wheatleyʼs collection states: “The following

Poems were written originally for the Amusement of the Author, as they
were the products of her leisure Moments... As her Attempts in Poetry
are now sent into the World, it is hoped the Critic will not severely
censure their Defects”. The preface goes on to humbly provide
reasoning behind the creation of the collection and asks the reader to
accept the collection with the understanding that the writer in question
does not forward her writing as anything more than the leisurely
productions of a young girl; however, Wheatleyʼs writing would go on
to provide proof of the African Americanʼs ability to handle the art of
poetry.
105
According to the Norton Anthology of African American Literature,

Wheatleyʼs Poems on Various Subjects offers its reader several
introductory documents designed to authenticate Phillis Wheatley and
her poetry” (Gates & McKay 214).
Her writings became the method by which the masses learned to gauge
literature created by people of color. Consequently, this collection would
also place Wheatley at odds with protectors of the canon, as well as with
critics who found it absurd to think that a black could have written an
accepted piece of literature; furthermore, the individual in question was
a black woman.
One of Wheatleyʼs greatest critics would surface in Thomas Jefferson

who is noted for stating: “Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis [sic]
Wheatley [sic] but it could not produce a poet. The compositions
published under her name are below the dignity of criticism” (Grimes).
Jefferson is highly regarded for his outspoken criticism of Africans in
America. For Jefferson, it was incomprehensible that Wheatley could
genuinely furbish writings of meaning. In fact, her writings, though
genuine, were nothing more than “mindless repetition and imitation,
without being the product of intellect, of reflection” (Gates 45).
Jeffersonʼs disdain of Wheatleyʼs poetry is likely due to abolitionistsʼ
arguments that African American Literature provided proof of the
capability of the “Negro”.
Thus, the “Negro”, capable of mastering the arts, could be worth more
than a simple laborer. Jeffersonʼs thoughts alluded to the inferiority of
the African mind and thus the inferiority of Wheatley and other slaves.
Therefore, if one is to consider this, it is not so hard to realize that the
general thoughts of this nature have been embedded into cultural
thought pertaining to blacks or “Negroes”. Furthermore, black women
are targeted due to their placement below their black male counterparts.
In his book The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, editor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
reexamines the “trials” of Phillis Wheatley, discussing the “misgivings”
pertaining to Wheatleyʼs published writings. Gates reveals through his
discourse of Wheatley what other women of color have to look forward
to when attempting to define their existence through their writings.
Women of color must face conflicts outside their race as well as
conflicts spurned within. They are often “Too black to be taken
seriously by white critics in the eighteenth century Wheatley was now
considered too white to interest black critics in the twentieth” (Gates
82).
Prolific African American writer Richard Wright, as quoted by Deena,

places blame on Wheatley for “being at one with white culture” (Qtd. in
Deena 20). Long regarded for his outspokenness, Wright dismisses
106
Wheatleyʼs writings on the basis of her close relationships with whites;

furthermore, he denounces the accreditation given to them. Thus, Wright
falls in place alongside critics who denounce the writings of an
individual due to their relationships with the racially other. One may
consider this notion of Wright to be universal, that is, he would make
the same claim if the writer were male.
Her poems are filled with references that inspire as well as those which
ask her readers to question their views relative to Africans. Perhaps it is
Jefferson, or more appropriately those in agreement with him, that
prompted Wheatleyʼs writing of her poem “On being brought from
Africa to America”. The poem reminds us that despite the differences of
Africans was mercy that brought me from my pagan land” (line 1), there
does exist a hope that they, too, may be considered acceptable in Godʼs
eye “Remember, Christians, Negroes, black asCain,/ May be refin'd, and
join th' angelic train” (lines 7-8). This mode of writing is a recurring
theme for women of color through writing.
According to Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas and Laura Gillman, writings by

black women work to create “alternative social imaginaries that
represent a space where home and belongingness may be attained and
self-determination realized” (528). In their article “Subverting Forced
Identities, Violent Acts and Narrativity of Race: A Diasporic Analysis of
Black Womenʼs Radical Subjectivity in Three Novel Acts” Gillman and
Thomas discuss the act of subversion through literature composed by
African American female writers. They go on to assert that black female
writers use this technique to fight oppression; moreover, they are then
better able to define a space within their society that is homelike:
providing security and a sense of “belongingness” (Thomas & Gillman
529). Yet, women of color inadvertently expose themselves through this
process; making themselves and their writings vulnerable to the attack.
In the case of Wheatley, the attack is forcefully strong. Wheatleyʼs
perception of the world and her predicament would have been quite rare.
As a slave, she was seemingly unaffected by the harsh realities that
many other Africans endured. Therefore, within her writing, one may
note that there is not much literature which protests slavery. This has
been considered by some, like Wright, as the crux upon which her work
should be measured. However, as noted by Anne Applegate in her
article “Phillis Wheatley: Her Critics and her Contribution”, Wheatley
was “the first Black American woman author to receive any recognition
in the literary world. Unfortunately, she is too often remembered simply
as an oddity” (125). Besides the criticism of her works, does the content,
alone, provide Wheatleyʼs legacy protection? Does the content merit
inclusion in the traditional literary canon? Are they “ethnic” enough to
obtain acceptance from others of her race? The aforementioned
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questions relating to Wheatley are questions, which may be examined

with any female writer of color.
Zora Neale Hurston

The writings of Zora Neale Hurston are as diverse as they are
quintessential in understanding the relationship between literature
composed by women of color and the world. Of herself, Hurston notes:
“I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my
soul, nor lurking behind my eyes... I feel most colored when I am
thrown against a sharp white background” (Colored 1031). Hurston is a
woman whose literary legacy is defined by the idea that a black woman
could demand a space in the world; furthermore, she asserts that the
woman did not have to do so in fear of her race or femininity.
In perhaps her greatest literary accomplishment, Zora Neale Hurstonʼs

Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of one woman’s journey
to find the perfect union she witnesses among objects in nature. The
central character, Janie is told an important lesson about the life of
women by her grandmother, “So de white man throw down de load and
tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to but he
don’t tote it. He hand it to his women folks. De nigger woman is the
mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston Eyes 14).
The text begins by a revelation of the differences between male and

female perception of dreams. Unlike their male counterparts whose
dreams sail forever on the horizon, women fashion a different reality.
According to the narrator; “women forget all those things they don’t
want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget.
The dream is the truth then they act and do things accordingly” (Hurston
Eyes 1). Through the life experiences of the protagonist Janie, one is
able to view directly the life of the African American woman: the mule
of the world.
Hurston is a woman whose literary legacy is defined by the idea that a

black woman could demand a space in the world; furthermore, she
asserts that the woman did not have to do so in fear of her race or
femininity. In perhaps her greatest literary accomplishment, Zora Neale
Hurstonʼs Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of one
womanʼs journey to find the perfect union she witnesses among objects
in nature. The central character, Janie is told an important lesson about
the life of women by her grandmother, “So de white man throw down de
load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have
to but he donʼt tote it. He hand it to his women-folks. De nigger woman
is the mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see” (Hurston Eyes 14).
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The text begins by a revelation of the differences between male and

female perception of dreams. Unlike their male counterparts whose
dreams sail forever on the horizon, women fashion a different reality.
According to the narrator; “women forget all those things they donʼt
want to remember, and remember everything they donʼt want to forget.
The dream is the truth, and they act and do things accordingly”
(Hurston Eyes 1). Through the life experiences of the protagonist Janie,
one is able to view directly the life of the African- American woman: the
mule of the world.
Hurstonʼs novel most certainly is best discussed when one notes the
protagonistʼs goal to achieve natural harmony in her life; harmony she
witnesses as a teenager while watching beeʼs pollinate fruit blossoms.
This achievement of harmony is perhaps the central focus of the work,
as that Janieʼs action from that moment is an effort to achieve that level
of harmony. Janieʼs journey takes her through two failed marriages,
abuse, societal shame, and eventual happiness in a final marriage. By the
workʼs end, we find that Janie has come full circle.
She has achieved her oneness with nature and gained her own command
of the far off horizon; her destiny “[pulling] it from around the waist of
the world and [draping it] around her shoulders” (Hurston Eyes 193).
The life of Janie Crawford is a triumph. It indicates the indomitable
spirit of the African American woman to survive. Priscilla Wald, in her
article “Colored:
The Self-Authorized Language of Difference in Zora Neale Hurston”

explains that Hurstonʼs writing exhibits a unique quality that allows her
to “speak from the margins” (80). Referencing the fact that as both a
woman and an African -American, Hurston inter-plays differences to
“facilitate an inspection of cultural identity” (81). Unlike the journey of
the black man, Hurston is female, and thus her identity is doubly
indemnified by the problematic effects of post-colonialism.
At the time of its original publication, Hurstonʼs work became the center
of an ambiguous debate. On one side were supporters, albeit some of
which were white while on the other side were detractors, of which
some were black. Like Wheatley who preceded her, Hurston found her
writings battling against imperialistic ideals associated with race and
culture as well as with sexist views of black men. In reference to the
writings of Hurston, prolific African- American author Richard Wright
is quoted for stating: “[Hurstonʼs novel] neither has a basic idea or
theme that lends itself to a significant interpretation” (qtd. in Martinez).
Wrightʼs comments are ratified by other African -American critics who
disregard Hurstonʼs novel due to its sensual overtones as well as her
emphasis on southern dialect. For all that he criticizes of Hurston;
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Wright fails to create a proper portrayal of the black woman in any of

his writings.
Alice Walker & Toni Morison

Alice Walker, the best known African American writer of the second
half of the twentieth century, wrote The Color Purple in 1982. Her
writings turn to be a landmark in African American women’s fiction and
a turning point in women’s career writing.
Alice Walkerʼs The Color Purple has been praised as one of the
greatest literary works of its time. By that same token, Walkerʼs writing
has been criticized for themes that include a negative portrayal of black
men. Bell Hooks in his article “Writing the Subject: Reading the Color
Purple” describes the work as it “broadens the scope of literary
discourse, asserting its primacy in the realm of academic thought while
simultaneously stirring the reflective consciousness of a mass audience”
(215). Hooks ,notes that a key characteristic of the work is the sexual
exploration of the main character: “Celieʼs life is presented in reference
to her sexual history” (216). Yet, there is something deeper at work in
Walkerʼs novel that represents the real life displacement of women in
regards to society.
The prominent female characters in Walkerʼs work act as caricatures of

women in society. Celie, the protagonist, is the young woman who
comes of age in a world that resigns her as a subordinate to men, frames
her as physically unattractive, and places her within a world that
constantly reminds her that as a woman she is nothing. Through her
experiences with the other women in the novel, who like Celie are
themselves caricatures, she pieces together her own feminine identity
within a largely male dominated world. Celie reveals the ugly, but very
real existence of male bigotry. She also reveals conflicting ideas
pertaining to Christian images of god: “He big and old and tall and gray-
bearded and white” (Walker Color 195). It is Celie who learns to think
outside the prescribed notions dictated by man and to seek god in
everything. However, one the single caricature of Celie alone. Take for
instance the indomitable Sophia. The caricature of Sophia is illustrated
by her own admittance that she, along with her sisters, were all built like
“Amazons”. Celie describes Sophia after having her first baby by noting
in her letter: “she still a big strong girl. Arms got muscle. Legs, too”
(Walker Color 41). Whereas Celie represents the woman beaten down
by the world, Sophia is the exact opposite. When she wishes to make a
statement, she does. If a moment causes her to resort to physical action,
she returns it in kind. Key to the character is her declaration that reminds
us “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy; I had to fight my
brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ainʼt safe
in a family of men” (Walker Color 46).
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The “Amazon” as characterized by Sophia is fully knowledgeable of the

place of the woman in the world and her need of strength to fight against
the tyranny of the world, especially that wrought by men in their own
community. Celie and Sophia are not the only caricatures presented in
the text. After all, it is Shug Avery, the common county whore, who
exemplifies the free-spirit that others have attempted to cage. Shug, like
Sophia, speaks her mind and enjoys the pleasures of passion and sexual
relations, and while she is no different from many of the men who
swoon after her, she is depicted as nothing more than a harlot.
Consequently it is Squeak, so named for her meek voice, who cannot
demand the simple respect of having others call her by her real name.
She is but a woman in a manʼs world; she cannot declare her own
identity. Celieʼs sister, Nettie, although educated, falls in conflict with
the African villagers because she wishes to change the social order by
educating the females. Nettie is quickly reprimanded and put back in her
place. Walkerʼs stance here is essential in revealing the parallels
between the fictitious characters in her novel and the indubitable
existence of real women of color.
Mary Helen Washingtonʼs readings of Walkerʼs works reveals what she

defines as the construct of “the woman suspended” (41). Interestingly,
“the woman suspended” is the perfect description of the experiences of
women of color within a postcolonial society. The woman of this
description is placed at an involuntary standstill. Her movements, or
lack thereof, are dictated by society and the powers which exceed those
of woman; man dictates and the woman must obey. Linda Abbandonato
discusses the novel stating: “in her representation of the unrepresentable,
Walker dares us to arrive at the place where imagination is too far to go”
( 306). The charge of any writer is to take the reader somewhere;
however, the destination depends as much on the ethnicity of the writer
as his or her gender. Walker forces the reader, male and female, to
reexamine the experience of the woman within a postcolonial setting; a
setting wherein the men of color have found freedoms that they continue
to deny their women. Walkerʼs discourse as noted in The Color Purple
is also realized in her text, The Third Life of Grange Copeland.
The key narratives framed within the work revolve around Grange
Copeland. The other major narratives in the text act as subsets to those
of Grangeʼs, and are explored through the life of his son Brownfield and
Grangeʼs granddaughter, Ruth. In his article, “Speech, After Silence:
Alice Walkerʼs The Third Life of Grange Copeland”, Harold
Hellenbrand opens discourse on Walker by noting Walkerʼs earlier
declaration of two factors acting as strains on black fiction: “the
chronicle of a black family and the tale concerned primarily with racial
confrontation” (113). Through a careful examination, one is able to view
the lives of the Copelandʼs and understand the difficulties they face
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while combating the rural south. The narrative expressed within the
novel revolves around the male characters; however, the women
referenced in the work speak volumes of the aforementioned female
battle against imperialism and sexism.
Toni Morrison
Morrisonʼs essay “Thoughts on the African-American Novel” discusses
specifically the role of the novel within the African American
community. Accordingly, Morrison describes the novel as a product
produced for the middle class. As it would seem, those who were a part
of the lower class or the upper class had everything they needed;
however, the middle class, in the wake of the industrial revolution
needed something to help them define the new space they would inhabit
in society. Morrison notes: “they [the middle class] had no art form to
tell them how to behave in this new situation. So they produced an art
form” (30). The shift here in writing would make up for a lack stories
that had been shared through music, or oral traditions among the lower
classes.
Furthermore, it would not be as refined as the art or fine antiques of the

aristocracy. The novel became a success because of its ability to not
only teach proper protocols to a burgeoning society, it was also able to
convey new experiences “In the same way that a musicianʼs music is
enhanced when there is a response from the audience...itʼs of some
importance to me to try to make that connection” (Morrison Novel 31).
One would likely agree that Morrison has been successful in making that
connection. There are numerous works for which Morrison is known.
There are also multiple experiences conveyed through her writings,
primarily those of African American women.
For many, Toni Morrison is known as the African American laureate

who transposed the delicately framed story of the slave Sethe in her
Pulitzer prize winnning work Beloved. This aspect of the “American
reality” is a part of that same reality professed by other African
American female writers who use their writings to formulate a space that
has been denied to them by society.
Toni Morissonʼs seminal work, Beloved, is a work that helps to connect

