deconstruction of the colonial myth

8/11/2019 Deconstruction of the Colonial Myth

1/37

Chapter

4

DECONSTRUCrrlON

OF THE COLONIAL MYTH

While writing nd eLiucnrit~g

herse&

Ndim iordinrrr

experienced

a

radrcai

psychologcal

r pture which she

c lfs

secundbirth

h discovered th 'great

h i h frican

lie

Gordimer was most

concerned in

analyzing t h e

European experience in relation

to

the

African

cultural

context She has given explicit answers to h e r ow

position

as a writer

in the post-colonial

period, in

her

essay Essen t i a l gesture^.'^ In h e r own words

I t . . .

the peculiar relation of the writer

in

South Africa, as

interpreter, both

to South Africa

and

to

the world,

of a

soc i e ty

in struggle, makes

the

narrow

corridor

[and]

. . can lead

you one

in which

doors fly

open on the

tremendous

happenings

experienced

by

blacksts

2 7 2 ) .

Here

she has defined t h e

responsibility

of a

w r i t r in a

political context , and

has

reconciled t h e same with the

greater commitment within the artist towards art.

The

medium of

words

can be more

than a

self-regulatory

a c t

(Hvth. Literature and the

Lxkzan

World, 62 as Soyinka


2/37

as ser t s

and

can be an

integral

part of the culture of

struggling

nation. Nowhere can

we trace

the depth

and

conviction

o

Gordimer s

abiding

concern more

than

in

her

fiction especially in her

short fiction.

In

the

freedom of creativity

Gordimer

explores deeper and

deeper

n t o the minds and behavioral reasons

of her

society.

And

she brings in her

language to

bear upon

itself the experience of a different

kind. Gordimer s

position

in

t h e

post-colonial context, can

be

interpreted

as

her attempt

at

studying the colonizer/colonized

dichotomy. s a

person

marginal subject witnessing

the

political

and social revolution

in

South Africa,

Gordimer

had

the

distinct

advantage

of

entering t h

colonial

edifice

of

lies

and deconstructing

it

from

the

i n s i d e . Born

as

privileged

person in

the

white section

of

the

society Gordimer seems

to

have understood

the

Black other* in their cause of human liberalism

and

simple social just ice . Even in the wake of t h e Black

consciousness

movement when she w s rather displaced

from

t h e main stream of political activity, Gordimer had

worked

from

the outs ide as a major force

in illuminating

t h e

social

reality as

opposed to t h e

white

man s version

of

truth. This

post-colonial

feature is present

throughout Gordimer s works.

D. E.

S

Maxwell had contained t h e post-colonial

literature

within two

major

categories, whereby w r i t r


3/37

brings his

language

to a fresh environment that had to be

incorporated into h i s style, or when a writer uses the

idiom of

an alien

language

to

bear

the

burden

of

h i s

ow

cultural and social

experience(Commonwea1th

l i t e r a m ,

8 2 - 9 .

In a

broad

sense

of the

term,

post-colonialism is

a

Rind

of

reaction to

'colonialism.'

Colonialism though

trans-historical and unspecified, is an enormously

problematic

category: it is,

according

to Stephen Slemon,

used

in

relation

to

very

different

kinds

of

cultural

oppression

and

economic

control and

it determined the

critique of pas t and present power-relations

in

world

ffairs (Post o l o w Studies:

Re-,

106). When

postct>lonialism was read as a simple binarism between

west

and the

rest,

Europe and i t s 'other*,

colonizer

and

th

colonized,

the most

turbulent

and ideologically

ambivalent area remained

the

semi-periphery.

Gordimer

was historically

positioned

at this blurred and rather

transitional area of what

Slemon

t rms

the

radical

ambivalence of colonialismis middle ground0 (107).

Gordimer's stories derive several

of

their features due

to

this

positioning. The

political

concern was

to

reinscribe the centre/periphery relations and t hu s bestow

the valency of

legitimacy

in the colonized discourse.

This restructuring

of t h e

power relation, was achieved

through

t h e social

realism of

the

t e x t Gordimer defines

herself as

a romantic dealing

with realityf' (EG,

2 8


4/37

B u t reality

in

her

text privileges

h e r

ideology as a

dominant

structure

determining i t s

own imaginary

'psuedo-

history.' In

the

Eagleton

sense

of

the

word,

'pseudo-

history1

explains

the

relation between

word or

the t e x t

.

and

historical reality. In

Crlticlsm

and Ideolosv,

Eagleton has clarified that

r a the r

than 'imaginatively

transforming the real t h e literary work is the

production

of certain produced representations of reality

into an

imaginary

objectr'(75).

The

truth of the

social

realism in

a

society legally segregated by apartheid

rules had its peculiar disadvantages. The writer

having

to negotiate between extremes she can only

be

a

syncretist

and hybridizer. tephen Gray comments

t h a t

in

a country of social fragmentation like South

A f r i c a

the

position

of the writer becomes

even

more

crucial

for th e

'realism* in the text. Then the

basic

act of writing

is one

of carrying

information across one

or

another

socio-political

barriersf'

(On

Kistorioara~hv

of SouU

African

Uterat-

48).

Here Gray s s the

realism

of the narrative as part of the m i te r s

duty

to

'translate'

or

'transferf data

across the boundaries

from

one audience to

anotherf1

4 8 ) .

Gordimerls

inaccessibility into

the

black world except in her

imagination has seriously affected h r concep t

of

the

black consciousness. As Gordirner

herself

admits in

English Language

Literature

and

Politics

in South


5/37

Africat1,

the gap in experience between black and

white

lives produces cardboard and unconscious

caricatureJ' Christopher Heywood ed., 119). This

flaw

is applicable for the

black

writers too

when

they

portray

white characters. Gordimer

attributes

uilt as

t h e

major

emotion of a white

writer

and r s ntm nt as

that

of

the

black

writer. Either case gets

blurred

by the

inability

to

identify

with

the society s a whole. But

she

has the inside information about

the

white race and

its colonial ideology which s h e

t r ans f e r s

c ro s s the

color barriers. Thus awakening

the whites

to

the reality

in their

colonial

myth

of

lies', s h e strives

for

a etter

social

consciousness,

The very

'trembling

instability of

the

balance

becomes the

ultimate

proof of t h e author

morality;

her

commitment to

truth.

