Postcolonial
English Literature: Theory and Practice
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on
FOREWORD
At a recent
seminar held at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University I took the opportunity
of being the Keynote Speaker to express my suspicion that terms or phrases such
as "rewriting" or "counter discourse" or "writing back"
carry a certain violence, a certain confrontational energy. This energy may be
emotionally mobilising but may not be politically productive in the long run,
because its oppositionality seems to invoke and reiterate a neat and clear
binary; and neat and clear binaries seldom work when it comes to talking about
messy things like culture and identity, because there is no such thing as a
"pure" culture and no such thing as a "pure" identity. We
are all culturally impure, but some of us revel in the notion of being a
"pure Hindu" or a "pure Indian" when such purity is just a
linguistic lie. Very often language is used to prop up notions of cultural
purity. English still continues to be regarded in some quarters as a
"foreign" (and therefore untouchable) language. This is why it gives
me great pleasure to provide the foreword to this book because it continues the
healthy project of engaging with the postcolonial condition using what some
still regard as "the coloniser's language."
I congratulate Mr.
Dipak Giri for putting together a volume that does not believe in geographical,
racial, national, gendered boundaries as unbridgeable. The range of authors
discussed here - from Achebe to Roy - is a testimony to the ever-expanding
contours of postcolonial writing. The focus on fiction - Dattani being the only
playwright dealt with here - seems apposite because sometimes a condition
requires the length and breadth of a novel for its adequate treatment. The care
with which each contributor has tried to negotiate the tricky terrain of postcoloniality
is worthy of note. Volumes such as these are always welcome, because the
postcolonial condition is so overdetermined by innumerable and powerful
historical, socio-cultural, and economic forces that careful, tentative but
persistent identification of these forces and their impact is always to be
undertaken.
I hope that this volume will excite many minds, restart many conversations, invigorate many thoughts, but not in the spirit of loud, confrontational anger. Let us be humbled by the acknowledgement that pure oppositionality is intellectually unhelpful and that dealing with our own postcolonial hybridities with care and understanding may be the way forward.
Niladri R. Chatterjee
Professor
Kalyani University
West Bengal
CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction
1.
A Tryst with the Self: Migrancy,
Diasporicity and Identity in Selected
Short Stories of Jhumpa Lahiri -Shilpi Basak
2.
Things
Fall Apart: An Exploration of Pre-and Post-Colonial Life
in Late 19th Century Nigeria -Rabi
Kanta Roy
3.
A House of My Own: A House for Mr. Biswas -Dr. Shachi Sood & Dr. Saleem Wani
4.
The Impact of
Binaries in Constituting Social Conflicts: A Reading of A Fine Balance by
Rohinton Mistry -Mahendran
U
5.
Depiction of
Religion as an Oppressive Weapon in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Purple Hibiscus -Dr. Romina
Rashid & Asma Zahoor
6.
From Migration to Madness: Female
Migration in Doris Lessing’s The Grass is
Singing and Margaret Atwood’s Alias
Grace -Gouri Kapoor
7.
When the
Subaltern React and Create a Space of Their Own: Re-locating Identity in Arvind
Adiga’s The White Tiger - Samiksha
Sharma
8.
An Attempt to Study Familial and Marital
Discourse in Family Matters by
Rohinton Mistry - Shweta Verma
9.
Social Deprivation and Identity Issues in Aravind Adiga's White Tiger -Tabish Wani
& Rumana Nisar
10.
An Ecofeminist Study of Margaret
Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale -Ragini Kapoor
11.
Rootlessness and Quest for Identity in
Bharati Mukherjee’s Wife -Surabhi K.
12.
A
Postcolonial Overview of Arundhati Roy’s The
Ministry of Utmost Happiness -Supriya
Mandal
13.
Food as a Metaphor for Identity and
Isolation in Selected Stories of Jhumpa Lahiri - Dr. Prachi Priyanka
14.
Multi
Approaches of Writing: V. S. Naipaul -Dr. Brajesh
Kumar Gupta “Mewadev”
15.
The
Colonialism and the Changes in the Postcolonial World -Sujoy Barman
16.
Awakened by Darkness: An Exploration of
Shamanic Archetypes, Voicing Female Experiences in Selected Novels of Margaret
Atwood -Alik Jha
17. Glocalization
through the Lens of Postcolonial Mimicry and Hybridity: A Study of Amitav
Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines -Rabindra Sutradhar
18. Home
and beyond, between National Identity and Culture: A Reading of Basharat Peer’s
Curfewed Night -Amrita Datta
19. Postcolonial Dilemma of Language: A Study of Male
Protagonist in Anita Desai's In Custody -Tinku
Das
20.