the African, and to an extent, the American community by recounting a
period of American history that has often been difficult at times to
discuss. It is through the character Sethe, a former slave, that one learns
of one of the major hardships created by slavery. Essentially this is a
hardship that affects women with a ferocity unlike that of their male
counterparts. The story of the runaway Sethe is further complicated by
her choice to ensure that her children would not have to return to slavery
when her former master finds her in hiding. Sethe uses the only method
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of control she has, that is, control over the lives of her children, and
takes it upon herself to spare them from slavery through death.
Fortunately, her attempt is foiled, but not before she is successful in
murdering her oldest child, a girl whose headstone reads “Beloved”. The
“Beloved” one lives on however in spirit and dominates the house on
I24, “the ghost that tried them so” (Morrison Beloved 4). It is not until
the reappearance of a man in the house and a strange girl that helps one
to understand the choices made by Sethe, and for that matter, the other
slave women whose heritage is fashioned by colonization.
Sethe is Morrisonʼs paradoxical character. She is also the quintessential

female slave: appeasing the desires of her children; adhering to the
governing powers of her white masters. She is so loyal, in fact, that she
receives a gift from the mistress of Sweet Home, “a present from the
lady I worked for” (Morrison Beloved 58). Unfortunately, the life
afforded to Sethe in Kentucky on the Sweet Home plantation is anything
but “sweet”. A chance at freedom leads Sethe to strike out; however, she
is unsuccessful at first and becomes the victim of a sexual assault by
Sweet Homeʼs patriarchal power: Schoolteacher, and his boys. The men
exact their will over the young slave woman and commit an act of theft
that forever scars Sethe. Sethe recounts her experience, repeatedly
saying: “those boys came in there and took my milk. Thatʼs what they
came in there for. Held me down and took it.” (Morrison Beloved 16).
The motherʼs breast, which bears milk, the gift of life, is the only thing
which the poor slave woman can give to her children. It is a rare and
precious gift that some slave women are not able to give their children
because they are at times responsible for nursing the children of their
owners. According to the power structure established by imperialism,
the female slave, like her male counterpart, is a thing to be used. In
this case, Sethe embodies a role that countless slave women were forced
to take part in: one to amuse the master who wields complete power. It
is because of her understanding of this system that Sethe makes her way
to freedom and asserts a level of power and authority that had been
previously denied to her, and to an extent, her children. Sethe, on the
precipice of destruction is able to bring herself back and begins life
anew, free with Baby Suggs. Setheʼs new claim to freedom is short-lived
when her former master and rapists (Schoolteacherʼs boys) find her and
desire to return her to the sugary Sweet Home. It is at this moment that
Sethe takes her role as a free woman and essentially a mother to a new
level. Sethe decides that her children will find more satisfaction in a
freedom filled death rather than a freedom-less life. One may question
the motive of the runaway slave woman, yet if one studies the ladder of
authority designed with the Imperialist in mind, the slave woman has
only power over her children. Furthermore, what little power she has is
dictated last in her favor. Thus, Sethe attempts to free her children from
the burden of slavery, forever increasing her burden as seemingly
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illustrated by the chokecherry tree that now “could have cherries”

(Morrison Beloved 16). The tree itself is a reminder of her past
difficulties; likely enhanced now with red cherries symbolizing the
blood of her children. The discussion here of Sethe and her decisions
provides evidence toward the explanation of the female grasp toward
obtaining control where formerly she had none.
It has been noted that Morrisonʼs attempts through her novels is to make
a connection between the literature and the reader. What then is the
connection offered by works like Beloved or The Bluest Eye? Whereas
Walkerʼs quintessential female characters essentially act as caricatures
for various women in society, it seems that Morrisonʼs women are quite
effective in their ability to connect specific periods and the existence of
women during those periods to the reader. Pecola, Claudia, Frieda,
Pilate, Sethe, are excellent figures that help one to understand periodized
existence for African American women. From slavery to the depression
and even afterwards, the women of Morrisonʼs works shed light on the
female psyche; its attempted development as well as its stifling by both
society and black men. Yet there is apparent connection between the
periodized experiences of these characters and other black female
characters expressed through other writings. Therefore, there is proof
that the shared existences of these fictitious women are likened to those
of the very real women who created them, women who essentially
understand their role as a beast of burden.
Jamaica Kincaid and Audre Lorde

Jamaica Kincaid had begun her writing career in the United States
without having any awareness of a Caribbean literary tradition. Her
works, however, are from the very beginning is distinctly Caribbean
because it shares thematic preoccupations and stylistic devices with a
majority of Caribbean writers features. For this reason, she may be said
to accommodate to the Caribbean canon established by a number of
seminal works from the fifties and sixties, a period that witnessed a
boom in Caribbean literature in the Western metropolis mainly through
the works of the gifted male artists mentioned earlier. Critical studies in
the course of the sixties and seventies acclaimed these writers as central
figures and outlined a critical approach tracing the thematic concerns,
dominant tropes, narrative modes and aesthetic trends of Caribbean
literature, which included: a preoccupation with history, cultural
dominance, individual and communal identity; a concern with naming
the landscape and validating the local; a prevalence of narratives of
alienation, exile and nostalgia; a focus on childhood experience; a
preference for the autobiographical mode and the realist tradition. With
the exception of the realist mode, which she rejects as inappropriate to a
reality conceived as extending far beyond the realm of physical
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evidence, Jamaica Kincaid seems to fit easily into this distinctly

Caribbean tradition.
Her most acclaimed novel, In the collection of stories At the Bottom of

the River, Kincaid's first book, a girl approaching maturity comes to
terms with her domineering mother. In her process of self-formation, she
is caught in a bundle of contradictory feelings: she deeply loves and
hates her mother at the same time; she relishes the safety of dependence,
but strives for separation; she longs for union with the mother, yet
perseveres in resistance. The nostalgia for a pre-oedipal union with the
mother seems to evoke the innocence of a pre-colonial world still
uncorrupted by conflict and violence, whereas the maternal rejection of
the daughter striving for autonomy may recall the colonial alienating
power relegating its subjects to a subaltern position. The mother, whose
love is wonderful yet claustrophobic, represents a threat of erasure for
the daughter, who must struggle to articulate a separate identity and
affirm her own power.
Annie John Kincaid’s first novel, explores the same themes in a more
articulated socio-historical setting. Within a reality marked by poverty,
racism and political and cultural oppression, the mother-daughter theme
offers a paradigm of psycho-social female development in the specific
context of the Caribbean. As she matures, the girl comes to terms with
the emotional conflicts common to adolescence and with the cultural
conflicts which characterise her colonial society. The process of identity
formation is analysed in relation to the problematics of race, gender and
class.
The protagonist has to deal with a mother who is subjected to colonial

logic and with a whole society which is oppressive and threatening for
her own sense of self. The interrelationship between motherhood and
colonialism is here explored more thoroughly than in the first book and
the theme of cultural oppression is treated more explicitly. After the
success of her first two books, praised by reviewers for the gentleness
and the charm of their tone, Kincaid’s growing political awareness
becomes clear in the controversial essay on Introduction post-colonial
Antigua, A Small Place where, drawing from firsthand experience, she
engages in a sharp and angry criticism of both British colonialism and
American imperialism as well as of the corruption and mismanagement
of the native government. In this work, the quest for freedom theme is
approached at the collective rather than at the personal level since
Kincaid is more interested in the implications of colonialism and
imperialism on Antiguan national identity and in exploring the
mechanisms of power and the ways in which social conditions shape
human consciousness. Resistance is advocated as the prime tool of
empowerment and, finally, freedom is envisaged in the abandonment of
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prescriptive roles and in the rediscovery of the humanity of both

conquerors and conquered.
Kincaid’s anger and political commitment are then re-inscribed into her
second novel, Lucy which continues the personal saga started with the
earlier fiction. The book records the emotional struggle of a girl growing
up and coming to terms with the changes operating on her perception of
herself and of the external world. The North American setting, where the
protagonist is caught within new power relationships which replicate old
ones, offers a wider perspective on the conflict with the biological
mother and the colonial motherland, whose memory still haunts the girl
obsessively. While the relationship with her white employer seems to
replicate the one with her mother, the imperialism of North American
society echoes the logic of British colonial power.
The text articulates the quest for the self of a colonial subject
confronting the white West and offers alter/native visions on politics and
history. Lucy confronts colonial and imperial power structures and gives
voice to her own version of the story, seeing it from the perspective of a
subaltern subject who finally will become the agent of her own destiny.
Like the protagonists of the earlier works, Lucy is able to carry on with
her struggle against oppression thanks to the self-determination inherited
from the African world her mother embodies.
The obsession with the mother figure is also at the heart of Kincaid’s
latest novel, The Autobiography of my Mother, which, nevertheless,
marks an evolution in her work both because the sources are not as
strictly autobiographical as elsewhere and also because recurrent themes
are treated from a distinct perspective.
Now, Kincaid explores the implications of motherlessness on the

definition of the self. The central motif of the protagonist’s life, whose
Carib Indian mother died giving birth to her, is the absence of a maternal
figure who would function as a mirror image necessary to the
identification and the affirmation of the self as other. Her writing always
responding to a duality of vision, Kincaid also seems to suggest in the
protagonist’s motherlessness the brutal deprivation of ancestry by
colonialism’s exterminations of the native people of the Caribbean. In a
world marked by death, the protagonist has to invent herself out of loss.
Refusing to become a mother, she sustains herself through self-
possession and the pleasure of her own body and poses an end to the
perpetuation of historical ruin by not letting her ancestral side (whereas
her mother is a Carib Indian, her father is half-Scot half-African) be
destroyed in reproduction.
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Kincaid’s latest book, My Brother, is a memoir where, relating of the

illness and death of her youngest brother, struck by AIDS in his thirties,
the author discloses her personal experience of love and loss with the
maternal figure always at the centre. The reflection on the mercilessness
of existence and the realisation that nothing is stable and true in life
gives vent to a flood of memories revolving around the relationship with
the fraudulent maternal figure, beautiful and cruel, nurturing and
suffocating, adored and hated. Finally, the life of the narrator’s brother
will stand symbolically for the destiny she has escaped. The text can
therefore be read as yet another personal tale of resistance and survival.
Audre Lorde
A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde
dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and
addressing injustices of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.
Lorde was born in New York City to West Indian immigrant parents.
She attended Catholic schools before graduating from Hunter High
School and published her first poem in Seventeen magazine while still a
student there. Of her poetic beginnings Lorde commented in Black
Women Writers: “I used to speak in poetry. I would read poems, and I
would memorize them. People would say, well what do you think,
Audre. What happened to you yesterday? And I would recite a poem and
somewhere in that poem would be a line or a feeling I would be sharing.
In other words, I literally communicated through poetry. And when I
couldn’t find the poems to express the things I was feeling, that’s what
started me writing poetry, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.”
Declaring the Activism of Black Feminist Theory

As a black, mother, lesbian, feminist, socialist, activist and a poet in the
1960s, “there was usually some part of Audre Lorde guaranteed to
offend someone’s comfortable prejudices through her prolific writings.
Her refusal to be reduced by any one of her many and sometimes
contradictory) identities made her a strange contemporary of the Black
Arts writers. Audre Lorde was not only married to a white man, but a
bisexual white man to boot. Lorde’s tendency of inhabiting a space that
put her at odds with societal expectations would be a continuous theme
throughout her life and her work. Although it would be relatively easy to
paint Lorde as a wholesale contrarian, her relationship to the Black Arts
Movement was not solely based in opposition.
In addition, Lorde accepted several literary conventions of the Black

Arts Movement. Specifically, she used art to encourage social
opposition to both racist ideologies and racist institutions.
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Consequently, Audre Lorde’s oppositional poetics begin as an attempt to

conceive of difference in a positive light, a point she crystallizes in her
famous address at Hunter College:
It is within our differences that we are both most

powerful and most vulnerable…[because]
unclaimed, our differences are used against us in
the service of separation and confusion, for we
view them only in opposition to each other,
dominant/subordinate, good/bad, superior/inferior.
And of course, so long as the existence of human
differences means one must be inferior, the
recognition of those differences will be fraught with
guilt and danger. (I Am Your Sister 201 -
202)
What Lorde reveals in the passage above is the groundwork for her re-
conceptualization of difference. She fundamentally rejects the binary
framework that often characterizes the relationship between human
differences; a framework based in value judgments, and predicated on
exclusion. When one applies Lorde’s ideology of difference to the
concept of race, her point becomes less obscure. Since whiteness is an
identity that has been historically defined by what it is not, the creation
of an Other is fundamental to identity formation. Racial difference,
therefore, develops Manichean characteristics: a signifier of either racial
superiority or racial inferiority.
In order to prevent this dehumanization of difference, Lorde suggests

that we must reclaim our differences and define them in ways that
expand rather than limit us.
Essentially then, one’s difference is the site of creation: a place where a

source of shame can transform into a source of pride. Lorde’s poem,
“Coal,” is one of the best examples of how she expands racial difference
by challenging the rigid notions of blackness advocated by Baraka and
Neal:
Is the total black, being spoken.From the
earth's inside.
There are many kinds of open.
How a diamond comes into a knot of flame
How a sound comes into a word, coloured
By who pays what for speaking. (The
Collected Poems of Audre Lorde 6)
In “Coal” the essence of Audre Lorde’s poetic style is revealed in both

content and syntax. Rhetorically, Lorde is attempting to re-conceptualize
blackness, as it relates to the ideology of Larry Neal and Amiri Baraka,
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by subverting the racial essentialism of the black aesthetic and the

