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Postcolonial Literature Journals List

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

 

Compiled by Paul Brians
First mounted February 15, 2006.

Last updated September 21, 2007.

 

The Irrelevance of “Postcolonialism” to South Asian Literature

 Paul Brians,

Professor of English (retired)

Washington State University

paulbrians@gmail.com

 

 

Note: I read this paper at the 2003 meeting of the South Asian Literary Association in San Diego. I’ve been told by several people who attended it that it impressed them, but my efforts to get it published in South Asian Studies came to naught. It was not rejected—it just disappeared. Although some of the references are a bit dated, it may still be useful. The term “postcolonialism” has become only more firmly linked to South Asian literary studies in the intervening years.

Paul Brians, September 17, 2008

 

 

It may be premature to speak of theory being ”finished” as did the title of a recent article in the New York Times Magazine (Shea 94), but more and more voices are being raised questioning how useful cultural studies as a whole has been as a political tool. That Times piece was responding in part to Terry Eagleton’s assessment of the lack of originality in high theory for the past couple of decades, since documented in great detail in his book, After Theory, in which he calls for a rethinking of what literary theory can and should do. In a recent article in PMLA, James R. Kincaid cleverly and pointedly twitted his colleagues for repeating endlessly the same truisms about power relationships and “resistance” while a wide variety of other approaches to literature languish. Meanwhile, looking around the contemporary political scene, including the anti-globalization movement, one is hard to pressed to identify any concrete products of political literary theory. Literary scholars like to feel they are doing important political work, but nobody outside their constricted world seems to be listening to their repetitious analyses.

But if such theory is nearing exhaustion, the subspecies called “postcolonial studies” appears at first glance to going from triumph to triumph. New articles, monographs, and even journals continue to appear at an ever-accelerating pace. Job ads frequently include postcolonialism as a desired specialization, and postcolonial analyses have penetrated deeply into the study of 19th-century English literature and ventured even further back in search of new territory to conquer. When I last proposed to teach my graduate survey of African, Caribbean, and South Asian fiction I was informed by the director of graduate studies that I could not do so unless I retitled it “Postcolonial Literature” because “that’s what it’s called now” despite my well- publicized opposition to both the term and the concept.

Yet despite all this apparent success, “postcolonialism” is a troubled concept in English literary studies. Almost every major book on the concept or survey of the field challenges the logic and coherence of the term. As is suggested by the title of the classic critical anthology Past the Last Post, the “post” in the term was always more of an opportunistic pun alluding to poststructuralism and postmodernism than a well- defined concept in itself. Almost immediately scholars began to ask whether works written before independence, like Things Fall Apart, belonged under this rubric; and others asked whether colonialism could truly be said to be “past.” The ideas associated with postcolonialism seemed to lend themselves to an boundless variety of analyses of international politics, including those involving never-colonized nations like Thailand, and colonizing settler nations like Australia and the United States.

Although postcolonial studies aimed at first at shedding light on emerging noncanonical literature, the temptation to use it instead to critique the traditional classics was irresistible; and much of the writing in the field centers on the same old familiar Anglo-American canon. The rise of terminology like “center/periphery” and “hybridity” continuously reinforce Eurocentrism even while purporting to challenge it, for such terms depend upon the concept of a European self as a starting point. In addition, while supposedly multiplying perspectives, scholars have frequently given in to the temptation to fall back into such absurdly simplistic essentializing terms as “the postcolonial condition.”

Most these critiques and more were given their classic form by Aijaz Ahmad in his 1992 polemic In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. Although the arguments he deploys are embedded in a Marxist ideological viewpoint which I do not share, he seems to me to have definitively pointed out the numerous contradictions and incoherencies embedded in postcolonial studies theory. It is striking that though he is often quoted, his more powerful arguments have been until recently rarely addressed head-on. Scholars would rather argue with each other about what exactly Homi Bhabha means than come to grips with the devastatingly clear and incisive arguments of Ahmad. Peter Hallward does address himself in detail to Ahmad and other critics of postcolonialism in his brilliant Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific; but in the process he accepts most of their criticisms and dismisses the vast bulk of what has been written so far in the field in his attempt to create a new, more logically coherent postcolonialism.

Although much postcolonialism is Marxist-inspired, other Marxist critics continue to assail it on the grounds that it is insufficiently grounded in political economy. One of the fiercest attacks yet is Epifanio San Juan’s Beyond Postcolonial Theory; and even Gayatri Spivak, the most frequently cited of all postcolonial theoreticians, has been edging away from both the term and the concept, trying out substitutes like “transnationalism” and a new comparative literature invigorated by cross-pollination from area studies (Death of a Discipline), mounting a sustained attack on much of the field in the final chapter of her Critique of Postcolonial Reason. She, and several other prominent scholars in the field, increasingly refer to postcolonialism in the past tense.

The essentially arbitrary nature of postcolonial studies is made clear by the fact that although nothing in the usual definitions of postcolonialism would logically exclude studies exploring the plight of Eastern European nations in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet empire, on this sort of topic the scholarship is silent. The pronounced leftward tilt of the field blinds it to damage done by non-capitalist empires.

One of the few postcolonial scholars to note the mismatch between the field’s ambitions and its achievements is Ella Shohat, who notes the absence of the term from the debates surrounding the First Gulf War in her article “Notes on the Post-Colonial“ (126). It is similarly absent from the public discourse about the Second. Can it be that not even committed activists discussing international affairs have found it useful? Marxists and anarchist activists and Establishment area studies scholars alike seem not to find the term useful. Given its enormous success within the academy, why should this be?

One answer is that, stripped of its jargon, a great deal of scholarship labeled “postcolonial” is revealed as being in essence thinly disguised Leninist or New Left neo-imperialism theory focusing on the issues of Western capitalist influence or race- and-gender-based identity studies in an international context. Postcolonialists doing theory labor endlessly to distinguish between postcolonialism and these earlier approaches, yet when they turn to the actual analysis of literature, there is little distinctive or original about the majority of their findings as they draw up lists of the privileged, the marginalized, and the silenced in fiction. And increasingly, it is just a handy label for all literature in English emanating from elsewhere than the U.S. and England. In its current state, trying to use postcolonial theory to do political work is like trying to drive a spike into a plank with a cloud—or, better—a handful of wriggling tadpoles.

Apart from these general objections to postcolonial studies, I wish to briefly consider a few specific to the study of South Asian literature. When I read postcolonial scholarship by political scientists or historians, I am struck in contrast by how clearly the label fits their work. Such scholars tend to discuss—literally—the processes at work during and in the wake of colonialism. Most of the work of the Subaltern Studies group falls into this category. It is notable that Spivak—strongly committed to feminist and Marxist positions—has more and more shifted to discussing such nonfictional, real- world issues, increasingly rarely dealing directly with literature.

Part of her discomfort seems to stem from being asked more and more often to represent a view from South Asia, a role which she resists the more closely she scrutinizes the complexity of life and thought in South Asia itself. While her question “Can the subaltern speak?” is often parsed as if she were substituting her own voice for that of the inarticulate masses, a close reading of her recent work reveals an anxiety to disabuse her audience of any notion that she, or any other postcolonial critic, can speak for them.

Of course all of the feverish scholarly activity surrounding South Asian Anglophone fiction is stimulated by the overwhelming success of writers like Rushdie, Roy, Mistry, and Lahiri. Brilliant new books continue to appear by writers with South Asian roots, making the current period the Age of South Asia in fiction, in the way that the sixties and seventies were the heroic age of modern Latin American fiction. Whereas the traditional Anglo-American writers dissected by cultural studies critics belong to an old canon of whose very existence the vast majority of modern American college students is happily ignorant; these new writers have an enthusiastic following in book groups, and among legions of individual readers who read them purely for pleasure.

The problem facing postcolonial critics is that the authors at hand seldom seem to share their world-view. Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan novelists, like other novelists, tend to create works that are ambiguous rather than polemical, individualistic rather than social, exceptional rather than typical, and—dare we say it?—entertaining rather than instructive.

Such a complaint may seem naïve: isn’t the very purpose of scholarly criticism to reveal the patterns obscured by the fictional surface? But all too often this amounts to little more than ticking off the political inadequacies of the author, reminding me of a stereotypical Victorian book reviewer sniffing at each new novel appearing in the market and labeling it “unedifying.” The scholar winds up committing the classic sin of poor book reviewing: discussing the book the author should have written rather than the actual text at hand. Since the political ideas involved in most postcolonial criticism are few and thrice-familiar, the possibility of useful and surprising insights is small.

But there are exceptions: South Asian writers who would seem to cry out for postcolonial exegesis: Salman Rushdie being the most obvious. And indeed Jaina C. Sanga in her book Salman Rushdie’s Postcolonial Metaphors: Migration, Translation, Hybridity, Blasphemy, and Globalization, does an admirable job of arraying and discussing the themes announced in her subtitle; yet the book is largely redundant, for Rushdie famously explicates his own themes and ideas, both within his fiction and in essays like those collected in Imaginary Homelands, from which Jaina quotes profusely. Most of the ideas associated with the opaque formulations of Homi Bhabha are much more lucidly—and amusingly—set forth by Rushdie in his own essays. Scholars wanting to elucidate Rushdie’s political ideas are faced with the fact that by and large he has already done their job for them.

With a few exceptions like Zola’s Germinal, novels have not proved efficient vehicles for radical political thought. A notorious case is Untouchable by India’s most famous Marxist novelist, Mulk Raj Anand. In the end, his portrait of the sufferings of an oppressed latrine cleaner provides little impetus for a revolutionary movement, but instead reflects traditional liberal abhorrence of discrimination based on caste. His solution for the problem of human waste management is to reject the Gandhian ideal of every individual his own “sweeper” in favor of the proliferation of modern flush toilets in the subcontinent.

Postcolonial analyses can and have been done of The God of Small Things, but most readers cannot help noticing that the central and most powerful themes of the book deal not with the left-over influences of the British or even with the incursions of American popular culture, but with the injustices perpetrated by traditional upper-caste Indians in rural Kerala in the name of purity and with the failures of the Communist Party there. Indeed, many early leftist readers assumed Roy was a conservative until she revealed her true sympathies by abandoning fiction and turning to overt political protest writing (The Cost of Living and War Talk, and other essays that continue to appear in prominent venues). In this move to the nonfiction realm she resembles Spivak.

As for the many fictions of intergenerational conflict among South Asian immigrants to Western nations like Jhumpa Lahiri’s recent novel The Namesake, they have less affinity with anything properly called “postcolonial” than with other immigrant-group traditions such as those of Eastern European Jews or Italians, as was suggested recently when more than one critic punningly referred to Bend It Like Beckham as My Big Fat Sikh Wedding.

Let us suppose for a moment that the proper subject of postcolonialism ought to be that to which the word itself literally alludes: life in the emerging nation states of South Asians in the wake of British imperialism with an emphasis on the damage wreaked by the colonial power and its lingering influences. It is striking how little interest modern writers have in this subject. R. K. Narayan, for instance, was often excoriated for the general absence of the British and of the Independence struggle in his works. I argue in my new book, Modern South Asian Literature in English, that in a sense by ignoring the British he was saying to them: “this isn’t about you.” In a 1984 New York Times article he articulated this position clearly, criticizing the view that “India is interesting only in relation to the ‘Anglo’ part of it, although that relevance lasted less than 200 years in the timeless history of India” (Narayan 222). Narayan deliberately snubs the British, and the nourishment to be derived from complaining about that fact is very thin gruel in comparison to the rich feast provided by the Malgudi Narayan actually created for us.

Rushdie, more famously than Narayan, also famously complained about the 1980s tide of Raj fiction and film which he viewed as glamorizing the colonial period (“Outside the Whale”). A generation of younger novelists has taken up the challenge implied in his criticism by writing anti-Raj novels, going back to explore the British period from various Indian perspectives, like David Davidar’s The House of Blue Mangoes and Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. One would think such novels would attract intense interest from postcolonial critics, but in fact they have been largely ignored. They are too nuanced, too ambivalent, to be celebrated as polemics, and too clear to need much exegesis.

Sometimes, as mentioned above, postcolonial critics reprove authors for failing to celebrate the struggle for independence in South Asia sufficiently. In the Indian context there is a huge problem in the way of such a project: the dismal specter of the massacres carried out in the wake of Partition. Almost every notable novel set during the period, like Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan, Attia Hosain’s Sunlight on a Broken Column, and Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India, winds up dealing less with the indisputable crimes of the British than with the inhumanity of Indians to each other. Complaints that are lodged against the British about Partition include their unprincipled fostering of preexisting sectarian divisions (especially their use of Sikhs and Muslims against Hindus); and the abruptness of their departure which left the newly established states poorly equipped to deal with the ensuing chaos. But neither of these criticisms—while fully justified—lends itself to particularly radical analysis, and the topic is not popular among postcolonial critics. Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is the great exception among novels about the Independence movement, having had the good fortune to have been written before Partition.

Modern political South Asian fiction is far more likely to deal with the period of the Emergency than with Independence, and scant blame is assessed to the British for that catastrophe in novels such as Midnight’s Children and A Fine Balance. Following the pattern established by Nigerian writers like Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, modern Indian writers, while not for a minute doubting the criminality and inhumanity of aspects of the colonial era, focus instead on internal causes for national chaos—a focus that does not particularly lend itself to being described from a postcolonial perspective.

Novelists like Mistry who depict negatively the trade restrictions imposed by India’s formerly left-leaning government are off an an entirely different tangent than the antiglobilization sentiments which inform most postocolonial criticism, though one would think it might be useful to make a close examination of what national economic controls inspired by socialist philosophy did to India during the heyday of the Congress Party. Unsympathetic but undeniably realistic fictional portraits of this period are an embarrassment to the antiglobalization cause, and are rarely discussed.

Finally, postcolonialism tends to assume that independence, nation-building, and progressive politics ought ideally to go hand in hand. The problem is that in the modern Indian political situation, the rehearsal of ancient colonial grievances is dominated by the Hindu supremacist right, and directed not against the Colonial British but against the much handier Muslim populations of Gujurat and Maharashtra—to single out just two regions infamous for recent outbreaks of “communal” violence—blaming them for the wounds caused by the Mughals. It is too simple to assume that rehearsing the grievances of the past leads to progressive politics. In India it is far more likely to lead to reactionary ones.

A parallel problem is caused in Sri Lanka by the identification of nation-building with Sinhala supremacy over the Tamil minority and the ensuing catastrophic civil war. The most powerful tools those who would resist this sort of politics have available to them are the very liberal traditions of egalitarianism and human rights which are scorned by Marxists and postcolonialists alike (see Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost). More and more critics of postcolonial studies, including Terry Eagleton (140-73 ), are rejecting the anti-universalizing postmodern strain in postcolonial thought to call for some sort of shared human values (see especially Bruce Robbins: “Toward a New Humanistic Paradigm”). Clearly the leftist critique of Enlightenment values has made very little impression on the world at large beyond the academic ivory tower.Oppressed groups seeking freedom and prosperity are far more likely in the contemporary world to appeal to the UN Declaration of Human Rights than to any of the hazy notions of marginality circulated by postcolonial scholars.

Let me be clear that I freely admit that studies labeled “postcolonial” have achieved much and that at least in the early days, they provided a refreshing shift in perspective; but it is time to acknowledge that the subsequent wholesale incorporation of South Asian literature into the postcolonial realm is limiting, misleading, and of dubious political worth. There is a vast readership eager for help in reading this tidal wave of important new fiction, with little to help them besides the desultory reading group discussion guides provided by publishers. We will need to get beyond the narrow agendas set by postcolonial theory to make ourselves useful to those readers, and though we may not thereby transform the world, it is worthy work.

