Colonial Enchanter: Postcolonial Enchantress
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Janmejay Kumar Tiwari Research Scholar Department of English & MEL University of Allahabad, Allahabad Colonial Enchanter: Postcolonial Enchantress Postcolonialism is a relation of centre and margin, oppressor and oppressed, colonizer and colonized or in the words of Aime Cesaire “relations of domination and submission.‟‟ Postcolonialism is largely concerned with the politics of culture and postcolonial studies “involves the critical examination of European representations of colonial peoples and the production of counter discourse designed to resist the continued encroachment of European/ American cultures on former colonies‟‟ (Quinn 254). The aim of postcolonialism is to overturn the colonial mind-set and decolonize the colonized psychologically. “Colonization involved colonizing the mind, then resistance to it, requires in Ngugi‟s phrase “decolonizing the mind”. (McLeod 22) Though the political decolonization started with the declaration of American independence in 1776, the latter half of the twentieth century witnessed political decolonization in abundance. British Empire empowered its erstwhile colonies but decolonization never comes just from signing of a declaration of independence. Postcolonial literatures are actively engaged in decolonizing the mind and ultimate purpose of postcolonial writing is as Boehmer states: …the quest for personal and racial/cultural identity built on the spiritual guardianship of traditional laws; the belief that writing is an integral part of
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self-definition; the emphasis on historical reconstruction; the ethical imperative of reconciliation with the past. (Boehmer 221) The aim of the colonizers, since the establishment of empire, was to transform the others like themselves not physically but mentally as Lord Macaulay emphasized in his 1935 Minute. Salman Rushdie echoes the same feature in his latest novel The Enchantress of Florence: We will take your finest off-spring from you and we will transform
Janmejay Kumar Tiwari Research Scholar Department of English & MEL University of Allahabad, Allahabad Colonial Enchanter: Postcolonial Enchantress Postcolonialism is a relation of centre and margin, oppressor and oppressed, colonizer and colonized or in the words of Aime Cesaire “relations of domination and submission.‟‟ Postcolonialism is largely concerned with the politics of culture and postcolonial studies “involves the critical examination of European representations of colonial peoples and the production of counter discourse designed to resist the continued encroachment of European/ American cultures on former colonies‟‟ (Quinn 254). The aim of postcolonialism is to overturn the colonial mind-set and decolonize the colonized psychologically. “Colonization involved colonizing the mind, then resistance to it, requires in Ngugi‟s phrase “decolonizing the mind”. (McLeod 22) Though the political decolonization started with the declaration of American independence in 1776, the latter half of the twentieth century witnessed political decolonization in abundance. British Empire empowered its erstwhile colonies but decolonization never comes just from signing of a declaration of independence. Postcolonial literatures are actively engaged in decolonizing the mind and ultimate purpose of postcolonial writing is as Boehmer states: …the quest for personal and racial/cultural identity built on the spiritual guardianship of traditional laws; the belief that writing is an integral part of
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self-definition; the emphasis on historical reconstruction; the ethical imperative of reconciliation with the past. (Boehmer 221) The aim of the colonizers, since the establishment of empire, was to transform the others like themselves not physically but mentally as Lord Macaulay emphasized in his 1935 Minute. Salman Rushdie echoes the same feature in his latest novel The Enchantress of Florence: We will take your finest off-spring from you and we will transform
References: Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. New York: OUP, 2005. Dirda, Michael. “A Romancce of Beauty and Power.” Washington post. 11th February 2010. Websitehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2008/05/22/AR20080 52203533pf.html Quinn, Edward. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms. New York: Checkmark Books, 2000. Riemenschneider, J. D. “Enchanted: Salman Rushdie‟s The Enchantress of Florence. Muse India. 12th February 2010. Website Rushdie, Salman. The Enchantress of Florence. London: Jonathan Cape, 2008. Kemp, Peter. “The Encantress of Florence.” Entertainment Times. 15th February 2010. Website Tripathi, Salil. “Ages of Empire.” Newstatesman. 15th February 2010. Website Sujatha S. “Fictional Treatment of History in Rushdie‟s Novels.” Litcrit: An Indian Response to Literature. 32-38 (2008) . Tiwari 10