Postcolonialism
Postcolonialism refers to a group of theories which analyse the effect of (Western) colonisation on society. They focus especially on the way colonisation brought White Middle Class Christian ("Us") values to a group of people seen as "Other" (all the - usually negative - things that Western society wasn't/isn't). A quick overview of the features fo postcolonial literature can be found at the University of Wisconsin [http://humanities.wisc.edu/assets/misc/What_is_Postcolonial_Literature_.pdf]. There are two excellent articles about postcolonialism in the Area of Study Extract boxes. Other definitions of postcolonial approaches can be found at
Postcolonial Literature refers to literature written by writers from countries that were colonised by Europeans, which deals with the lasting impact of colonialism. The Writer's History Portal [http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=28&Itemid=41] gives an excellent list of writers (often international prize winners) that fall into this category. Any of these books would make an excellent related text, paticularly if you are studying The Tempest or analysing Life of Pi from a post-colonial perspective.
Postcolonial Literature refers to literature written by writers from countries that were colonised by Europeans, which deals with the lasting impact of colonialism. The Writer's History Portal [http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=28&Itemid=41] gives an excellent list of writers (often international prize winners) that fall into this category. Any of these books would make an excellent related text, paticularly if you are studying The Tempest or analysing Life of Pi from a post-colonial perspective.
Critical Essays ·
Malik, Surbhi, "UK is Finished; India's too Corrupt; Anyone can become Amrikan": Interrogating Itineraries of Power in Bend It Like Beckham and Prejudice Bride. In the Journal of Creative Communications. 2:1&2, 2007, p. 79-100 [join a library -NSW and Australian National libraries online - to access the journal]) this theoretical essay anayses two important English films from a post-colonial perspective (easy for you to turn into a who-belongs-where argument). As it’s an academic article you need to discuss the way it’s structured to develop an argument through subheadings and contrast, the use of quotes from other academics, and the use of formal technical language. Recommended for advanced and extension students only.
Ervine, Janathon. (2008). Citizenship and Belonging in Suburban France: The music of Zebda” in ACME and international e journal for critical studies 7 (2). [View online at http://www.acme-journal.org/vol7/JEr.pdf or look in the Belonging folder in the O-drive]. This is a cultural studies essay about the way music sets and contests boundaries of identity in a racist society, enabling marginalised young people to discover themse. It’s worth getting through the academic language that lays out the political background because the song analysis on p.205-8 is fabulous. Standard students (especially those studying Motorcycle Diaries) may wish to focus on these pages while advanced students thrash out the politics (which would help explain the relationship between Prospero and his family in The Tempest).
Maccreddon, Lyn. Forms of Memory in post-colonial Australia. "There are many forms of memory in post-colonial Australia, and many kinds of haunting. This paper investigates the poetry of contemporary Indigenous poets Sam Wagan Watson and Tony Birch, and reads the script of the Federal Government’sFebruary 2008 Apology to the Stolen Generations, asking how and why the nation should be haunted – historically and imaginatively - into the future." (from article abstract). compare these Aboriginal poets exoperience fo the world to a post colonial interpretation of Caliban's role in The Tempest. You can read it online at [http://www.ub.edu/dpfilsa/coola3mccreaddon.pdf]
Artworks
Gadsby, Hannah. (2013). Hannah Gadsby’s Oz - Episode 1 Comedian Hannah Gadsby unpacks the historical record of Australia's past through early Wuriopean and contemporary Australian artists. this diocumentary is brilliant from an Art and and English point of view because she focuses on "how" messages are created or critiqued. You could discuss the episode as a documentary or focus on a single painting. Read the review at No Award [http://no-award.net/2014/04/17/hannah-gadsby-oz-1/] and watch the copy on the TV4 Education drive.
Speeches
Bush, George . (2001). Axis of Evil. This speech is the original response to September 11 disaster. It presents a coherent argument for going to war against terrorists, but contains all the imagery used today to create racism and fear of “foreigners”, including the implication that people in Islamic countries need Americans to bring the values of freedom, education and prosperity. Very useful if your text has an "us and them" mentality. It would work very well with Go back to where you came from but would also stand up to more complex analysis of the speech as political propaganda from a postcolonial perspective.