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Sources Cited

 

Adam, Ian & Helen Tiffin: Past the Last Post: Theorising Post-Colonialism and Post- modernism. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1990.

Ahmad, Aijaz: In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992.

Brians, Paul: Modern South Asian Literature in English. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2003.

Eagleton, Terry:After Theory. New York: Basic Books, 2003.

Hallward, Peter. Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001.

Kincaid, James R. “Resist Me, You Sweet Resistible You,” PMLA 118:5 (Oct. 2003), pp. 1325-33.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

Narayan, R. K. “When India was a Colony,” reprinted in A Writer’s Nightmare: Selected Essays 1958-1988. New Delhi: Penguin Books (India), 1988, pp. 222-232.

Robbins, Bruce. “Toward a New Humanistic Paradigm?” in A Companion to Postcolonial Studies, ed. Henry Schwarz & Sangeeta Ray (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2000), pp. 556-573.

Roy, Arundhati: The Cost of Living. New York: Modern Library, 1999.      —. War Talk. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press, 2003.

Rushdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. London: Granta, 1991.     —. “Outside the Whale,” in Imaginary Homelands, pp. 87-101.

Shohat, Ella. “Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’,” in The Pre-Occupation of Postcolonial Studies, ed. Fawzia Afzal-Khan and Kalpana Seshadri-Crooks. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Pr., 2000, pp. 126-139.

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present. Cambrdge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Pr., 1999.     —. Death of a Discipline. New York: Columbia Univ. Pr., 2003.

San Juan, Epifanio. Beyond Postcolonial Theory. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998. Shea, Christopher. “Theory Is Finished,” The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 14, 2003, p. 94.

“Postcolonial Literature”: Problems with the Term

“Postcolonial Literature” is a hot commodity these days. On the one hand writers like Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy are best-selling authors; and on the other hand, no college English department worth its salt wants to be without a scholar who can knowledgeably discourse about postcolonial theory.

But there seems to be a great deal of uncertainty as to just what the term denotes. Many of the debates among postcolonial scholars center on which national literatures or authors can be justifiably included in the postcolonial canon. Much of the discussion among postcolonial scholars involves criticisms of the term “postcolonial” itself. In addition, it is seldom mentioned but quite striking that very few actual authors of the literature under discussion embrace and use the term to label their own writing.

It should be acknowledged that postcolonial theory functions as a subdivision within the even more misleadingly named field of “cultural studies”: the whole body of generally leftist radical literary theory and criticism which includes Marxist, Gramscian, Foucauldian, and various feminist schools of thought, among others. What all of these schools of thought have in common is a determination to analyze unjust power relationships as manifested in cultural products like literature (and film, art, etc.). Practitioners generally consider themselves politically engaged and committed to some variety or other of liberation process.

It is also important to understand that not all postcolonial scholars are literary scholars. Postcolonial theory is applied to political science, to history, and to other related fields. People who call themselves postcolonial scholars generally see themselves as part of a large (if poorly defined and disorganized) movement to expose and struggle against the influence of large, rich nations (mostly European, plus the U.S.) on poorer nations (mostly in the southern hemisphere).

Taken literally, the term “postcolonial literature” would seem to label literature written by people living in countries formerly colonized by other nations. This is undoubtedly what the term originally meant, but there are many problems with this definition.

First, literal colonization is not the exclusive object of postcolonial study. Lenin’s classic analysis of imperialism led to Antonio Gramisci’s concept of “hegemony” which distinguishes between literal political dominance and dominance through ideas and culture (what many critics of American influence call the “Coca-Colanization” of the world). Sixties thinkers developed the concept of neo-imperialism to label relationships like that between the U.S. and many Latin American countries which, while nominally independent, had economies dominated by American business interests, often backed up by American military forces. The term “banana republic” was originally a sarcastic label for such subjugated countries, ruled more by the influence of the United Fruit Corporation than by their own indigenous governments.

Second, among the works commonly studied under this label are novels like Claude McKay’s Banjo and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart which were written while the nations in question (Jamaica and Nigeria) were still colonies. Some scholars attempt to solve this problem by arguing that the term should denote works written after colonization, not only those created after independence; but that would be “postcolonization” literature. Few people understand the term in this sense outside a small circle of scholars working in the field.

Third, some critics argue that the term misleadingly implies that colonialism is over when in fact most of the nations involved are still culturally and economically subordinated to the rich industrial states through various forms of neo-colonialism even though they are technically independent.

Fourth, it can be argued that this way of defining a whole era is Eurocentric, that it singles out the colonial experience as the most important fact about the countries involved. Surely that experience has had many powerful influences; but this is not necessarily the framework within which writers from–say–India, who have a long history of precolonial literature, wish to be viewed.

For instance, R. K. Narayan–one of the most popular and widely read of modern Indian writers–displays a remarkable indifference to the historical experience of colonialism, a fact which results in his being almost entirely ignored by postcolonial scholars. V. S. Naipaul is so fierce a critic of the postcolonial world despite his origins as a descendant of Indian indentured laborers in Trinidad that he is more often cited as an opponent than as an ally in the postcolonial struggle.

In fact, it is not uncommon for citizens of “postcolonial” countries to accuse Americans and Europeans of practicing a form of neocolonialism themselves in viewing their history through this particular lens. Postcolonial criticism could be compared to the tendency of Hollywood films set in such countries to focus on the problems of Americans and Europeans within those societies while marginalizing the views of their native peoples.

Fifth, many “postcolonial” authors do not share the general orientation of postcolonial scholars toward engaging in an ongoing critique of colonialism. Nigerian writers Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, for instance, after writing powerful indictments of the British in their country, turned to exposing the deeds of native-born dictators and corrupt officials within their independent homeland. Although postcolonial scholars would explain this corruption as a by-product of colonialism, such authors commonly have little interest in pursuing this train of thought.

Although there has been sporadic agitation in some African quarters for reparations for the slavery era, most writers of fiction, drama, and poetry see little point in continually rehashing the past to solve today’s problems. It is striking how little modern fiction from formerly colonized nations highlights the colonial past. Non-fiction writers often point out that Hindu-Muslim conflicts in South Asia are in part the heritage of attempts by the British administration in India to play the two groups of against each other (not to mention the special role assigned to the Sikhs in the British army); yet Indian fiction about these conflicts rarely points to such colonial causes. A good example is Kushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan (1956) which deals directly with the partition of India from an almost exclusively Indian perspective.

Indeed, “postcolonial” writers often move to England or North America (because they have been exiled, or because they find a more receptive audience there, or simply in search of a more comfortable mode of living) and even sometimes–like Soyinka–call upon the governments of these “neocolonialist” nations to come to the aid of freedom movements seeking to overthrow native tyrants.

Sixth, “postcolonialism” as a term lends itself to very broad use. Australians and Canadians sometimes claim to live in postcolonial societies, but many would refuse them the label because their literature is dominated by European immigrants, and is therefore a literature of privilege rather than of protest. According to the usual postcolonial paradigm only literature written by native peoples in Canada and Australia would truly qualify.

Similarly, the label is usually denied to U.S. literature, though America’s identity was formed in contradistinction to that of England, because the U.S. is usually viewed as the very epitome of a modern neo-colonial nation, imposing its values, economic pressures, and political interests on a wide range of weaker countries.

The Irish are often put forward as an instance of a postcolonial European people, and indeed many African writers have been inspired by Irish ones for that reason. Yet some of the more nationalist ones (like Yeats) tended toward distressingly conservative–even reactionary–politics, and James Joyce had the utmost contempt for Irish nationalism. It is not clear how many Irish authors would have accepted the term if they had known of it.

Although postcolonial theory generally confines itself to the past half-century, it can be argued that everyone has been colonized at some time or other. Five thousand years ago Sumer started the process by uniting formerly independent city-states, and Narmer similarly subjugated formerly independent Upper and Lower Egypt. Rushdie likes to point out that England itself is a postcolonial nation, having been conquered by Romans and Normans, among others.

Not only is the term “postcolonial” exceedingly fuzzy, it can also be argued that it is also often ineffective. A good deal of postcolonial debate has to do with rival claims to victimhood, with each side claiming the sympathies of right-thinking people because of their past sufferings. The conflicts between Bosnians and Serbs, Palestinians and Jews, Turks and Greeks, Hindu and Muslim Indians, and Catholic and Protestant Irish illustrate the problems with using historical suffering as justification for a political program. It is quite true that Europeans and Americans often arrogantly dismiss their own roles in creating the political messes of postcolonial nations around the world; but it is unclear how accusations against them promote the welfare of those nations. In addition, when they are made to feel guilty, countries–like individuals–are as likely to behave badly as they are to behave generously.

It may make American and European scholars feel better to disassociate themselves from the crimes of their ancestors (which are admittedly, enormously bloody and oppressive, and should be acknowledged and studied–see resources below), but people struggling for freedom in oppressed nations are more likely to draw inspiration from the quintessentially European Enlightenment concept of rights under natural law than they are to turn to postcolonial theory. Similarly, European capitalist market theory is far more attractive to most people struggling against poverty in these nations than are the varieties of socialism propounded by postcolonial theoreticians.

“Postcolonial” is also a troublesome term because it draws some very arbitrary lines. South African writers Athol Fugard and Nadine Gordimer are often excluded from postcolonial courses, although their works were powerful protests against apartheid and they have lived and worked far more in Africa than, say, Buchi Emicheta, who emigrated to England as a very young woman and has done all of her writing there–because they are white. A host of fine Indian writers is neglected simply because they do not write in English on the sensible grounds that India has a millennia-long tradition of writing which should not be arbitrarily linked to the British imperial episode.

Of those who write in English, Anita Desai is included, though she is half German. Ngugi wa Thiong’o is included even though he now writes primarily in Gikuyu. Bharati Mukherjee specifically rejects the label “Indian-American,” though she is an immigrant from India, and Rushdie prefers to be thought of as a sort of multinational hybrid (though he has, on occasion, used the label “postcolonial” in his own writing). Hanif Kureishi is more English than Pakistani in his outlook, and many Caribbean-born writers living in England are now classed as “Black British.” What determines when you are too acculturated to be counted as postcolonial: where you were born? how long you’ve lived abroad? your subject matter? These and similar questions are the object of constant debate.

In fact, postcolonial theoretician Homi Bhabha developed the term “hybridity” to capture the sense that many writers have of belonging to both cultures. More and more writers, like Rushdie, reject the older paradigm of “exile” which was meaningful to earlier generations of emigrants in favor of accepting their blend of cultures as a positive synthesis. This celebration of cultural blending considerably blurs the boundaries laid down by postcolonial theory.

In practice, postcolonial literary studies are often sharply divided along linguistic lines in a way which simply reinforces Eurocentric attitudes. Latin American postcolonial studies are seldom explored by those laboring in English departments. Francophone African literature is generally neglected by Anglophone African scholars. Because of these failures to cut across linguistic boundaries, the roles of England and France are exaggerated over those of the colonized regions.

It can even be asked whether the entire premise of postcolonial studies is valid: that examining these literatures can give voice to formerly suppressed peoples. This is the question asked by Gayatri Spivak in her famous essay, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Using Antonio Gramsci’s arcane label for oppressed people, she points out that anyone who has achieved enough literacy and sophistication to produce a widely-read piece of fiction is almost certainly by that very fact disqualified from speaking for the people he or she is supposed to represent. The “Subaltern Group” of Indian scholars has tried to claim the term to support their own analyses (a similar project exists among Latin American scholars), but the nagging question raised by Spivak remains.

It is notable that whenever writers from the postcolonial world like Soyinka, Derek Walcott, or Rushdie receive wide recognition they are denounced as unrepresentative and inferior to other, more obscure but more “legitimate” spokespeople.

This phenomenon is related to the question of “essentialism” which features so largely in contemporary political and literary theory. Usually the term is used negatively, to describe stereotypical ideas of–to take as an example my own ancestors–the Irish as drunken, irresponsible louts. However, protest movements built on self-esteem resort to essentialism in a positive sense, as in the many varieties of “black pride” movements which have emerged at various times, with the earliest perhaps being the concept of “négritude” developed by Caribbean and African writers living in Paris in the 1930s and 40s. However, each new attempt to create a positive group identity tends to be seen by at least some members of the group as restrictive, as a new form of oppressive essentialism.

Faced with the dilemma of wanting to make positive claims for certain ethnic groups or nationalities while simultaneously acknowledging individualism, some critics have put forward the concept of “strategic essentialism” in which one can speak in rather simplified forms of group identity for the purposes of struggle while debating within the group the finer shades of difference.

There are two major problems with this strategy, however. First, there are always dissenters within each group who speak out against the new corporate identity, and they are especially likely to be taken seriously by the very audiences targeted by strategic essentialism. Second, white conservatives have caught on to this strategy: they routinely denounce affirmative action, for instance, by quoting Martin Luther King, as if his only goal was “color blindness” rather than real economic and social equality. They snipe, fairly effectively, at any group which puts forward corporate claims for any ethnic group by calling them racist. Strategic essentialism envisions a world in which internal debates among oppressed people can be sealed off from public debates with oppressors. Such a world does not exist.

Similarly, “strategic postcolonialism” is likely to be a self-defeating strategy, since most writers on the subject publicly and endlessly debate the problems associated with the term. In addition, the label is too fuzzy to serve as a useful tool for long in any exchange of polemics. It lacks the sharp edge necessary to make it serve as a useful weapon.

However, those of us unwilling to adopt the label “postcolonial” are hard put to find an appropriate term for what we study. The old “Commonwealth literature” is obviously too confining and outdated as well as being extremely Eurocentric. “Anglophone literature” excludes the many rich literatures of Africa, for instance, written in European languages other than English, and taken in the literal sense, it does not distinguish between mainstream British and American writing and the material under discussion. “New literature written in English” (or “englishes” as some say) puts too much emphasis on newness (McKay is hardly new) and again excludes the non-English-speaking world. “Third-world” makes no sense since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Communist “second world.” “Literature of developing nations” buys into an economic paradigm which most “postcolonial” scholars reject.

The more it is examined, the more the postcolonial sphere crumbles. Though Jamaican, Nigerian, and Indian writers have much to say to each other; it is not clear that they should be lumped together. We continue to use the term “postcolonial” as a pis aller, and to argue about it until something better comes along.

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Index of Web resources relating to postcolonialism

Resources for the study some of the crimes of colonialism and imperialism

Jalian Wala Bagh Massacre
Interpreting the Irish Famine, 1846-1850
Small Planet history of U.S. imperialism

Written by Paul Brians, mounted on the Web August 7, 1998.

Version of January 5, 2006.

Notes for Anita Desai’s Baumgartner’s Bombay

Page no. German

English
2  

mein Gott

my God!
was ist dann, wie kannst du

what is it, how can you?
3 Meine kleine Maus, Mein Häschen, Liebchen

My little mouse, my little rabbit, lovey.
Meine kleine Maus, mein Hugo, Geliebter

My little mouse, my Hugo, beloved
4 Mutti

Mommy
5 Blutwurst, Leberwurst, Bratwurst–was willst du?