The

truth

of

the society calls for

a

change

in

the

power

relations,

which in turn questions the legitimacy

of

the

white authority.

The

relationship

between

literature

and

politics,

through t s

medium of

society

which form

the

substructure

of

both, is illuminated

in

G o r d i m e r l s social realism. Sartre in

h i s study

has

connected this

aspec t

in

For Whom

D ~ e s ne Write. e

has analyzed the effect of truth, on any society:

If the society

sees

itself t h e writer

presents the

society with

t s image; he

calls

upon

it to assume it or to change it.

At any

rate

it

changes;

it

loses

its

equilibrium

which

t s ignorance had given

it

it wavers between


6/37

shame and

cynicism;

it

practices

dishonesty;

thus the

writer

gives

society

g u i l t y

conscience

he

is

thereby

in

a

state

of

perpetual

antagonism

towards the conservative

forces

which maintain the

balance he

tends

to

upsetfJ ( m t s

m u r e ? ,

8 8 .

Gordimer knows that

words

cre te reactions and she

resolves the f a l s e myths of colonialism

t h a t

has

disfigured the

cul ture

and

progress

of the

society

Achebe

believed that the novelist is teacher.

Gordimer,

on the other hand is primarily an artist,

though

committed

to her society. She has no specific

lesson

to preach. But the

very narrative

mode she

chooses conveys some hidden message. In her words,

Gordimer

equalizes

her ideological

commitment

with h r

aesthetic

sensibility.

Most of Gordimerfs narratives

being

in

t h e pure present ,

the

mode is o f t e n transitory.

Events follow

one

a f t e r the other

and

the ownerls] of the

'voicesJ

are rarely identified. It is in t h e

intepellation

o these

voices that, Gordimer fixes

the

meaning

of

her

text.

Dagmer

Barnauw in

he

article,

Nadine Gordimer:

Dark

ime s

Interior

worlds and

Obscurities of

Differencet'

asserts

that

GordirnerJs

intense

involvement

with the

black

struggle h a s

enlarged

the

problematic of 'mixed discoursef

or

the

presence of other

voices

not

of her

making

and not

entirely of her choice,

(Conte-

Literature,

266 .


7/37

Achronistic

and

without

a name, these voices bring

out

t h

'real'

meaning hidden

within the

situations.

Being

preoccupied

w i t

the

qlimpses

of

truth

that

flashes

i n

the ordinary events

of

black/white relationships,

th

natural

order of cause and

effect in

the

na r r a t i v e seems

to recede into less obvious light.

Most of

the

stories

focus on seemingly

uneventful

c h r c t e r s

and

as the plot

thickens

the emphasis

previously placed

suddenly

gathers

momentum

and a

political statement

is unravelled The

cultural

ambivalence

in

the author leads to a

carnival

of voices

in t h e t e x t

The

culture

of t h e oppressive race to which

Gordimer

b e lo n g s

and the

culture of the oppressed

black

race

for

whom

s h e

fights,

causes

a certain

oscillation

in

her

narrative.

The

s t or y

A

City

Of

the

Dead, A City of

t h e Living develops along this kind of an oscillation.

The

story

is printed

in the italics as well as normal

print.

The

intermittent narrative

s rv s to

illuminate

the different p o i n t s of perceptions.

While Naneki was

supportive

of her

husband's

political activities, she had

her private

hatred/fear of the aftermath of such

an

involvement.

Her

love f o r her husband

and

her

children

whom she cannot keep with her weakens

her

political

commitment

her personal subjectivity, clashes

with

her

'political

subjectivity.'

Gordimer

studies Naneki

r o m

a universal platform as a

woman,

and

tries to

yok


8/37

this

image with that

of a

political sympathizer. In the

process

of hybridization,

several conflicts arise nd

the

character of

Naneki

seems

to

have

several

shades

of

meaning at different

points

in the

narrative. Living

in

a

small

quarter of

the

black

township,

she

w s

forced into

accept ing

a

political activist

as

her

house guest.

Naneki s

attitude towards this intruder

begins

on a note

of fear,

and

as

the

narrat ive progresses it changes

to

intimacy a

kind

of sexual attraction), and later to

pity. At the

end of

t h e story s h e

herself

cruelly

b e t r a y s

h i s presence to

t h e

police

and condemns

him. This

transformation

of

Naneki

from an obedient house-wife

into

a police spy, surprises and intrigues the reader

Gordimer herself is

treading

on soft

grounds:

Naneki

being a

black

subject

outside

t h e

experience

of the

author

the

narrative

moves to

a

free indirect style.

Nanekits use

of

colloquialism, cliche

and euphemism

draws

attention to the uncertain distance

between

narrator and

the

character And t he

ambient

nature of

the tone

and

diction adds to

this

effect.

Naneki reflects

on the

noncommittal

answer

of

t h e

re el to her inquiry about h i s

children

if any with a note

of disapproval

and pique. Her

conscience reads

his smile as

a

rebuff.

She

speaks to

herself:

Perhaps it

meant

he does, pretends he

doesn t

know

--

thinks

a lot of himself, smart young man


9/37

with gold

ring

in

his

ear

has

plenty of girl-

friends

to get

babies w i t him =, 18).

The

pig-din

used

by

Naneki could be

the

reflection

of the

alienation

she

feels

towards

the

rebel and her

lack

of understanding as to, the political energy that

makes him and h i s k ind

do

what they do.

he 'inner

dialoguer

of

Naneki s a woman, and as a

unit

of

a

mass

political awakening,

is

at conflict within her Gordimer

brings

o u t

the

conflict

between the

individual

and

t h e

society in t h e inner dialogues

of

Naneki. When

Moreke

initially br ings in t h e political refugee, her attitude

was

outright resistance

what for?, w s her reaction

t

Moreke s

pleading

Later

when Moreke

explained

t h a t

her

cousin Mtembu had brought the refugee, she argues:

Well I will tell

i m

no, If

Mtembu

needs

somewhere

t

stay,

I

have

to

take

him.

But not

anyone he brings from the s t r t m , 3).

This resistance

melts

away as the days

pass.

She

even

buys

him beer and makes conversation with him in

the

absence of Moreke. But finally she betrays i m to the

police.

This

incongruity in

her behavior

is not

explained

from

within,

but simply shown from the

outside.

he

reader

is kept in t h e dark s to t h e

real

reasons.