misogynistic disposition of “Black Art.” This re-conceptualization is
accomplished by associating blackness with the power to create rather
than to destroy. The speaker in this poem implicitly compares herself to
coal, which typically has a negative racial connotation because to be
black as coal is to be exceptionally dark, putting the speaker in conflict
with Eurocentric aesthetics. As the “darkest daughter of a white-looking
black woman who made it known that ‘you [shouldn’t] trust anybody
whose face is black, because their heart is black,’” Lorde was fully
aware of how stigmatized blackness was as a human difference both
inside and outside of the African American community (De Veaux 18-
19). Yet the speaker in “Coal” does not express shame or anger at the
comparison, but hope. There is hope because coal, and the racial
difference it signifies, is not a fixed thing, but capable of evolving. In
the most basic sense coal has the potential to transform into a diamond.
This symbolic mutability, however, has less to do with actual skin color
than with the idea of blackness itself. While Baraka primarily describes
black people on the physical plane, demonstrated by his use of “lovers,”
“warriors,” and “sons” in his poem “Black Art,” Lorde describes black
people on the metaphysical plane as “being spoken from the earth’s
inside” (Collected Poems 6). This spiritual understanding of blackness
lacks a national, cultural, or phenotypical essence, putting Lorde in
direct conflict with one of the theoretical premises of the Black Arts
Movement––the black aesthetic. The black aesthetic is based in racial
essentialism seeking above all to “destroy the white thing” (Neal 30).
For Lorde, however, the enemy is not the white thing, but racial
essentialism itself. As demonstrated by the traditionally negative racial
connotation of coal, to exclusively rely on racial difference as the basis
of individual identity or communal solidarity is to passively accept the
inherent limitation of an external definition: a definition rooted in racist
histories. Although the black aesthetic is an attempt to redefine
blackness positively, “when self- definition is [founded] in limitation
rather than expansion, no true face can emerge” (I Am Your Sister 157).
Lorde’s penchant for referring to as many of her identities as possible is
indicative of this desire to continually expand beyond her limiting social
categories. This idea of expansion is the method by which Lorde
threaded diversity throughout her life: a method built upon the idea of
creation, not destruction.
What truly separates “Coal” from Baraka’s “Black Art,” however, is its
subtlety. “Coal” does not scream at the reader with pedantic notions of
black superiority, or rely on berating the white oppressor, or attempt to
masculinize revolution by “kill[ing], shoot[ing] guns, or wrestl[ing] cops
into alleyways” (Gates and McKay 1943). Instead Lorde reminds the
reader of the truth: that coal is a fuel or, less abstractly, that your racial
difference is a source of power. This power is not the ability to destroy
119
the oppressor, but the power to expand yourself. Lorde hints at this
notion in the first two lines of the poem:
“I / Is the total black” (Collected Poems 6). The use of “I” (the first
person singular subject) with “is” (the third person singular verb) is
more than merely a break in subject-verb agreement. According to
Michelle Wright, since Lorde wrote almost exclusively in Standard
English, one cannot dismiss this poetic device as a stylistic attempt to
sound black or “conform to the slam style” (Wright 162). I propose that
this I-is construction relates to the idea of expansion. I claim that an
ever-expanding definition of oneself, free from binary hindrances and
social constructs, is symbolized by Lorde’s rejection of non-standard
grammatical syntax. According to Margaret Morris this “decidedly
Modernist style was purposely elusive and fragmented in order to
problematize every comfortable assumption generated by essentialism”
(Morris 100). This point becomes even more persuasive when one
examines the spacing of this I-is construction. Since the “I” occupies a
line by itself, and is immediately followed by the phrase “is the total
black,” Lorde physically distances racial categorization from the
speaker. In addition, the use of “is” rather than the grammatically correct
“am” further exacerbates this distance. But more important than the
conceptual distance between the speaker and her race is the actual space
(on the page) that this distance creates. Specifically, the empty space
after the “I” suggests that the speaker is more than simply the aggregate
of her racial features. This space suggests infinite possibilities and
symbolizes a diverse way of self-identifying that is not limited to a
single voice. If one examines the use of this space in conjunction with
Lorde’s term “total black,” then a new understanding of blackness
emerges: a blackness without limits.
Semantically, to say I am black, is to be categorized and contained

within the historical reference of race. But when the speaker identifies as
the “total black” that singular historical reference is problematized and
expanded because the “total black” is not a reductive category inherited
from slaveholders. The “total black” is a primal, spiritual, all-inclusive
association without a perceivable limit, or in other words the total black
is “spoken from the earth’s inside.” While Baraka’s understanding of
blackness is narrow and signified by sameness, Lorde’s understanding
of blackness is open to diversity and “there are many kinds of open.”
Thus, in “Coal” Lorde effectively subverts the violent misogyny of
“Black Art,” the racial essentialism of the black aesthetic, and the
ideology of containment by expanding the concept of blackness.
Race, however, no matter how much it is expanded, is not sufficient to

fully express Lorde’s identity. Lorde’s humanity, “her will to be,”
demanded the full recognition of her gender (Wright 55). In her poem
“Black Unicorn” Lorde continues to subvert the ideology of containment
120
by directly challenging Amiri Baraka’s sexist construction of black

people. While Baraka privileges male power in “Black Art,” Lorde
diversifies the black experience by making black women the central
focus in “Black Unicorn”:
The black unicorn is greedy. The
black unicorn is impatient. The black
unicorn was mistaken for a shadow or
symbol and taken through a cold
country where mist painted mockeries
of my fury. It is not on her lap where
the horn rests but deep in her moonpit
growing. The black unicorn is restless
the black unicorn is unrelenting the
black unicorn is not free. (Collected
Poems 233).
Related to “Coal” Lorde once again demonstrates her poetic subtly and
mastery of conceit; however, unlike the image of coal, the black unicorn
does not represent the mutability of blackness but is a placeholder for
black women. With a “horn” growing from “deep in her moonpit” rather
than in “her lap,” the speaker explicitly genders the black unicorn as
female. In conjunction with this gendering, Lorde alludes to elements of
the African-American experience when characterizing the black unicorn.
For example, the idea of a black body being “taken / through a cold
country / where mist painted mockeries / of…fury” evokes the horrors
of the Middle Passage. The history of being kidnapped from one’s home
and taken to an alien country, where even the climate comes to represent
all that you have lost, is the same history that has shaped (and continues
to shape) the African American literary tradition. The combination of
these gendered and racial signifiers, suggests that the black unicorn
functions as a poetic symbol for African American women.
In Audre Lorde’s work, the force of silence appears as a recurring and

varied theme. Many of Lorde’s most powerful and evocative passages
depict a battle against the devastating effects of a life withheld, of a
natural voice stifled by the fearful effects of hegemony. As the story of a
young life examined retrospectively from a confrontation with her own
mortality, Lorde’s “biomythography” Zami: A New Spelling of My
Name (1982) is composed in a manner fitting the complicated nature of
what it often takes to be its greatest adversary: silence within, and
silence without. In Zami, Lorde responds to this adversary not only with
words, but—in an iteration of the ideological call to arms for which she
became famous—by taking up the master’s tools to dismantle the
master’s house, deploying various strategic silences of her own.
As such, Lorde’s Zami complicates a common assessment of the late-
twentieth-century turn to memoir, as a neoliberal symptom of the
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deepening commitment to personal identity—a commitment that some

contend amplifies rather than meaningfully contests the structural forces
that reproduce the very inequalities such assertions of identity can often
purport to fight.Even as it appears to exemplify such a turn, in its own
way Lorde’s Zami can also be seen as of a piece with the kind of
aspiration toward “impersonality” advocated by a longer tradition of
American writers, from the Transcendentalists to the modernists, in
which “personal” material is deemed only worthy of inclusion insofar as
it speaks to that which is “universal.”4 But more relevant to its time, and
perhaps more importantly, Zami also demonstrates a paradoxical picture
of the importance of self-ownership in an increasingly neoliberal age, by
rejecting identity-as-commodity in favor of a self-forged vision that
protects her from the violent assaults of the status quo. That is to say,
Zami emerges at a moment just before personal identity became
equivalent with personal branding, when one could still imagine an
insistence on narrating one’s truth regarding engagements with
inscriptive identity as undertaking a transcendent, radical act.
However, to claim for Zami a transcendence above identity discourse

would seem to place it at odds with the memoir form itself—particularly
one that predicates its significance, and urgency, on asserting the
importance of categories of identity that amatively resist the norms of
the status quo. After all, as Lorde articulated in an interview published
while still writing Zami, the very inspiration behind the project was to
arm the legitimacy of a specifically “intersectional” identity: one that
was African American, lesbian, and professionally aligned with literary
studies:
I call it a biomythography. I wrote the book out of a

need I heard in the black women’s community—
that’s how it first started. Barbara Smith said to me:
‘I’m a black lesbian feminist literary critic and I
don’t know whether it’s possible to be a black
lesbian feminist literary critic and survive.’ When I
heard that—just about five years ago—I thought,
‘Oh boy, I’ve got to start writing some of that stu_
down. She needs to know that yes, it is possible.’
And it grew from that. [ : : : ] I learned a lot in
doing it, but then again I learned a lot in learning
how to write prose, a di_erent kind of thinking.5
As such, for Lorde, the project’s overt commitment to identity required a

pastiche of genres in order to formalize the relationship to self she
sought to evoke for the sake of arming an identity that did not, on its
own, feel safe in the world: the “biomythography”, part highly
historicized memoir, part timeless creation myth. As an aspect of this,
122
the project also required grappling with a key problem that remains with
us today, and one that puts her work in a certain alignment with a history
of radical thinkers that stretches back well past the neoliberal turn: how
to write from the perspective of the individuated self in such a way that
will be arming and resonant for the individual reader, such that one’s
work might forge a sense of community while also asserting a political
value beyond the narrative of the individual. One might say that in this
way—both formally and politically—Lorde’s work stands in a clear
lineage with African American women’s life-writing, from the slave
narratives and spiritual confessions of the nineteenth century, to
migration narratives of the mid-twentieth, to the autobiographical
writing of second- and third-wave feminisms.6 In each of these
iterations, racial and sexual inequality writ large appear to imbue literary
form with something like an “indexical” register, such that asserting the
particularized narrative voice correlated at various moments to the
assertion of political personhood—or even that of full humanity—
worthy of recognition in the public sphere. As such, despite its mid-
century temporal scope, the aim and structure of Lorde’s 1982 memoir
can be understood as participating in a much longer tradition of African
American autobiography, and in the kind of formal experimentation
demanded by such political aims. For authors forced to bear the unequal
norms of socially-ascribed identity, the memoir form emerged early on
as an elastic mode, one that could demonstrate liberation from the
hierarchical hegemonies of essentialized personhoods. But through
Zami, Lorde also formalizes the very question that she famously posed:
can we, after all, dismantle the master’s house by using the master’s
tools? (Lorde 1984) That is to say, can an assertion of the same kind of
normative identity-discourse that had been used to silence and thus
deform the development of individual consciousness become instead a
means of political empowerment? More precisely, the formal choices
that structure Zami seem to imply a standing question animating
contemporary narratives of identity more broadly: how does the
racialized individual plausibly locate herself in historical time, without
abandoning the notion of racial deference altogether? The works that
precedes Zami considers such questions through a reading of Lorde’s
Zami, concerning both the role of silence in the protagonist’s personal
development and the significance of a critically overlooked and yet
conspicuous omission from its text: that of the politically and socially
cataclysmic death of Emmett Till in August 1955.
Though absent from her prose memoir, Till’s death and its powerful
effect appear elsewhere in Lorde’s poetry, speeches, essays, and
interviews, including the interview cited above. Held just before the
publication of Zami, at the event Lorde read “Afterimages,” her long
poem that memorialized Till’s death, reaching back almost 30 years to
evoke the experience of being visually assaulted by the photographs of
123
Till’s mutilated corpse circulating in mass media during the summer of

1955. After the reading, Lorde and Fran Moira discussed the difficulties
that attend a white woman and a black woman discussing race. In
response, Moira noted “Afterimages” as a piece that evokes what Lorde
had described as differences between white and black women that are
rooted in both history and in the body. Lorde replied, “A lot of it is
history that we have come through; a lot of it is centered within me,
within you”.7
Though Lorde’s assertion of such “centering” elicited unquestioned

assent, locating social and political history in the body invites complex,
and paradoxical, political entailments. In Lorde’s work, we can see one
way in which such complexities could be smoothed over by virtue of
authorial decisions regarding literary form, and by the treatment of
historical content. For Lorde, the death of Emmett Till could not be
represented in prose, nor even in the memoir itself, but demanded a free
verse poem instead. More specifically, it was the encounter with the
representation of his murder, and the proliferation of the image of his
corpse, that Lorde wanted to narrate as a personal experience, but did
not want to include in the “biomythography”. The combined
appearances and disappearances in her work of this highly politicized
murder illuminate aspects of how Lorde’s own racial consciousness
developed during both the time covered by Zami, approximately 1924 to
1956, and during the time of its publication, 1982. But it also suggests
broader insights into the workings of racial ideology itself post-Jim
Crow-particularly how it could appear to be both independent of and
utterly derived from the contingencies of its recent history, at the same
time.
Introduction
From all the extensive and exhaustive black women representative
works so far considered, we, therefore, conclude by examining the
account of shared commonalities between the lived experiences of all
women it should therefore seem unquestionable that there exists a
divided front within the realm of feminism, and to a lesser extent
feministic criticism. The established models of feminism have become
outdated in a globalized world. Colonialism has touched everyone.
Literature, alone, provides a firm testament to the lives of women. Black
women, as well as other women of color have been affected differently,
yet it does not override the fact that all women have been affected.
Perhaps time will be the deciding factor in bringing together a truly
united front that does not separate them of the world. Instead one will
finally acknowledge that they are all women and equally included and
protected by a united multicultural feministic front.
124
Summary
We have through succeeded in drilling the students through the
considered topic in the module and summarily justify that black women
have found more often that their writings must attempt being loud and
enduring by not offending Europeanized males as well as black males.
Ironically they must also be careful not to include details within their
writings that would keep them from being separated from other writings
by women as this is evidently reflected in all the representative works
we have considered.

(1) What is the essence of postcolonial feminist representation in
black women writings? Discuss exhaustively.
(2) Is post colonial feminist theory worth sustaining the relegating
and neglecting background of a black woman especially in
contemporary world? Justify or contradict
(3) How would you reconcile change and women in their
overwhelming pursuit and soloicit for independence and identity
in comparative black literature? Discuss.
(4) What is womanism? And how has it helped in protecting the
image and identity of African-American& Caribbean women?
(5) Discuss the issues of race, gender and women empowerment in
Alice Walkers The Color Purple and Toni Morison’s Beloved.

Abbandonato, Linda. “Rewriting the Heroineʼs Story in The Color
Purple”. Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. Henry
Louis Gates Jr., K.Appiah. New York: Amistad, 1993.
Deena, Seodial F. H. Canonization, Colonization, Decolonization: A
Comparative Study of Political and Critical Works By Minority Writers.
New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
Desai, Anita. Fasting, Feasting. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
Dipasquale, David, Sarah Meyer, and Gaushia Thao. “Toni Morrison”.
Voices from the Gaps. University of Minnesota, 2007.
Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 1952.
Print.
Freedman, Estelle B. No Turning Back: The History of Feminism and
the Future of Women. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.
Gates Louis, Henry. “Color Me Zora . Alice Walker: Critical
Perspectives Past and Present. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Anthony
Appiah New York: Amistad, 1993.
Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. Norton Anthology of African
American Literature. Ed.
New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004.
125
Joyce, Joyce A. “The Black Canon: Reconstructing Black American

Literary Criticism” New Literary History 18.2 (1987): 335-344. JSTOR.
Web. 5 February 2009. <http://www.jstor.org>
Kanhai, Rosanne. “ ʻSensing Designs in Historyʼs Muddlesʼ: Global
Feminism and the Postcolonial Novel”. Modern Language Studies. 26.4
(1996):119-130. JSTOR. Web. 16 July 2008
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3195329>
Khayati, Abdellatif. “Representation, Race, and the Language of the
Ineffable in Toni Morrisonʼs Narrative”. African American Review.
33.2 (1999): 313-324. JSTOR. Web. 8 February 2008. <www.jstor.org>
King, Carol. “The Impact of Race, Gender and Class on Identity in Toni
Morrisonʼs Fiction. International Journal of Humanities. 3.6 (2005):
201-209. JSTOR. Web. 15 March 2009. www.jstor.org
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood
Among Ghosts. New York: Vintage International, 1989.
126
MODULE 7: READING CARIBBEAN WRITING: A CROSS-

CULTURAL APPROACH TO REPRESENTATIONS OF
SELECTED CARIBBEAN WORKS
INTRODUCTION
This last module is intended to explore the representative selected