Blood sausage, liver sausage, bratwurst–what would you like?All pork sausages unavailable in Bombay.
6 Coelho, Da Silva  

Portuguese names, the Portuguese settled early in Bombay; the others are typically Indian names.
du Dummkopf  

stupid!
7 baksheesh

alms
9 sahib

Sir formal term of respectful address for a foreign man
10 masala

spices which cats would not like

11

 his god Zoroaster  

Farrokh, like many of his neighbors, is a a Parsi, a follower of the ancient Persian religion taught by the prophet (not god) Zarathustra, whose name is usually rendered “Zoroaster” in English
13 sacred thread  

worn only by Brahmin men, the highest caste
say they love Buddha  

Although Buddhism began in India, it almost entirely vanished from there centuries ago, with only remnants being absorbed into Hinduism.
ashram  

center for meditation and worship
18 piscine  

fish-like
juice-wallah  

“Wallah” often means “vendor,” as here
19  

burnoose, chador

  

typical male and female costumes of Muslims
23 Zigaren, Zigaretten

cigars, cigarettes
25 Hopp, hopp, hopp,

Hop, Hop, Hop,
Pferdchen lauf galopp

Little horse run galloping
Über Stock und über Steine,

Over sticks and over stones,
Aber brich dir nicht die Beine!

But don’t break your bones!
Hopp, hopp, hopp,

Hop, Hop, Hop,
Pferdchen lauf galopp.

Little horse run galloping.
26 chaises-longues

couches
28 Kommt ein Vogel geflogen,

A bird came flying,
Setzt sich neider mein Fuss,

and landed by my foot,
hat ein Brieflein im Schnable,

he had a note in his beak,
von der Mutter ein Gruss.

a greeting from my mother.
du kleiner Affe

you little ape
so ungehorsam
29 Lieber Vogel, flieg weiter,

Little bird, fly away
Nimm ein Gruss mit, einer Kuss,

Take a greeting, a kiss, with you
Denn ich kann dich nicht begleiten

Because I cannot go with you,
Weil ich hierbleiuben muss

For I must remain here.
Gib mir dein kleines Pfötchen

Give me your little paw.
30 loden

A traditional type of very heavy coat made of boiled wool
31 Welt am Abend

The Evening World
32 O du lieber Augustin

Oh, beloved Augustine,
alles ist hin!

Everything is gone!
Geld ist weg,

Money is gone,
Beutel ist weg,

Purse is gone,
Augustin liegt auch im Dreck,

Even Augustine is lying in the filth,
O du lieber Augustin,

Oh, beloved Augustine,
alles ist hin!

Everything is gone!
35 Hoppe, hoppe, Reiter,

Hop, hop, rider,
wenn er fällt, dann schreit er gleich.

If he falls, he will quickly cry.
Fällt er in die Hecken,

If he falls in the hedges,
fressen ihn die Schnecken,

The snails will eat him;
fällt er in den Klee,

If he falls in the clover,
schreit her glich: O weh . . .

He will also cry, Oh, woe!
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree,
Wie grün sind deine Blätter!

How green are your needles!Original words to the popular carol.
36 Klein

the name means “small”
37 Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf!

Sleep, little child, sleep!
Da draussen gehn zwei Schaf!

Outside two sheep are going by!
Ein Schwarzes und ein weisses,

A black one and a white one,
und wenn das Kind nich schlafen will

And if the child won’t go to sleep,
dann kommt das Schwarz und beisst es.

the black one will come and bite him.
Schlaf, Kindlein, Schlaf!

Sleep, little child, sleep!
language Hugo had never heard before  

Hebrew
38 Hänschen klein, geht allein,

Little Hans, go all alone,
in die weite Welt hinein,

out into the wide world,
Stock und Hut stehn im gut,

his stick and hat will suit him well,
ist ganz wohlgemut.

He is quite cheerful.
Doch die Mutter weinet sehr,

But his mother weeps bitterly,
hat ja nun kein Hänschen mehr . . .

because she no longer has her little rabbit . . .
Es tanzt ein Bi-ba-butzemann

A bogeyman dances
in unserem Haus herum, didum,

around in our House,
39 es tanzt ein Bi-ba-butzemann

A bogeyman dances
in unserem Haus herum, didum,

around in our House,
Er rüttelt sich, er schüttelt sich

He rattles and shakes himself,
er wift sein Säckchen hinter sich,

he draws his little sack behind him,
Es tanzt ein Bi-ba-butzemann

A bogeyman dances
in unserem Haus herum.

around in our House.
40 Berliner Zeitung  

Berlin Times (newspaper)
41 Shabbos

Sabbath
42 Eija, Popeija,

Hey, Popeja!

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.Corrected by Mario Menti.

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Modern South Asian Literature in EnglishFor more about Anita Desai and other South Asian writers, see Paul Brians’ Modern South Asian Literature in English .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Version of March 31, 1999.

Arundhati Roy: The God of Small Things

Roy’s novel was published 1996, quickly became a best-seller, and won the prestigious Booker Prize in October, 1997.

Roy often denies in interviews that she has been influenced by Salman Rushdie, but it is difficult to see how she could have avoided his influence, pervasive among younger South Asian writers. Particularly notable here are such typically Rushdean stylistic tricks as capitalizing Significant Words and runningtogether other words. More importantly, her novel is filled with the same sort of insistent foreshadowing as occurs throughout Midnight’s Children, and like Rushdie (and models Günter Grass and Gabriel García Márquez) uses an incongruously jaunty tone to relate tales of horror and tragedy. Like his Shame, her novel is partly a protest against South Asian prudery which stands in the way of love.

Her most original contribution in this novel is her portrayal of children, entering into their thinking in a way which does not sentimentalize them but reveals the fierce passions and terrors which course through them and almost destroy them.

Arundhati Roy blog

 

In the notes below if a term is used more than once it is usually defined only upon its first occurrence, but you can use the “find” command in your browser to locate the definition. Roy herself provides translations in context for some of the Malayalam words and phrases she uses, and those are not covered below.

Cast of Characters

Rahel (girl) and Esthappen Yako (Estha): fraternal (“two-egg”) twins.
Ammu: their mother, born 1942. Married to “Baba” (“father”: his real name is never given) and divorced.
Baby Kochamma (born Navomi Ipe): Rahel and Estha’s grandfather’s sister–their grand-aunt. “Kochamma” is not a name, but a standard female honorific title.
Sophie Mol (“Sophie girl”): the twins’ cousin, daughter of their Uncle Chacko and Margaret Kochamma. Throughout the novel, “mol” is “girl” and “mon” is “boy.”
Margaret Kochamma: daughter of English parents, former wife of Chacko, then of Joe, mother of Sophie Mol.
Mammachi (Shoshamma Ipe): blind grandmother of Rahel, Estha, and Sophie Mol, founder of the family pickle factory. “Mammachi” simply means “grandmother.”
Pappachi (Benaan John Ipe): late abusive husband of Mammachi. (“Pappachi: of course means “grandfather.”)
Chacko: son of Mammachi, divorced first husband of Margaret.
Joe: second husband of Margaret, died 1969.
Kochu Maria: “Little Maria”: the tiny cook of the household.
Larry McCaslin: Rahel’s American husband.
Velutha Paapen: Paravan untouchable around whom much of the action revolves.
Vellya Paapen: his father.

Kerala is well known for its relative freedom for women. Despite the fact that Western readers are likely to feel the female characters in this novel are intolerably constrained, they are in fact generally a highly assertive and energetic bunch; though Roy clearly seeks to depict as well the various ways in which they have been hurt by male domination. As you read, try to identify acts of female courage and assertiveness as well as instances in which women are oppressed.

The Dedication

Mary Roy is the author’s mother, who struggled to raise Arundhati on her own while teaching in the rural village of Aymanam (called “Ayemenem” in the novel) in southwestern India, in Kerala State. Arundhati left home at age sixteen to study architecture in Delhi.

Chapter One:

The story begins twenty-three years after the main events which will be covered by the novel, with flashbacks to that earlier period which culminated in the funeral of Sophie Mol. References to the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man and the death of Sophie Mol will be explained later in the novel.

Jackfruits

A very large sweet fruit common in South and East Asia.

PWD
Public Works Department (local utilities department).

the scurry of small lives
The first of many references that echo the theme of the title.

Syrian Orthodox bishops
More than a third of the population of Kerala consists of Christian families, some dating back many centuries. The Syrian Church is one of the older branches of Christianity.

zebra crossing
Striped pedestrian crossing.

Crimplene bell-bottoms
Wrinkle-resistant knit polyester jersey fabric which can be woven and impressed with various textures. The main action of the novel is set in 1969, when bell-bottomed pants were popular.

go-go bag
“Go-go” started as an expression in mangled English used by French speakers to express the idea of “without limit,” as in “Whisky à go-go.” In English it was associated with the sort of dancing done in “go-go bars,” and–by extension–with the clothing worn by the dancers, e.g. “go-go boots,” etc. Sophie Mol was hip to the current fads.

Ende Deivomay! EEE sadhanangal!
My God! What creatures!

curly beards
Orthodox Priests, unlike their Roman Catholic counterparts, wear full beards.

What evidence is there that Rahel’s startling visions during the funeral service may be imaginary?

veshya
Prostitute.

And now, twenty-three years later
This refers to the reunion of the adult twins in the “present.”

After Sophie Mol’s funeral, when Estha was Returned
Refers to the earlier period, when he was a child; not to be confused with the time in the present when he was “re-Returned.”

Calcutta
In the northeast, about as far as it could be from Ayamenem.

pesticides bought with World Bank loans
Agricultural production in India was greatly boosted during the sixties by the development of new high-yield varieties and the application of large amounts of fertilizer which had the unfortunate effect of often damaging the environment. The World Bank offered loans to support such intensive agriculture, which has often been blamed for its socially damaging side-effects.

the Ayemenem office of the Communist Party
Communism has been especially successful in Kerala, where Marxists have often dominated a famously effective government. (Other states where Communist governments have been formed are West Bengal and Tripura in the northeastern region of India.) Kerala has the highest literacy rate in India and a low infant mortality rate.

Aertex vest
An inexpensive brand of undershirt.

mundu
A single piece of cloth arranged as a sort of loose pair of trousers, tied at the waist, worn by both men and women (though women add upper garments to it). Longer than the dhoti.

The old omelette-and-eggs thing.
Napoleon famously justified his uses of violence by saying “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.” Violent revolutionaries of all stripes are fond of repeating this slogan.

mangosteen
Garcinia mangosiana L.
A tropical fruit with a thick, dark-red skin.

wogs
Insulting British term for foreigners considered inferior.

What do the stories so far about the twins suggest about them? What kind of children were they?

a mediocre college of architecture in Delhi
Roy herself studied at the Delhi School of Architecture, though she was not strongly drawn to the subject and never practiced as an architect.

a nice athletic run
Roy enjoys running, and has worked as an aerobics instructor.

Then Small God . . 
How does this passage explain the title of the novel?

Kohl
Black eye-liner, used to darken the inner rim of the eyelid.

When she was eighteen, Baby Kochamma fell in love
Since she is now eighty-three, this would have been around 1930.

In 1876, when Baby Kochamma’s father was seven years old
Just as Baby Kochamma seems to have lived her life backward, in Rahel’s view, we are told her history in a sort of reverse fashion, receding more and more into the past.

Since charity had not produced any tangible results, the distraught young Baby Kochamma invested all her hope in faith.
An allusion to First Corinthians 13:13.

Koh-i-noor
An enormous diamond now part of the crown jewels of England; but it orginally belonged to the Mughals, Muslim rulers of India.

Anthurium andraeanum
A large, waxy flower which originated in Colombia, but which is now common in Hawaii and other tropical locales. The most popular varieties are red (“rubrum”). .

cannae and phlox
Canna indica originated in tropical America, but has been commonly cultivated in England, under the name “Indian shot.” Canna indica. None of these flowers is native to India. Why is Baby Kochamma bent on growing such an “exotic” garden?

gum boots
Rubber boots.

Patcha
The word literally means “green.”

Ooty cupboards
Ooty is the popular name of Udhagamandalam, a luxurious “hill station” in the Nilgiri Mountains of Tamil Nadu, just across the border from Kerala in the northeast. Furniture from there would have belonged to wealthy visitors.

willow-pattern dinner service
An imitation Chinese ware manufactured in England and formerly extremely popular.

stuffed, mounted Bison head
The term “bison” is used here to designate a wild Indian water buffalo, displayed here as a hunting trophy.

kunukku earrings
A type of ancient Christian Keralite jewelry, usually gold earrings consisting of a short, thin chain with a small ball hanging from it.

Paradise Pickles & Preserves
The fact that Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children has a protagonist who owns a pickle factory has been much commented on. Roy claims not to have been much influenced by Rushdie, and in fact spiced and pickled chutneys and other preserves are so common in India that she need not have taken the idea of featuring a pickle factory in her novel from Rushdie. Her uncle George Isaac (model for Chacko) actually runs a pickle factory (Palat Pickles) in real life.

And banana jam (illegally) after the FPO (Food products Organization) banned it
Indians often complain about their vast bureaucracy which promulgates all manner of restrictive rules.

Note the repeated references to Sophie Mol’s funeral which identify the passages in which they occur as being set in the “past.”

baba
Father

As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Galatians 6:7

tiffin carrier
Lunchbox

Hoovering
Vacuuming. Hoover was one of the first manufacturers of vacuum cleaners, and the name of the firm became a verb, fallen into disuse in the U.S. but still common elsewhere.

mango hair
Mangos contain fibers which easily become caught between teeth.

By the end of the first chapter, Roy has given us all manner of dark hints about the events leading up to Sophie Mol’s death. What do you make of them?

Before the British took Malabar
Malabar denotes the southwestern coast of India from Goa southward, including most of Kerala. The British conquered it in the late 18th century.

before the Dutch Ascendency
In the 17th century the Dutch had seized the same territory.

before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorin’s conquest of Calicut
On May 20, 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut, India after having sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, and became the first European to reach this region. After many struggles, some of them bloody, the Portuguese established a colony.

before the Zamorin’s conquest of Calicut
The Zamorin was the hereditary ruler of Calicut when da Gama arrived.

Syrian bishops murdered by the Portuguese
When the Portuguese gained trading concessions in the area, they tried to impose Roman Catholicism on the members of the older Syrian Church which predated them. The Syrians, resenting this attempt at domination of their community, decided to send a couple of their priests to Rome as representatives. Their mangled corpses were found washed up on the shore of Kerala a few weeks later. This incident played an important role in the eventual reassertion of Syriac Christianity in Kerala.

Christianity arrived in a boat
Tradition says that St. Thomas, the disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to this region in 52 CE. Whatever the truth may be, it is well documented in Persian that there were Christians in Kerala by the late 7th century.

Keep the last three sentences in the chapter in mind as you read the rest of the book. What is their significance?

Chapter Two:

Epigraph: “however, for practical purposes, in a hopelessly practical world . . .
In the previous paragraph, Roy has been ruminating over when her story can be said to have really begun. This phrase introduces the sentence which continues at the beginning of Chapter 2, so she is saying that, for practical purposes, it all began on “a skyblue day in December sixty-nine.”

when something happens to nudge its hidden morality from its resting place and make it bubble to the surface and float for a while. In clear view. For everyone to see.
Figure out what this means at the appropriate point below.

Further east, in a small country . . .
Why do you think Roy alludes to the Vietnam War here?

The Sound of Music
The film had been released in the U.S. in 1965.

Malayalam
The chief language of Kerala.

Elvis puff
This “puff” of hair becomes his symbol; whenever it is mentioned, we know that Estha is being discussed.

Love-in-Tokyo
Love in Tokyo was a 1964 hit movie directed by Pramod Chakravorty featuring a young woman whose ponytail was held by two beads on a rubber band. Like Estha’s puff, her “fountain in a Love-in-Tokyo” becomes Rahel’s symbol.

Chachen
Father.

Chetan and Cheduthi
Older brother and older brother’s wife (Malayalam).

Ammaven
Uncle; mother’s brother.

Appoi and Ammai
Mother’s brother and mother’s brother’s wife (Malayalam).

Gatsby turned out all right
From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby (1925).

migrated to Calcutta from East Bengal after Partition
In 1947 the Subcontinent was partitioned into a northern Muslim-dominated state called “Pakistan” and and southern Hindu-dominated state called “India.” Masses of people fled in both directions, encountering bloody violence on all hands. East Bengal fell to Pakistan, and later became Bangladesh. Calcutta is in West Bengal.

They didn’t reply.
At this point arranged marriages were still the norm, and for a young woman to agree to marry a man without her parents’ advance permission would have been shocking behavior.

spanner
wrench

intercommunity love marriage
An interreligious marriage, in this case between a Christian and a Hindu, entered into by the individuals involved without it being arranged by their parents.

boot
trunk

Koshy Oommen
A typical Syrian Christian name.

kathakali dancer
The classical folk dance of Kerala, performed, unlike Bharata Natyam, exclusively by men playing both male and female parts.

What does Chacko mean by calling his relatives a family of Anglophiles?

After reading at Oxford you come down.
Originally “come down” referred to the graduated student traveling south, home to London; but since Chacko is from India, the term simply reinforces his alienness.

His oar (with his teammates’ names inscribed in gold)
Announcing to the world that he had been on a rowing team at Oxford.

sleeping partner
A business partner who provides some of the financing, but is not allowed to participate in actually managing the company. Americans say “silent partner.”

Kipling’s Jungle Book
The twins learn about their own land through the eyes of an English Imperialist writer.

Can you see any symbolism in the fact that the twins like to read backwards?

What is symbolized by the bridal party in the ambulance?

Parsis
Zoroastrians, called “Farsis” in Persia (Iran). They have only small communities in India, necessarily somewhat inbred.

bhajan
A devotional song

parippu vadas
Also vadai: spicy fried patties made of ground lentils. A common street food.

Onner Runder Moonner One, two, three.

An Oxford avatar of the old zamindar mentality
An English-influenced reincarnation of the traditional landlord.

the Congress Party
The party which governed India beginning with independence, continuing until the late 90s, here representing the establishment.

land reforms
Redistribution of farmland from rich landlords to poor peasants.

accused him of “providing relief to the people and thereby blunting the People’s Consciousness and diverting them from the Revolution.
Rigid Marxists often accuse liberal reformers of alleviating the sufferings of the oppressed just enough to make them reluctant to engage in revolution.

Paravan
The first occurrence of this untouchable caste name. Velutha is a paravan.

cheroot
Cigar.

bonnet
Hood.

“Thanks, keto!” said. “Valarey thanks.”
Roughly: “Thanks a lot, OK?”

Ividay!
Over here!

Ammu is angry with Rahel, not because she has called out to a communist, but because she has publicly made it clear that she knows an untouchable.

What is the point of the passage about the old woman on the train outside of New York?

toddy tapper
Toddy is the sweet, fermented sap of various palm trees, tapped to provide a cheap alcoholic drink.

converted to Christianity  . . .  to escape the scourge of Untouchability
Untouchables have been ready converts to foreign religions like Islam and Christianity which promised to relieve them of the burdens of inegality; but as often as not, informal Muslim and Christian caste systems evolved along the lines of the old Hindu one.

Pariah
Untouchable.

government benefits
The Indian government has engaged in strenuous affirmative action on behalf of untouchables ever since independence, but these measures have not reached all of them.

Bauhaus
A highly influential German style emphasizing sleek modernity, clean lines, simplicity.

What sorts of skills does Velutha possess? What is the nature of his conflicts with his father?

In the “flash-forward” which begins “At least not until the Terror took hold of him,” what is it that Vellya Paapen has seen that he feels the need to tell Mammachi about? (This will be spelled out later, but you may be able to guess, just from this passage.)

laterite
A reddish type of stone.

For American readers, the attraction of Velutha to the Ipe children will be reminiscent to many accounts of the attraction of slaves for young white children in stories about the pre-Civil War South.

kites
Vultures.

She was looking down at the floor of the car. Like a coy, frightened bride who had been married off to a stranger.
This is not an unusual image, but the very stereotype of an ideal Indian bride, who would not dare brazenly to stare her fiance in the face until after they were married, though she might glance at him covertly before then.

Inquilab Zindabad!
Long live the Revolution!

scree bed
Scree are pebbles, so this refers to part of her rock garden.

Remember Baby Kochamma’s rage against Velutha when the crisis starts later.

Et tu, Brute?–then fall, Caesar.
The Latin phrase means roughtly “And you too Brutus?” The English phrase was added to Caesar’s last words by Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar.

biscuit crumbs
cookie crumbs

Chapter Three:

This chapter begins by once more interrupting the story of the trip to see The Sound of Music to tell us more about an encounter between Rahel and Estha which took place in later years, after both had returned to Ayamenem.

Big Man the Lantern. Small Man the Tallow-stick.
Big and small lights. A tallow-stick is a stick daubed with fat which can serve as a sort of torch.

Poda Patti!
Get lost, you dog!

dustbin
Trash can.

A Qantas koala
The Australian airline Qantas featured a kaola as its foreign ads for many years.

Two ballpoint pens with silent streetscapes and red London buses that floated up and down in them.
Souvenir “floaty pens” like these, with images that slide through an oil-filled barrel against a fixed background are sold all over the world, but most are manufactured in Denmark by the Eskesen company.

Drownable in, as Larry McCaslin had said and discovered to his cost.
This sentence establishes clearly, even if earlier clues are disregarded, that the twins are adults in this scene.

Chapter Four:

Estha alone.
This phrase comes to stand for Estha’s vulnerability and withdrawn nature in the rest of the novel.

Rahel was too short to balance in the air above the pot.
Some people try to use this posture to avoid sitting on an unclean toilet seat.

The Emperor Babur had a wheatish complexion
Babur (1483-1530) was the founder of the Mughal Dynasty which ruled much of India until the British arrived. “Wheatish” means “wheat-colored,” a golden brown. This adjective is commonly used in matrimonial advertisements in India to indicate the person being described is not dark-skinned.

napthalene balls
Deodorant balls commonly placed in men’s urinals.

Eda cherukka!
Hey you, boy!

Ominous foreshadowings earlier in the novel have pointed to this encounter with the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man. Many books have been built around such incidents, but in The God of Small Things, it is just the first of a series of disasters that destroys the happiness of the family. For Estha, it is the dividing point between his innocent, relatively happy childhood, and the haunted years that will follow.

Elvis the Pelvis
Because of his hip-swivelling performances in the late fifties, Elvis Presley was dubbed “Elvis the Pelvis” by the newspapers. Here the phrase ominously sexualizes little Estha.

soo-soos
Childish euphemism for penises.

What are the main characteristics of the scene of the Estha’s molestation? Does any of it strike you as surprising or unusual?

Notice how Roy avoids explicitly describing Estha’s feelings. How do are you made to realize that Estha has been traumatized by this encounter?

What about the scene with Ammu and the Orangedrink Lemondrink Man makes Estha so frightened?

Ammu’s reaction to Rahel’s offhand comment about marrying the man starts a self-destructive process in her parallel to Estha’s. Thus their twinship is reflected, but their closeness is about to be destroyed.

Up to the scene in which they part in the hotel, only Estha has been called “alone,” but his sister is called “Rahel Alone” for the first time.

paratha
Fried flatbread, often stuffed with spiced vegetables, and generally an unsuitable companion to chocolate sauce.

Why is Rahel so chilled by Chacko looking at the photo of his daughter?

Chapter Five:

Note how the image of the river unites the ending of the last chapter with the beginning of this one, though it is set years later.

Severed torsos soaping themselves
All of the images associated with the River here are negative in some way or other, even this description of people standing waist-deep in the water as they bathe.

fresh tandoori pomfret
Fish baked in a traditional clay oven (tandoori)Ñvery Indian.

crêpe suzette
Properly crêpes suzette, sugared crepes cooked in butter and flamed in an orange liqueur sauce–very European.

transplanted in the Heart of Darkness
Whereas in Conrad’s famous novel the heart of darkness was symbolized by its distance from Europe, here it is the European-style intrusion into the Indian landscape that creates darkness.

Note the irony of the former’s communist leader’s house being used as a luxurious dining room for tourists.

While Kunti revealed her secret to Karna on the riverbank.
That Karna is her eldest son, and thus the older brother of his sworn enemies, the Pandavas (from the Mahabharata). Kunti tries in vain to convince him that he should not fight the Pandavas. However, he rejects her advice and eventually becomes the commander of the Kaurava army arrayed against his brothers, the Pandavas. Because she had abandoned Karna in infancy and he was brought up as a commoner in ignorance of his noble heritage, he suffered many indignities which might be compared to those of Velutha in the novel. The full story is told in Chapter 12. Karna is eventually slain by his brother Arjuna.

Poothana suckled young Krishna at her poisoned breast.
Poothana was a demon who tried in vain to kill the infant Krishna. Although his astounding powers allowed him to thrive despite her attempts on his life, her poison turned his skin dark blue or black.

Bhima disemboweled Dushasana and bathed Draupadi’s hair in his blood.
In the Mahabharata, an apocalyptic world-spanning war is triggered when the five Pandavas foolishly wager their joint wife, Draupadi, in a rigged game of chance against their enemies, the Kauravas. Dushasana, one of the most important Kauravas, is responsible for dragging Draupadi forward just after their side has won her and attempting to strip her naked (though this attempt is foiled by a miracle). Bhima, the second of the Pandava brothers married to Draupadi, and especially noted for his strength (he was the rival of Dushasana in wrestling prowess), swears to take vengeance on Dushasana by drinking his blood. Draupadi, however, says she wants to bathe her hair in Dushasana’s blood, and does not fasten up or wash her hair until she can do so. Toward the end of the climactic battle, Bhima exacts the revenge described in this passage, in the process killing a man who, like all the Kauravas, is his cousin. Roy tells her version of this story in Chapter 12.

What characteristics do these myths have in common? How do they relate to the rest of this section?

the History House
This is how the children think of the old, abandoned mansion of Kari Saipu on the abandoned rubber plantation in Akkara, across the river.

kebabs
Spiced, marinated meat, ground or in cubes, usually grilled on a skewer. The children are twenty-five years too late in calling Rahel a hippie because the heyday of the hippies was a quarter-century ago.

bandh
General strike used as a political protest.

Aiyyo
An expression of dismay.

Orkunnilley
Don’t you remember?

Oower
Yes.

Aiyyo paavam
What a pity!

a DDA flat
Delhi Development Authority apartment.

gram
Lentil.

Ayurvedic
Traditional Indian medicine.

Orkunnundo?

By the end of the chapter we begin to understand why Sophie Mol had inspired such jealousy in the twins.

Chapter Six:

Like well-whipped egg white.
This is a somewhat strained reference back to the Orangedrink Lemondrink man’s semen, which had been compared to egg white.

betel
The chewing of betel leaf causes the saliva to turn red.

chakka velaichathu
Jackfruit jam.

ammoomas
Grandmothers.

appoopans
Grandfathers.

sweeper class
Members of an untouchable caste. Note that the Christians depicted here share their Hindu neighbors’ prejudices against untouchables.

namaste
Traditional Indian gesture of greeting, palms together and upright, a little like traditional “prayer” posture in the Christian west.

kappa
Cassava root, cooked in various ways.

meen
Fish.

vevichatu
Cooked.

What are the mixed feelings of the Foreign Returnees?

What do you think is the twins reaction to Ammu threatening to send them away?

larfing
Laughing. “Jolly Well” is one example of a common pattern in the twins’ thinking in which they convert metaphors into concrete images involving plays on words.

laddoo
A common sort of cookie made of lentil flour, ghee, raisins, nuts, and spices.

Note how all kinds of random events and words trigger Estha’s memory of his encounter with the Orangedrink Lemondrink man.

Why do you think Sophie Mol’s words, “Recover from the Shock,” are capitalized in the way they are?

Note how both adults and children are jockeying for position in this encounter at the airport.

Chapter Seven:

We are now back in the “present,” shortly after Rahel has returned home as an adult. Why is the old school essay by Estha on the Odyssey that Rahel reads appropriate at this point?

Ferus
?

maharani
Queen.

Little Nehru
Dressed like the first premier of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Locusts Stand I
A misunderstanding of a Latin phrase [locus standi] meaning “no [legal] standing, but it comes to signify something like “homeless” in the novel.

ayah
Nanny.

The church refused to bury Ammu.
The usual reason for refusing burial is suicide; but in this case it is more likely that Ammu refused to repent the “sin” of her affair with Velutha.

Chapter Eight:

Why does Mammachi despise Margaret Kochamma so much?

chatta Blouse.

Chacko Saar vannu
Mr. Chacko has arrived. “Saar” is a phonetic spelling of an Indian pronunciation of the English word “Sir.”

kodam puli tree
A variety of tamarind tree bearing fruit shaped like a kodam or round bowl.

his What Happened to Our Man of the Masses? suit
Allusion back to the beginning of Chapter 6, when Ammu noted Chacko’s unusually formal clothing.

like the English dairymaid in “The King’s Breakfast”
Refers to an illustration to A. A. Milne’s 1925 poem by that title. The complete poem with its original illustrations by E. H. Shepard.

shepard-11

What does it mean that Amma “had gifts to give him, too.”

Aiyyo kashtam
Literally, “Oh, what a pity!” but used here as a reproach: “How could you say that!”

Why doesn’t Rahel want Velutha to see Sophie Mol?

Kando . . .
Translated in the text: “‘Can you see her?’ ‘I can see her.'”

Sundari kutty
Lovely little girl.

the Scarlet Pimpernel
Allusion to a once-popular 1905 novel by the Baroness de Orczy (recently made into a Broadway musical) featuring a daring aristocrat who works to save nobles in Revolutionary France, and a rhyme that features in the novel.

Kushumbi
Jealous woman.

Explain the relevance of the ant-killing scene to the themes of the novel. What is the difference between things as the adults perceive them and as the children perceive them?

Chapter Nine: 

We are back in the “present” at first, but quickly slip back in Rahel’s memories into the past.

What does Rahel mean by her musings on whether there is room for her and Estha in the house?

pallu
The loose end of a sari which is draped over the shoulder.

bindis
Red dots worn on the foreheads of women.

How did Sophie Mol reveal herself to be human, and how did that revelation affect the twins?

chenda
Drum.

Chapter Ten:

Pectin, Hectin and Abednego
Alluding to the three Jewish heroes who were thrown into the firey furnace by Nebuchadnezzar’s servants along with Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Note the flood imagery which foreshadows much that is to come.

Twins were not allowed.
What is the significance of this thought?

She heard a nun’s voice singing the boat song.
Singing like Maria in The Sound of Music, who became, like Estha, a refuge from danger.

Amhoo
Moo.

Mandalay.
In central Burma.

vallom
Small boat.

