Transcript POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN EDU32PLC

POST-COLONIAL LITERATURE FOR CHILDREN
EDU32PLC
Post-colonial Voices:
Where are they
coming from?
© La Trobe University, David Beagley 2006
Kim - the novel
• Generally considered Kipling’s best novel, and a key
part of him winning the Nobel Prize
• No. 78 on NY Times’ “Best 100 novels of the 20th
century” (2000)
• Filmed several times - 1950 with Errol Flynn, 1987
with Peter O’Toole & Bryan Brown
• A literary product of its times: vocabulary and
grammar, extended structure, background detail,
reflecting the nature of reading at that time
Kim – some themes
• Picaresque novel – the rogue/adventurer on his
journey
• Search for identity
– Kim’s or Kipling’s?
– Indian or English?
– Controlled or independent?
– Destiny or Choice?
• Search for Peace
– Lama vs Creighton
– Great game vs Mystic river
Kim – the friend of all the world
• Many cultures, multi-cultures, of India, and Kim moves
through them all - “little friend of all the world”
• Castes and social groups - “High-born”, Low-born”: Sahibs,
scholars, traders, priests, soldiers, brothels, spies
• Does he use, or is he used by (or does he just encounter):
 The lama
 Colonel Creighton
 The regiment and its priests
 Mahbub Ali
 Hurree Babu
 The widow of Kulu
Kim, the literary device: an observer of the variety of India,
rather than a controller of action.
Spying - Searching - Finding
The Great Game - the defence of Empire
• Kim’s game - hiding, observing
• Never ending, no final winners
The Mystic river
• Real or metaphorical?
• River of humanity on the road?
• Never ending, step in - step out
I am Kim. And what is Kim?
Identity is a key theme
1.
2.
3.
•
•
•
Kim as a person - who and where is his family?
Kim as a citizen - British or Indian, to whom does
he owe civic duty?
India as a place/nation/culture
Must it be ruled by Britain to survive?
Does it have its own integrity apart from Britain?
Can the British Empire survive without it?
I am Kim. And what is Kim?
So, what is Kim’s voice?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Kim, the created fictional character in a story?
Kim, the outward expression of Kipling himself?
Kim, the product of a colonial world with all its
inherent values?
Kim, the friend of all the world?
A little bit of Politics
Hegel: the dominant approach of science in the 18th-19th
centuries was Taxonomy – identifying, classifying,
differentiating, and categorizing the parts of the
universe, including human society.
Marx: Society has an economic imperative. To enable
production, people are grouped into classes (workers,
consumers, capital controllers etc.). Injustices arise
when one group dominates others and controls an
unequal share of the production. Thus, class conflict is
inevitable, and political.
From Greek:
Polis – city, polites – citizen, politikos - popular
A little bit of Politics
Therefore, assumptions from this view:
• that people must identify with labelled groups/classes
in society
• that they will, consequently, behave according to that
prescribed identity
• that those classes are in opposition to control the
benefits of society
• that they will fight each other for that control
Thus, to the 19th century European mind, colonised
peoples (such as Indians or Australian Aboriginals)
were an opponent in the race for survival.
Voice
What is “voice” in literature?
Perspective, point of view, personality of the
perceived “speaker”
• Character voice – the person portrayed
• Narrative voice – the teller of the story
• Authorial voice – the impression conveyed by the
creator
• Personal voice - the tone and expression of a
particular person
• Cultural voice – the underlying social context
Voice
How is “voice” conveyed?
Personal voice
• By the language characteristics of the “speaker”
• Vocabulary, idiom, accent, grammar
• Emotions, expression, tone
Cultural voice
• By the issues expressed
• By the social context of that expression
• Cultural markers, that distinguish
• Identity of the personal voice
Aboriginal voices
in Australian Literature
Until recently, very, very little:
• David Unaipon 1873-1967
• Oodgeroo Noonuccal – Kath Walker 1920-1993
Last two decades, a rich and rapidly growing corpus
• deriving directly from personal experience
• presenting personal identity and culture with pride
• Not so much “history at a distance” as “me in my
world”