Naneki,

is presented

without any authorial comment on her

i n n e r s l f

and

the

reader is

left

to come to

h i s

own


10/37

conclusions. The splintered

frame,

of cultural

ambivalence

is

transposed on t Naneki. The narrator's

implicit

attitude

wavers

between

sympathy

and

indifference. The reader is

given

an insight into the

consciousness of Naneki and

t h e

authorial

voice,

without

being led

to

assume

that any one

of them

had dominance

over

the

o t h e r This technique implies a feeling that,

t h e reader is o t

crudely

being t o l d about

t h e

plight of

Naneki, but it is as

if

for a moment t h re der is

permitted into the collective consciousness

and

is

allowed

to experience it

Naneki t h e mother

of

t h e

family

is in conflict

with Naneki

the individual in a society

scheming for

a

political revolution.

Gordimer

ha s

portrayed the dilemma of

individuals in the

politically

turbulent environment.

She dramatizes

the human side

of

the

sacrifices

and

fears

involved

in

a

political

resistance.

Gordimer

has

portrayed

t h

ambiguity

of

cultural

duality

in

the

postcolonial con t ex t from

the

white

consciousness in the story Comrades

J A O S ,

9

.

Here

the

incongruity between the thoughts and

deeds

of

a

sympathetic liberal is

focused.

Being kind enough to

offer food f o r t h e

hungry

compatriots,

t h e

white

narrator

suddenly recoils

into her

own

cultural framework and

f l s

the alienation when she

\\did

o t

want

them to see

that

t h e

maid

waited on

h r t f

9 3 ) . She

herself

carried


11/37

the heavy tray into the drawing room.

hat

could have

been the reason f o r

this

swift switch, in

attitude?

There

is

a

condition

of

dual

cultural

platform

from which

the

people of the society interacted with each other. This

non-

uniformity

could

be the major

barrier in developing

a

national

culture; a nation.

In

depicting

t h e social

reality of colonial society Gordimer

highlights

these

conflicts

without

resolving

it simply

to

awaken

t h e

s o c i a l consciousness of

t h e s e

semi-peripheryff areas.

In

the

social reality of

t h colonized the

most

evident manifestation of oppression is in the economic

sector. The

widened

gap between

the colonizer

and the

colonized, and the

legal

system that maintained the

disparity,

could

be

zeroed

in

as

t h e

very

basic

problem

of

social injustice,

in

the post independent

state.

And

Gordimer has dealt with t h i s problem at

large

in

her

various short

stories.

Interchanging the color of the

victim and

t h e victimizer, the

narrative ranges

from

mild

emotions

of pity and sadness to passionate explosions of

politic l

outbursts.

The

encounter

between

the

'poort

black man and t h e 'richt

white girl in

the

1s There

Nowhere

else We Can Meet?, w s at a

physical

level

of

\'regression. The

girl

in t h e

story later wonders

why

sh e

d i d

n o t give him

t h e bag

even

though she h d f e l t

pity towards h i s pathetic shirt and hungry face. t t h e

actual

moment

when

he grabbed

her bag her instincts were


12/37

to fight

h im . Xere,

t h e focus o the narrative is

the

r e t u r n

of

the repressedf

in

the white

g i r l

which made

h e r

subdued

by

f e a r e r

racial

unconscious

t a k e s

precedence over her reason

and

judgment. The Whites were

not willing to

give

up any

of the

power or t h e wealth

they

had exhorted from the Blacks. The narrative exposes

the

racist (unconscious)

i n

the white girl The

conqueror

was not willing to part w i t t h e

wealth

which she has

illegally collected from t h e colonized

victim.

That

was

the

fundamental position of the colonial dialogues.

According

to Fanon,

t he fundamental characteristic

of

postcolonial literature

is

located

in

the imperial

colonial

dialectic itselfw:

Th e

c t

of

writing

texts

of

any

kind

in

the

post

colonial areas , is subject to the political

imaginative and social

control,

involved

in

the

social

relationship between t h e

colonizer

and

t h e

colonized

m i r e writes Back, 29 .

This

resistance

to

p a r t

w i t the

wealth that

has

been illegally

amassed

is perfectly illustrated by

Gordimer in t h i s story

The

same

theme

gets repeated in

several of

Gordirner s

s t or i e s B u t each would have a

peculiar

way o

presentation

which would

bring

o u t yet

another perspective of

the

same colonizer/colonized

dichotomy.

slightly

different

sha de

of t h e f t is


13/37

described

in Spoils. Here

t h e

dialogue leads

to

a

discussion

of the legitimacy of

native

criminality.

And

t h e argument go s that can you say

t h a t

is mine'

to

people whose land was taken

from

them by

conquest,

gigantic

hold-up

at the

point of imperial guns? (JOAS,

168). The justification

of

n t i v e s

in their acts

of

violence is a

method

of

re-scribing

the

authority

in

the

postcolonial

context. Gordimer understands

the black

cause

and their

struggle

f o r

survival in

a

calcified

and

oppressed system, and tries

in

her narrative

to show

this

'truthful' image

of the society

to

itself. This

then

becomes her political program of

deconstructing

colonialism.

Briefly, her postcolonial

writings

are

all

bou t

the

crisis of authority of the European center or

''a

crisis of cultural authority i r e a , 62).

This transfer of authority o th legal and

social was the

political

purpose

of GordimerFs t e x t Janmohammed

has

summarized Gordimerfs

dilemma

and

reactions to the

colonial

aspect of

her

society:

While writing

and educating

herself, Nadine

Gordimer experienced

a

radical

psychological

rupture which she calls a second

birth1

s h e

discovered t h e

grea t

South African

1 The

realization

that

the

white

society

was trying

to


14/37

conceal the

simple

fact that blacks were people,

led

her to

understand

h r

identity as

a o u t h

African

had

to

be

formed

t h r o u g h

a

resolution

of

t h e

black/white

dichotomy,

that

t h e

two races

had to

be unified

under a

central definitive

experience of black and white as

people

with

undifferentiated claims to life, whatever else

skin, language,

culture

might distinguish

them

from

one

another

m c h e m

Aesthetics,

85 .

And

her search for

identity and placing

in

the

independent

South Africa,

can be traced

in v a r i o u s

political

and

ideological voices

in

her post-colonial

narratives. Gordimer is

exploring

the possibilities of

a

peaceful and just co-existence of

the

black

and

white

race, in

a de-colonized South

Africa.