Songs Sondheim, Steven. (). "The advantages of floating in the middle of the Sea" from Pacific Overtures. This satirical song (lyrics available here [http://www.sondheimguide.com/pacific.html] describes the Western view of Japanese culture as engaged in quiet peaceful tasks while the rest of the world carries on moving into the future. It could be read wither from a metaphorical [perspective (lie Life of Pi) or analysed in detail to discover the ways that the writer is satirizing the Western “us” and “them” attitude. This song (both lyrics and music) and, indeed the whole musical, lends itself particularly well to a postcolonial analysis.
Sting. (). “Moon over Bourbon Street” from A Dream of Blue Turtles. [Listen to it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd-F2rpXXZc ] If you’re a fan of novels like Twilight, Fallen or Hush, you’ll enjoy this ballad about a New Orleans werewolf. While the lyrics are simple, they are very moving and carry a tone of intense regret. Discuss juxtapositions such as “sinner” and “priest”, and the paradox of “I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love.” Link the instrumentation (jazz trumpet) to the setting Don’t use the fans’ clips which show vampires (not a werewolf who’s monster only on nights with a full moon)! If you are using this song to discuss race, you need to compare the separation of paranormals to the separation of other people who are different - esp. racial segregation of African Americans in Louisiana’s history.
Short stories
Baynton, Barbara. (). “A Dreamer” in Bush Studies. Set in colonial Australia, this story depicts the Australian landscape as an destructive force that divides the protagonist from those she loves. Analyse the way the landscape and weather symbolise the protagonist’s psychological state, and discuss the force of love which gives her courage to discover a way to overcome all obstacles as well as the irony of the ending
Hererra, Susana, (2000). “Jum Boo Nah” in A woman’s path: women’s best spiritual travel writing. (Belonging folder at 820.9) Describes the alienation of a Western woman on holiday in an African village, and the moment she discoversself- acceptance, a feeling of being “in her skin”. Analyse the things which lead her to feel “other” than the women she obviously finds fascinating, and the way the same image is presented differently after she discovers a connection. Focus on the sensory imagery common in all travel writing, the use of foreign words in italics and the internal monologue that lets you know what she’s thinking at a particular moment.
Films Short Chadha, Gurinder. Bride and Prejudice. This Bollywood-style adaptation of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice uses lavish cinematography and to address the issues of interracial (Indian and Anglo) marriages. If you write about this film, you’ll need to discuss it’s transformation of the novel (a good choice if you’re doing the novel in Advanced English): see http://www.filmintuition.com/Pride_Prejudice.html and http://frame.the-frame.com/2007/08/17/from-austen-to-bollywood-adapting-tradition-in-gurinder-chadas-bride-and-prejudice/ ) as well as the actual film techniques (esp the Bollywood musical elements). A study guide can be found in the belonging folder.
Novels
Pierce, Tamora. Trickster’s Choice. Aly is taken by pirates and sold as a slave where she makes a bet with the god Kyprioth, to protect the children of the Balitang family from unknown dangers. Her adventures teach Aly enable aly to discover a whole new way of life in a country far from her family. Focus on the way the weather and settings represent Aly’s emotions and on the symbolic way her relationship with Nawat develops. Recommended for standard students (but don’t get sidetracked into telling the plot – focus on two-three important scenes).
The Secret River by Kate Grenville. The Text Publishing Company 2006 (2005). ISBN-13: 9781921145254. 336 pp. This is superb – a wonderfully readable account of William Thornhill, transported to the colony in 1806, with his wife Sal and his children. William has grown up on the meanest of London streets and has known hunger and fear, but never anything as alien as the foreign world of Sydney Cove: ‘How could air, water, dirt and rocks fashion themselves to be so outlandish?’ This is the ultimate emancipist story and a redisocvery of into the settlers’ inability to maintain the indigenous sense of belonging to the land.
Non-Fiction - Books
Menzies, Gavin. (2002). 1421: The Year China Discovered the World. [NF 910.95]. This revisionist history asserts that a fleet of medieval Chinese ships circumnavigated the globe, discovering America, Australia and Antarctica. While this version of history has been well and truly debunked [See The myth of Menzies at http://www.1421exposed.com/], the book is a great resource for looking at the IDEA of discovery and how it has been used by historians and writers. It's a 640 page book, so only use one section - especially useful should be "The Emperor's Grand Plan" which sets "civilised" and "opulent" China against "backward, crude and barabaric" Europe. You might also choose to focus on the author's own voyage of historical discovery as retrieval process, uncovering buried history
Poetry
Bhatt, Sujati. "Search for a Tongue" describes the process of losing and gaining a language. As an Indian poet who has lived and travelled all over the Western world, Bhatt understands the way that language both fragments and builds identity. Focus on the literal and symbolic use of the tongue and the effect of the two languages (Gujarati, if you're interested in translating it) in one poem. It could be used with Life of Pi or Go back to Where you came from or even as part of a postcolonial anaysis of the Prospero/Caliban/Ariel relationships in The Tempest. This poem is avaiiable online at Las Cumbres College [http://pchujman.cumbresblogs.com/2013/09/16/postcolonial-poetry/]. You can read more of her poems at the poetry archive [http://www.poetryarchive.org/explore/browse-poems?f%5B0%5D=field_poet:192406] or a review of her work at Mascara Review [http://mascarareview.com/the-memory-of-the-tongue-sujata-bhatts-diasporic-verse-by-paul-sharrad/]
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. (1896). "We wear the Mask" was initially written about the way African-Americans appear to be happy participants in American religion and society but underneath they suffer exclusion and extreme pain. It links to the beginning of Life of Pi, the experiences of people encounted by the protagonists in Go back to where you came from and Motorcycle Diaries and a postcolonial interpretation of The Tempest. The poem and it's anaysis can be found at Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/we-wear-the-mask/].
Francis, Daniel Aloysius. “A Day in the Life” in Unheard Voices: a collection of stories and poems to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. ed. Malorie Blackman. This is a set of two poems, one form the point of view of a slave owner the other from a slave’s viewpoint. Each voice is convinced that their perspective is the right and only way to view the world; by juxtaposing these viewpoints, the poet invites the reader to discover their own truth about slavery. The experience of the slave/slaver on a boat could be contrasted with the discoveries made in Life of Pi, Ariel in The Tempest, or the experiences of participants in Go back to where you came from.
Gregor, Debora. (1994). "Miranda's Drowned Book" online at Anna McHugh's blog [http://discoveryhsc.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/fascinating-related-text-dramatic.html] Rich in symbolism, this poem gives Miranda's perspective on her relationship with her father and the island landscape on which she was raised. Recommended for advanced students, especially if they are studying The Tempest (if you're not, read or watch the play so that you understand the context of Miranda's speech).
Stevens, Wallace. "The Idea of Order at Key West" uses sumptuous imagery and scientific processes to personify the Island (Keu WEst) as the untamed creator of herself. By end of the poem, however, cities and harbours and marinas have "portioned" her wild seas into tame, ordered segments for hte use of humans. It is an excellent overview of hte colonial process and could work well with The Tempest if you are focusing on the r9ole of the Caliban and the island setting.
Sykes, Roberta "Postcolonial fictions" critiques the idea that anything about postcolonialism can be called a fiction because it describes a process which is ongoing - the impact is felt by every person living in a colonised country. roberta sykes is an australian Aboriginal writer and academic. As the words and ideas of her poem tangle together in our minds we become trapped in the net cast by the act of colonialism and also by the discourse of postcolonialism. You can read her poem here. [http://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poets/sykes-roberta/post-colonial-fictions-0301007]
Tanti, Kamal Kumar. "Postcolonial poem". This poem expresses the lost voice of India's past, buried under two centuries of English colonisation. It is interesting to analyse the language and symbolism as both part of this lost history but also as a colonist's description of an "uncivilised" culture which should be destroyed in favour of modernity - one way of reading the poem allows the reader to move seamlessly in and out of these viewpoints, which is of course, part of the experience fo being a modern Indian. It would work well with Life of Pi or a postcolonial reading of Prospero's "civilising" role in the The Tempest. You can read this poem at Cerebration [http://www.cerebration.org/postcolonialpoem.html].
Films
Gadsby, Hannah. (2013). Hannah Gadsby’s Oz - Episode 1 Comedian Hannah Gadsby unpacks the historical record of Australia's past through early Wuriopean and contemporary Australian artists. this diocumentary is brilliant from an Art and and English point of view because she focuses on "how" messages are created or critiqued. You could discuss the episode as a documentary or focus on a single painting. Read the review at No Award [http://no-award.net/2014/04/17/hannah-gadsby-oz-1/] and watch the copy on the TV4 Education drive.