A
Postcolonial Analysis of “The Fist” by Derek Walcott:
Derek
Walcott born to a British father and a West Indian mother was always in a state
of “in-between-ness” due to his hybridity. He is best known for his poetry. His
works mostly focus on the dichotomy of Caribbean and Western civilization as
seen through the prism of postcolonial race relations and cross-cultural
identity. There is also a sense of identity crisis which the reader can feel in
most of his writings.
“The
Fist” is also one of the poems which can be related to the identity crisis of the
poet in specific and the identity crisis of the people of colonized countries
in the postcolonial era in general. The poet mentions that a “Fist” grasping
his heart so tightly that he can’t even grasp a breath; this fist can be taken
as the problem of identity which has been torturing the poet and suffocating
his life since long. But the poet loves both cultures and identities though
this love is painful because he does not completely belong to either side but
he still has enjoyed this love. Further talking about his situation which is
getting worse, the poet mentions that now this love has crossed its limits and
has turned into madness. Now he desperately wants his own identity, but his
heart is tightly holed by a madman and unreason in this scenario; as he cannot
listen to his reason in this case but to his heart which is mad in the love of
both of the cultures. In the end, he tells his heart that if you love both the
cultures that much then “Hold hard” and have the courage to bear this pain of
identity crisis which continuously takes place in his mind. This is the only
option he has “This way at least you live”, because after choosing one culture
which he might consider superior neither the people of other culture like him
nor his own heart will stay happy.
Also Read: Postcolonialism in Louis Bennett’s poems
A
Postcolonial Analysis of the Poem “A River” by A.K.Ramanujan:
Ramanujan
was born in India and has spent a good time in America. He was a linguist. He
has written poetry in both Kannada and English language. He is an imagist poet.
As his works are published in the 20th century after the colonial era, so they
contain elements like that of hybridity, ambivalence and a yearning for a home.
His poem “A River” also contains some of these features like ambivalence and
hybridity. These features are described below:
Ambivalence:
The
poem is about one of the big cities of Tamil Nadu, “Madurai”. The poet talks
about the condition of Madurai. In this poem we can see that the poet is in a
state of ambivalence; this ambivalence is regarding whether to like the modern
culture which the colonizers brought in Madurai or not. The poet begins the
poem by mentioning that once Madurai was rich with culture and traditions as it
“sang of cities and temples”, and its river-like its culture was full to the
brim but now this river has dried up and become ugly in the way that its
culture has lost its beauty and has become ugly. This is because people have
left their tradition and have started to follow the modern culture of the
colonizers. He says that this new culture came in like a flood in the country
and the poets and the people all of a sudden started to like it and follow it.
The poets wrote about it in beautiful words, but nobody wrote about its
negative effects; the destruction and the ugliness it brought to them. Tamil
people after starting to follow the new culture not only lost the beauty of
Madurai and its culture, but also this modern culture carried off with it
“three village houses”, “One pregnant woman” expecting twins, and two cows
“Gopi and Brinda”. It means that the modern culture also took away from the
Indians their prosperity in the shape of their “houses”, their future in the
shape of a “pregnant woman” and their great cultural history in the shape of
“Gopi and Brinda” which is an illusion to some great and well-known figures
from the past in Indian culture. So, the poet is in ambivalence for the modern
culture as it seems attractive and good, but it is also taking away the own
culture of the colonized people from them.
Hybridity:
As
born in India and being a part of the American society Ramanujan is diasporic
and his poetry has some features of hybridity in it. Though he has written the
poem in the English language which is a part of Western civilization it talks
about Indian culture and its civilization; he could have written this poem in
Kannada language but he has some kind of love for the English language and is aware
of its importance. If we focus on the structure and rhyme scheme of the poem,
so despite writing it in English the rhyme scheme is in the form of Kannada and
Tamil verse. The poetic technique followed in the poem is Indian. It shows the
impact of Tamil culture on his poetry. As he cannot resist the influence of his
“old country” in his poems written in the language of Westerns; while following
their civilization.
Salman Ali
Hi. I’m auther of Blog English Literature for students. I’m huge lover of books. I’m happy to share my views about different topics related to English Literature. I am inspired to help any student, who have any problem related to English Literature.
Thanks for sharing.....very much informative
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