Caribbean authors whose works have impacted and reflected the
Caribbean society. Literature of the Black Diaspora locates within its
multi-layered gamut, a kaleidoscope of artistic productions; self-
narratives careered by the quest for identity and self-expatriation from a
ruthless atmosphere of slavery and racial subjugation. Studies have
fixated on thematic preoccupation, language form in works of Caribbean
traditions.
Objectives
At the end of this topic, the students are expected to:
(1) Be voraciously familiar and acquainted with the major Caribbean
authors
(2) Be well conversant with their common themes and image
(3) Duly understand the plight and plausibility behind their pursuit
and writings
Main Content
Owing to the forced and voluntary migrations have given shape to
artistic representations as well as critical ordering and reordering, black
literature of the Diaspora cannot be untangled from the thread of
struggle, self-assertion and cultural survival in a new home simmered in
dehistoricisation and cultural abrogation. Slavery and barefaced racism
were the attendant nightmares for blacks who were forcefully
transported from Africa during the Atlantic slave trade. In 1619, James
Town in Virginia was the first historical abode of the twenty slaves who
turned out indentured labourers working on the American plantation.
Slavery is the single most premeditating factor from which black
literature evolved. Corroborating this, Butcher, 1956 avers that:
Slavery introduced into the very
hearts of Blacks, a
crucial dilemma whose resultant
problems with their
progressive resolutions account for
many fateful events in
Black history and for most of the
characteristic qualities of
Black culture.
The psychological trauma that followed this altered the lives of blacks.
Black representations came through literature and several other art forms
127
rooted in the black vernacular that became the quest media for self-
reinscription into the fabric of black identity and cultural survivalism of
post-slavery era. The reality is that rootlessness and homelessness in
their strange home created in the blacks a search for their home where
there is physical and spiritual harmony.
The identity motif is to this literature the steel that makes its presence
undeniable. Literary scholars have asserted that the journey motif is not
a new phenomenon. In fact, it is one of the most common features in
literature; from the quest narrative, the picaresque, to the American
western autobiographical works.
Angelou (1986), I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, also a self-fictional
representation of a trajectory of physical and psychological quest for
assertion, situates within black identity and journey motif and reflective
of double burden for a world stifled by racism and female otherness. The
heroine faces more intense physical and psychological upset as first a
woman and a black woman in particular. This black character’s
experiences are connected to journey motif as many of such narratives
conspicuously relate. In the words of Fanon, the earnest search for self
and cultural affirmation has yielded in exactitude:
The corrosive element all that comes
near them, the
deforming element disfiguring all that
has to do with
white beauty and morality, the
depository of maleficent
powers and the unconscious
irretrievable element of
blind forces (Fanon, 1963: 32).
Fanon’s view hinges on a counter discourse of cultural elitism that has
perpetrated lopsided racial subjugation against the blacks. There is to
this end, an attempt at cultural retrieval, seen here as identity repatriation
from the condescension of the black personality and to the appropriate
undistorted truth about black historiography rooted in nobility rather
than the ignominy configured by the white man.
Literature of The Black Diaspora assumes the satellite for the artistic
rendering of identity search and cultural recuperation. This essay,
against this backdrop, explores struggle, identity and cultural survival in
purposively selected self-fictional text through for instance, the George
Lamming’s plot and characterization model. It foregrounds the discourse
of identity careered through journey motif in the novels that have been
drawn from the African American and Caribbean traditions.
128
The practice of reading Caribbean writing, and the representation of

writers in the work of seven major Caribbean writers: Edward Kamau
Brathwaite, V.S. Naipaul, Derek Walcott , Wilson Harris, Richard
Wright, Ralph Elision and George Lamming. Since the emergence of an
identifiable body of Anglophone Caribbean writing in the 1950’s and
1960’s, the literature of and about the Caribbean has largely been read in
terms of a search for identity. Aesthetic renaissance has become a key
aspect of this search for identity and is being manifested in a thematic,
formal and stylistic preoccupation with writing and reading that is
evident in the literary works of Brathwaite, Naipaul, Walcott, Harris,
Lamming, Elision, and Wright.
The work of Russian literary theorist and philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin is

central to my development of a cross-cultural approach to Caribbean
writing. It is my intention to suggest that Bakhtin’s work offers a
valuable resource and response to the dilemma faced by the Western
reader of Caribbean writing: a resource that not only provides a rich area
of analysis in the field of cultural, linguistic and literary hybridisation,
but that also implicitly offers a valuable theorisation of the practice of
reading across cultures. There is this existing cloak of intersectionality
between Caribbean and postcoloniality. With subject matter in the work
of the selected Caribbean major writers, we wish to consider questions
of language, authorship, history, reading and the tempero-spatial
representation of the cross-cultural Caribbean.
The foregrounding sense of self and identity form the bedrock and
foundation of Caribbean writing.
The orthodox critical approach to Caribbean writing is to read the

literature of the region in the simple terms of a search for identity.
However the Caribbean literary canon are thematically, formally and
stylistically preoccupied with the practices of reading and writing. Of
course, these two readings of Caribbean writing are by no means
mutually exclusive. The practices of reading and writing are both by
their very nature practices of identification and representation. Nor is it
exactly unusual that Caribbean writers should demonstrate an obsession
with the representation of writers and readers, the written and the read in
their work. Hailing from a region of islands that only recently achieved
political independence from colonial rule, these writers- Brathwaite,
Naipaul, Walcott, Harris, Lamming, Elison, and Wright, have
participated in and been witness to a unique period of historical
transformation. It is only natural that as Caribbean writers they should
be concerned with how the Caribbean region is read by Caribbeans and
non- Caribbeans alike. Equally, it is only right that they should reflect
upon their role as ‘Caribbean writers’.
129
The concept of hybridity has been appropriated within contemporary

literary and cultural criticism as a way of reading Caribbean writing. It
makes clear that all gestures toward the reading of Caribbean writing in
essential or universal terms will be severely misplaced. Instead, any and
every reader of Caribbean writing must take account of the ‘diversity
and hybridity’ that defines the Caribbean as a region of independent and
interrelated islands. The hybridity of the region and its literature is a
visible product of the events of Caribbean history: a history which since
the arrival of Christopher Columbus at the end of the fifteenth century
has seen the virtual eradication of the native populations across the
islands, and the voluntary and forced transplantation of millions of
people from other parts of the world, most notably Europe, Africa, India
and Asia. Therefore, although each writer in this study was born and
raised in the Caribbean, each of them can also lay claim to either a
legacy of intermixture or a history of ancestral dispossession. Owing to
the ugly history and experience of the Caribbean hybridity recognises
the Caribbean as the meeting place of old and new worlds, coloniser and
colonised, and suggests that in the contact zone produced by the process
of colonisation something new is necessarily produced. Such a notion of
cultural contact (albeit in a variety of forms) inevitably finds its way into
the Caribbean writing of Brathwaite, Naipaul, Walcott, Harris, Elision,
Lamming, and Wright.
Unit 1: George Lamming: Aesthetics of Self Recovery in The Castle

of my Skin
George Lamming’s In the Castle of my Skin (1953) is to a great degree a
narrative that exhibits the quest for self recovery. The novel is couched
in the mold of bildungsroman or an autobiography. This is because it
relates the journey from infantile innocence of the protagonist G to adult
awareness. It is instructive to note that the novel does not only explore
the story of an individual childhood but also focuses on the more
resounding intention of the insurrection of the colonial grip in the
community that seeks to unskin the fragile cloak of childhood.
Lamming’s In the Castle of My Skin, which suggesst the essential

outlines of the typical boyhood in a west Indian community that is
growing painfully like four boys in the novel into political self-
awareness; and his concern to suggest the complex shifting in the
community at large, at times, takes precedence over any notion of
fidelity to the boy’s consciousness.
In other words, the novel fictionalises the community’s quest albeit,

through an individual character desires to grow within the repressive
actions of colonial government. We found in Lamming’s novel, an
artistic portraiture of the locomotion; the physical and mental of the
community conflated into the individual who seek route, out of the
130
imperialist constriction of self-will and collective cultural sovereignty.

The autobiographical stature of the novel is hinted at:
Indeed, the book itself enacts a
similar dynamic: just as
G. seeks to develop a viable personal
identity amid the
confining restraints of colonialism, so
too does Lamming
seek a viable mode of cultural
expression amid a tradition
dominated by European models.
G. the fulcrum of narrativisation is
embroiled in a restrictive and frosty
colonial environment. This novel is
some portraiture of national
awakening in Barbados even as in
exile they recreate in their homes.
Lamming’s fiction weaves historical and social wrangling of peasants in

Barbados specifically and blacks in general. G, novelistic de-stasis is the
growth of West Indian society emerging from the yoke of slavery into a
society unburdened by freedom. In comparison, Joyce’s Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man runs parallel to the character unfolding in
Lamming’s autobiographical fiction. The society in Lamming’s
narrative revolves around G. that represents a society in transition and
the struggle for identity, history and race, made obvious in the lives of
people Lamming tries to artistically reproduce. Lamming’s G is molded
by experiences. These experiences are provided for him and his family.
Religion, the gang, school, the politics of the time, and childhood as
Lamming shows are sad and insane for G.
The typical recognition of Mr. Slime as Black Jesus is a reflection of a

journey into the scriptural world of indoctrination. Mr. Slime is viewed
as “a kind of Black Jesus” (167). The establishment of the Penny Bank
and the friendly society contributes to the kinesic character of the novel
as the people aspirations are shown in the peasant life of G.
Religion offers G’s criminality a sort of protection. He refuses the lure

of integration into the religious body. This body demands that G takes a
new form. This scares him as their identity as constructed by G is
repressive and he fears and reflects on the invitation of rebirth in Christ.
Religion to the children is devoid of such deeper commitment in its
pragmatic nature but they soon come to the discovery of the landlord’s
place. The party at which the landlord hosts the expatriate sailors is seen
by Boy Blue as the next word:
131
…Is like a next world, the music an “the

drink and all than,
a particular way they hold on to one another”
(In the
Castle, 173).
The awareness that occurs in landlord’s garden brings them into his
scheme. The prayer group that the boys refused to join becomes their
hideout. They by this, reach the awareness of the criminal roles they
take up but find the experience rather delighting and no thought ruse for
a change. By escaping into the prayer group, what Lamming re-echoes is
Karl Marx’s praxis “religion is the opium on the masses”. They through
this escape strife and suffering imposed on them by their will to inscribe
themselves to the zone of comfort that has eluded them.
Religious identity as Lamming fictionalises is couched in logical

statement. It is rather hypocritical to temporarily escape into religion
which falls short of permanent respite, solace or comfort but reprieve for
only the moment.
In the Castle, education of children does not incorporate the history of

slavery. This stifles the child identity as he takes subjugation without
questioning it. This form of education affects the unprotesting child and
perpetually keeps him dependent without his sense of perception for
freedom and independence shaped. It is instructive that G is instigated to
stone the headmaster and becomes a hero. He carries this out and his
innocence makes him confused and in the end, he does that get punished
and he does not complain.
In the Castle of my Skin and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is both a

bildungsroman and kuntlesroman. These novels trace the development
of individuals from innocence to awareness and the growth of the artists
through apprenticeship to vivid manifestation of their creative
dimension.
Lamming very much like James Joyce’s in Portrait of the Artist as a

Young Man, borrows the device of the epiphanies. An epiphany has
three dimensions and therefore calls for a transformation. Atherton avers
that, “an epiphany is that moment when a thing gains significance”. It
could perhaps, be when a person made remark which displays his true
character when he is as we say “gave him away”.
In another sense it may suffice a sudden realization or revelation

unpremeditated which as Gerald Manly Hopkins sees “when one part of
the veil shrouding the mystery of the world was suddenly drawn aside
for a moment, and the true meaning of an object revealed….” (guld in
Atherton XII).
132
In Christian belief, it is the period when God manifests himself: the

epiphanies in the novel are however more of group experiences than
personal ones. Lamming’s G’s transforming knowledge, his realisation
of his identity stem from Boy Blue, a member of his gang at the
moment, of his expansion to the development of awareness in
individuals, Boy Blue has it that:
You never know as you yourself say when
something go off pop in your head and you
ain‟t the same man you think you were, you
start to do and say things which you know is
true but it seem it ain‟t you doing and saying
them… A thing goes off your head pop pop,
an‟ yours a different man. You ain‟t the
same sort of person everybody is. You start
to feel that there‟s nobody like you, I don‟t
mean that you‟ll get great, and don‟t want to
speak to anybody. I don‟t mean that at all. I
mean you‟ll get the feeling there ain‟t no
other man like yourself, that you is you, so
to speak, on there can‟t be any other you.
You start to believe you see things nobody
else sees, and you think things nobody else
think, and that sort of thing can take you far,
far; boy, You‟ll get so lonely it would be a
shame…(142 to 143).
Boy Blue’s explication of the paradoxical brine of transfiguration which

alters one’s identity permanently is so apt. In Boy Blue’s long talk, the
journey motif, the transmutability of identity unfolding through the
phases– childhood/innocence to adulthood/maturity is resonant.
His discovery of his own identity as he further hints comes from what
his mother earlier told him about the need to develop his own mind. It is
instructive that G discovers his own identity through the experience of
the buried pebble. Boy Blue and G’s mother put him on this path of
retrieval of self.
The pebble is a representation for distinct individuality or the self. The

buried pebble depicts the loss, the change and the phasing off of the old
self for the present awareness of the “new” metamorphosed self. The
pebble brings to resolution the conflict G feels from within, about his
journey away from Greighton to Trinidad. The buried pebble is
connected to the hero’s endurance of Trumper’s departure and
movement into America, while Boy Blue and Boy remain in the village
to join the police force.
What symb
133
olises the different directions is the disappearance of the pebble which

further hints at the brevity of the gang. The two crabs, intercourse in
Lamming’s fictional universe acquire a heightened signification. It
unwittingly questions human institution of marriage as disrupting the
natural flow of human life. Marriage is seen as fraught with hypocrisy.
Crabs as against Bambi and Bamina affair stands as a reference point.
For the crabs evince “absolute togetherness”. This is an iconic mockery
of social hierarchy that exists in the West Indian society. Apart from
coming to terms with their society, the boys now understood the beauty
of crab’s eyes from the outside:
“We would find no colour for the eyes. They
were so
pretty. Not ready. Not red or green…”(128).
What this serves to suggest is that the scale of unawareness has fallen
off their eyes and the resultant effect is a vision of beauty in objects
surrounding them. This illustrates that Red Indians see beautiful things
if their mind’s eyes are not shut to see the pleasant in a sordid
environment of repression of self will. G. perceives a new identity in
Trumper when he returns from America. This feeling makes him
anticipate the privileges of adult life. Trumper reveals the rather
transformational exigency of his journey to America, where he seeks
self-discovery:
„My people,‟ he said again, or better, my race. „Twas in
the states I find it, an‟ I‟m gonna keep it „til my kingdom
com. ‟… if there be one thing I thank America for, she
teach me who my race was. Now I‟m never going to lose
it: Never, Never!” (295).
Trumper’s self-revelation and re-phrasing identity impose don G the

longing for exile as exile comes with cryptic footsteps of refinement and
stability in the character of Trumper. The common denominator in the
foregoing character analyses is a motion from innocence to self -
awareness.
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Ralph Ellison
The Ironical Trajectory of Self-Abstractism to Self-Reformation in

Ralph Elison’s Invisible Man
The novel Invisible Man is mapped into twenty five chapters with a
prologue and an epilogue. It chronicles the physical, psychological and
spiritual journey of an unidentified African American youth from the
cloud of innocence to the light of discovery. The adventure of self-
configurative motif of the novel is orchestrated on the existentialist
pursuit of inscribing self-essence and attaining “knowness‟ in the midst
of a society that questions the humanity of the Blackman. Trumper
reveals the rather transformational exigency of his journey to America,
where he seeks self-discovery:
„My people,‟ he said again, or better, my
race. „Twas in
the states I find it, an‟ I‟m gonna keep it „til
my kingdom
com. ‟… if there be one thing I thank
America for, she
teach me who my race was. Now I‟m never
going to lose
it: Never, Never!” (295).
Trumper’s self-revelation and re-phrasing identity impose don G the
longing for exile as exile comes with cryptic footsteps of refinement and
stability in the character of Trumper. The common denominator in the
foregoing character analyses is a motion from innocence to self-
awareness.
Its complex, time, structure, spacious setting,

anonymous
ethnic hero, allegorical and ethnic
characters, ironic
theme and ceremonial use of varieties of
language all
suggest that Ellison (1965) has drawn on
Afro-American
folklore…and the epic tradition to render his
double vision
of America (194).
The nameless protagonist is symbolic and it approximates to one whose

other worldview and pernicious deeds strip him of his humanity.
Everyman is a matter; occupies as such a space and one only turns on
Ellison’s concept of invisibility if the human essence is impugned like
the main character that synedoches black anonymity in a world where
135
the white man is the “visible”. Invisible, in a pejorative sense, gravitates

to the reader as the quintessence of Wolfgang Von Goethe’s Wilhdom
Miester relates the character’s progressive education from
apprenticeship through journeyman-ship towards the ideal of “mastery”
that manifests up in his name. It is thus pertinent to examine the novel as
chronicling the de stasis and kinesis of life from innocence through
knowledge. It is a panoramic exposition of the quest of the young
blackman to attain recognition in a harsh climate of downing of self-
image. As Raji-Oyelade (1993) contends, Ellison relays the question that
forms the idea of the novel as the life changing possibilities of man;
these questions are:
How does one in the novel (the novel which is a work of
art and not a disguised piece of sociology) persuade the
…reader to identify that which is basic in man beyond all
differences of class, race, wealth, or formal education?
How can one give the reader that which we do have in
abundance, all the countless untold and wonderful
variations on the themes of identity and freedom,
necessity, love and death, and with all the mystery or
personality undergoing it with endless metamorphosis
The novel attests to ironical plot unfolding. It thus rests on the epic–
oriented media with a moving reminiscence of the past twenty years.
The story of unidentified author takes the reader through a tortuous
macabre of life as experienced by the narrator. The narrator eases us into
ironical portraiture:
I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like

those
who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of
your
Hollywood movie ectoplasm. I am a man of
substance, of
flesh and bone, fibre and liquids and I might even
be said
to possess a mood. I am invisible; understand,
simply
because people refuse to see me (1).
The notion of invisibility as inferred is not that the character is a ghost

as he possesses all the human possibilities, physically rooted but absent
in the eyes of teeming racially biased others. This way, it is apparent that
the invisibility is artificial and largely a socially constructed one;
contrived by politics of identity-racial segregation. In the prologue, we
have the end of the protagonist that begins in earnest the story and the
136
epilogue as the beginning. He provides the rationale for this distorted

quotient of plot:
In spite of myself, I‟ve learned something.
Without the
possibility of action, all knowledge comes to
one labelled
“file and forget”, and I can neither file not
forget (Invisible
Man, 467).
His learning or awareness, albeit, starts in the first chapter of the book
where the narrator is a Greenwood in the South. The narrator begins
earnestly in telling his panoramic story with the assertion that he is an
invisible man. His invisibility, he clarifies, is not a material one; he is
thus, not literally invisible, but is rather invisibility, perhaps, of self in a
world that considers him insignificant and shrunk of individuality. He
says that his invisibility accrues some benefit to him. He has been hiding
from the world, living underground and stealing electricity from the
Monopolated Light and Power Company. He burns 1,369 light bulbs
and on the same breath, listens to Louis Armstrong’s What Did I Do to
Be So Black and Blue on a phonograph. He says that he has gone
underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility. As a
young man, in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the narrator lives in the
South. Being a gifted public speaker, he is invited to give a speech to a
group of important white men in his town. The men only compensate
him with a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but only after
subjecting him to a humiliating duel in a “royal battle” in which he is
made to fight other young black men all blindfolded in a boxing ring.
After the royal battle, the white men force the youths to scramble for
fake coins on an electrified rug. They are delighted as the boys moans of
pain. The narrator in his dream figures that his scholarship is actually a
piece of paper reading “To Whom It May Concern . . . Keep This
Nigger-Boy Running.” At the college, the narrator listens to a long,
impassioned sermon by Reverend Homer A. Barbee on the subject of
the college’s Founder that the blind Barbee adulates in poetic language.
After the sermon, the narrator is chastised by the college president, Dr.
Bledsoe, who has learned of the narrator’s escapades with Norton at the
old slave quarters and the Golden Day. Bledsoe rebukes the narrator,
saying that he should have shown the white man as an idealised version
of black life. He dismisses the narrator, giving him seven letters of
recommendation to the college’s white trustees i n New York City, and
sends him there as he seeks a job.
The narrator travels to the bright lights and bustle of 1930s Harlem,
where his effort at getting a job proves abortive. The letters of
137
recommendation do not bring him any employment. At last, the narrator

goes to the office of one of his letters‟ addressees, a trustee named Mr.
Emerson. There he meets Emerson’s son, who opens the letter and tells
the narrator that he has been betrayed: the letters from Bledsoe actually
portray the narrator as dishonourable and unreliable. Through the
assistance of the young Emerson, the narrator gets a small wage job at
the Liberty Paints plant, whose trademark colour is “Optic White”.
The narrator temporarily assists Lucius Brockway, the black man who
makes this white paint, but Brockway suspects that the narrator is
involved in union activities and turns on him. The two men fight as they
abandon the paint-making; consequently, one of the unattended tanks
explodes, and the narrator is knocked unconscious. The narrator is
roused to life again in the paint factory’s hospital. During his black out,
he loses his memory and capacity for speech. The white doctors seize
the arrival of their unidentified black patient as an opportunity to
conduct electric shock experiments. After the narrator recuperates with
memory restored in the hospital, he collapses on the street. He is
consequently taken to some black community members to the home of
Mary, a kind woman who lets him live with her for free in Harlem and
helps him to develop his sense of black heritage.
One day, the narrator witnesses the eviction of an elderly black couple
from their Harlem apartment. Standing before the crowd of people
gathered before the apartment, he gives an impassioned speech against
the eviction. Brother Jack having observed his speaking prowess; his
speech offers him a position as a spokesman for the Brotherhood, a
political organization that allegedly works to help the socially
oppressed. Initially rejecting the offer, the narrator takes the job in order
to reward Mary for her hospitality. But the Brotherhood insists that the
narrator takes a new name, breaks with his past, and moves to a new
apartment. The narrator is inducted into the Brotherhood at a party at the
hotel and is placed in charge of advancing the group’s goals in Harlem.
On completing his education in rhetoric with a white member of the
group named Brother Hambros, the narrator goes to where he is
assigned to work in Harlem. There, he meets the handsome, intelligent
black youth leader Tod Clifton. He also becomes intimate with the
Black Nationalist leader Ras the Exhorter, who opposes the interracial
brotherhood and believes that Black Americans should demand their
rights over and against all whites. The narrator delivers speeches and
becomes a high-profile figure in the Brotherhood. He relishes the task.
One day, however, he gets a note warning him to remember his place as
a black man in the Brotherhood.
Not long after, the black Brotherhood member Brother Wrestrum

accuses the narrator of trying to use the Brotherhood, to propel a selfish
138
desire for personal distinction. While a committee of the Brotherhood

investigates the charges, the organization moves the narrator to another
post, as an advocate of women’s rights. After he gives a speech one
evening, he is seduced by one of the white women at the gathering, who
attempts to use him to the l lure of her sexual fantasies about black men.
Later, the Brotherhood sends the narrator back to Harlem, where he
discovers that Clifton has left. Many other black members have left the
group, as much of the Harlem community feels that the Brotherhood has
betrayed their interests. The narrator later reconnects with Clifton on the
street where he sells dancing “Sambo” doll; dolls that invoke the
stereotype of the lazy and obsequious slave. Clifton apparently does not
have any license to sell his wares on the street. White policemen accost
him and, shortly after some arguments, he is shot dead as the narrator
and others look on. In his arrangement, the narrator undertakes a funeral
for Clifton and gives a speech in which he portrays his dead friend as a
hero, galvanizing public sentiment in Clifton’s favour.
The Brotherhood shows displeasure at him staging the funeral without

permission, and Jack harshly castigates him. As Jack rants about the
Brotherhood’s ideological stance, a glass eye falls from one of his eye
sockets. The Brotherhood sends the narrator back to Brother Hambro to
learn about the organization’s new strategies in Harlem.
The narrator leaves one definitely feeling furious and anxious to gain
revenge on Jack and the Brotherhood. He arrives in Harlem to find the
neighbourhood in ever increased agitation over race relations. Ras
confronts him, deploring the Brotherhood’s failure to draw on the
momentum generated by Clifton’s funeral. Ras sends his men to beat up
the narrator, and the narrator is forced to disguise himself in dark glasses
and a hat. In his dark glasses, many people on the streets mistake him
for someone named Rinehart, who seems to be a pimp, bookie, lover,
and reverend all at once. At last, the narrator goes to Brother Hambro’s
apartment, where Hambro tells him that the Brotherhood has chosen not
to emphasize Harlem and the black movement. He cynically declares
that people are merely tools and that the larger interests of the
Brotherhood are more important than any individual. Recalling the
advice given to him by his grandfather, the narrator determines to
undermine the Brotherhood by seeming to go along with them
completely. He decides to flatter and seduce a woman close to one of the
party leaders in order to obtain secret information about the group. But
the woman he chooses, Sybil, knows nothing about the Brotherhood and
attempts to use the narrator to fulfill her fantasy of being raped by a
black man. While still with Sybil in his apartment, the narrator receives
a call asking him to come to Harlem quickly. The narrator hears the
sound of breaking glass, and the line goes dead. He arrives in Harlem to
find the neighbourhood in the midst of full-fledged riot, which he learns
139
was incited by Ras. The narrator becomes involved in setting fire to a

tenement building. Running from the scene of the crime, he encounters
Ras dressed as an African chieftain. Ras calls for the narrator to be
lynched. The narrator flees only to run into two policemen, who suspect
that his briefcase contains loot from the riots.
In his attempt to evade them, the narrator falls down a manhole. The
police mock him and draw the cover over the manhole. The narrator
says that he has stayed underground ever since; the end of his story
marks its very locomotive beginning. He states that he finally has come
to the decision that he must honour his individual complexity and
remain true to his own identity without sacrificing his obligations to the
community. He says that he finally feels ready to come out from the
underground.For the most accounts of the plot movement of the novel,
the reader negotiates a symmetrical movement as the black protagonist
does in his confirming self –negotiation until a given identity and
awareness suffices. (91).
Unit 2: Richard Wright

A Synopsis on: Quest for Distinct Identity in Richard Wright’s
Black Boy
Richard Wright was the grandson of former slaves who was born on
Rucker plantation in Dam County, Mississippi in 1908. Wright grew up
in a poverty stricken environment. He was enrolled at public high
school. His first story is entitled the Voodoo of Hell’s Half Acre which
was published in Southern Registers local newspaper. Reed Club, the
group he joined in 1933 played a significant role in his literary
achievements. The publication of Native Son in 1945 brought him
recognition as a significant voice in African American prose tradition.
Black Boy subtitled American Hunger is an autobiographical recreation
of Richard Wright’s childhood and young adulthood. He informs us of
the background of Black Boy:
I wrote the book to tell a series of incidents
strung
together through my childhood but the main
desire was to
render a judgment on my environments
because I felt the
necessity to. That judgment was this: the
environment
the south creates is too small to nourish
human being…I
wanted to lend, give my tongue to the
voiceless (3).
It is apparent that Wright fulfills the idea that writers are the chroniclers,
the visionaries, the mirrors, seers through which societal injustices are
140
recreated for corrective purpose. Ellison who is believed to have been

inspired by Wright also attests to the self-narrative that Black Boy
typifies. The novel is structured into, "Southern Night detailing his
childhood in the south” and "The Horror and the Glory" (which as well
reflects his early adult years in Chicago).
The novel starts with a four-year-old Wright setting fire to his
grandmother's house and continues in it. Wright is an unusually
inquisitive child, living in an environment of strict, religious women and
edgy irresponsible men. His recalcitrant nature occasionally puts him in
trouble; he recalls the day, and he gets beaten merciless by his mother:
I was lashed so hard and long that I lost
consciousness. I
was beaten out of senses and later found
myself in bed,
screaming, determined to run, and tussling
with my
mother and father trying to keep me still (BB
4).
He is shown to get easily upset with everything around him; he settles

for reading instead of playing with other children, and rejecting the
church in favour of a life of atheism at a young age. He feels even more
withdrawn as he grows older and comes in contact with tense racial
violence of the 1920s south. He does not only find it unjust but he is
especially bothered by whites' and other blacks' desire to stifle his
intellectual hunger and his will to configure for him a distinct identity.
The mother’s frequent illness makes the orphanage home a second
shelter for Richard. While he still likes his mother who genuinely loves
him he reserves some shade of hatred for his father whom he views as
morally decrepit and irresponsible. We catch a glimpse:
Again I was faced with choices I did not
like, but I finally
agreed after all, my hatred for my father was
not as great
and urgent as my hate for the orphan
home… (27).
After his father abandons the family, young Wright is taken back and
forth among his sick mother, his extremely religious grandmother, and
various aunts and uncles. This phase of his life prepares him for a more
conspicuous awareness of his society. As he forays into the white world
to find jobs, he encounters growling racism and brutal violence, which
has a permanent scar in his psyche forever. The family goes through
frequent hunger. They have always perceived the north as a place of
opportunity; so as soon as they can gather together enough money,
Richard and his aunt went to Chicago and pledge to bring his mother
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and brother. But before Richard can go to Chicago, he takes to stealing

money and lying.
Most times he must do things he does not want to do in a bid to find

meaning in a supposedly meaningless and suffering fraught life. He
finds the north less simmered in racial discrimination than the south: this
becomes a reassessment of his ideas about American race patterns. He
gets into many jobs and these fetch meagre earnings. He scrubs floors
during the day and settles down with Proust and medical journals by
night. His family still lives in great need, poverty still looms large upon
this, a stroke cripples his mother, and his relatives constantly eroded his
mood. They upset him always particularly about his atheism and his
unnecessary reading.
He finds a job at the post office and meets white men who share his
sentiment of the world and religion in particular. They invite him to the
John Reed Club which is founded to promote the arts and social change.
He becomes involved with a magazine called Left Side. He slowly
becomes immersed in the Communist Party, organizing its writers and
artists. At first, he sets his mind in connecting with acquaintances within
the party, especially among its black members, but he finds them to be
just as livid to cause change as the southern whites he had left behind.
The communists fear anyone who questions their ideas and as a result,
they soon disregard Wright, who has always been inclined to question
and speak his mind. When he tries to leave the party, he is accused of
trying to lead others away from it. After he encounters the trial of
another black communist for counterrevolutionary activity, Wright
decides to abandon the party. He was still seen as a detractor in
communism, and party members threaten him away from various jobs
and gatherings.
Nevertheless, he does not square up with them because he believes they

are in a sense driving towards unity, tolerance and equality which he
sees as ideal. He eventually rationalises the deeply-ingrained reformer’s
ideals and finds writing as a tool for the revolutionary changes for he
firmly believes that everyone has a "hunger" for life that needs to be
filled, and for him, writing is his way to the human heart.
His self-chronicle comes on the heel of ambivalent crises of identity.
The repatriation he undergoes brings him to the crucial artistic armoury,
a tool for identity reconfiguration and satiric swipe.
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Unit 3: Edward Kamau Brathwaite
A Synopsis on Creolisation and Calibanisation : A Linguistics