Revisiting the Colonial Discourse: A
Study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart -Saurabh Debnath
21.
Interrogating National Identity: A
Postcolonial Study of Mahesh Dattani’s Final
Solutions -Dipak Giri
Notes
on the Contributors
1.
Shilpi
Basak is an Assistant Professor, Department of English,
Sudhiranjan Lahiri Mahavidyalaya, Majdia, Nadia, West Bengal.
2.
Rabi
Kanta Roy is an Assistant Professor, Department of English,
Kabi Nazrul College, Murarai, Birbhum, West Bengal.
3.
Dr.
Shachi Sood is an Assistant Professor, Department
of English, Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri (J&K).
4.
Dr.
Saleem Wani is an Assistant Professor, Department of
English, P.G. College, Rajouri (J&K).
5.
Mahendran
U
is an Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sir Theagaraya College,
Washermenpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
6.
Dr. Romina Rashid is an Assistant Professor, Department of English,
Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University,
Rajouri, J&K.
7.
Asma Zahoor is a Research Scholar, Department of English, Baba
Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri,
J&K.
8.
Gouri
Kapoor is a Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of
English, The English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, Telangana.
Prior to joining PhD, she was an Assistant Professor (Adhoc), Department of
English, Shri Guru Gobind Singh College of Commerce, Delhi University, Delhi.
9.
Samiksha
Sharma is a Research Scholar, Department of English, Baba
Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, J&K.
10.
Shweta
Verma is a Research Scholar, Department of English,
University of Lucknow, U.P.
11.
Tabish
Wani is a Student of M.A., Department of English,
Kashmir University, Kashmir.
12.
Rumana Nisar is
a Student of M.A., Department of English, Kashmir
University, Kashmir.
13.
Ragini
Kapoor is a Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of Modern
Indian Languages and Literary Studies, Delhi University, New Delhi.
14.
Surabhi
K. is
a Ph. D. Research Scholar,
Department of English, University of Hyderabad, Telangana.
15.
Supriya
Mandal is an M.Phil Research Scholar, University of Gour Banga,
Malda, West Bengal. She was formerly Guest
Lecturer in Malda Government DIET College, Malda, West Bengal.
16.
Dr.
Prachi Priyanka is an Assistant Professor, School of
Languages & Culture, Sharda University, Greater Noida (U.P.).
17. Dr. Brajesh Kumar Gupta “Mewadev”
is the Head and Assistant Professor, Department of English, Eklavya
Mahavidyalaya, Banda (U.P.).
18. Sujoy Barman
works in Bhatun Junior High School, Bhatol
Hatch, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal.
19. Alik Jha is
a Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Raiganj University, Raiganj,
Uttar Dinajpur (W.B.).
20. Rabindra Sutradhar is
an Assistant Teacher, Khirerkote High School (H.S.), Alipurduar, West Bengal.
21. Amrita Datta
is an Assistant Teacher in Mowamari Tattanath Vidyapith (H.S), Cooch Behar and a
Ph. D. Research Scholar, Department of English, Raiganj University, Raiganj,
Uttar Dinajpur (W.B.). She is an Academic Counsellor, Cooch Behar College Study
Centre, NSOU, West Bengal. She was formerly Part Time Lecturer, Vivekananda College,
Alipurduar and Academic Counsellor, A.B.N Seal College Study Centre, IGNOU,
Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
22. Tinku Das is
an Assistant Teacher, Uttar Khapaidanga High School, Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
He is an Academic Counsellor, Netaji Subhash Open University, Cooch Behar
College Study Centre, Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
23. Saurabh Debnath
is an Assistant Teacher, Pundibari Ramgopal Lakhotia High School, Cooch Behar, West
Bengal. He is an Academic Counsellor, Netaji Subhash Open University, Cooch
Behar College Study Centre, Cooch Behar, West Bengal.
24. Dipak Giri is
an Assistant Teacher, Katamari High School (H.S.), Cooch Behar, West Bengal and
a Ph. D. Research Scholar, Raiganj University, Raiganj, Uttar Dinajpur, West
Bengal. He is an Academic Counsellor, Netaji Subhas Open University, Cooch
Behar College Study Centre, Cooch Behar, West Bengal. He was formerly a Part-Time
Lecturer, Cooch Behar College, Vivekananda College and Thakur Panchanan Mahila
Mahavidyalaya, West Bengal and a Guest Lecturer, Dewanhat College, Cooch Behar,
West Bengal.