Interviews with Writers of the Post-Colonial World by Feroza F. Jussawalla.

Interviews with writers of the post-colonial world, by Feroza F. Jussawalla and Reed Way Dasenbrock.   Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, c1992.

An interesting exploration of post-colonial writers and how they challenge traditional assumptions.

Post-colonial writers challenge the way we think about literature, say Feroza Jussawalla and Reed Way Dasenbrock, the editors of this book and the ones who conducted the interviews it contains. In their introductory overview, they force us to confront what post-colonial means and to reconceptualize our ideas about nations, cultural backgrounds, and languages. I found their discussion of these issues the best part of this book.

Colonialism did not produce the strong, homogenous nation states as we sometimes assume.  Instead it fostered distance between rulers and people and cut arbitrarily across geographic and tribal lines. Identifying authors by their nationalities hides the fact that often they belong to a subordinated ethnic group or tribe within their countries.  Colonization also forced the migration of people, complicating their identity.  Although some writers focus on the original localities, many have been shaped by a variety of languages and cultures.  Typically they reflect several languages and cultures; their own tribe or ethnic group, that of their nation, and that learned from British schooling. Some now live outside their homelands.  All these factors contribute to who they are and what they write.   As individuals, they are truly multicultural and must be understood as such.

The authors interviewed are from diverse parts of the post-colonial world. What unites them are their experience of colonialism and its rejection and their use of English.  Several use alternative versions of English in their writing, but none use it to mean a desire for assimilation.  These authors use the language for their own ends to talk back to colonial cultures. They write “against the grain” of the colonial powers, a fact that may explain my attraction to them.

The interviews recorded in this book were interesting, often exploring issues that the editors/interviewers raised in their overview. The book had little intrinsic unity, however.  Some of the interviews were a bit too technical for me. I understood the commonalities and debates of those interviewed, but I wasn’t sure why these particular authors were chosen.  Perhaps they were simply the ones available for the interviewers.  Four of the fifteen interviewees were women and Feroza Jussawalla, one of the interviewers, makes sure that questions about women’s writing and men’s depiction of women were discussed.  Despite the claim that nationality was not a useful way of categorizing post-colonial writers, the interviews were arranged by geographic location. Several of those interviewed were older authors who began writing before their nation’s independence and before the recognition of post-colonial as a distinct type of writing.

Interviews with the following authors are included:

Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Kenyan who originally wrote in English and now writes in his tribal language.

Nuruddin Farah. Somalian, banned from his country who favors cosmopolitan writing. He is said to be the best African man in his portrayal of women.

Chinua Achebe. Widely read Nigerian who supported Biafran independence.

Buchi Emecheta. Nigerian woman, whose writing focuses on women. She now living in London and feels a special affinity to African American women writers.

Sam Selvon. East Indian from Trinidad, introduced a version of English used in Trinidad.

Roy Heath. East Indian from Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America. He says his first identity is of his nation and its mix of cultures.

Raja Rao.  Brahmin Indian writer, not interested in the social world or in other cultures, but in his own self-realization through Indian traditions

Anita Desai. Indian woman who grew up in Delhi before the separation of India and Pakistan.  Her interests are in psychology of shifting cultural patterns.

Zulfikar Ghose.  Born in what is now Pakistan, raised in Bombay. He has broad interest and influences, and now writes novels about South America.

Bapsi Sidhwa. Pakistani Parsi, woman, outside of Muslim/Hindu loyalties who views self as a storyteller.

Witi Ihimaera.  A Maori from New Zealand, intent on bringing his ancient culture into contemporary world.

Rodolfo Anaya. Chicano, native to New Mexico, who writes about his people there and in urbanizing regions.

Rolando Hinojosa. Chicano who has written in both English and Spanish. He has a strong sense of place and history and uses post-modern shifts of narrator to reveal different perspectives.

Sandra Cisneros. Chicana, originally from Chicago. She now lives in San Antonio because she needs to hear the language she is writing. She sees a political dimension in writing and is concerned about working-class women and families.

I recommend this book to those interested and somewhat knowledgeable in post-colonial literature.

This book piqued my interest in post-colonialism.  I’d like to read more, and would welcome suggestions from other bloggers.  Just nothing overly sophisticated and theatrical.  I am an historian by trade after all.