Aesthetics in Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s The Arrivants and X/Self
Brathwaite’s linguistic aesthetics involves him in a writing strategy of

‘replacing language’ that is central to the understanding of colonial and
postcolonial literatures. ‘Language is a fundamental site of struggle for
post-colonial discourse’.The editors of The Post-colonial Studies Reader
state, ‘because the colonial process itself begins in language’* 9. The
same authors note in their earlier study, The Empire Writes Back:
Theory and Practice in Post-colonial Literatures, that ‘the crucial
function of language as a medium of power demands that post-colonial
writing define itself by seizing the language of the centre and re-placing
it in a discourse fully adapted to the colonised place’10. The key
strategies for doing this are the interrelated processes of abrogation and
appropriation. Abrogation refers to the rejection of the language of the
centre (i.e. London, England) as a normative concept, and therefore
consciously disturbs the boundaries between so-called linguistic purity
and impurity. Appropriation assumes that all language is more or less
riddled with impurities, and therefore sanctions and describes- the
postcolonial writer’s assimilation and adaptation of those aspects of the
language and culture of the centre that are most useful for the formation
of new identities in the formerly colonised place. In the postcolonial
literary text this effects a ‘re-placing’ of language in order to usurp
socio-cultural power from the centre, and equally importantly to offer
the possibility and conditions for an effective postcolonial voice to
emerge. As Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin discover, one of the central
paradoxes faced by the postcolonial writer is the ‘problem inherent in
using a language while trying to reject the particular way of structuring
the world it seems to offer’ (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin, The Empire
Writes Back, p.48). Of the writers in this study, it is Edward Kamau
Brathwaite and Wilson Harris who are most troubled by their use of a
language that both is and is not theirs. For Brathwaite, this dichotomous
relation to language is central to his poetry. Brathwaite’s poetry from
The Arrivants (first published as a complete trilogy in 1973) to X/Self
(published in 1987) consistently stages a linguistic performance that
foregrounds the poet’s troubled relationship to the English language. In
the former, this linguistic performance most immediately arrests the
Western reader in its use of rhythm, as the reader is transported from the
cultural and spiritual landscape of the Black diaspora to the
‘soundscape’ and ‘wordscape’ of the poem10 11. Brathwaite’s inventive
use of African and Afro- American musical rhythms in The Arrivants
provides a musical accompaniment to the poetry that helps , to place the
poems within a specific cultural context and emphasises the
performative aspect of the trilogy. It also complies with Brathwaite’s
143
own notion of a ‘jazz’ aesthetic at work in Caribbean literature, which is

most readily seen in his essay ‘Jazz and the West Indian Novel’12. As
the elements of this aesthetic suggest, this linguistic performance also
takes the form of a deliberate play with language. The Caribbean poet of
The Arrivants is a ‘word-breaker’ and ‘creator’ (A, p.167), whose
linguistic fragmentation and experimentation necessitates the reader to
take a new look at the Caribbean region and its inhabitants. Central to
the thematic drive of the trilogy is the need to abrogate and appropriate a
language capable of properly naming Caribbean experience. The
development of this proposition can be tracked through the poem
through the performance of a variety of voices. Each represents a
separate aspect of the Black diasporic experience, and each contributes
to the eventual emergence of the poet’s voice. Moreover, the many
voices of The Arrivants do not simply interact with one another
internally, that is within the confines of this particular text. They also
participate in the performance of later utterances. In doing this, they
establish themselves as ‘links in a continuous chain of speech
performances’ (MPL, p.72) in which Brathwaite continues to interrogate
the nature and implications of language use for the Caribbean poet and
his readers. Brathwaite’s linguistic performance incorporates a
movement from créolisation to calibanisation, in the sense that while his
approach to language has always been informed by a cultural process of
material, psychological and spiritual intermixture and change13, in his
most recent work this has resulted in a more direct confrontation with
the perceived signifiers of English cultural and linguistic dominance.
Brathwaite’s linguistic créolisation is now also a performance of
linguistic calibanisation, in which the curse that linguistically binds
Caliban to Prospero is evaded through the potential intervention of a
previously submerged mother (Sycorax) and the re-emergence of a
submerged language.
Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s linguistic performance can be read in the

light of Mikhail Bakhtin’s approach to language precisely because
Bakhtin’s understanding of language, discourse and the utterance is
similarly based on a notion of linguistic performance. Simon Dentith
makes this point when he notes that for Bakhtin and members of his
intellectual circle (and by extension their readers), ‘the key move is to
take as your starting point language in use rather than language as a code
or underlying system’14. This is suggested on a number of occasions in
Bakhtin’s monographs and essays, though for the purposes of
illustration one might most readily refer to the opening of the fifth
chapter of Bakhtin’s study on Dostoevsky and the opening of his 1934-
35 essay, ‘Discourse in the Novel’. In the former, Bakhtin states that the
term ‘discourse’ signifies ‘language in its concrete living totality’ (PDP,
p.181); whilst in the latter, he notes that ‘verbal discourse is a social
phenomenon- social throughout its entire range and in each and every of
144
its factors, from the sound image to the furthest reaches of abstract
meaning’ (DN, p.259). Consequently, whilst the linguistics of the early
decades of the Twentieth century was dominated in Russia by the
teachings of Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, it is clear that
Bakhtin and his ally and friend Valentin Voloshinov were both
concerned to propose a sociological approach to language.
This closing phrase is perhaps Brathwaite’s most succinct expression of

the positive effects of a process of linguistic creolisation within
Caribbean society. In no small part this reflects the fact that
Brathwaite’s New World trilogy was written at the same time as his
doctoral study on creole society in Jamaica in the late Eighteenth and
early Nineteenth centuries. For a large part of his working life
Brathwaite has been a historian by profession, though it seems safe to
argue that his scholarly and creative careers are necessarily intertwined.
In particular, Brathwaite argues in The Development of Creole Society
that contemporary Caribbean society can only be properly understood
within the framework of the acknowledged and illicit processes of
acculturation and interculturation that were in operation during the
colonial period. The effects of this intermixture can be recorded
throughout all areas of social interaction. Most specifically though, in
the context of linguistic performance this allows Brathwaite to claim
that: ‘It was in language that the slave was perhaps most successfully
imprisoned by his master, and it was in his (mis-)use of it that he
perhaps most effectively rebelled’ (Brathwaite, The Development of
Creole Society, p.237). Such a framework of imprisonment, use and
misuse and rebellion clearly recognises the fact that during the period of
slavery and the plantation system in the Caribbean, linguistic encounters
between master and slave were far from benign affairs. However, while
language may have been the means through which slaves were
socialised and normalised into the structures of slave-society, it also
provided the best means through which social, cultural and linguistic
dominance could be challenged and brought into question. The linguistic
encounter provides the opportunity for the slave to consciously position
himself in relation to the words of another (the master), and through his
use and misuse of his master’s language to assimilate, appropriate and
abrogate those words to his own intentions. Of course, just as
Brathwaite calls for the acknowledgement of historical continuities
between the colonial period and the present, so too it might be argued
that the language of contemporary post-independence Caribbean
literature can be read as a creolised language that seeks to perform an act
of linguistic rebellion.
Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s rebellion in The Arrivants thematically and

formally depends upon a notion of linguistic performance, and it is in
the poem’s rhythms that this is most immediately evident. ‘Rhythms are
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crucial to the poem,’ Louis James writes in his review of Rights of

Passage, ‘that is why it must be read aloud, and why many European
readers without ears tuned to Caribbean cadences are bound to find
passages flat and crude’ (James, ‘Rights of Passage’, 41). James is
certainly correct in his opening statement, though his closing assessment
is perhaps questionable. For, whilst the ears of a ‘European reader’ may
not be finely timed to a Caribbean wavelength, it would nevertheless be
a resistant reader who does not recognise the thematic importance of the
poem’s rhythms from the outset.
Brathwaite’s trilogy opens with a poem, ‘Prelude’, in which the words

themselves act as instruments of dislocation and détribalisation as the
reader is thrust into an unnamed landscape on the verge of extinction.
With monosyllabic doom the opening lines establish a sense of language
being stretched to its naked simplicity as images of slavery are
juxtaposed with a desperate plea for individual and communal salvation
to be found in linguistic creativity:
Drum skin whip

lash, master sun’s
cutting edge of heat, taut surfaces of things
I sing
I shout
I groan
I dream
about (A, p.4)
In his magisterial study of Brathwaite’s Arrivants, entitled Pathfinder:
Black Awakening in The Arrivants of Edward Kamau Brathwaite,
Gordon Rohlehr describes this poem as ‘a general introduction and
overture to all three books’17. He notes too that that the drum is the
major word, theme and symbol of the trilogy. The drum ‘begins and
ends each work, and is the Alpha and Omega of Brathwaite’s new
poetry. The drum is associated with a principle of rhythm, sound and
music that simulates the tones of speech.
Brathwaite’s rich use of a variety of sources to shape his poetic vision,

suggests an intense endowment of linguistic ingenuity and aesthetics in
his literary profession, as this is glaringly evidenced in the performative
nature of The Arrivants. In one sense, this clearly involves an allusion to
actual musical, verbal and literary performance. However, it also
involves a performed positioning of the poetic text both culturally and
socio-historically.
In the dialogic relation between ‘The Dust’ and ‘X/Selfs Xth Letters...’
it might then be suggested that the ending of the former is ‘introduced
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directly into the context’ of the latter, and that the words themselves ‘act
as representatives of the whole utterance’ (that is, as links to
Brathwaite’s discourse on ‘dust’). ‘X/Self s Xth Letters...’ response
places these other utterances in a new literary context, and seeks to
appropriate and assimilate those other meanings, intentions and values
to a new artistically expressed point of view. Most specifically, ‘X/Self s
Xth Letters...’ shifts the assertions of The Arrivants into the poetic
context of a more overt and self- conscious concern with linguistic
creativity and the material process of writing. In itself this suggests that
the more direct linguistic rebellion of ‘X/Self s Xth Letters...
arises out of the marriage of thematic content and poetic style.

However, it could also be related to a more general shift in Brathwaite’s
style which itself reflects the recent emergence of an increasingly
critically aware post-colonial literature. This can perhaps be attributed to
the fact that contemporary Caribbean literature is now into its second
and third generation of writers, and therefore addressing a very different
kind of (critical) readership than it was in the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Constructed in the form of a letter that X/Self addresses to his mother,

the poem’s main thematic and stylistic focus is once again the concrete
acquisition of language. This is made clear in the opening lines of the
poem as X/Self exclaims: ‘Dear Mamma // i writin you dis letter/wha? /
guess what! pun a computer o/kay?’ (X/S, p.80). From this alone a
number of significant implications can be drawn out. It is clear that
Brathwaite uses certain conventions of letter-writing in order to start and
structure his poem. Yet, X/Self s letter is not a letter in the traditional
sense. It also incorporates a sense of direct and immediate response to an
unheard and unwritten voice. The ‘wha?’ here is the first indication of
this, and it is followed by a number of other questions: ‘say what? / get
on wi de same ole // story?’, ‘since when i kin / type?’, ‘why i callin it
x?’ and so on. Collectively these suggest that the presence of X/Self s
mother lies in the background of his utterance. It also indicates the
extent to which Brathwaite’s poem exists on the boundary between
speech and writing, and therefore seeks to question the established
hierarchy between the two. Brathwaite’s language is a literary language
but it also emphasises the sound of the voice, the oral and aural. X/Selfs
excitable ‘guess what!’ is one instance of this. The grammar and
orthographic presentation of dialect or nation-language is another aspect,
whilst the fragmented presentation of the words on the page also further
demonstrates the basic orality of the poem. The back-slash before
‘wha?’ and ‘kay?’ in the opening lines adds a short but nonetheless
decisive pause that in turn results in extra intonational stress being
placed on the words following. X/Self s active relation to language takes
account of his possession of a computer, and this new instrument of
expression also determines the style of X/Self s utterance. The
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presentation of the language of the poem gives the impression that

X/Self is acquiring and learning, using and misusing, a new language in
the process of writing his letter. Most directly, he states at roughly the
mid-point of the poem: ‘is like what i tryin to sen/seh & / seh about
muse/ // in computer & / leamin prospero linguage & / ting’ (X/S, p.84).
For X/Self the computer represents the (ambivalent) pinnacle of
technological and historical achievement in the West, as he reflects: ‘a
doan know how pascal & co/ / bait & apple & cogito ergo sum / come to
hinvent all these tings since // de rice & fall a de roman empire’ (X/S,
p.82). X/Selfs possession of the computer signifies his investment in the
history and language of the West. Yet, his use and misuse of it signals
an appropriation of the communicative capabilities it represents for other
purposes and alternative intentions. Thus, far from being imprisoned by
the language and logic of the computer, X/Self concludes his letter with
an indication of rebellion and liberation:
yet a sittin down here in front
a dis stone face/eeeelectrical
mallet into me fistchipp/
in dis poem onta dis tablet chiss/ellin darkness writin in light
like i is a some/ is a some/ is a some
body/ a x
pert or some
thing like moses
or aaron
or one a dem dyaaam isra lite (X/S, p.87)
Here, X/Self s language is shown to be both fragmentary and prophetic.

The passage is characterised by a combination of vernacular
orthography (i.e. dis, writin, dem dyaaam etc.) and linguistic x-plosion,
according to which, words are stretched, broken and repeated. X/Self s
writing on the computer screen is also figured in terms of the writing of
Biblical laws on tablets of stone, therefore emphasising the depth of his
rebellion. The shift from ‘chiss/ellin darkness’ to ‘writin in light’ also
marks a shift in the very notion of the poet’s identity as X/Self. The
name or title of X/Self might signify a crossing-out of the Caribbean
poet’s identity, that is the figuring of the poet as an other/self, a non/self,
a nobody. Yet, in this extract the poet is able to tentatively identify
himself as a somebody, whilst at the same time retaining the inherent
and elusive otherness symbolised by ‘x’ (i.e. an ‘x / pert’). This
probative assertion of identity is at first sight a source of anxiety for
X/Self, as he asks his mother 'Why is/dat? //what it/mean?'; but, in their
allusion to the prior linguistic performance of ‘The Dust’ these closing
lines may also signify the rebellious intent of X/Self. In the languáge he
adopts X/Self s performed utterance is certainly highly stylised and
firmly located in an ultra-modem world of computer technology, but
these closing lines also indicate that the purpose and meaning of what he
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is ‘tryin to sen/seh & / seh about muse/ // in computer & / leamin

prospero linguage & ting’ shares vital points of connection with a folk
language of the oral tradition in which the African presence in the
Caribbean is intimately felt.
Unit 4: V.S. Naipaul
A synopsis on: Representation of Authority and Authorship in V.S.