Aiyyo, Mon! Mol!
Aiee! Boy! Girl! (Literally, “Son! Daughter!.)

koojah
Earthenware water jar.

idi appams
Steamed rice noodle cakes.

kanji
Rice soup.

meen
Fish.

How have Velutha’s feelings toward the children changed?

For the first time it is confirmed that it was Velutha the children saw in the march.

Chapter Eleven:

What qualities draw Ammu to Velutha in her dream?

What does the title of the chapter seem to refer to here?

a song from a film called Chemmeen
Note the ominous associations of this song from the 1965 film directed by Ramu Karia. The film was made in Malayalam, and its English title was The Wrath of the Sea.

burning ghat
Funeral pyre.

Why does not mentioning Velutha’s name to the twins make Ammu feel more attached to him?

Describe the children’s relationship with their mother in this scene.

Can you guess why Chacko will threaten and drive away Ammu?

The “silent stranger” is, of course, the grown Estha.

Chapter Twelve:

kuthambalam
Inner part of the Hindu temple, just outside of the inner sanctum.

rakshasa
Demon.

Karna
See the note above, on Karna and Kunti. The story Kunti tells him is her own. Note that Estha joins Rahel just as the twins are mentioned in the story. What else does this story have to do with Estha and Rahel’s story?

It is not unusual for Indian classical performances to last all night.

Why is it mentioned that the Kathakali men went home to beat their wives?

The rose bowl
The pink arch of the dawn sky.

Chapter Thirteen:

churidar
Traditional narrow, tight-fitting trousers with folds near the ankles; worn by both men and women in North India.

shervani
“Nehru jacket”: long formal jacket with stand-up collar.

Why does Roy tell us the story of how Margaret and Chacko met at this particular point in the novel, do you think?

Why does Margaret love Chacko? Why does he love her?

secretly pawned her jewelry
It is traditional for Indian brides to be given lavish jewelry which is normally only pawned or sold in the direst emergencies.

dhobi
Person who washes clothes for a living.

At this point a section break is indicated by the image of a small fish.

Note how we keep circling around the incident of Sophie Mol’s drowning, looking at events which led up to it and events that followed it, slowly tightening the circles to focus in at last on what actually happened. What effect does this technique have on you?

Keep in mind as you watch Baby Kochamma trying to take her revenge those aspects of her own history which have made her the kind of woman she is.

mittam
Yard.

Modalali Mariakutty
Landlord Mariakutty.

They were both men whom childhood had abandoned without a trace.
What do you think this sentence means?

What is Comrade Pillai’s main motivation in saying what he does and does not about Velutha to Inspector Thomas Mathew?

Why does Margaret Kochamma never think about Velutha?

A second fish occurs at this point.

What is the significance of the various things that Margaret Kochamma has taken with her and Sophie Mol to India?

Chapter Fourteen:

Ajantha
The brand name of an audio equipment company in Kerala, named after the famous Buddhist cave site.

kavani
Top part of a two-piece sari, draped diagonally across the upper body.

Modalali
Landlord.

O, young Lonchin varhas scum out of the vest
Here is the original text of the lines Latha mangles:

O, young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And, save his good broadsword, he weapons had none,
He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.He swam the Eske River where ford there was none,
But, ere he alighted at Netherby gate,
The bride had consented, the gallant came late

The poem tells, of course, of another illicit romance, and a dangerous crossing by water.

Friends Romans countrymen lend me your
Antony’s funeral oration over the body of the slain Julius Caesar, another ominous tale.

Why does his poverty give Comrade Pillai an advantage over Chacko?

Oru kaaryam parayettey?
Shall I tell you something?

keto
Have you heard?

Allay edi
Isn’t that so? (rudely)

As a Communist, Pillai should be in favor of equality, but he shares the same prejudices as others in the village against the untouchables.

He broke the eggs but burned the omelette.
See above, note on the The old omelette-and-eggs thing in Chapter 1.

Another fish marks the end of the scene at Comrade Pillai’s and a shift back to Velutha.

Chickens would come home to roost.
“The chickens have come home to roost” is an old expression meaning someone has received punishment for what he or she has done. Doom.

Koo-koo kookum theevandi
Kooki paadum theevandi
Rapakal odum theevandi
Thalannu nilkum theevandi

This is a rhyme about a train which was printed in a popular Malayalam reader for children:

The train screams koo-koo-koo
The train sings and screams
The train runs day and night
The train stops, exhausted.

avial
A spicy vegetable stew cooked in coconut milk, a typical Malayali dish.

Enda?
What is it?

Comprador capitalist
A Marxist insult suggesting that Velutha is a sellout, one who collaborates with the exploiters of the working class. But it almost certainly not the fact that Velutha has crossed class lines that so offends Comrade Pillai, but that he has crossed caste lines.

Spring-thunder
“Spring Thunder Over India” is the title of an editorial hailing the Naxalite Communist rebellion in the People’s Daily, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China July 5, 1967. It was reproduced in Liberation, Vol. I No. 1 (November 1967). Since then the phrase has come to stand for Keralite Communism generally. .

Chapter Fifteen:

The action of this chapter follows immediately upon that of the preceding one.

Chapter Sixteen:

What pattern have events taken on at the end of this chapter?

Chapter Seventeen:

Back to the “present.” His trauma of that night seems to have extended a quarter century into the future.

ashram
Hindu spiritual center.

Diwali
The very popular fall Hindu festival of lights. Also known as “Deepavali.” How does this scene affect your perception of her in relation to the Velutha-Ammu love affair?

in saffron
In saffron-yellow robes, traditionally worn by holy men.

sadhus
Hindu ascetics.

swamis
Senior members of a Hindu religious order.

What effect does it have in the novel to have the end of Velutha’s story told indirectly, in retrospect, at the end of this chapter?

Chapter Eighteen:

We now leave the retrospective narrative to plunge back into that fateful night.

civilization’s fear of nature, men’s fear of women, power’s fear of powerlessness.
Relate these various fears to elements of the novel.

Madiyo?
Is it enough?

Madi aaririkkum
It may be enough.

Chapter Nineteen:

F.I.R.
“First Information Report,” the initial report of illegal activity at a local police station.

chhi-chhi
Expression of disgust used as a euphemism for excrement.

meeshas
Moustaches.

Childhood tiptoed out.
What does this mean?

How does Baby Kochamma manipulate Chacko into getting Ammu and the twins out of Ayamenem?

Chapter Twenty:

Why is Rahel concerned that there be “proper punishments” in the imaginary school Ammu is imagining?

After another fish, we return to the “present.” Why do you think Roy has the twins “break the love laws” at the end of her novel?

Chapter Twenty-one:

There’s no time to lose
One of the verses from “Ruby Tuesday” by the Rolling Stones. The song concerns parting from a loved one, but this particular stanza emphasizes the urgency of acting on love in the present.

Why do you think this pivotal love scene has been postponed to the end of the book?

It is no coincidence that Roy has placed two scenes of lovemaking (between Rahel and Estha and between Ammu and Velutha) in close proximity to each other at the end of the novel. What relationships do you see between these two scenes?

What does it mean that “they stuck to the Small Things”?

Chappu Thamburan
A spider.

Why is the last word of the novel “Tomorrow”?

What messages do you think Roy was trying to convey in writing this novel?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Notes by Paul Brians

Thanks for help to Arindam Basu, Arnab Chakladar, Priya Chandra, Sundeep Dougal, Paula Elliot, Chandra Holm, Jayashree Mohanka, Gary Williams, and Sumathy Sivamohan. Special thanks to Raji Pillai for many translations of Malayalam and Hindi words and phrases.

 

Modern South Asian Literature in EnglishFor more about Arundhati Roy and other South Asian writers, see Paul Brians’ Modern South Asian Literature in English .

 

 

 

 

 

First mounted November 28, 1998.

Last revised, April 19, 2006.

R. K. Narayan: The Guide (1958)

R[asipuram] K[rishnaswamy] Narayan (1906-2001) is unusual among Indian authors writing in English in that he has stayed contentedly in his home country, venturing abroad only rarely. He rarely addresses political issues or tries to explore the cutting edge of fiction. He is a traditional teller of tales, a creator of realist fiction which is often gentle, humorous, and warm rather than hard-hitting or profound. Almost all of his writings are set in the fictional city of Malgudi, and are narrowly focused on the lives of relatively humble individuals, neither extremely poor nor very rich.

The Guideis one of his most interesting books, which begins as a comic look at the life of a rogue, but evolves into something quite different. It should be noted that Narayan is not a devout Hindu, and has accused Westerners of wrongly supposing that all Indians are deeply spiritual beings; but it is also true that he was deeply impressed by some experiences he had with a medium after the sudden death of his young wife (described movingly in The English Teacher (1945).

Narayan has stated that the incident of the reluctant holy man was based on a real event which he read about in the newspaper.

Chapter One:

Why do you think Narayan chooses such an unusual way to introduce us to Raju? An anna is a very small coin. A maharaja is a traditional Indian prince. After the barber announces that Raju looks like a maharaja, the narrative takes an abrupt turn into the past. The incident of the villager who has come to consult with him in the next paragraph happened long ago.

Narayan further complicates the narrative flow by glancing forward to a time when he will tell this villager, named Velan, his life story, which brings him to Rosie, who will be introduced into the novel later. He then abruptly springs back into the distant past to briefly tell the story of his childhood and then return to Velan and his problem. Note the blank lines he has inserted in the narrative to mark the points at which the setting changes.

Explain the title of the novel. Traditional Indian temple dancers were dedicated to dancing for the gods, particularly Krishna. However, they also traditionally supported themselves through prostitution, and temple-dancing was eventually suppressed. Modern “classical dancers” are often highly respectable women who practice the art out of devotion to dance rather than religion. Look for passages in the novel which portray both negative and positive images of such dancers. “Betel leaf” is the mild stimulant chewed by many Indians and wrongly called “betel nut”because it is often served wrapped around an areca nut. “Parched gram” is roasted lentils, a staple in India. The pyol is a sort of front stoop where Indians often visit with neighbors and watch the world going by. Tamil is one of the many important languages of India, especially common in the south. Narayan has depicted himself as a poor student and a rebellious son, a self-portrait he has repeated over and over from Swami and Friends (1935) forward. What attracts the boy Raju more than his lessons?

The story told about the Buddha is one of the most common lessons attributed to him; but would not necessarily be widely known by Indians, few of whom are Buddhists. What is its meaning? How do you think Raju is able to predict what Velan will say when he begins discussing his troubles? Note that Velan wants to treat Raju as a saint: a theme that will recur later in the novel. Why does Raju hope the girl is uninteresting? Jewelry is a necessity for any woman in India: a form of bank account and a sign of respectability. Thefts of such jewelry are quite rare. Idli are small steamed cakes of ground rice and fermented lentils, usually eaten for breakfast. Raju is posing as a holy man. How good is he at it?

Another flashback returns us to his childhood for a few pages. Fermented lime-pickle, intensely sour, is a favorite Indian condiment, or chutney. What do we learn about his character from this story? Can you see any qualities that he may have inherited from his father? The fact that he never heard the end of the story about Devaka may foreshadow the end of his own story. Devaka was the grandfather of the god Krishna on his mother’s side.

“Transmigration” means reincarnation, another life. How useful is Raju’s message to Velan?

Chapter Two:

We now return to Raju’s childhood. Recitation aloud is the traditional method of education. What kind of school does he attend? Jaggery is a brown crystalline sweetener made from the sap of the kitul palm.

Raju interrupts the story of his education to return to Velan. A “partition suit” would be a lawsuit involving property lost in the division (“partition”) of India at independence, when Pakistan was created out of the northern regions. Marriage with cousins is not uncommon. Almost all weddings are planned with the advice of astrologers. Why does he gain such a reputation as wise man ( yogi )? A “great soul” is a mahatma, the title given to Mohandas K. Gandhi. What do you think are Raju’s real motives for seeking isolation and quiet? Note Raju’s fear that Velan might suppose that he didn’t need food. In fact in the last and holiest stage of a Hindu mystic’s life he should voluntarily starve to death. Temples are everywhere in India; it is not at all implausible that someone should show up and announce himself as priest of an abandoned one. There is no formal priesthood, no systematic way to become a holy man: one merely earns the respect and veneration of other worshipers. A plantain is a large, firm, rather bland relative of the banana: a very cheap source of nourishment. What indication is there that the boy is not awed by Raju?

Chapter Three:

We return again to the narrative of his childhood. Bagpipes were introduced into India by the British, and often played at festive official events. The coconuts are broken on the tracks as an act of sacrifice, but there is also an analogy to smashing a bottle of champagne on the prow of a new ship when it is launched. A jutka is a modest horse-drawn taxi. “Horse gram” is grain to feed the horse. Raju was exposed to fraud early in his life. What effect do you think it had on him?

Chapter Four:

Back to “the present.” Describe Raju’s thoughts and behavior during the negotiations with the schoolmaster. The Ramayana is the traditional epic of the heroic deeds of the god Rama, the most popular collection of stories in India.

Again we go back into Raju’s childhood. “Biscuits” are baked goods like cookies, rather than what Americans call biscuits. What skills did Raju learn while working in the station shop?

His own exceedingly informal education provides the background for the next scene, where he “teaches” the children. Why does Raju urge independent thought on his listeners. What effects do the villagers’ belief in him have on Raju?

Chapter Five:

Again we return to Raju’s youth. Why do you think the novel alternates between the story of Raju’s career as a guru and his earlier life? How did he become a guide? What are his opinions of travelers? Parvathi (more commonly “Parvati”) is the consort of the god Shiva. According to this legend, she would have voluntarily leapt into a fire, creating the source of the Sarayu River, which flows into the Ganges. This is not a common story about Parvathi. Is Narayan is just making it up? What kind of guide is he? What sorts of techniques does he use? Note how casually Rosie is introduced into the story, long after we have been told about her influence on Raju’s life. The dhoti is a common loose, baggy cloth used as trousers by men. A jibba is a sort of shirt. Cobras are actually deaf: what they react to is the swaying of the been , the snake-charmer’s instrument here called a “flute.” It is actually a rather nasal-sounding reed instrument with a gourd at one end to develop the sound. A tout is a sort of go-between who arranges and promotes business. How does Raju’s passion for Rosie develop? Traditional Indian housewives cook and serve while the men eat, then eat their own food afterwards. “Lead, Kindly Light” is the title of a popular hymn. Why did Rosie marry her husband? A dhobi is a laundry. Note that at the time this novel was written Raju’s persistence at the end of the chapter would not have been viewed as negatively as it might be today.

Chapter Six:

Back to the village temple. Dasara (also called Dussehra or Durga Puja) is devoted to the powerful goddess Durga. Deepavali (now usually called Divali ) is the annual festival celebrating the return of the sun after the rainy season, very popular all over Hindu India and celebrates the victory of Rama over Ravana. Since Durga is a famous demon-slayer, both are festivals celebrating victories over demons. More information on Dasara. More information on Deepavali. How is Raju being affected by his life as a holy man? Swamiji: “-ji” is an honorific suffix. The villagers are not as unusually superstitious as one might suppose; many Westerners wondered in the fifties whether jet planes and nuclear bomb tests might have altered the weather. What are the main effects of the drought? Raju got the idea of threatening a fast in order to stop the fighting from Mahatma Gandhi, who put an end to violent conflicts during the struggle for independence by fasting nearly to death. How is his threat transformed? When Velan says “We derive merit from watching your face” he is alluding to the Hindu belief in darshan, according to which witnessing holy objects or persons is a spiritual blessing. Velan’s description of the proper procedures for Raju to follow are those used by the real holy man on whose story this novel is based. Sadhu: holy man. Why doesn’t Raju run away? At the end of the chapter we learn how Raju came to be telling Velan the story which makes up the rest of this novel.

