I have read the article white
teeth and post colonial literature. The
article mentions many examples that I could relate to as it mainly discusses
racism, discrimination, and immigrants issues and I have already developed some
ideas about them in the last few months, from books such as the Metamorphosis, The Heart of Darkness and
the recently read problems of the Somalian
immigrant, in the Granta magazine article Fragments of a Nation. The article
"white teeth and post colonial literature" takes example of many
literary works some of which I recognize include The Heart of Darkness and Bend
it like Beckham- the movie. The article talks about how literary works can help
us express the influences that, mainly the western culture have on the
immigrants. The article divides post colonial literature into two types-
1.
the first wave post colonial writing and
2. the second wave post colonial
writing
The first wave post colonial writing is the writing of those writers of
a country who have recently become independent from colonization and are
attempting to articulate an identity for the newly independent nation.
The second wave post colonial
writings TALK about the problematic attitudes immigrants face while living in a
different country. The article then mentions how different cultures their
linguistics and literary works have become intertwined.
The article the starts taking
references from the novel “White Teeth"
by Zadie Smith.(it took me quite some time to figure this out). As a result i
had to do some research on the novel "white teeth". The novel is
about a two wartime friends, one of them a Bangladeshi, Samad Iqbal, who live
in London. Samad can't fit in with the English people, and although he wants
it, he is unable to become a "proper" Muslim. So he sends his son
Magid to Bangladesh to fulfill his dreams and become the type of muslim that
Samad always wanted to be. Meanwhile his other son Millat who previously was a
womanizer and a drunk, becomes a member of a Muslim brotherhood. Magid on the
other hand returns to London as an atheist and becomes devoted to science. He
becomes the assistant of Marcus a Jewish man. The wife of Marcus takes up the
responsibility of "healing" Millat. The novel also features Irie, the
daughter of Archie Jones, the wartime friend of Samad. Irie falls in love with
Millat.
The main
theme of the novel is how the culture of Samad is lost – illustrating the
dilemma of Immigrants. The confused state of Samad and Archie also rubs off on
their children and even they don't feel like they belong. The summary also
mentions racism in the novel. The name of the novel white teeth is also very
significant, as it explains how this one thing is the only thing similar in
characters despite their diverse skin color and ethnicity.
The article- "white teeth and
post colonial literature" takes many references to describe the
hybridization of cultures. At the end of the article, it is also mentioned how
women face problems from double colonizations – firstly, the oppression from
colonial rule and then oppression from sexist organizations of a society. Zadie
smith is hailed a formidable figure in post colonial literature.
I really enjoyed doing this report
and I agree that reading such articles really does require critical thinking. I
have tried to interlink this report with my previous studies