When the

social

reality in the text, endeavors to

deconstruct

the myth of

colonialism,

then comes the

problem of South African

\futureJ.

In t h e t e x t she

advocates a

cultural

syncrenityf

as referred

to by

Raymond

Williams,

in building a new s t a t e

finally free

from t h e

European

experience. In this

multicultural

theory, t h e

social framework s h a l l be based

on

difference

on

equal terms. n d then an

acceptance of

post-coloniality is no longer a badge,

of

shame,

or of


15/37

i m a t u r i t y

but

a sign

of

distinction and difference''

mire Writes Back, 163). contemporary

concept

of

post-coloniality

is evident

in

Gordimer's acceptance of

the black world as an equal with

a 'difference'. Gordirner

seems to

abide

by the definition of

post-coloniality

by

Gauri Vishwanathan in her

interview

' ' I s s u e s [ w i t h

Bahri

A study

of

the cultural interaction between the

colonizing

powers and the

societies

they

colonized

and

the

traces

that

this

interaction

h a s

l f t

on the literature, arts, and human

sciences

of bo th

societies being

more

or

less an

a t t i t u d e or

position from

which

the

de-centering of Eurocentrism may

ensue

u,

2 6

1,

52).

This

study

of post-colonialism begins

on the term

difference.

In

colonial literature, the black man

was

the 'other-side' of the European

civilized

psyche; the

dark side of

man. The

element of fear promulgates from

the frightening

alternative

of discovering in

the

'primitive*

the

true

and

permanent

face

of

the

other,

that

'rough beast

whose

turn comes around at

last,

threatening

to overwhelm

the high

European

civilization

w e rites Back 158). This

alienation

felt

by

the

whi te man made

h i m

suppress t h e n a t i v e with the aid of


16/37


17/37

ensuring

the

readers sympathy

the narrative

e n j o y s

terrorizing. The regal metaphor of t h e lion and t h e

suggestive calm

of

t h e dark night

becomes

n

allegory

of

the political arena

in

South

Africa.

The

narrative is

achronistic and lacks the normal flow of cause and

event s . It is just

a

collection

of

metaphors, closely

packed together so that t h e adjectives and images often

overlap.

There can be three chains of parallel

narratives: t h a t

of

the

sexual

liberation,

that

of

t h e

lion that groans in the oo which escapes

into

the

freeway, and that of the centipede advancing.

The

tempo

of

the narrative is

built up

into a res ent and the

anticipation

the jubilant anticipation

of politic l

liberation juxtaposed as the escape

o the

caged lion,

g i v e s t h e

narrative the

rhythm of

a

chant.

The story has

three independent images

and train of

thoughts,

which

are

superimposed without actually

resolving. The

first among

the

parallel

narratives

is that

of

the

sexual

liberation.

"Open

up Open

up

Open your

legsf (=,

2 4 ) . Spoken

without a

definite

person

to claim t h e

monologue,

this

forms

an

interlude to the more

important

and relevant

theme of political liberation that develops

in

the other

t w

analogous. The allusion to 'leviathan (that) hooted

from the night fog at sea and t h e 'Baltic'

gives

the

narrative a mythical archive

of

"winter ' ' imagery

in

Fryers s e n s e . Morbid

and

suggestive of an impending doom,


18/37

the images are tumbling one after another , deste loping a

breathless anxiety that

had

the

inevitability

of an

A f r i c a n

Oracle. The second image is

of

a majestic lion,

caged

and tamed

which subtly develops into

a

terror when

it e s c a p e s . The abundant potential asleep in the

suppressed n a t i v e that

would soon

awaken to

cla im their

land, is crystallized into t h e

story

of

t h e

lion. The

f a l s e notions that built up the 'colonial myth'

of

\docilef native

is deconstructed when

Gordimer declares

roar

is

not

the

w o r d M 2 5 ) . The

narrative

brings

out

t h e

incongruity of the word

\roart

in

describing

t h e

majestic

voice

of t h e king

of

the jungle. Whoever decided

that

had never

listene to

the

r e a l t h i n g n 2 5 ) . If only t h e

whites

had

bothered

to listen they would have

known

the

r e a l i t y of

t h e

society. The foreign aspect of the s e t t l e r

made

h i m

unfit

and ignorant

of

t h e

land

he conquered

unlawfully,

by t h e sheer power

of h i s scientific

advancement. The word roar w s 'tonomatopoeically

i n c o r r e c t

just as t h e

heraldic beasts drawn by t h e

thirteenth and fourteenth century at

second

hand

r o m t h observations of e a r l y explorers are anatomically

wrongn120).

The superficial complacency or 'docility'

in

the

caged

lion that '%yawnsf'

and waits

f o r the ready-

slaughtered kill to be tossed at

them

rings like a

premonition of

the

political uprising that

would


19/37

eventually awake t h e colonized to freedom The

lion

was

orn in the

c a g e t J as

the

present

generation o

blacks

were

b r n

as

'colonized.'

And

although

they

know

nothing but

the Zoo, the

future

warns

of

a

time when

they escape

into t h freeway.

The terror

of

t h e n r r t i v e

arises from

the continual s h i f t

from

the images of

'jungle'

to

that

of

'modernity.'

The

concrete freeway

represented

the

technically advanced

west

and the raw

power

of

t h e

Lion symbolizes t h e

free native.

The

picture

of an

escaped lion

n the

freeway, illustrates the basic

d e f a u l t

of mixed-up power-relations within contradictory

cultural

corpus.

Whites

cannot or rather

should

o t

reject

the

native laws as pr- imit ive or wrong, j us t

because they

were

alien to

their

value-system. The story

\ A

ion On The Freeway'', deals w i t h

the complete

ignorance

of the hite race about t h e reality

of

the

native, and the false myths they came to believe a b u t

t h e

land

they

conquered, and

the

impending

disaster

caused

by this

incongruity in

the white-man's ideology.

T h e

false

consciousness

of

the white

man

,and

t h e

difference

in

t h e native are presented in such way as

to

r e i n s t a t e

honor into the (majestic) black race.

The

images t h t

refer

to the

blacks are

chosen from t h e

regal

order. The absoluteness of

t h e

violent fate that awaits

t h e

white race

is

effectively brought

out

in t h e imagery

of

t h e

advancing centipeder'

a

thick

prancing

black


20/37

centipede with thousands of waving legs a d v a n c i n g ( 2 7 ) .

Terror rises

from

t h slow

b u t sure

nature of the

advancing

black

force. The

narrative

swiftly shifts i t s

address

from

t h e

white listener

to

the

black

revolutionary.

In

a single sentence the 'voice' of t h

Black, which is chailenge wait for

it,

a n d t h e

\voicef of t h e

Whites'

fear

waiting

for i t t r

is

clubbed

together.

Later the terrible observation of the white

man

who

watches

the

\ \prancelt

of

t h e

centipede,

is

continued by the

black

man's slogan advance, over

carefully

-tended p l e a s e keep o f f the grass 2 7 ) . But in

refusing to disclose

the

narrator, t h e voices are

ambiguously super-imposed. The tone

suddenly

becomes

violent

and

aggressive,

almost

like

a war-cry.

h e text

encourages t h e bloody

transition of power

from

t h e hands

o sleepy white couple

Jack and

h i s woman, to t h e

escaped

Lion. The terms like \delivered,(

\splendid head'

and

'claim'

bestow royalty on

t h e black

cause.

Gordimer

here,

re-functions

the

colonial myth of

fear of

the

native, and

renders

it

an

illegitimate

f e a r ; o t deserving of our

sympathy. In

t h e narrative,

t h e fear of

the

nativer

becomes as reasonable

as

'fear

o God'

or \fear of t h e law.'

T h u s

t h e

white

claim to

rule

the native

is

reduced

to

an

illegitimate

i n t r u s i o n

which

indeed it was Towards the end, when he's

delivered himself

of i t , and t h e lion moves into

the


21/37

freeway,

bewildered,

finding

h i s

way, turning h i s

splendid

head at

last to

claim,

what he's

n e v e r seen, the

land

where

he's

king ,

the

v o i c e

s

applauding

t h e

victory with kind

of patriotic passion.

he

theme of

political deliverance transcends t h e

pre s en t and

becomes

a trans-historical prediction; a hope of t h e

nation. Gordimer is creating t h e historical reality, on

the

ideology of free

and

liberated

South

Africa, r i d

of

the

white

sins

of

her

forefathers

This rebuilding

of nation,

is

part

of the

resistance

literature,

which again

is a trait of post-colonial

writings. Stephen Slemon in his

study

Resistance

Theory

for

the

Second

World,'#

clarifies resistance as an c t

or set

of acts, that is designed to

r i d

a people of t s

oppressors and it so

thoroughly

infuses

the experience

of living under oppression that it becomes an almost

autonomous aesthetic principle (post-colonial Studies

Reader,

107).

Whenever,

literature

of any politically oppressed

n a t i o n , t a k e s on

the

element

of resistance, it does so

most

effectively

by presenting the

soci l

reality,

interpellating 'political

subjects

into t h e narrative.

And

the

contradictory aspect of

'settler-subjectivity,'

surf ces s the ambivalent nature of

t h e

t o n e and t e n o r

of the voices in

t h e narrative. Resistance

writings being


22/37

t h e

contradictory representation of colonial authority

(108) the t x t

o f t e n heralds

several voices. Gordimerfs

text

often

contains

this

plurality

of

independent

and

unmerged

voices and consciousness, which evidences

her

marginality

and its

resulting

oscillation, As Clingman

points out

* .

. t h ere is still a

crucial

sense n which

s h e is

divided

from t h e black world, even at those

moments of her closest approach*'

G o r u

2 0 8 .

Thus

he understood

h r

structural

\silencesr,

aps and

\contradictionsf

as

her

boundaries

of visiontJ, due to

social fragmentation

(210).

Gordimer s split historic position, arises f r o m

the

basic

conflict

within

herself

--

a

colonizer

advocating against colonialism. Gordimer may be t h o u g h t

of as a non-organic intellectual -- linked mentally to

the oppressed

classes, but

not physically

or

materially

(Clingman,

217).

Her realism,

hence

had t h e interplay

of several voices and

can

be studied as a t r u l y

'dialogic'

narrative.

In

h r

fiction

s h e

effects

t h e

dialogue of

the

oppressor and oppressed and thus becomes

th e 'other

place'

where

both

t h e

worlds meet.

What are the features Gordimer envisages in the

' o t h e r

placef -- where t h e

f u t u r e rests. Here t h e

question

of

national

culture

and

national

literature


23/37

arises,

The

Afr ican

writer's

t a s k , like t h e

politician's,

Soyinka argues is to work

towards

a future, in

which

the

influence of colonial i n j u s t i c e ,

aesthetic and

cultural

onstructions is modified po s t colonial J , i t e r a t u r e ,

7 .

Gordimer

is

firmly part of a developing non-racial

culture n South Africa and her life as a writer

indicates the centrality

of

this

aspect .

Within such a

'newf

South Africa sh e scribbles out

t h e

'place'

of

the

white race. Being major feature of post-colonial

writing,

this

concern

wi th

place

and

displacementfr

m i r e

Writes Ba&,

9

enters her narrative. In those

t e x t s that d e a l t with

Gordimer's

visions

of

f u tur e ,

this crisis

of identity

comes

i n t o being; the

conce rn

with the

development

or

recovery

of an

effective

identifying

relationship between

self and

placef'

9).

Here,

'place'

becomes

vibrant

and 'live'

entity

of

postcolonial

reality.

The

significance of \pl ac eJ which is

post-colonial

trait can be

traced in Gordimer's

story

Inkalamaufs

Placeff WYW, 156).

With

kind of determined

effort

Gordimer builds t h e 'place' Inkalamau's

Place1'

in

her

fiction

s symbol of

colonialism and

then

enjoys

the

pleasure of

watching it

crumple.

The

t e x t is

deconstructing

t h e

white

colonial

myth in

t h e very

literary

sense as well.

The

nar ra t i v e

voice

is

from

a


24/37

w h i t consciousness,

and

it is a

settler-culture t h t

it

abhors throughout the

t e x t Apart from t h e main narrator

there are t w other live voices,

that

of the black

man

on

t h e bicycle, and

that

of Nonny. The

remaining

subjects

are

perceived

through the

consciousness of

the white

n a r r a t o r .

The

center of the narrative,

Inkalamau

,is long

dead and gone

before

the time of

the

narration, T h e

post colonial story

re-scribes Inkalamau

from

the myth

of a

superior conqueror,

owner

of

wealth and knowledge,

to that of a mere

plunderer.

This difference between myth

and

reality,

in the life

and

home of Inkalamau, is the

focus of t h e t e x t .

It was said that Inkalamau

Williamson

had made

this

mile

and

a

half long avenue

to

h i s

house after the

carriage

way

in h i s

family

estate in England; but it is more likely that,

in the elevation

af

their social status that

used to go on

in people s

minds when

they

come

out

to the

colonies,

his memory

of that road t

the

great

house

was

the

village b y s qame

of

imagining himself

the

owner as

he trudged up on

an errand S ,

57 .

Inkalamau was f a r

from

being

an

aristocratd. He

was

nothing but a thief and an unlawful

oppressor .

In the

p o s t independent

days,

when t h e white n a r r a t o r perceives


25/37

the end of colonial era in 'the house that

w s sagging

under its

own

weight, she felt no nostalgia, only

recognitionP 158).

The

house

that Inkalamau

built

a s

a

petty replica of an English country house, did not f a l l

on

h i s

head

t h e

way

everyone predicted.

But

the

n a r r a t o r

f e a r s it

might fall

on her head. The

fear

that t h e

colonial legacy would rebound

on

the

sympathetic

whites

of the post-independent

era is

lurking

in the

words.

Depicted as poor specimen

of t h e White

civilization,

Inkalamau is

the

assimilation

of

all vices

that corrupted

t h e

colonizer. His

e x p l o i t s

of native

women and h i s reluctance to accept h i s own wife and

children

as his

family,

shows

h i s r a c i s t

attitude. i s

unexplained love for books and medicines from abroad,

could

n o t save him from a prolonged and painful

death. He

n e ve r

e n j o y s

the

sympathy

of

t h e

narrator

that

no

guilt

or remorse

is

attached to

the plight

of his dilapidated

p l a c e . On

the

contrary, t h e narrator experiences a

sadistic

pleasure in

seeing

the destruction

caused by

nature and time on the epitome of colonial

glory.

She

exclaims h o w good that it was all being t a k e n

apart

by

i n s e c t s

washed

away

by

t h e

rain,

disappearing

into

the

e a r t h ,

carried

away and digested, fragmented t o compost

f x 60). The

relief

from guilt

resonates

in t h e

return

of the stolen goods

back

to

the

land

itself

The

white

guilt

t h a t

was

a prominent feature of t h e

post-colonial


26/37

white-writing, forms

part

of the t h eme

of

Inkalamau s

place.

Excessive

use

of

animal

imagery

is

a

notable

f e a t u r e

of

this story.

Relevant

and

p o i g n a n t these metaphors

bring o u t t h e irony and dual graph of symbolism and

reality,

in

t h e

apparently action-less story. The

similies a r e

all on

the

African animal sector.

While

contemplating the

final

destruction of t h e colonial

edifice,

the

narrative

refers

to

t h e

'swiftsr

and

the

bats that would

join

with

the

rains

to

bring down t h e

mud castle. If

swift

could be

read

s t h e

motif

f o r

writers, and \batf that of

a

t rrifying r a d i c a l r a i n

could

be th advent

of time, all

of which played

complimentary

ro les in

bringing down t h colonial

edifice.

Though

t h e

writers

and

the

radicals

did

j o i n

with general change

in t h e

global attitudes, to

crush

t h e

colonialism, it

is

t h e ants w o bring t h e grave

to

the

house, in

the endJr

(162).

These insignificant

black creatures that were

in abundance

in t h e

jungles of

t h e dark continent,

remind one of

the black

native

whose

collective

consciousness

finally

drew

t h e curtain

on

t h e white

man's

performance. The s t o r y c a n be read s

an allegory

on

the fall of

t h e

Empire,

and the

i nhe r en t satisfaction in

the arrival

of a new

era

for the blacks and t h e

whites

of South Africa.

While discussing

t h e

local

schools with

Nonny,

t h e

narrator

ecomes

aware

of

a

stab

o

s a t i s f a ~ t i o n , ~

t


27/37

the past

t h a t they

could s h a r e as they had never been

able

to before

Here,

Gordimer romanticizes over the

future

where the black white

dichotomy

is

finally

resolved Romance

enters t h text

as

a

wistful

imagination, against all t h

stark

realities of 'poverty'

and 'disease.' The realist n

t h e

narrative

is

aware

of

the great

odds against which the

goals

are

set Nonny

is

not a jubilant winner, but a skeptical

wa t ch e r

of the

political happenings

which

are

often

pushed

back

due

to

reasons of

abject

poverty. he realist, in Gordimer

refuses to idealize the white consciousness as

an

all-embracing

lover of the black

race.

When Nonny

explains to the narrator about the

eye-infection

of

t h e

baby, she

reprimands

herself

n o t to

touch her face until

s h e

can

wash

h r

hands.

s

if, within

the

subjectivity

of

a sympathetic

white, she was

fully

aware

of

t h e

poverty-stricken

and disease-ridden social

conditions

of

the blacks T h i s 'life-like' mixture of truth,

dreams

and

reality, is

one

of

t h e

salient

features

of

Gordimer's

text.

In

the words of Althrusser the peculiarity of

art

s

to 'make us s e e * , 'make us perceive8

\make

us feel'

something

which

alludes to realityJ'( nin

and Philoso~hv

m other

e s savs ,

2 0 4 .

He aptly says:

what

art makes us

s

and therefore g i v e s to us

in

the

form

of 'seeing', \perceivingt and

'feeling'

is

the ideology from which

it

is


28/37

born, in which it bathes, from which

it

detaches

itself a s art and

t o

which i t

lludes

1 2 0 4 .

Gordimer tries to de-colonize the culture and set

it

free

of

the

'shame8 and

the 'stigma' of

t h e servility

undergone

by

t h e b lack race. wo

major trends

can

be

traced into the

intellectual awakening

towards an

independent

South Africa. The fundamentalist

attitude

of

\cleansingf the

black world

of

the corrupting alien

culture was suggested by many black writers.

