Postcolonial literature emerged around mid 20th century and flourished between the 1950s and 1990s.
What postcolonial writers did was as important as what the anti-colonial freedom fighters and activists did. Because postcolonial writers challenged the assumptions like the colonizers belong to a superior race, or views such as the justification given by the Frenchman Joseph-Ernest Renan that elevates colonization to something 'noble' (as atrocious as it sounds) by saying that it only served to 'civilize' the 'savages'.
Postcolonial writers from Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, South America and other colonized regions "wrote back" to the empire, thereby giving a fitting retort to the 'master narrative' of the Empire, that is, to the colonizers, and toppled it's hegemonic position. The colonized began to give their own narratives from their own perspectives.
Some characteristics of Postcolonial literature:
Appropriation of colonial languages in Postcolonial literature:
Postcolonial writers write in the language of the colonizers, while appropriating it into something of their own, by adding colloquial words and changing the syntax and dialect of the colonial language. This is a way of retorting back to the colonizers with the language they forced upon the colonized, by weakening its superior position by appropriating it into something of their own. Eg, writings of Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie use a lot of colloquial words despite writing in the English language and therefore, turning it into something native.
Or Marlon James twisting English into the Jamaican dialect in The Book of Night Women.
Metanarrative:
"Meta" is Greek for something that is 'beyond' or 'transcendent'; "narrative" is a that which is told.
The term was brought into prominence by Jean-Francois Lyotard.
Therefore, metanarrative is giving another side (or a different perspective) as opposed to the widely accepted side of the story.
In the context of postcolonialism, this is refusing the 'master narrative' of the colonizers, and the propagated ideas by the colonizers which justify their act of colonization, which says that through their act of colonization they have only 'enlightened' the 'savages' of the colonized countries by exposing them to their (Western) culture.
Metanarrative disproves this notion (that is propagated to be true by the colonizers) and bring to light the fact that colonization had only been about economic exploitation and taking advantage of the colonized.
The after-effects of colonization:
Despite gaining independence, the effects of colonization continue to this day on the late colonies. The colonizers displaced their indigenous culture, language (by forcing their language and system on them), their religion (the conversion by Christian missionaries). Even after independence, the structure of governance only came to be modelled after the colonizer's system. Therefore the effects are lasting and deep. These are pointed out in postcolonial literature.
Eg, the way in which the conflict between the colonizer and the colonized divides communities is shown in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.
Nationalism and frustrations:
Patriotism, visions and dreams for one's motherland shine through in postcolonial writing, and also, the writers' frustration, when their motherlands that have gained independence from the colonizers get mired in corrupt governance and bureaucracy. Therefore, postcolonial writings also show the disillusionment and frustrations of the people of the previously colonized lands, as they dream for a better governed motherland, an efficient system that would be conducive to the realization of their ideals and dreams.
Eg, Salman Rushdie shows the dysfunctional nature of Pakistani nationhood in Shame.
Cultural identity:
There is a proud showcasing of one's own culture in these books. It is a fitting retort to the imposing of the foreign culture on the colonized people, as they show that they too have a rich culture and heritage behind them.
For example, many African writers write their works which resemble spoken dialogue or a direct address - it is because the African traditional literature was mostly oral, i.e., propagated by oral narration.
Eg, Chinua Achebe valorises indigenous culture in Things Fall Apart.
Counter discourse:
Colonial discourse constitutes the 'knowledge' (read according to Said's Orientalism or Foucault's knowledge=power dynamics) that the colonizers collected and purported regarding the colonized; counter discourse in contrast is the opposition to these ideas that the colonized give which negates these assumptions and stereotyping that the Western colonizers placed on them - such as, they are uncivilized people who need to be exposed to the Western culture to be civilized, that they are incompetent, that their language is insufficient for the purposes of learning and spreading of knowledge. Therefore counter discourse tries to negate this so called 'knowledge' which is in fact only the assumptions of the colonizers regarding the colonized, and tries to tell that these ideas were perpetrated merely for an excuse to the economic exploitation that the colonizers did in the name of civilizing the 'savages'.
Eg; Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea gives a counter discourse, a different perspective, to the character of Bertha Mason or the Mad Woman in the Attic in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Notable post-colonial novels:
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
A House for Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul
