Commonwealth and Postcolonial Writing in English

Part one ended in New Zealand, with two writers who emigrated to England. This second part turns from the map to the ideas that connect its places. The unit's governing idea pays off at the capstone: postcolonial writing is not one style, and place and the moment of empire decide the reading, along with the classic a work may answer. We move in three steps: the connecting ideas, writing back, hybridity and the migrant novel, Zadie Smith's London, Ireland as a case, Lessing's Africa and the laureates; then three procedures, for a work known by description, for matching authors to places, and for the three pairs of writing back; and then the common errors, Kipling read back, and the capstone.

We begin with the ideas critics use to connect these writers, and with the places those ideas reach.

The colonized answer the canon.

ENL 1723 Writing Back: Rewriting the Classics

The phrase "the empire writes back," from a nineteen eighty-nine book by Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, names postcolonial writing that answers the colonial centre. Critics re-read The Tempest, Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, Kim and Heart of Darkness, and writers rewrote such texts. The colonized answer the canon. This entry rests on one reference source.

Identities form between cultures.

ENL 1724 Hybridity and the Migrant Novel

Hybridity, a term theorized above all by Homi Bhabha in The Location of Culture, describes identities formed between cultures. Migrant fiction explores it: Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, of nineteen fifty-six, follows Caribbean migrants of the Windrush generation in London, told in creolised English. Between cultures; migrants in London. Hybridity is Bhabha's term.

A novel of multicultural London.

ENL 1725 Zadie Smith and Black British Writing

Zadie Smith, born in north-west London in nineteen seventy-five to a Jamaican mother and an English father, published White Teeth in two thousand, which follows the wartime friends Samad Iqbal and Archie Jones and their families in multicultural London. Multicultural London. Plot details here rest on one reference source.

Ireland can be read as a case.

ENL 1726 Ireland as a Postcolonial Case

W-7's account of postcolonial literature includes Ireland: English came with the Norman conquest, English rule covered the island after the Tudor conquest and plantation, and the Irish language declined. The Irish Literary Revival and Ireland's later writers can be read in that light. Conquest, plantation, language. This entry rests on one reference source.

Lessing wrote the colour bar.

ENL 1727 Doris Lessing's Africa

Doris Lessing, raised in Southern Rhodesia, drew on Africa throughout her work. Her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, of nineteen fifty, the anchor says, depicts a white farming couple, their Black servant, and the cruelty and hypocrisy of the colour bar. A farm, a servant, the colour bar. Lessing wrote as a white settler's daughter.

Six laureates, five countries.

ENL 1728 The Nobel Laureates in English Since 1980

The Swedish Academy awards the Nobel Prize in Literature. Laureates from beyond Britain covered in this course include Soyinka in nineteen eighty-six, Gordimer in nineteen ninety-one, Walcott in nineteen ninety-two, Coetzee in two thousand three, Lessing in two thousand seven and Munro in two thousand thirteen. Six laureates, five countries. Match the laureate to the year.

Now three procedures that turn this writing into answers.

Here is the method for a work known by description.

ENL 1729 Reading a Postcolonial Work by Description

Postcolonial works appear described, so read for four things. The place: Nigeria, South Africa, the Caribbean, India, Canada, Australia or migrant London. The relation to empire: colonial arrival, as in Things Fall Apart; independence, as in Midnight's Children; apartheid, as in Gordimer; or migration, as in The Lonely Londoners. The language choice: English, creolised English, or a turn to an African language, as Ngũgĩ chose. Any classic answered: Jane Eyre, Homer or Conrad. Combine place, moment and response, and check which classic is answered before choosing.

Here is the method for matching by place.

ENL 1730 Matching Postcolonial Authors, Works and Places

Sort by place. Nigeria: Achebe, Soyinka. Kenya: Ngũgĩ. South Africa: Gordimer; Coetzee, Disgrace. Saint Lucia: Walcott, Omeros. Trinidad: Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas; Selvon, The Lonely Londoners. Dominica: Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea. Barbados: Brathwaite. India: Rushdie, Desai, Narayan, Roy. Canada: Atwood, Munro. Australia: White, Voss. New Zealand: Mansfield, Adcock. Southern Rhodesia: Lessing. London: Zadie Smith, White Teeth. Rhys and Naipaul are both Caribbean-born, from different islands, so check the island and the work together.

Here are the three pairs of writing back.

ENL 1731 Writing Back: Three Pairs

Writing back is easiest to recognize in pairs. Brontë's Jane Eyre and Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, which gives the silenced Bertha her history as Antoinette in Jamaica. Homer's Iliad and Walcott's Omeros, which gives Caribbean fishermen the names and conflicts of Greek heroes. Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Achebe's response, his lecture calling Conrad racist and Things Fall Apart, which shows an Igbo society from within. In each pair, ask what the later work restores: a voice, a dignity or a perspective. The postcolonial work answers the classic, never the other way round.

Last, the errors to avoid, Kipling re-read, and the capstone.

Four errors need correcting.

ENL 1732 Common Errors About Postcolonial Writing

Four errors recur. Wide Sargasso Sea is Rhys's novel, not Brontë's. Midnight's Children is set in India, though Rushdie lives abroad. Achebe's title Things Fall Apart comes from Yeats. And Atwood and Munro are Canadian writers, not American. Four common corrections. Check nationality and the borrowed source.

The imperial classic is re-read.

ENL 1733 Kipling Read Back

Kipling's work is a common target of postcolonial reading. W-7 lists his Kim among canonical works examined by colonial discourse analysis, alongside The Tempest and Heart of Darkness, and the anchor notes his work may reveal British racial bias and Western prejudice. The imperial classic re-read. Re-reading is criticism, not dismissal.

The capstone weighs writing beyond England.

ENL 1734 English Literature Beyond England

English literature after empire is written far beyond England. As colonies won independence, English remained a literary language, sometimes embraced and sometimes refused. In Africa, Achebe showed Igbo society meeting colonial Christianity and called Conrad racist; Soyinka dramatized a colonial ban on ritual; Ngũgĩ turned to Gikuyu; Gordimer and Coetzee wrote apartheid and its aftermath. In the Caribbean, Walcott gave fishermen Homer's names, Naipaul wrote alienation, Rhys gave Bertha a history, Selvon made nation language a medium for narrative, and Brathwaite studied creole society. In India, Narayan imagined Malgudi, Rushdie the children of midnight, and Desai and Roy displacement and caste. Atwood imagined Gilead, Munro small-town Ontario, White sent Voss into the desert, Mansfield and Adcock carried divided identity to London, Lessing wrote the colour bar, Zadie Smith multicultural London. Ireland can be read as an early case. Critics named the methods: writing back, Bhabha's hybridity, Said's Orientalism. Identify the place and the moment of empire, ask which classic the work may answer, and remember these works are described, not quoted.

This second part followed the connecting ideas. We explained writing back and Bhabha's hybridity, and the migrant novel from Selvon's Londoners to Zadie Smith's White Teeth. We read Ireland as an early case and described Lessing's colour bar. We matched the laureates and the authors to their places, island by island. We read a work by description and named the three pairs, each later work restoring what the classic denied. And we corrected the errors, re-read Kipling as criticism rather than dismissal, and closed on the capstone: place and moment decide. Unit nineteen, Reading Criticism and Identifying Periods, turns back to method across every period.