On

the other

hand,

there were

others

who

advocated

'cultural

syncrenity.'

study

on

the

cultural

h i s t o r y of

nations

exposes the crudity

or

regression

in the

policy

of racial

purity

Diana

Brydon, in

her

essay

The White

Intuit

Speaks,

has

analyzed

the

cult of

authenticity

A

blind

arbitration of

rac i a l pur i t y among

the

wh i t e s ,

according

to

her,

will, prove self-defeating because

they

depend

on a view of cultural authenticity that condemn

them

t o

con t inued marginality

and

an

eventual

deathf'

Post-c o l o d l

Studies

Reader

141).

Gordimer on the

other

hand

visualizes

a

'new

globalism,'

that

simultaneously

asserts

local independence and global

interdependenciesf' (141).

Without

attempting to ignore

the

white

influence

on

the society

and culture

o

South

Africa, she takes a practical and commonsensical stance

for

'cultural

syncrenity.' Gordimer it

seems, s e e k s a

way

to

cooperate

without

co-option

a way

to

define


29/37

differences

that

do not depend on myths of cultural

purity

or authenticity

but that

thrive

on an interaction

that

'contaminates'

without

homogenizing.

. (141)-

The cultural syncrenity that Gordimer depicts in t h e

t e x t m rg s

from

the multitude of 'voices. he

poliphony of the unnamed voices, often reflect

on t h e

oppressive conditions of the voiceless subaltern.

This

tendency to

lend

voice,

for

t h e colonized, is a major

post-colonial feature in

the

t e x t of

Gordimer.

In the

story of

the

young

activists

that

the narrator t a k e s

home, after

a political

meeting

they

h t h attended, t h e

interplay of voices can be studied. Comrades,

is

about

the gulf that always e x i s t s between the Blacks and t h e

Whites

who

work for

the

political

independence

of

the

nation

JAQS, 91 . he

common

goal that they work for

iffere

in the matter of sourcing,

and method. This is

highlighted

i n

t h e contrast

between

the youngsters and

the White narrator.

They

were

'hungry*

not

for iced

whisky and feet upt f (93).

And

the voice says they need

carbohydrate, they

are

hungry, they

are

young,

they

need

it

they burn

it upJ (94). This repetition emphases

t h e

basic

nature

of

t h e black cause, as

opposed to t h t

of

the

white

lady in

the grand mansion equipped with English

education

and

all

t h e luxuries

imaginable,

who

fights

o r

human liberation. The

narrative

shifts

rather swiftly

r o m the dominant discourse to

that

of t h e subaltern.

It


30/37

is

difficult

to be a s s u r e d that

the

voice that s

emerging

is really the subaltern and

not

the simple

European

other . The ambiguity in the

authenticity

of

the

white

lady s

commitment towards

the

black

cause and

t h e

degree

of variation is projected

in the story,

Is

sh

really on t h e s i d e of

t h e

blacks? Or

could

she be

pretending, even

to

herself that she

is fighting

f o r the

downtrodden?

i n c e

she

could

never assimilate

the

black

revolutionaries and

their basic hunger,

could

she still

e able to understand their

much more

complicated need to

be

free

of

the

white culture?

The credibility of the

narrator s

understanding

of

the political

struggle

is rather

doubtful

in the

story.

The

voicef

is

sometimes

that

of

a

polite

English

woman

e t at other times, it acquires

a

deeper

insight

into the

o t h e r .

f

T h e author does

not

clarify t h e true

nature of

the narrator and

characteristically

leaves

the

conclusions to

the

reader s

sensibility.

But,

the text

carefully

captures t h e

ambiguity in t h e white

consciousness.

When

the

lady asks \ --are

you at

school

t h e answer comes

not

from t h e children but t h e

narrator herself:

Of

course he

is

not at s hoo l -- th y are n o t at

school, youngsters their ge have o t been at

school

f o r several years, t h e y

are

t h e

children


31/37

growing into young men and women, for whom

school

is battlegroun d, place of

boycotts

and

demonstrations,

t h e

literacy

of

political

rhetoric, t h e education

of

r e v o l t

against

having

to

live

the

life their pa r en t s live 93).

Language

is

v i o l a t e d to bring

o u t

t h e effect of

violations imposed upon the natives.

Postcolonial

writings

have this

tendency to

avail of long-winding

sentences that orm a sub t ex t of violence in themselves.

Katrak

points out in

the essay A Theory

f o r

Postcolonial

Women's Text, t h e utilization of the very

construction of the language in

the

text towards

pronouncing a political

statement.

Katrak asserts

that

a

version

of

the

cultural

and

economic

violence

perpetrated

by the colonizer

is

now appropriated by

writers i n order

to

v i o l a t e t h e

English

language

in

i t s

standard

use

(Enst

olonial tudies Reader, 250 .

When the

lady

further

inquires in the typical

pat t e rn of an European cultural conduc t

So

what

have

you

been able

to do w i t h

yourself, a l l

t h a t

time? t h e

shocking

r e p l y

comes

from

the little,

oy

neck I

was

inside Detained r o m this June f o r s i x months . The

subtext of violence and

power struggle that

disrupts an

unequal

social

c o n d i t i o n emerges

as the voices overlap

unceasingly. In Gord imer ts text nothing really

happens;


32/37

but m u h is suggested.

he

meditative quality

in

her

writings c a n

be

attributed to

t h e

marginal nature o h e r

existence.

In

t h e

story

of

Comrades,

the

cruelty

and

child violence

of

Sharpville is

relived

without

t h e

stench

of blood. Suddenly as the narrator cannot

believe what she knows: that they, suddenly here,

i n

her

house

will

carry AK 7s they

will

only sing about

now,

miming death as they

singf'

( 9 6 , the entire panorama of

a

nation sacrificing

i t s

children

on

t h e

alter of freedom

comes

alive.

Gordimer

further analyses the black/white

disparity

in

the story.

When

the

narrator in her

confusion, break

the silence:

says something, anything,'

and b l u r t s how do

you

like my lion?

Isn't

he

beautiful?

He's made

by

a

Zimbabwean a r t i s t

I

th ink

his

name is

Dube--,'I

she unwittingly

embarks

upon the revelation. To

t h e black children the affluence

of

an Eurocentric

culture and values of t s antiquity

had

no meaning.

Only

the food that

fed

their hunger was real.'' This

effectively brings out the wide gap

that

opens between

t h e

white

and

the

black segments

of

the

South

African

society.

An authentic consciousness

of this social

reality is achieved in t h narrative.

African

cultural development

can

be

studied

a s

n

emergence of nationalism.

