Race And Anti-Colonial Literature

The colonial writers started the work of rewriting history from their perspective. The main reason for this was that it was completely prejudiced against the colonized. The beginning of decolonization led to a growth of many literary works, that was totally different after long years of colonial suppression of the individuality of the colonized. The writers of the Third World nations are more and more concerned and dedicated on writing about their native histories, and problems of colonization and its consequences. They have written about cultural colonization, native identity and anti-colonial resistance. History was written in two different ways by the colonized and the colonizer. The anti-colonial history was written by the colonized. They …show more content…
Postcolonial writers have a lot of national pride. This also leads to the next important concept, race. Michael Banton defines race as a concept that has been the basis of discrimination and disempowerment (Nasrullah Mambrol). Race has become a fundamental grouping in social, political and cultural theory. Critical race studies include the studies of race in literature and culture, ethnicity studies, studies of minority literatures, and specific traditions in literature and philosophy. Therefore, the colonized unambiguously talks about and answers questions of race and racial discrimination. Race and identity are also interconnected. W.E.B, Du Bois in his writings like The Souls of Black Folk condemns the scientific racism. He moreover argued that racism was socially constructed, that it emerged through social discourses and practices and was not scientifically demonstrable. The role and study of Gender in postcolonial discourse refers to the double colonization of women by both imperialism and patriarchy. In postcolonial literature, gender and sexuality have become extremely important themes in the previous decades of the 20th century. Resistance in post colonialism is the ways of thinking, writing, and acting that fight against the colonial …show more content…
The colonizers took pride in their own cultural identity and they had the total conviction that their culture was far more superior to the colonized. The colonized like Chinua Achebe and others started writing back to prove that their culture was not primitive or backward in any way. These writers used the language that was imposed on them to write against their rulers. Metanarrative is an integral part of post colonial criticism and theory. The colonizers told their story in the way they wanted to so that they could continue their exploitation and thus destroy the culture and traditions of the colonized. Postcolonial writers have a huge dilemma with this story. After all, from their standpoint, colonization wasn't about civilization or enlightenment. It was about brutal economic exploitation. The colonized started pointing out that, in reality, there's more than one side to the story. In reality, there are often different sides to the same story. Consequently, postcolonial writers are inclined to use metanarrative. They intended to draw attention to the way that stories, or narratives are told, and particularly how they're always told from a definite point of view that the colonizers wanted. Subaltern is a term introduced by Antonio Gramsci to refer to the working class or the people who are socially and