Naipaul’s The Enigma of Arrival
Naipaul’s cultural and historical dissociation from the Caribbean is seen

in the ironic detachment of his early Trinidadian novels, in the
exploration of a more universal dislocation and cultural disorder in the
works of his mid-period, and in his re-examination of his own writing
self in his most recent books. It is also immediately evident in the titles
that Naipaul has given his books, which contain both a yearning for
fixity and arrival (e.g. A House for Mr Biswas, A Flag on the Island,
Finding the Centre, The Enigma of Arrival, A Way in the World), and an
undying sense of statelessness and loss (e.g. An Area of Darkness, The
Loss of El Dorado, In a Free State). His concern throughout is with the
question of how the experience of the rootless individual can be written.
In his most recent work Naipaul’s textual travels have become
intimately linked to his own journey, his own life and his own arrival as
a writer. In Finding the Centre, The Enigma of Arrival and A Way in the
World, Naipaul suggests that only in the process of constructing the
narrative of his writing self can the writer come to a new understanding
of his rootless existence. ‘Half a writer’s work,’ Naipaul argues in
‘Prologue to an Autobiography’ (the first of the two narratives that make
up Finding the Centre), ‘is the discovery of his subject’:
And a problem for me was that my life had

been varied, full of upheaval and moves:
from my grandmother’s Hindu house in the
country, still close to the rituals and social
ways of village India; to Port of Spain, the
Negro and G.I. life of its streets, the other,
ordered life of my colonial English school,
which was called Queen’s Royal college;
and then Oxford, London and the freelances’
room at the BBC. Trying to make a
beginning as a writer, I didn’t know where to
focus.8
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Recognising the importance of his past as a means of understanding his

identity as a writer, Naipaul pays due regard here to the important
Indian, Caribbean and English aspects of his background that have each
contributed to his writing personality. He also acknowledges the
difficulty of bringing these together in the early moments of his writing
career. In his effort to find some kind of equilibrium between each of
them as he enters maturity, Naipaul offers the (cross-cultural) reader an
intriguing example of the complex cultural negotiations made and
remade by one writer over the course of nearly fifty years of literary
production. In response to this, the Indian critic Sara Suleri most
pertinently asks of ‘Naipaul’s Arrival’: ‘what uneasy commerce can be
established between the post-colonial and the writer? Which imperial
gestures must such a writer perform, before he can delineate the relation
of his language to the canon of fiction written in English?’* 9.
Appropriating the material reality of empire and trade to the sphere of
literary discourse, Suleri asks her reader to consider what kind of
negotiations the post-colonial writer (i.e. Naipaul) has made throughout
his career in order to reconcile the notions of ‘post-colonial’ and
‘writer’. What is the relation between the terms ‘post-colonial’ and
‘writer’? How does a postcolonial writer’s literary and linguistic
inheritance affect his entry into the literary marketplace? ‘Caught
between the excessive novelty of post-colonial history and the excessive
anachronism of the canon’, Suleri argues:
Naipaul’s language functions as a

fascinating paradigm for one of the several
difficulties at work in the definition of what
is commonly called the colonial subject. Its
temporal location is curiously threatening;
its safety is aligned to the ritual of arrival; its
fascination with disparate systems of
classification obviates the necessity of facing
the question of whether it is possible for a
postcolonial writer to exist in the absence of
the imperial theme. (Suleri, ‘Naipaul’s
Arrival’, 25)
Hinting at the urgent claim for authority that Naipaul’s narratives seem
to make, Suleri suggests that Naipaul’s language exists uncertainly
amidst questions of culture and canon, ‘equally convinced of the
limitations implicit in both modes’ (ibid.). His language exposes the
¿reach at the heart of ‘the colonial subject’, whilst in their repeated
return to ‘the ritual of arrival’, his texts also explore the persistent need
for the colonial subject to momentarily find a place of safety within the
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post-colonial world. Following this, Suleri intimates that the post-

colonial writer’s obsession ‘with disparate systems of classification’
perhaps deliberately delays the need for him to question his role within
contemporary cultural debates. Yet, for Naipaul it is this very question
that has been the major preoccupation in recent years. For Naipaul, the
attempt to find an imaginative centre has led in his mature work to the
performative assertion of the identity of the writer, and the possible
reconciliation of his writing persona with his post-colonial Caribbean
consciousness.
In his most recent work, the identification and acknowledgement of

authoritative discourse has had an important bearing on Naipaul’s
engagement with the subject of the post-colonial writer. In particular, in
his 1987 novel, The Enigma of Arrival, the negotiation of previously
authoritative and internally persuasive positions and beliefs is central to
the process of identity-formation presented in the text. Naipaul’s novel
focuses on the relationship between landscape, literature and history,
and their determinations on the writer and the writing process.
The Enigma of Arrival continues the process with the barely fictional
account of a middle-aged writer, living in voluntary exile in England,
who is similarly engaged in a process of self-recovery; whilst A Way in
the World sees the writer return to his native island of Trinidad, in order
to reconcile himself to his Caribbean beginnings, and to explore the
nature of his subsequent rootlessness. Each text provides a narrative
centred upon the arrival of the writer, and each participates in the
emergence of a new writer who has learnt from his past and been saved
by his writing. Each text is then concerned with a crucial process of
identity-formation.It is in ‘Discourse in the Novel’ that Bakhtin most
explicitly lays the grounds for a discussion of the role of language in the
formation of identity, and where he suggests that the novel as a genre
may be the best form for revealing the intricacies of inner psychological
development. For Bakhtin the word in verbal discourse is a two- sided
act. It simultaneously belongs to the self and the other. This means that
at the moment of enunciation each individual speaker is always
necessarily involved in the process of appropriating and assimilating
other words to their own individual consciousness, a process of
answering others’ words and authoring one’s own words. The social
world of verbal discourse is then, a multi-voiced and multi-languaged
world, and in it (centripetal) forces of cultural and linguistic
centralisation are constantly challenged and held in check by opposing
(centrifugal) forces of difference and diversity. In the process of verbal
interaction these linguistic tendencies inevitably enter into contact and
conflict with one another; and, for Bakhtin, it is this type of linguistic
performance that typifies the activity of the novel.
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Naipaul’s novel may even be said to possess an allegorical dimension,

primarily concerned with the decline of Empire and the renegotiation of
the terms under which the contemporary world may be considered ‘post-
colonial’.
The writer’s colonial education provides knowledge of his new setting,

but it is a knowledge of a certain kind- a knowledge that is supported by
the educational tools of empire and, as a consequence, a knowledge that
places the writer within a ‘continuing imperial apparatus’. The idea of
England which provides access to the meanings of the surrounding
landscape also depends on an untouchable quality that is revealed in the
following comments: ‘So much of this I saw with the literary eye, or
with the aid of literature. A stranger here, with the nerves of the
stranger, and yet with a knowledge of the language and the history of the
language and the writing, I could find a special kind of past in what I
saw; with a part of my mind I could admit fantasy’ (EA, p.22). The
writer’s language here is particularly revealing. For, echoing the earlier
sentiment of ‘magic’ and ‘mystery’ placed around the landlord’s estate,
here the writer’s knowledge of the English literary tradition sanctions
entry to ‘a special kind of past’, a ‘fantasy’. Both words or phrases
possess connotations of the romance of English Literature, but more
importantly they also suggest a sense of prior, distanced, acknowledged
authority. The writer’s appreciation of ‘the history of language and
writing’ is not simply a formulaic history of words, novels and writers;
rather, it is a history, a past that has in a very real sense determined the
path of his career.
The Enigma of Arrival becomes a narrative in which the writer begins to

negotiate his own rootlessness, and finally faces his own otherness.
The question of how the writer ‘delineates the relation of his language to
the canon of fiction written in English’, and how he reconciles the
fantasy of the English writer with the reality of his colonial background
is most immediately answered in the text itself. In a phrase that perhaps
underplays the importance of the event, the writer states that after five
years of struggling to find a voice, struggling with ‘material’: ‘I wrote
very simply and fast of the simplest things in my memory’ (EA, p.135).
This refers to the writing of his first book {Miguel Street), and the
imaginative return he begins to make to the island of his youth in this
and other books. Moving between the poles of authoritative and
internally persuasive discourse, writing becomes a process of salvation
and restoration and an integral part of the writer’s survival12.
Illustrating this, at the central point of the novel the writer confesses,
‘With me, everything started from writing. Writing had brought me to
England, had sent me away from England; had given me a vision of
romance; had nearly broken me with disappointment.
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Addressing the rootlessness of the post-colonial writer, The Enigma of

Arrival presents a post-colonial consciousness awakening to
independent ideological life in a world of alien discourses, and suggests
that in the face of the legacies of empire and colonialism all identities
and truths are at least half fictions. In the course of the novel, this leads
the writer to conclude that there is no essential and universal connection
between landscape, literature and history.
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UNIT 5: A SYNOPSIS ON HISTORICAL EMERGENCE AND

AESTHETIC OF IDENTITY IN DEREK WALCOTT’S
ANOTHER LIFE AND WILSON HARRIS’S THE GUYANA
QUARTET
Walcott’s critical discussions begin to converge with his creative
intentions in the writing of Another Life, his book-length poem which
was first published in 1973. The clearest aspect of this convergence is
evident from the way in which Walcott continues to respond in Another
Life to the pervading sense of negation and nothingness in the
Caribbean, represented by Naipaul’s The Middle Passage. One of the
first instances of this occurs in the final chapter of Book One where, in a
moment of epiphany, the poet falls to his knees and weeps ‘for nothing
and for everything / ... for the earth of the hill under [his] knees, / for the
grass, the pebbles...’ and so on (AL, p.185). Framed in quasi-religious
terms, this passage describes the moment of the poet’s conversion to a
life of art. It also indicates a desire to shift a negative (nothing)
perception of the island’s history to a positive (everything) sense of
acceptance and opportunity, as he seeks to find and fulfil his vocation by
naming the island. At the close of the poem the poet finds himself in
meditative mood again. Here he contemplates the absence of history in
the Caribbean from the vantage-point of Rampanalgas, a remote fishing
village on the north-east coast of Trinidad. Watching his children play
with conch-shells ‘in the brown creek that is Rampanalgas River’, the
poet observes that, ‘that child who puts the shell’s howl to his ear, /
hears nothing, hears everything / that the historian cannot hear’ (AL,
p.285).
Addressing those historians who chase after facts and ‘gild cruelty’ the
poet hopes ‘they will absolve us, perhaps, if we begin again, / from what
we have always known, nothing’ (AL, p.286). And later, he admits, ‘I
wanted to grow white-haired / as the wave, with a wrinkled // brown
rock’s face, salted, / seamed, an old poet, / facing the wind // and
nothing, which is, / the loud world in his mind’ (AL, p.290). As in
Walcott’s essays of the early-1970’s then, the idea of nothing has a
significant part to play in the meaning of Another Life. On one level it
operates as a performative that signifies the polemic position adopted by
the poet to a linear sense of historical determination in the poem. On
another level, it also signals a starting-point: the cultural base from
which Walcott must proceed in his writing of Caribbean history as myth.
John Figueroa certainly supports this assertion when he notes that in
Another Life ‘nothing is no longer only the experience of the negative,
the depriving, the bitter’, rather, ‘It is at the very least, the emptying that
is the necessary condition of creativity, of the fresh start’4; whilst,
Edward Baugh more specifically remarks in his monograph on
Walcott’s poem that, ‘Rampanalgas is the nothing which is everything,
the nothing out of which something can be made’5. What Baugh means
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by this is that, within the world of the poem, Rampanalgas acts as both a
reference point for the so-called absence of history, and an opportunity
for a new historical beginning, precisely because of the blank canvas it
offers. For Baugh, the former is shown in the opening description of the
Rampanalgas landscape, which allows for neither history nor meaning
(‘Miasma, acedia, the enervations of damp... ’, AL, p.283); whilst the
latter is intimated in Walcott’s celebration of the ‘holiness’ of
Rampanalgas and its inhabitants, who have both survived centuries of
physical destruction (‘holy is Rampanalgas and its high-circling hawks, /
holy are the rusted, tortured, rust-caked, blind almond trees, / your great-
grandfather’s, and your father’s torturing limbs’, AL, p.289). With this
final gesture of praise, Baugh suggests, Walcott offers a record of
presence and endurance in Another Life which, occurring as it does at
the climax of the poem, iterates and affirms the potential for cultural and
historical renewal where others have seen only ‘nothing’.
Described by Walcott as ‘a biography of ... a West Indian intelligence’6,

Another Life is a poem of the Caribbean mind, another account of the
emergence of the Caribbean artist, that is both personal and political,
individual and communal, and fundamentally autobiographical and
historical. Written as Walcott approached the age of forty, the poem
looks back to the ‘other life’ of the poet’s youth, and presents an account
of love, tragedy, celebration and death against the backdrop of his entry
into the world of poetry (he had previously thought of becoming an
artist) and his impending departure from his native island of St Lucia.
Perhaps best seen as an ensemble piece, in Another Life Walcott pays
homage to three key figures in his early life- Harry Simmons, a mentor
and art tutor; Dunstan St Omer, a friend and fellow artist (known in the
poem as Gregorias), and Andreuille Alcee, his first love (often referred
to as Anna). Divided into four parts (mostly covering the period 1947-
50, but also moving up to the present, i.e. 1973), the poem consists of
four books and a total of twenty-three chapters, in which Walcott
employs a variety of poetic registers and styles in order to present a
complex, imaginative whole. In Book One, ‘The Divided Child’, the
poem opens with the young Walcott surveying the view across the
Castries harbour during a day spent painting. Thereafter the vision
expands across the ‘sociological contours’ of the island (AL, p.148),
taking in home and village, business and religion, before closing with
Walcott’s acceptance of his vocation and inheritance. Following this,
Book Two, ‘Homage to Gregorias’, tells of how, along with his friend
Gregorias, Walcott immersed himself in his art. This in turn occasions a
consideration of the methods and role of the New World artist seeking to
intervene in the writing of the life and history of the Caribbean. The
second book closes with the outbreak of a fire throughout Castries, and
against the backdrop of this event, Book Three, ‘A Simple Flame’,
concentrates almost exclusively on the young poet’s love affair with
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Anna, who is also an emblem of his love for his island. Towards the end
of the book the poet’s departure from the island is fast approaching, and
with it too come feelings of betrayal. However, as the poet leaves the
island ‘A Simple Flame’ closes with a simple but compelling evocation
of the names of ‘Harry, Dunstan, Andreuille’ (AL, p.257), providing a
reminder of the debt the poet owes to each. In the final book, ‘The
Estranging Sea’, the mature poet returns to consider the role of art and
the artist in the Caribbean, in the face of the sudden death of his mentor
Harry Simmons. Most significantly, this leads him to reflect once more
upon the ‘muse of history’, and it is here that he makes clear his desire
to challenge the dominant recorded history of the islands, that has
created a literature of remorse and revenge. His belief in the possibility
for historical recuperation in the Caribbean, through the artistic
contribution of the region’s painters and writers, is reflected in the
dedication to Dunstan St Omer in the final lines of the poem, ‘Gregorias,
listen, lit, / we were the light of the world!’ (AL, p.294).
The closing lines of Another Life provide a testament to the enduring