The native intellectual in

rebuilding

t h e

nation

embarks

upon

t h e program

of

evolving a national literature; national culture/history.


33/37

Nationalism, P I - a m e n a t z defines, i s primarily a

cultural phenomenon though it can a nd o f t e n does ,take

political

formf1(JTationalisn:

h e Nature

and

Evolution Of

an Idea 24).

It

is,

in

the

text

of

Gordimer,

reaction

of

t h

cultural

disadvantage, experienced

by the

colonized.

The

c onc e p t of culture in t h

present context takes

a

dialectical significance

Raymond

Williams

in

his study

on the meaning

and origin

of culture, points

to t h e

influence

of t r m s like 'industry,'

'democracy,'

and

class1

on our present definition of culture. In the

study of national

culture

that

Gordimer visualizes

in

the

social

future

of South Africa, a clear

understanding

of

the

term

culture

would

be

relevant.

The very

s p i r i t of

t h nation

can be the

latent

factor

of national

culture.

In state

legally segregated

and suppressed, the s p i r i t

of t h e

nation

as

different

from the dominant

culture

was

to

be identified.

This

she

does

as

t h e preliminary

policy of deconstructing the colonial

culture.

Gordimer

abhors

t h e

calcified nature of t h e slave society, which

was

not equalc.

Williams affirms

the ne essity of

equality

in

t h e

o r g a n i c

and natural

development

of

the

culture

of nation because the inequalities of many

kinds

which still

d i v i d e

our community make effective

communication

difficult or impossible (Culture andl

Society,

316). This prevents a common u l t u r e from


34/37

developing. What could be signification of common

culture?

According to Williams, we

shall o t

survive

without

i t

ordimer's

perception

on

t h

future

of

South

Africa, echoes this 'common

culture.

It

does

n o t

require equality of material

aspects

as

the communist

dogma envisages

rather,

t prevails on

claim

to

'equality

of opportunity.' To identify

the

cultural

nexus

of a

transitional society

can be

problematic. Often

it

gets associated

with

one

or

the other of the

major

forces

that

brings

in

the transition. In South Africa t h e

cultural backdrop

of

the

varied

clans or

tribes, and the

European advent that resulted

in the

present

culture of

the

society

have to be recognized and accepted.

Unlike

those

who blindly decry

the

white experience which lasted

f o r

more than three

centuries,

Gordimer

is realistic

nough to

incorporate

t h e synthetic or

at

times

syncrenitic nature of social interactions. n d that has

made her promote

conditions

for

common culture

where

everyone

is offered an

equal

opportunity. While

de constructing t h e colonial myth of

European

supremacy

and illuminating the inhuman

aspec t s

of

it

Gordimer

reconstructs the society without the 'guilt or t h e

privileges of the white sinsf E ,

2 .

Gordimer

is

in

fact rationalizing t h e cultural

situation without

'self

pity for t h whites

or

sentiment about t h e

blacks (33).

In her essay Where

Do Whites

Fit In?,

t h

passive role


35/37

of the

white

man in the future society s explained.

Gordimex calls on t h e

Whites

to

forget the

old

impulses

to

leadership,

and

temptation

to

g i v e

advice

backed

by

experiences and

the

culture of Western

civilizationf (35).

Here she

is

actually

replacing

the

va lue - sys tem of the colonial legacy with regional or

l o ca l

one. The new society has overthrown

the

authority

of a European centre. In her address to the white

community

s h e

further

explains

the tendency

to

\ b e

boss

(or baa s

rather) is to be curbed even when t h e blacks

actually needed

it

from sympathetic, well-meaning hites

in the process

of

building t h e nation. Because according

to her ,

\\what

counts is

the need of Africa, to acquire

confidence

t h r o u g h

the experience of picking itself up,

dusting

itself down, and starting a l l over again in the

path of cultural growth. Thus,

hites are

to

trust t h

black

masses and to move towards more c t i v e

conception

of

human beings and

relationships, i s

in fact

to realize a new freedom (Cul-re nd Society, 335).

he

human liberalist that s h e

has

l w y s

been, Gordimer

w nts

this freedom

for all, in

her

society

In t h e words

of Raymond Williams, such free society,

would

experience

a

cogn te

s h i f t

when we

think

aga i n about

hum n

growth, i t s hum n tending in spirit other than that

of the long dominative

modet'[335).


36/37

o r d i m e r t h u s deconstructs

th

colonial m y t

from

the inside and

r b i t r t e s new hybridized nationalism

t h e

may

be

neither

the

most

representative

nor

the

most

fair b u t it s very

rootl ssn ss

brilliantly articulates

t h e emotion l

life of

decolonizationfs

various

political

contestants

Postcolonial Studies

Reader, 175 .


37/37

Works

cited

R a h r i ,

Deepika.

Once more

w i t h Feeling?

What s

Post

C o l ~ n i a l i s r n ? ~

riel,

2 6

( J a n . ,

1995).

Bill

Ashcroft,

Gareth

Griffith and Helen Tiffin,

ed.

P o s t Colonial S tud i e s R e aW . London and

Hew York:

Routledge, 1995.

Bill

Ashcraft, Gareth

Griffith

and

Helen Tiffin, ed. he

ire

Writes Back

Theory-

practice in

post

C o l d a l

Literature.

London: Routledge,

1989.

a g m a r Barnaou.

Nadine

Gordimer:

Dark

Times I n t e r i o r

World

and

the

Obscurities of Difference,

Can te rn~o ra ryLi t e ra tur e , 35, 2 1994).

Eagleton, Terry. Criticism m d

Ideoloav.

London: N ew Left

Books, 1976.

Janmohammed, Atdu l , R. Manichean Asthetics: The Politics

terature

in

Colonial Afr i ca .

A m h e r s t The U of

Massachusetts P, 1983.

Louis, Althusser. A Letter on

A r t

in

Reply

to

Andre

Despre 1966) enin

and Philoso~hv nd

Othe r

ssays (trans. Ben Brewster). London: New

Left

Books , 1971.

Maxwell, D. E.

S

onwealth A t e r w .

London:

Heinernann, 1965.

Sartre,

Jean-Paul.

W t s Li terature?

(trans. Bernard

Frichtman).

Methuen

and Co. Ltd.,

1950.

Williams, Raymond.

culture and

Society. UK:

The

Hogarth

deconstruction of the colonial myth

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