Chapter Seven:

Jawaharlal Nehru, close associate of Gandhi in the struggle for independence, was India’s first prime minister (1947-1964) . Who do you think is most to blame for Rosie’s unhappiness? Why? Why do you think Raju has not referred to her dancing again? Nataraja is an incarnation of the creator/destroyer God Shiva, who danced the world into existence. More information about Nataraja. Why does he encourage her dancing? A pundit is a scholar. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two classical epics of Hinduism, filled with tales often enacted by dancers. The main theme of temple dancing is love for a god, expressed in the metaphors of human love between woman and man. This is why Rosie says “Lover means always God”–in this case Krishna, who was born as a human and passed through all the stages of mortal life. What is the effect of her dancing on Raju? What are “Marco’s” attitudes toward his wife? What do you think has happened to change Rosie’s behavior toward Raju? When Raju talks about suffering “the usual symptoms,” what is he referring to? A “tank” is a reservoir such as all Hindus like to have nearby for bathing, washing clothes, etc. According to one legend, the River Ganges tried to destroy the god Shiva, but he absorbed it into his hair.

Discuss Raju’s mother’s reactions to Rosie and how they change. What was Marco’s reaction to Rosie’s desire to dance? Othello murdered his wife Desdemona out of (mistaken) jealousy. What does Rosie mean by saying “I thought that Othella was kindlier to Desdemona?” What does Raju’s mother think is the solution to dealing with problematic husbands? Savitri succeeded in persuading Yama, the god of death, to restore her husband Satyavan to life. She is the archetype of the devoted wife in Hindu mythology. Just as most students in Narayan’s fiction do poorly in school, most of his businessmen go bankrupt. Saithan: devil.

Chapter Eight:

What conflicting feelings does Raju’s mother have toward Rosie? A godown is a sort of warehouse. What is Raju’s reaction to his legal problems? Note how the power of the extended Indian family sweeps over the individual when Raju’s uncle arrives. Pan or Paan is betel leaf wrapped around areca nut, the habitual stimulant of many Indians. “Quit” means “leave.” Meena Kumari was a Hindi film star famous for her dancing. It is as if an American actress of the fifties were trying to choose a stage name and her boyfriend suggested “Marilyn Monroe”–hardly original, or practical. Note how Rosie’s artistry overcomes the doubts of the Union officials. Temple-dancing was still struggling to overcome its negative reputation.

Chapter Nine:

What effect does it have to alternate the story of Raju’s success with Rosie with his troubles as a holy man in the village? Why isn’t his life story in strict chronological order? How does Raju react to Rosie’s success? Saraswathi is a goddess of knowledge and scholarship. Her image is often placed in libraries. Sabha: village council . How does Raju’s tendency to simply forget about troublesome issues complicate his life? What do you make of Rosie’s change in attitude toward Marco? Karma is fate.

Chapter Ten:

Brinjals are eggplants. Which of Raju’s personality traits are manifested in prison? What affect does his imprisonment have on Rosie/Nalini?

Chapter Eleven:

Finally the narrative times fuse together as Raju finishes telling the story of his life to Velan. What effect does it produce to have this chapter follow the story of his disaster with Nalini? How is Raju changed by his fast? Why does the anti-malaria film fail to deliver its intended message? What do you think of the end of the novel? Is it ambiguous? What tone do you think it has: sad, comic, tragic . . . ? What evidence is there that Raju is deluded at the end?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.

 

Book cover of Modern South Asian Literature in EnglishFor more about Narayan and other South Asian writers, see Paul Brians’ Modern South Asian Literature in English .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First mounted May, 1995

Last revised September 24, 2008.

 

George Lamming: In the Castle of My Skin (1970)

The coming-of-age novel (Bildungsroman) is a popular form among writers from formerly colonized nations; for their personal development has often been linked to the emergence of their homelands from colonial dependence or the personal transition from indigenous resident to immigrant. Perhaps the most widely-read and influential example from the Caribbean is the earliest, this novel by George Lamming, recounting his youth in Barbados, written shortly after he emigrated to England. Lamming makes this point vividly in his fine introduction to the Schocken Books edition of the novel, which you should read.

Introduction

Franz Fanon was a psychiatrist born in Martinique who worked in the French colony of Algeria and finally joined the revolution against the French. He wrote two eloquent and influential books examining racism: Black Skin/ White Masks (1952), and The Wretched of the Earth (1961). Much of his work stressed the difficulties caused by blacks trying to identify with their white oppressors. For him the failure to embrace one’s own identity could be a form of mental illness.

Paul Robeson, the son of a former slave, was a brilliant bass and actor who embraced a variety of political causes, including the struggle against racism. Because of his support of the Soviet Union he was banned from performing in many venues later in his life.

Patrice Lumumba, the first Prime Minister of the Congo, was killed in 1961 by his Congolese enemies in the midst of a violent civil conflict.

Lamming’s fellow-Barbardian Edward Kaumau Brathwaite is one of the most influential critics and scholars of Caribbean literature as well as being an important writer of poetry and fiction.

According to Lamming, what was the relationship of the Barbadians (who call themselves Bajans , by the way) to Africa?

Chapter One:

What is the effect of beginning the novel with the torrential rains marking the protagonist’s ninth birthday? How does he use the weather to set the tone of the book? Castor oil is a diarrhetic which used to be given regularly to children to keep them “regular.”

Chapter Two:

Can you see any symbolism in the killing of the pumpkin vine? The fowlcock was doubtless being offered for sale for the popular sport of cockfighting. Savannah: a large park covered with lawn. What effects did the prejudices of the white landlords have on the black people’s self-esteem? What does Lamming do to make the custom of the boys making knives out of pins seem ominous? How does he make the sexuality of the villagers repulsive through its surroundings?

Chapter Three:

What are the children’s conceptions of Barbados’ relationship with England? The assertion of the inspector that the British Empire has always worked for peace is supposed to be obviously false to the reader, since that Empire was built through relentless warfare and oppression. Note that the musical part of the program is called “a test of voice control.” What do you think is the significance of the incident triggered by the giving of the Queen’s pennies? How do the boys feel about their mothers and fathers? “W.C.”: water closet, toilet. Why do the boys so enjoy the story about the schoolmaster’s relationship with his wife? How do the boys learn about slavery? The Battle of Hastings happened in 1066. Why does the head teacher have trouble thinking about his wife after he receives the letter? At the end of the discussion about slavery, what is the boys’ attitude toward the Empire?

Chapter Four:

The notion that God cares specifically for birds like pigeons comes from a passage in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:26). The story of Moses and the Exodus has always been popular among oppressed peoples who identified with the ancient Hebrews enslaved in Egypt. “God elect”: God’s elected one, chosen one. Why do you think Lamming has made this chapter about an elderly couple facing the end of life follow on one about young boys just discovering what life is about?

What is their image of America? Matthew 6:1921 says “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust cloth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What is the aim of the penny bank founded by Mr. Slime?

Chapter Five:

“Savory” means “tasty,” and is presumably a nickname. J. B. Priestly (19984-1984) wrote a good deal of social commentary as well as fiction and literary criticism. What is the significance of the passage by Priestly? Trinidad is the second largest of the Caribbean Islands (after Cuba) and the most southerly. It has had a tumultuous history. Cricket, a game most Americans associate with the British upper class, is still quite popular in the former British colonies in the Caribbean. Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica, but became influential after he moved to the United States and founded in 1914 the Universal Negro Improvement Association to encourage black unity worldwide. He tried to organize a fleet of ships to carry blacks back to Africa; but failed, being finally arrested for fraud and deported back to Jamaica. He is fondly remembered there, however, exercising a major influence on Rastafarianism. The shoemaker confuses the date of Julius Caesar’s invasion of England with that of William the Conqueror more than a thousand years later. What is ironic about Mr. Foster’s praise for the British colonial education system? A “nosey Parker” is a busybody. “Cakes”: cookies, pastries.

Chapter Six:

“Belleville” means “beautiful city.” How does the way the narrator interprets the clouds in the sky reflect his own life? Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (wealth). How does the boy stop his mother from beating him? What do you think of her as a mother? How is the game of diving for coins symbolic of the entire existence of the villagers? Canute (995?-1035) was at various times king of England, Norway, and Denmark. Legend has it that he commanded the sea not to advance.

What kinds of associations does the narrator have with the sea? What aspect of life does the story of the weddings illustrate? What are the boys’ attitudes toward their skin colors? How does it affect them? Compare the story of Bots and Bambina with other accounts of polygamy we have read. “Torch”: flashlight. “Gaol”: jail. What themes run through the boys’ talk on the beach? What do they tell us about their world? What makes the boys feel that the fisherman is only a man, not a giant? What is the importance of language to the narrator?

Chapter Seven:

In the tropics there is little twilight at sunset. How has the point of view and style changed between the last chapter and the beginning of this one? Why does the candle frighten the boy? “Nancy”: sissy. What is Mr. Slime’s criticism of religion? Automats such as are described by Boy Blue used to be common in New York. Why do you think the scenes at the worship service surround that at the white party? What are the shifting moods in this chapter? The story of the fig tree is told in Mark 11:13-20. Luke 18:16 “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, ‘Suffer [allow] little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of Heaven.”‘

Chapter Eight:

Note how the scenes with Pa and Ma continue to alternate with those featuring the boys. What is the old woman’s theory about why rich whites don’t help poor whites? What version of the scene the boys witnessed has been told by Mr. Creighton? How is it different from what we know really happened?

Chapter Nine:

Note how the disturbances which have begun in the city encroach gradually on the village. What is the cause of the fighting? In the introduction Lamming regrets that he did not have the villagers kill the landlord. How would that have altered the novel?

Chapter Ten:

The rhapsodic passage that follows goes beyond realism to create a kind of prose poem, a meditation on the past. How do the old man’s words describe the traditional values of Africa? “The Middle Passage” is the name of the slave shipping route between Africa and the western hemisphere. How does she imagine the slave trade? Wearing sackcloth is a sign of mourning. “Between the devil and the deep blue sea” means to be caught between equally bad alternatives. The usual expression is “the blood shed for your sins and mine.” Why does the old woman change it to “light”?

Chapter Eleven:

Why do you think the narrative voice switches to the first person in this chapter? What do you think is the significance of the hidden pebble? How did his mother dampen the narrator’s enthusiasm about being able to go to high school? In fact World War II marked the beginning of the end for the British Empire. England lost India the year after the war ended, and over the next decade and a half most of the rest gained independence. Lord Haw Haw was the slang term for a clumsy German propagandist who broadcast to the British soldiers, trying to persuade them to desert. German submarines sank many transport ships bearing goods to England. “The neighboring island” of Trinidad is presumably Tobago. Together these two islands make up the modern nation of Trinidad and Tobago, which is quite close to the South American mainland.

Chapter Twelve:

Why do you think that at long last there is communication between the old man and the boy, who have always inhabited separate narratives earlier?

Chapter Thirteen:

What things have changed in the village? How is power shifting? Why is the new landowner not more assertive in his dealings with the villagers? How has Mr. Slime managed to acquire the village? What is the quality of charity at the Alms House?

Chapter Fourteen:

The narrative technique changes again, as the narrator reads his diary. Falernum is a sugary liqueur. Note that on p. 261 appears the phrase that constitutes the title of the novel. Why does he look forward to living in a place where no one knows him? What is the nature of his relationship with his mother? Trinidad is the most industrialized of the anglophone Caribbean islands. What does the narrator’s mother imagine life is like in Trinidad? The Mardi Gras carnival in Trinidad is as famous in its way as that of New Orleans or Brazil; and provides an even greater contrast to ordinary life the rest of the year in this largely impoverished nation. Many people spend the better part of a year’s wages on lavish costumes. “Ochroes”: okra. Why does he think of the missing pebble while listening to his mother? John 14 consists of the farewell speech of Jesus to his disciples. What are Trumper’s main impressions of America? Paul Robeson was an internationally famous bass and black activist. What is the difference between American discrimination and Barbadian discrimination? How does Trumper react to his association with American blacks? How does the narrator react to Trumper’s analysis of racial problems? What effect does it have on the ending that the village is dissolving as the narrator leaves it?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.

Mounted May 6, 1996.
Last revised August 7, 1998.

Nadine Gordimer: Selected Stories

Nadine Gordimer (born 1923) has made her career under difficult circumstances. Born an English-speaking Jew in South Africa, she resented and resisted the pressure to conform to the white supremacist attitudes embodied in the system of apartheid. She has been politically active most of her life, and has often written about the relationships among white radicals, liberals, and blacks in South Africa. Her most widely-read works are novels like The Conservationist (1974) and Burger’s Daughter (1979); but many people believe her finest writing to be contained in her short stories. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Although she is one of the most distinguished of modern women writers, she has resisted being classed as a feminist. See what you think of her portraits of men and women in the following stories.

_______________________________________________

The Bridegroom (1960)

“Caravan”=trailer.

“Ou Piet, ek wag.” “Hey, old Piet; I’m waiting,” in Afrikaans, the language of the Dutch-descended whites.

Note the tone with which the protagonist addresses Piet, whom we are told later is “a good cook.”

Koeksusters are crullers, deep-fried sugared strips of dough.

“Kaffir” is an insulting term for South African blacks.

“Baas”=”Boss.” Note how all blacks are called “boys,” regardless of age. Why is he anxious that the blacks not “hang around?”

Look for passages which reveal his attitudes toward the blacks. Note his characterization of the night noises they make. Two of the musical instruments being played are common in sub-Saharan Africa: the mouth-bow and the kalimba or mbira. What is his reaction to their music?

“Satchmo” was the nickname of the great American jazz trumpet player Louis Armstrong, probably not what he had in mind when he spoke of “real music.”

Note the description of the music that he listens to for a long time. How would you characterize it?

Why do you think the story ends where it does? What have we learned about him? About the blacks? What do you think is likely to happen when his fiancée arrives?

_______________________________________________

The Gentle Art (1960)

This story could be read as a sort of reply from a woman’s point of view to Ernest Hemingway’s story, “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.”

Rhodesia is the British colonial name of the country now known as Zimbabwe.

What kind of a person is Jimmy Baird? What kind of a person is Vivien McEwen? Can you characterize her relationship with her husband at the beginning of the story? How do her feelings and perceptions change during the story?

“Donkey’s years”=many years.

A souk is a bazaar, a tangled, close-packed cluster of shops and stalls.

Saurian: reptilian, associated with the age of the dinosaurs.

A primus stove is a tiny portable device for cooking on camping trips.

Spanner: wrench.

Why do you suppose Gordimer has waited so long to describe Vivien’s appearance? What do you think Mrs. Baird means by “I waited”? How does the story contrast her with Vivien? What do you think is the meaning of the title?

_______________________________________________

Six Feet of the Country (1956)

Anton Chekhov was famous for his stories and plays about impoverished nobles living ineffectual lives on their country estates, notably in The Cherry Orchard (1904). Like Gordimer, he is noted for his ability to convey vividly delicate shadings of feeling. Try to identify some of the passages in which she accomplishes this particularly well. Characterize the husband’s feelings towards his wife at different points in the story.