influence of Harry Simmons, as well as a tribute to the inspiring
presence of Walcott’s childhood friend Gregorias. The poem is however
primarily a narrative of emergence and becoming, in which Walcott’s
apprenticeship as a painter and a poet is intimately connected to an
important process of identity formation, which in turn is connected to
the awakening of a distinctly Caribbean historical sensibility. Like
Naipaul’s The Enigma of Arrival and Brathwaite’s Arrivants trilogy, this
allows us to read Walcott’s Another Life as another example of
ideological becoming in which the arrival of the Caribbean writer
provides one of the major themes of the work.
Another Life begins with the poet sketching the outlines of the
surrounding landscape from the verandah of St Mary’s College in St
Lucia, ‘where the pages of the sea / are a book left open by an absent
master / in the middle of another life’ (AL, p.145)7. Thus, in the opening
stanzas we see him making an initial claim on the Caribbean landscape
in the process of realising his art. Looking out across the harbour, over
the ‘the British fort / above the promontory’, ‘the gables of the
St.Antoine Hotel’, ‘the flag / at Government House’ and ‘the last shacks
of the Mome’, the aspirant painter stands ‘mesmerized like fire without
wind’, waiting silently ‘for the verification of detail’ that will complete
his impression of the Caribbean (AL, pp. 145-146). Identifying himself
as ‘a prodigy of the wrong age and colour’ (AL, p.145), he hints at the
gap between his experience of the Caribbean and the impression of the
Caribbean that has thus far been recorded, and thereby establishes a
close relation between art and politics in the writing of the poem.
Surveying ‘a landscape locked in amber’, burnt with the colour of
sunset, he also provides an intimation of one of the central paradoxes of
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the poem, as his desire to seal and preserve the view contrasts with a
desire to heighten and transform the region through his art, and thus both
represents and re-enacts the conflict between history and art in Walcott’s
remembrance of things past. Providing a good indication of the way in
which history as a concept impacts upon an individual’s vision of
reality, this suggests, as Nana Wilson-Tagoe argues, that there is a clear
relationship between Walcott’s ‘developing concept of history and the
direction of his poetic style’ (Wilson-Tagoe, ‘History and Style in
Another Life', p.51). In addition to this, it is my contention that
Walcott’s developing concepts of history and style coalesce in a
narrative of individual and cultural emergence in Another Life, and that
the opening sequence also introduces the theme of historical becoming
into the poem. The ‘book left open by an absent master’ is not only a
reference to an artist’s manual or collection of prints that a master might
leave open for his pupil, but it also suggests an opening onto history
from which the poet can begin again and start anew, in order to work
towards a notion of Caribbean history based upon the idea of history as
myth and a vision of man as elemental. Writing and rewriting the history
of the region as he follows the relentless, unforgiving rhythm of the sea,
the poet is given the opportunity to name his island by an absent master,
who offers an alternative vision of the island and introduces him to the
worlds of art and literature and the attendant paradoxes of each8 9. The
word ‘begin’ occurs three times in the first two stanzas, and this
emphasis upon beginnings connects artistic potential with historical
potential, as the opening of the poem presents a moment of creation and
possibility from which the rest of the poem must follow. Certainly, this
sense of possibility is supported by Walcott’s argument in ‘The Muse of
History’, in which he speaks of‘the possibility of man and language
waking to wonder’ in the Caribbean (Walcott, ‘The Muse of History’,
p.53), in as much as the poem portrays the figure of a Caribbean man
gradually able to erase the past from his memory and emerge into a
world of Caribbean presence with a sense of elation.
Responding to what he terms ‘the muse of history’, in Another Life

Walcott addresses the debilitating nature of this sort of dominant notion
of ‘History’, and instead suggests the need for a new historical
perspective in the Caribbean. In Walcott’s poem questions of ‘potential’,
‘freedom’ and ‘creative initiative’ are central to the main narrative of
historical emergence, and it is through the individual emergence of the
Caribbean artist and poet that this process of becoming is principally
revealed.
Wilson Harris
Wilson Harris and the Caribbean Novel suggest that both writers share
key interests which effectively circulate around the notion of the cross-
cultural. Gilkes’ study is notable for its deliberate discussion of Harris
157
within a Caribbean context, and for its exploration of the crisis of

identity at the heart of Harris’ fiction.
All of Harris’ novels bear the marks of his mixed ancestral heritage and
argue for the recovery and recuperation of a hidden or forgotten past as
the basis for establishing a cross-cultural future1. Often described as
strange and difficult, Harris’ novels are perhaps best seen as complex
narratives of social and psychological crisis, in which the possibility for
radical change is born in those moments of tension when opposing
visions of reality conflict and interact with each other. For Harris, this
provides the opportunity to question the fixed notion of an inherited
colonial reality, to dismantle the rule of absolute thought that governs
the colonial consciousness, and to return to the past to recover a more
creative understanding of the way cultures inevitably and positively
interact. In novel after novel Harris maps out an almost identical
imaginative terrain, which suggests that each novel he has written is part
of an ongoing process of cross- cultural engagement.
Harris’ trilogy was also written on the boundary between two worlds;
that is to say, it emerges at the moment when the Caribbean is beginning
to move from a colonial to a post-colonial framework. It therefore places
Harris’ text firmly within the complex socio-political context of the
period, and suggests too an analogy between formal and thematic
freedom and the desire for greater personal and political independence
for the peoples of Guyana.
In The Post-colonial Studies Reader, Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin

describe the concept of place in post-colonial societies as ‘a complex
interaction of language, history and environment... characterised firstly
by a sense of displacement ... and secondly, by a sense of the immense
investment of culture in the construction of place’ (p.391). In The
Guyana Quartet Harris records this split sense of displacement and
investment, and replaces all absolute claims to ownership of the land
with a notion of living interaction between man and landscape. Before
he took up writing for a career, Harris worked as a land-surveyor for the
Guyanese government in the 1940’s and early 1950’s, and made a
number of expeditions into the interior of the country10. In his novels
this expeditionary impulse reveals an inherent uncertainty and
ambivalence beneath fixed impressions of the land, and an increasing
rejection of both temporal and spatial restrictions on the understanding
of man’s relationship to his surrounding environment. In his essay
Bakhtin proposes that ‘a literary work’s artistic unity in relationship to
an actual reality is defined by its chronotope’ (FTC, p.243). In Harris’
Guyana Quartet the key chronotopic considerations centre on the
writing of Guyana as an active, living, symbolic space; a vast, mythic
region that provides access to the ancestral history of the nation. Space
158
predominates over time in each novel: ‘One of [Harris’] fictions most

striking attributes is that it takes place in dislodged space. Gareth
Griffiths argues that, ‘For Harris space ‘annihilates’ time as it
establishes itself as the primary category, the ‘womb’ of space from
which and to which temporal structures and constructions arise and
return’12, whilst John Heame comments that the importance of space in
The Guyana Quartet shows that for Harris ‘[the] sacramental union of
man and landscape remains the lost, or never established factor in our
lives’ (Heame, ‘The Fugitive in the Forest’, p.160).
In The Guyana Quartet, Harris presents an image of Caribbean man as a

partial and plural being, further reflecting the image of Guyana as a
plural space of radical and multiple potentialities. Beginning with a
partial, fractured notion of identity Harris opens individual identities up
to other consciousnesses and cultures, and thus makes real the
possibility for cultural transformation and renewal. In each of the four
novels there are a number of characters- such as Carroll and Oudin- with
uncertain or unknown beginnings, whose ancestral ambiguity points to
the problematic nature of identity. Though accepted as true, Carroll’s
name is revealed to have been made up by his mother in order to protect
him from his past (GQ, pp.68-69); whilst neither Ram nor Mohammed
knows who or what Oudin is, or indeed where he comes from (GQ,
pp.141-149). Harris suggests that it is a fatal mistake to believe in a
fixed notion of one’s origins. Instead, it is necessary to accept a certain
partiality, and to recognise that there are aspects of one’s identity that
one cannot completely know. Just as environment and landscape in the
sequence contain aspects of other realms, so too identity and ancestral
inheritance are each shown to be subject to gaps and contradictions. The
acknowledgement of one’s partiality is at once a cause of vulnerability
and a potential source of strength. On the one hand, it reveals a void or
lack at the heart of one’s identity. On the other, it makes plain that it is
from this space of absence or loss that any process of restoration or
transformation must begin. No identity is sovereign in Harris’ fictions.
Rather, all of his characters interpenetrate with each other on a symbolic
and psychical level, and they are bound together through a shared
history. Those with mixed parentage-such as Cameron, Schomburgh,
Magda and Fenwick- contain within themselves the question of racial
and cultural intermixture that the whole community must address.
Similarly, the crews assembled by Donne and Fenwick act as a
microcosm of the national identity. Both crews contain characters of
variously intermixed Indian, African, Asian, European (British, German,
Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese) and Amerindian extraction. This
reflects the legacy of a history of colonialism in the region, and ties the
surviving fragments of the colonial period to those from a pre-colonial
age. It also establishes the connections that bind the key ethnic and
racial constituencies of the nation together. In relation to The Secret
159
Ladder, Jean Pierre Durix notes that via the motif of the crew ‘Harris
suggests that any solution to the history of ethnic oppression which has
plagued the Caribbean for centuries cannot lie in one group ignoring the
needs of others’16. In Palace of the Peacock, the importance of the crew
as a collective body is made clear with the suggestion that, ‘The whole
crew was one spiritual family living and dying together in a common
grave out of which they had sprung again from the same soul and womb
as it were’ (GQ, p.39). This highlights the symbolic status of the group
and hints at their shared origins or common ancestry. The paradoxical
combination of images of death and (re)birth suggests that the crew
encapsulate a memorial to the past and a vision of the future, and
implies that they exist on the boundary between conscious and
unconscious life. Donne’s crew is both alive and dead, and exactly
resembles another crew that had perished on a previous journey into the
Guyanese interior (GQ, p.37). In this sense, each member of Donne’s
crew is a double, an embodiment of a life repeated from generation to
generation. In the Quartet as a whole, the mirroring of characters serves
to question a fixed or singular notion of identity, and instead suggests a
certain duality or cyclist.
Harris’ inscription of a regenerative ‘cross-cultural capacity’ within The

Guyana Quartet finally underlines the importance of the chronoscope of
the threshold in his writings. At the close of each novel Harris presents a
vision of a community on the verge of newness, at the threshold of a
moment of radical transformation, and introduces the concept of
freedom into a society seemingly governed by the legacies of violence
and colonial domination. This thematic refrain establishes a point in
each novel when the possibility of change is at least posed, if not yet
realised.
Conclusion
From our critical exploration and extensiveness in this course work so
far, we have come to understand that African- American& Caribbean
literature involves poetry and slave narratives. The Civil Rights and
Black Arts Movements played great roles in the development of African
American writing. Nowadays, African American & Caribbean literature
constitutes a basis in the literature of the United States.
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, slave narratives

emerged as a form of protest literature. Many former slaves, including
Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass wrote slave narratives about their
personal lives.
After the Civil War, several black writers emerged such as W.E.B Du
Bois. They wrote about the conditions of the blacks in U.S.A. Later, as
the white society started to pay attention to the African American
160
writings, black writers used genres like fiction to tackle these issues. In
addition, African American writings during the twentieth century dealt
with the era of slavery to understand the present.
Summary
This course work attempts to show the students (reader) how African –
American&Caribbean literature developed throughout time. In addition,
it claims that African Americans deserve equal rights as the white.
The themes of African American& Caribbean literature during the
twentieth century have developed through writings in different genres
which have helped the expansion of literature. African American history
is marked by racism and sorrow. Thus, African American writers focus
on racial injustice. They were inspired by the movement for African
American freedom. Indeed, African –American& Caribbean literary
production reflects the struggle for freedom and a discourse of human
rights.

1. What are the common themes that dominate Caribbean works?
2. Discuss the aesthetics of identity and self in George Lamming’s
In the Castle of my Skin.
3. What is the central message in Richard Wright’s Black Boy?
Discuss
4. Explore the literary background and writings of V.S. Naipaul
5. Discuss the thernes of freedom, inclusion and empowerment in
the works of the following Caribbean authors:
Wilson Harris
Ralph Elison
Refernce / Further Reading

Angelou M. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings New York: Random
House Incorporated.(1986).
Anthony M. The Year in San Fernando. London, Deutsch,Portsmouth,
NewHampshire, Heinemann.(1965)
Butcher M. The Negro in American Culture: New York: Knopf (1956).
Das, Santanus. Race, Empire and First World War Writing. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2011.
David, Brown and Clive, Webb. Race in the American South: From
Slavery to Civil Rights. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
2007.
Dickson-Carr, Darryl.The Columbia Guide to Contemporary African
American Fiction. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Ellison R. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International. (1995).
161
Fanon F (1963). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.
(1963).
Kumar P.“Identity Crisis in V.S.Naipaul‟s A House for Mr. Biswas.” In
Shands, Kerstin W., Editor. Neither East North West: Post
Colonial Essays on Literature, Culture and Religion.
http://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_1_No_11_Special_Issue_
August 2
Lamming G.In the Castle of My Skin, 1953, New York (.1970)
Naipaul VS .A House for Mr Biswas. New York: Vintage International.
(2003)
Smith,Rochelle and Jones, Sharon L.The Prentice Hall Anthology of
African American Literature. U.S.A: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Springer, Graig B. Contemporary U.S Literature: Multicultural
perspectives. Washington D.C: Judith S. Siegel,( 2000).
Wright R. Black Boy. Essex: Longman Group Limited. (2006).
162

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COURSE

Course Team Dr. Oluchi Chris OKEUGO (Course Developer/

NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA

© 2022 by NOUN Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any

First Printed 2022

This course will present a comprehensive survey of the literature

The course consists of 35 units, historical background to Caribbean

The knowledge of the works of major African-American and Caribbean

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN IN THIS COURSE

• Enhancing research skills and skills in finding and assessing

• Understand the geography of the Caribbean and map connections

WORKING THROUGH THIS COURSE

Major component of this course are:

There are thirty-five units in this course. They are as follows:

Module 1: Historical Background to Caribbean Literature

Unit 4 Implication on Criticism

Module 2: Historical Background to African- American and

Module 3: Caribbean Experience: Return Migration of the West

Module 4: Comparative Black Literature and Post-colonialism:

Module 5: Postcolonial Feminist Theory: An Aesthetic Model for

Module 6: Representations of Black Womanhood in African-

Unit 5 Jamaica Kincaid and Audre Lorde

Module 7: Reading Caribbean Writing: A Cross-Cultural

The essence of a comprehensive provision of the units is to guide and

TEXTBOOKS AND REFERENCES

Andrews, W. L. (1986). To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-

Baker, H. A., Jr. (1987). Blues, Ideology, and African-American

Bruce, D. D., Jr. (2001). The Origins of African American Literature,

Chaney, M. (2007). Fugitive Vision: Slave Image and Black Identity in

Gray, R. (2012). A History of American literature (4th ed.). Wiley-

Hourston, Z. N. (1981). Their Eyes Were Watching God. Champaign:

Hughes, L. (1999). The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.

Hutcheon, L. (1988). A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory,

Jacobs, H. (1988). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York:

Huggins, N. (Ed.). (1976). Voices from the Harlem Renaissance. New

Hutchinson, G. (Ed.). (2007). The Cambridge Companion to the Harlem

Wintz, C. D. (1988). Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance.

The presentation schedule included in your course materials gives you

In tackling the assignments, you are expected to apply the information

The assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment

FINAL EXAMINATION AND GRADING

COURSE MARKING SCHEME

Table 1: Course marking scheme

5 Major Writers from the Assignment

HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS COURSE

FACILITATORS/ TUTORS AND TUTORIALS

CONTACT YOUR TUTOR IF:

ENG 817: African-American & Caribbean Literature simply explains

The Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone legacies historically

The writing in African-American and Caribbean literature reflects how

The course is a captivating course that requires voracious grip and

The Hispanophone, Anglophone, and Francophone legacies historically

(2) Understand Caribbean history, culture, and identities and how

(3) Identify the main argument and focus of an author. Analyze,

The history of the founding and settling of the Caribbean has

This lack of creation refers to the dearth of monuments, libraries and

Initially, Columbus thought that the West Indies would open up a

At all times, the European presence in the Caribbean was primarily