What do the Johannesburg people mean by “tension”? The narrator says his relationship with the black people is “almost feudal.” What do you think he means? How would you characterize it?

“Piccanins” is somewhat condescending slang for small black children, ultimately derived from the Spanish word for “little ones,” pequeños (compare with American “pickaninny.”)

Zoot suits were wide-lapelled, high-waisted outfits worn by “hip” urban blacks in the forties.

Why does Petrus think white men can do anything? What do you think of the contrast the narrator draws between the attitude toward death of the poor and of people like himself and his wife? The donkey who carried Mary and the Christ child into exile in Egypt is often depicted in art as gentle and meek.

What do you think the blacks felt like at the end of this story? What do you think the narrator feels like? Why do you think he was chosen to be the narrator of this story? What is it meant to tell us about the society he lives in? About him as an individual?

What do you think the title means?

_______________________________________________

Which New Era Would That Be? (1956)

“Coloured” in this context means “of mixed race,” a group distinguished from both blacks and whites under the apartheid system. The phrase from which the story derives its title is on the second page. What do you think is its significance?

The Edwardian period is named after Edward VII of England, king between 1901 and 1910.

“Congress” is used in many countries as a name for gatherings and organizations which are not necessarily legislative bodies like the U.S. Congress. Why does Jake object to white women who persist in regarding blacks as their equal? What exactly does he object to about Jennifer?

“Bushmen” is a term for relatively light-skinned indigenous hunter-gatherers in South Africa such as the San who originally lived according to traditional ways in the “bush,” far away from the cities. Most are now urbanized, and the term “bushman” generally has pejorative connotations. “Batrachian”: frog-like. A “public school” in South Africa as well as in England is what Americans call a “private school,” reserved for the wealthy and privileged. Why is Jennifer living in Cape Flats? Why is it significant that she uses the word “job?”

Why does she speak so negatively of Cape Flats? What are the emotions, attitudes which separate the blacks from the whites in this scene?

A shebeen is an illegal tavern selling home-made liquor (originally Irish slang). The “colour bar” is segregation.

Why is Alister able to be on more comfortable terms with Jake than is Jennifer? What is the significance of the incident of George’s lunch, and why do the listeners react to it as they do? Why does Jennifer interrupt Maxie’s story to discuss the way he speaks? What does it reveal about her? Why does she react as she does to Maxie’s story? What does this sentence mean: “There was absolutely no limit to which that understanding would not go”? What is Gordimer trying to convey about a certain kind of well-intentioned white person?

Note that Jake celebrates her departure by defiantly turning up the gas Jennifer had earlier officiously turned down.

_______________________________________________

Is There Nowhere Else Where We Can Meet? (1951)

“Chemist ” means pharmacist, drugstore owner. Try to explain the feelings of the woman. What is this story about? How does the title affect your interpretation of it?

_______________________________________________

The Train from Rhodesia

“Kraal,” Afrikaans for corral. Anthony van Dyck was a 17th-century Flemish painter who worked for most of his life in England, where he painted many men wearing fashionably pointed beards which came later to be called “vandykes” after his work. Therefore the lion’s teeth are broad and pointed. A meerkat is a South African relative of the mongoose. Three shillings and sixpence would be a decent sum for the impoverished sculptor, but a negligible amount for the white couple. Why do you think she resists buying it? In what sense is the man selling the lion unreal? Why is she angry with her husband? Why is she feeling alone? Why is there no answer to the train’s cry?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Last revised December 9, 1998

Athol Fugard: “Master Harold” . . . and the Boys

Source: Penguin Plays edition. New York: Penguin, 1984.

During most of the last four decades, Athol Fugard has dedicated his art to fighting apartheid, remarkably keeping together an all-black theater troupe in extremely difficult conditions and appearing in many of his own plays as often unsympathetic white characters. Many of his plays were banned in his homeland, and were premiered instead at the Yale Repertory Theatre. He is generally considered the finest South African playwright, and his works have been widely performed abroad. The brief 1973 play we will see on video, Sizwe Banzi is Dead was developed partly through improvisation with the other actor involved, deriving its content from the everyday lived experience of blacks in South Africa. It is part of a trilogy which includes The Island and Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act. Since the collapse of apartheid, he has turned away from this subject toward more personal works.

Of all his plays, none is more personal than “Master Harold” . . . and the Boys; because it relates a boyhood incident which involved himself and which haunted him for years until he tried to atone by writing this play in 1982.

In 1950, Fugard was 17. It was in these years that apartheid began (starting in 1948). The play has been criticized for not overtly acknowledging this fact, yet awareness of increasing racial tension may lurk in the background. If we see the play as reflecting the world as viewed by “Master Harold,” he may not have absorbed the impact of these changes.

Page no.

pg 4 Note the distinctly unromantic words to the song Willie sings at the beginning. Boet means “brother” or “comrade.”

pg 5 Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were the most famous dancing team in Hollywood. Why do you think Willie has to understand romance through their image?

pg 6 Sarah Vaughan was a great American jazz singer, some say the greatest ever. “Struesgod”=”It’s true as God” or “I swear by God it’s true.” “Wellfed”=”Welfare.” Since both Willie and Hilda are black, his remark that only the baby’s hair looks like him is probably sarcastic.

pg 7 “Hiding”=beating.

pg 8 Count Basie: leader of the one of the most famous jazz bands ever, very popular with dancers.

pg 9 Watch Hally’s relationship with Sam and Willie. How friendly is he with them? Does he treat them as an equal? Do they treat him as an equal? Are there tensions between them?

pg 11 Like Tarzan, Jungle Jim was a white hero in black Africa, extremely popular in the forties and fifties but exercising a baneful influence on people’s notions about Africans.

pg 12 “Bum”=rear end. Speakers of English slang think it’s hilarious that Americans walk around with the words “BUM Equipment” plastered across their chests.

pg 15 What is Hally’s reaction to learning about how black prisoners are beaten? Does he see it as a racial issue?

pg 16 “Naught”=zero.

pg 18 What does Sam mean when he says “I’m all right on oppression?” Napoleon, paradoxically, helped to institute modern laws while sometimes behaving in an extremely tyrannical fashion.

pg 19 Why is it ironic that Hally has hidden Darwin in the Theology section of the library?

pg 20 How does Hally react to Sam’s choice of Abraham Lincoln as a hero? Note the strong influence of America on this culture. Can you characterize this influence? What sort of things are influential? On whom? Why would Julius Caesar be an attractive play to somebody like Sam?

pg 21 Hally’s knowledge of Tolstoy is somewhat scrambled. He wrote War and Peace 1865-1869, long before he abandoned literature to become a full-time social reformer, working in common with the serfs on his estate. War and Peace is notoriously one of the longest novels in the Western canon.

pg 23 Why does Sam know about so many of the great figures of history?

pg 24 “Donkey’s years,” a common English cliché for “many years,” punning on “donkey’s ears.”

pg 25 Characterize Hally’s relationship to Sam and Willie when he was younger. “Certified”: certified insane.

pg 26 The Nazis used Joe Louis’ defeat at the hands of the German Max Schmeling in 1936 as a demonstration of the superiority of the white race. However, when Louis defeated him in one round in 1938 to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world, the event was celebrated across America, especially by American blacks, who felt his victory was not only a blow against fascism but against American racism. Clearly he became an idol in South Africa as well. It is not clear whether it is Willie’s or Fugard’s memory that is at fault in remembering a longer fight. A photo of movie star Rita Hayworth in a swimsuit was the most famous pinup in World War II.

pg 28-30 What does the kite story tell us about Hally? Try to distinguish between what must be going through the minds of the men and what is going on inside Hally throughout this scene.

pg 31 Note how Hally compares a little boy with a crippled father to a white boy with a black man.

pg 32-33 What do we learn about Hally’s father?

pg 35 How does Hally change in his attitude toward the men after the phone call?

pg 38 Note how Hally goes from bad to worse in his treatment of Sam and Willie during the following scenes. Why is he behaving so badly? What does his behavior reveal about him? What are the cruelest things he says?

pg 40 Why does Hally realize “he has to be careful?”

pg 43 Is Hally’s choice of an essay topic a compliment or an insult to the blacks?

pg 46 How does Sam turn the dance contest into a metaphor for their lives?

pg 49 “Kip and a toss in your old Uncle Ned;” “snack and drink in your bed.” Note that the comics are for Hally’s dad.

pg 54 What does Sam mean by saying “If you make me say it once, I’ll never call you anything else again.”

pg 56 In many cultures “mooning” is an extreme insult, a gesture of contempt. What is Sam’s diagnosis of what’s wrong with Hally?

pg 57 Earlier Hally told Sam that he’d failed in educating him. Note how Sam more seriously says the same of his attempt to educate Hally.

pg 58 What was it that Sam tried to prevent? What is the significance of the story of the bench? How does Sam behave toward Hally after his long speech to the boy?

pg 60 Note how Sam’s example influences Willie. What do you think is the significance of the song at the end of the play?

This play has been accused in some quarters of personalizing racism and avoiding confrontation of its systemic, societal qualities. What do you think of this argument? What do you think is the significance of the play’s title?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.

Version of February 14, 1996.

Wole Soyinka: Selected Plays

Wole Soyinka (born Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka in 1934) is Africa’s most distinguished playwright, winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. A Yoruba, he studied first at the University College of Ibadan, then at Leeds University in England, where he came under the influence of the brilliant Shakespeare scholar G. Wilson Knight. The fifties were a period of great experimentation in the theater, both in France and England, and Soyinka was involved with various productions in Great Britain before returning to Nigeria, having been commissioned to write a play to celebrate that nation’s independence in 1960 (A Dance of the Forests). It was a lyrical blend of Western experimentalism and African folk tradition, reflecting a highly original approach to drama. He has always emphasized his African roots, dubbing his early theater troupe “Masks,” to acknowledge the role Yoruba pageantry has played in his work.

From the beginning he was a political figure, During the Nigerian Civil War he was not sufficiently anti-Biafran to suit the government and was put into solitary confinement for two years, being released only after an intense international campaign. This experience is movingly recounted in his book, A Man Died. He has written many plays, both for the theater and for radio production, poetry, and prose fiction. He was granted the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. His political stands earned him–like most other prominent Nigerian writers–exile from his homeland for a number of years.

He is also a vigorous critic of contemporary literature and has engaged in heated debates with other Africans who have accused him of writing in an obscure idiom that owes more to European traditions than Nigerian ones. In turn, he has argued against the Négritude movement, stating that “The Tiger does not boast of his tigritude.” A passionate attachment to his Yoruba roots combined with a fearless experimentalism has continued to make him a controversial figure. Much of his later writing has been satire directed against corrupt African leaders such as Bokassa and Amin, whose predecessors in various African states were targets of such plays as Madmen and Specialists. In 1973 Soyinka wrote a much more serious sequel to The Trials of Brother Jeroentitled Jero’s Metamorphosis which objected to the extreme measures taken by the Nigerian government against criminals.

Biblical passages are given here from the King James translation, which would have been the one familiar to Soyinka and his audience.

The Lion and the Jewel (1963)

This play is one of Soyinka’s most popular. Despite occasional uses of unconventional devices, it is readily accessible and highly entertaining. Like Death and the King’s Horseman, a much more serious work, it explores the value of traditional Yoruba ways vs. European innovations. Some modern readers object to its treatment of women and find the humor spoiled by the sexism. What is your reaction?

Morning

The play is set in the village of Ilujinle. Note Lakunle’s age. Despite his behavior on occasion, he is essentially a lively young man. He tries to emulate European notions of courtesy by relieving Sidi of her burden, though carrying water is traditionally a women’s task. His flirtatious opening speech may seem rather crude, but is typical of the kind of jesting that goes on in courtship. Sidi is not so much shocked as bored by Lakunle.

How does Sidi cleverly answer his insistence that she should abandon the traditional way of carrying loads on her head? Note the contrast between the ideas that Lakunle has derived from books about women’s weakness and Sidi’s answers based on experience. Baroka, the Bale (chief) of the village is a major character later in the play, here introduced as standing for tradition.

“A prophet has honour except/in his own home:” Jesus says this when his family and acquaintances in his home town of Nazareth reject his teachings (Mark 6:4). When Lakunle proposes to Sidi he is quoting words he has read in popular English books about marriage. Note that his pretentious metaphors are answered by her pithy proverb. “Bush” means “uncivilized,” typical of people who live in the bush.

Their relationship is clarified when Sidi says she wants a bride-price. It is not that she lacks affection for Lakunle–what has passed before has been essentially good-natured sparring on her part. But she insists on the tradition which will prove her value in the eyes of the village. Lakunle, in his “Pulpit-declamatory” style, quotes to her lines from the wedding service which are in turn quoted from Genesis 2:24. Why does Lakunle mention “breakable” plates? “Stretched” hair is a form of straightening of naturally kinky African hair. What is Sidi’s reaction to kissing?

Why is Sidi eager to see the stranger’s book? Notice how the conflict in the play which has been between Lakunle and Sidi is now complicated by the tension between Sidi and Baroka. How do you react to Sidi’s celebration of her own beauty?

The dance of the lost Traveler draws on Yoruba tradition and that of many other African peoples. Current events are often depicted and commented upon in dances involving costumes and pantomime. It is this sort of “street theater” which Soyinka sees as providing fertile ground for the development of drama in Africa. One of the problems with reading a play rather than seeing it performed, is that one skims quickly over what would be a very impressive high point in the production, with dancing and drumming building to a climax. Imagine this “dance” taking quite a long time and having much more dramatic impact than anything that has gone before. Note that Lakunle finally enters into the dance with enthusiasm. Despite his modern pretensions, he is underneath not so alien to Sidi and her comrades as one might at first suppose. The stranger had been photographing Sidi while she was bathing, and she quickly grabbed up her clothes to cover herself when she saw him.

Baroka gives Lakunle the traditional greeting and is displeased to get a European one in return. Far from being displeased by the dance, he insists on it being continued, playing the role he played in the original incident. When he tells Lakunle “You tried to steal our village maidenhead” he is speaking to the character Lakunle is playing, not the villager himself. He is telling him to go on acting. Why is it significant that Lakunle has been given the part of the stranger?

Noon

“The Lion” is Baroka’s nickname. It is common in many cultures for men to use elderly women as go-betweens to solicit a new bride. What is Sadiku’s special status? Ruth, Rachel, Esther, and Bathsheba were all women extravagantly loved by men in the Bible, a book which is quite alien to Sidi. What do you think of the fact that Sidi seems to have learned that she is beautiful through the magazine photographs? How do the magazine photographs affect Sidi’s perception of Baroka? The storm god Sango (often spelled “Shango” or “Xango” is a West African deity, the most famous of those to have survived the slave trade to the western hemisphere, where his name is invoked in such places as Bahia and Haiti, where African traditions linger on among the black inhabitants. Of what quality does Lakunle accuse Baroka?

Laukunle’s story is told through pantomime, in the form of another dance. Again it is important not to skip quickly over this passage, but to attempt to imagine it vividly enacted on stage. Amatchet is a large knife used for clearing brush, machete in Spanish. Note how the Bale is worked into this “flashback.” A bull-roarer is a carved piece of wood or stone which is whiled at the end of a long cord to produce a mysterious roaring sound, part of the religious traditions of many cultures. What do you think Lakunle’s attitude is toward Baroka’s success in diverting the railroad?

The removal of body hair is a feature of many cultures, not–as is often supposed–of western ones alone. How can we tell that Baroka is confident of his ability to seduce Sidi? “Wroth” means wrathful, angry.

Night

Sadiku’s glee at Baroka’s impotence may be partly based on resentment at having been long abandoned by him as a lover; but there seems generally to be a tension between the Bale and his wives which roots his dominance over them in his sexual potency. Her story of the rusted key which could not open her treasure house is an obvious sexual metaphor. However, based on what we have just seen, she knows of his impotence only through what he has told her, not by first-hand experience as she claimed. Note the insistence on the power of women’s rituals, from which men are banned. Note Sidi’s glee in desiring to torment Baroka. What are the main features of Lakunle’s vision of “progress?”

The wrestling match in Baroka’s bedroom is of course a metaphor for the power struggle about to take place between himself and Sidi. What excuse does Baroka give for there being no servants about? Throughout this scene the Bale tries to throw Sidi off her balance by pretending not to know why she has come. To what extent does he succeed? “Christians on my Fathers’ shrines” is a general curse. I have no idea what this saying means: “The woman gets lost in the woods one day/And every wood deity dies the next.” Can you explain it?

To “pull asses’ ears” is to mockingly put one’s fingers behind one’s head to imitate a donkey’s ears. How does Sidi mock Baroka in her conversation with him? It is suggested that a” tanfiri” may be an aphrodisiac. What metaphor does she use to satirize his pursuit of young women? The “tappers” are palm-wine tappers. How does Baroka manage to keep throwing Sidi off balance in their conversation? In his description of Sadiku’s activities as match-maker he quotes her typical line of chat. Sidi’s respectful words in boasting of her traditional garment cause Baroka to call her “wise.”

Several small African nations make a large part of their national income by selling beautiful stamps to collectors abroad. It is not then too surprising that the Bale should view stamp sales as a major source of revenue. What is it the Bale says he dislikes about progress? How can you tell that Sidi is being bewildered by Baroka? According to a parable of Jesus (Mark 2:22), new wine should not be put into old “bottles” (wineskins) which have already been stretched out and may burst when the new wine begins to ferment. Why do you think Sidi is “overcome” by Baroka’s words? What appeals to her in what he has said?

The third pantomime ironically depicts the triumph of women over a man just as the Bale is triumphing over a woman. Lakunle’s description of the Bale’s dungeons is probably a paranoid fantasy. “Mummers” are dancers who pantomime stories. Lakunle is expected to tip the mummers, like other people; but in this he adheres to the pattern established by his refusal to pay a bride price. He clings to modernism as an excuse for saving money, though the following description makes clear that he actually enjoys the performance.

A duiker is a small antelope which leaps high in the air. Why is Sidi angry with Baroka? Because she has been seduced or because she has been deceived? What does she stress in her words? Lankunle reacts with stereotypically heroic words of despair, but when he hears himself utter them, he recoils and changes metaphors. What is going on here? What is his reaction to Sidi’s loss of her virginity? What are his motives? A “praise-singer” is a traditional poet-bard, often known as a griot , who sings the praises of whoever hires him. What is Lakunle’s reaction to Sidi’s seeming acceptance of his proposal? Can you explain his reaction?

Can you explain Sidi’s decision? How can we tell that Lakunle is hardly broken-hearted? Is this a story about rape? About seduction? What do you think its significance is?

The Trials of Brother Jero (1964)

Africa has been a fertile ground for Christianity, where it is growing faster than anywhere else, except perhaps in the former territories of the communist eastern bloc. Churches multiply and spread wildly, many of them quite unconventional. This play is a satire on a theme familiar to many Americans: the unscrupulous preacher more interested in greed than salvation.

A “divine” is a clergyman. Jeroboam is a “Beach Divine” because he belongs to a lower class of preachers who, lacking churches, preach in the open, on the public beach. There is a common English expression “eggs is eggs” (probably originally a pun on the algebraic statement “X=X”) which means roughly “they’re all the same”. This Jeroboam denies, at least in the case of Prophets. High Life is an older form of popular urban dance music in West Africa. Note how in even in this simple comedy Soyinka uses techniques such as having the protagonist directly address the audience while a flashback of his old Master cursing him takes place in the background in an almost cinematic “voice over.” “Daughter of Eve” is an expression for “woman.” There is a prophet named Jehu in the Bible (1 Kings 16:7), but Soyinka is probably slyly alluding to the more famous and flawed king of that name in 2 Kings 9.

Scene II

We now go back from this prologue to an earlier day. Ministers in this context are high government officers (they would be called “cabinet members” in the American system). What is Amope’s attitude toward her husband? The “cola” referred to here is the same mild stimulant called kola nut elsewhere. “One pound, eight and nine” is one pound, eight shillings and nine pence. A calabash is a large gourd, often used for making vessels. It is traditional for a customer to denigrate the goods of a vendor when bargaining, but Amope rather overdoes it.

Scene III

What signs are there in Jero’s speeches that he has a mainly mercenary attitude toward his followers? Note that the satisfaction and release the young girl experiences in swimming, presumably naked, is contrasted with the systematic frustration employed by Jero to control Chume. How does she affect Jero? The names Jero calls out are all pious men from the Bible who presumably could help him in his struggle, though David was notoriously susceptible to women too. Chume speaks in dialect. “Help am” is “help him.” “Na” is “He is.” Stressed adjectives are repeated, so “very quickly” becomes “quick quick.” “Hebra” sounds vaguely like “Hebrew,” but it is not clear what “Abraka” means. These words are meant to indicate miraculous “speaking in tongues” practiced by some Christian groups, as becomes clear in the next aside by Jero. An apostate is one who leaves the true faith. Ashtoreth and Baal are pagan gods denounced in the Bible, and sometimes considered demons. Why does Jero find it a safe prophecy to predict a man will live until eighty? The convulsions alluded to are a common by-product of spiritual possession, both in traditional African animist religions and certain forms of Christianity. Note the use here and earlier of “talking” drums as a form of insult. Soyinka cynically comments on the ritualistic nature of possession by the spirit by referring to it as “the expected penitent’s paroxysm.” Why is Chume able to take over the congregation? “Palaver” is talk, or–here–argumentation. Who do you think has been beating Jero? Why does Chume not know that Jero is the man his wife is after? Eve is famous for being the first human to sin, Delilah for betraying her husband Samson, and Jezebel as the wicked wife of King Ahab. Why does Jero change his mind about allowing Chume to beat his wife? See John 2:15 for Jesus’ use of a whip to drive the money changers out of the Temple. Why is Jero sadly fingering his cape at the end of the scene?

Scene IV

What is Chume’s reaction to learning whose house his wife has been waiting in front of?

Scene V

A “back-bencher” is a junior member of Parliament, without much influence. Such politicians rarely make speeches. Why do you think he is introduced into the play? Does he resemble anyone else? How does Jero appeal to him? What conclusion does Chume draw (mistakenly) about the relationship between Jero and his wife? Why is the member of Parliament so impressed when Jero disappears? How does Jero plan to use him to get rid of Chume?

Madmen and Specialists (1970)

This play, written shortly after Soyinka was released from prison, reflects not only his personal mood at the time, but the horrors of the Nigerian civil war of 1966-1970. The ferocity of the fighting between Biafrans and other Nigerians was unprecedented in scale and intensity; and much of the nation was still in shock. Soyinka uses a variety of techniques borrowed from “absurdist” theater. These departures from realism are meant not to create a flight from reality, but to convey the terrors of reality in a more intense way than traditional realism could do. The result is a sometimes obscure but intense and moving work of scathing satire and protest. The raised hut of Iya Agba and Iya Mate is the site of a sort of commentary on the action taking place below.

Mendicants are beggars, in this case beggars faking a variety of ailments to prey on the sympathies of the public. They function something like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, commenting on the action. It is not always clear whether they are insane or simply expressing themselves satirically. “St. Vitus’ Dance” is a traditional name for epilepsy. Traditionally it is believed that some people can curse others by looking at them with an “evil eye.” The dehumanizing effects of the war are reflected in their gruesome gambling game. Ostriches were traditionally said to hide their heads in the sand. To “bite the dust” is an old expression for “to die.” “As” is the mysterious deity of the new ferocious faith which has swept over the nation. This is why the beggars call themselves “Creatures of As.”

Si Bero is a traditional herbal healer whose brother Dr. Bero is a modern-educated doctor who has become deeply involved with the terroristic regime ruling the country. “Rem Acu Tetigisti” is nonsense perpetrated by the new government cult and repeated here each time the beggars want to evoke the senseless violence of the government. “Casting pearls before swine” is an expression based on one of Jesus’ parables (Matthew 7:6) which implies wasting something valuable on people incapable of appreciating it. The beggars begin to mime the tortures carried out by the sadistic “specialist,” Dr. Bero. They speculate about whether Bero will torture his own father, in the play referred to simply as “the old man.”

Iya Mate compliments Si Bero as the sort of herbal woman who would not poison men, but discover she has inadvertently gathered a rare and deadly poison. The song they sing hints at the dangers they are experiencing. A boat full of oil would naturally avoid open flames. Why do you think Si Bero chooses Blindman as her assistant? It is a tradition to insult someone by insulting his mother. Si Bero has nothing particularly in mind by telling the Cripple that his mother is in a bad mood. The beggars’ litany of medical treatments quickly deteriorates into gruesome violence: medicine has blended into torture in this play, reflected in the miming that follows. Persistently barking dogs were sometimes silenced by having their vocal chords cut. “The flaming sword” was wielded by an angel at the entrance to the Garden of Eden to bar the way back to Adam and Eve after they had been banished for their sin (Genesis 3:24). An advocate is a lawyer. How do we learn that the Blindman is also faking his handicap?

A holdall is a large suitcase. What do we learn about the relationship between Bero and the beggars? Note how the Blindman tries to soften Bero toward his sister. The beggars claim to be have been discharged from the army, but Bero insists they are still under his orders. “Gaol” is the Nigerian/British spelling of “jail.” Bero hints at unspeakable crimes for which the beggars were discharged. What does Bero mean by calling all his old patients corpses? What fluid is referring to when he brags of having wetted the earth with something more potent than palm wine? What is Si Bero’s reaction to her brother? She believes that the herbal magic she was taught by the old women has preserved his life. “Big Braids”=highest officers.

The windy old priest trusts Dr. Bero. What kind of a character is he? A miter is the hat worn by a bishop. He is the first to introduce the subject of cannibalism. Cannibalism is not part of normal modern Nigerian life, but there were instances of it during the civil war as people sought to terrify and insult their enemies in the fiercest way possible. What is Bero’s reaction to the priest’s statement that his father advocated legalizing cannibalism? In the following conversation with Si Bero the doctor explains the derivation of the divine name “As” from the traditional Christian blessing, “as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, Amen.” In its original Christian context, it was intended as a statement of firm faith in God’s eternal goodness and justice, but in the new cult it has been emptied of theological content. The phrase has been reduced to its least significant word, and now alludes to a cursed cycle of destruction from which there is no escape. What Dr. Bero is saying is that his father tricked him and others into eating human flesh hoping to shame them into realizing how savage they had become. Instead, it had the effect of liberating them from all moral inhibitions. What was his father’s job in the war?

The Old Man is a fierce truth-teller. The beggars, who had pled insanity to escape punishment for their crimes, claim to have been driven mad by his truth-telling. What is the symbolism of the killing and eating of the flea? The cycle referred to suggests to Si Bero that the Old Man has been eaten by his son, and she is horrified. “Surgery” means “doctor’s office.”

Part Two

Aafaa’s alphabetical sermon leads to the Blindman’s assertion that the epileptic fits of worshippers bring not true freedom, but subjection to a vicious deity. “Circus turn” means “circus act.” “Collaborate” is a much more loaded word than “assist,” suggesting aiding in crimes. The Old Man has sat silent up to this point, seemingly in shock. The line “Arise, throw off thy crutches and follow me” is a combination of phrases from the Bible: Jesus saying to his would-be followers “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24) and Mark 2:9 where Jesus defends his right to heal a crippled man by stating “Who is my neighbor” is uttered in Luke 10:29 by a man responding to Jesus’ teaching to love your neighbor as you love yourself. “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk.” “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word,” is the grateful speech of Simeon who has been preserved long enough to meet the infant Jesus, implying that he can now die content (Luke 2:29). Here it has more sinister implications. Soyinka was raised as a Christian and attended a missionary school as a boy, so he knows his Bible thoroughly.

“Chop” is slang for food. What is the nature of the relationship between Bero and his father? A stationer’s is a stationery store. Why does Bero emphasize that the Old Man will get everything heneeds? The Old Man revels in his feat of having tricked the leaders into practicing cannibalism. Why does he say he is still needed? A recidivist is one who commits again a crime that he has committed before. Why has Bero brought the Old Man here?

How does Aafaa say he was filled with the spirit that drove him mad? Note how the two old women present themselves as part of a spiritual reality far older and more powerful than that represented by Bero. The Latin quotation which the beggars mangle is “Dulce et decorum est pro patria morire”: “Sweet and proper it is to die for one’s country.” Just as Biblical passages about love and healing have earlier been given a sinister twist, so now references to patriotism and democracy are made to serve the goals of a degraded dictatorship. The song they sing is “When the Saints Go Marching In,” yet another allusion to impending death. Clearly, the Old Man is doomed, but does not want to have died in vain.

Socrates was condemned to execution by drinking a potion made of hemlock berries. In the dialogue between Bero and the Old Man Bero is not so much talking of his father as of the resistance to the regime which his father represents. When he uses the word “you,” he means “people like you.” What does the new regime offer instead of freedom? The story is told that the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes went about in daylight carrying a lighted lantern. When asked why he did so, he said he was looking for an honest man. Note how the beggars run a variation on this story.

After Bero leaves the stage the beggars discuss the pageantry carried out by governments which conceal their crimes while gaining international acceptance through showy ceremonies. The mock ceremony culminating in cries of “We want Him” is probably meant to remind the audience of the mob’s cry for the release of Barabbas and the crucifixion of Jesus (Mark 15:6-15). Blindman’s speech is a parody of an ignorant, bigoted European colonizer, pretending not to be interested in the mineral wealth of the colonized nations and maintaining the necessity of imperialism in the face of the winds of change. What sorts of negative stereotypes does he articulate about African cultures?

The speech culminates in a recitation of the formula of the new regime, implying that nothing has changed. The exploitation and oppression of colonialism has now become postcolonial exploitation and oppression. The Old Man’s long speech dwells on this theme. A “cat-house” is a house of prostitution. A “poor box” is a box in a church where donations may be put to aid the poor. An heresiarch is a leading heretic, a disbeliever. The usual expression, “the ends justify the means” is often used to excuse crimes of oppression. If the purpose is worthy, then normally immoral means may be used to achieve it. Here the phrase is mocked by saying “the end shall justify the meanness.” John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word” which is taken to be both Jesus and God. The new faith began not with God but with its priesthood. What does Aafaa mean by saying there is no division in this new religion? Monsieur l’homme sapiens is French for “Mr. Homo Sapiens.”

The Old Man’s last long speech is a brilliant series of puns in which he shows how debased the new faith is. Ham is forbidden to Muslims, as it is to Jews. An ashram is a Hindu place of spiritual retreat. A kibbutz is an Israeli commune. How many people are trying to kill each other at the end of this play? Who wins?

More Study Materials for World Literature in English of India, Africa, and the Caribbean

Notes by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University, Pullman 99164-5020.

First mounted February 8, 1996.

Version of February 22, 2003.