Abstract
The aim of this study is to critically analyse the identity issue based on postcolonial theory in one of the most important novels of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and another novel, The White Tiger with which Indian writer Aravind Adiga won the Booker Prize in 2008. This study attempts to implement such an exploration not only in the context of western thought, but also from different angles with the realities of the oppressed nations of the Third World, especially India in order to construct the ‘other’ based on the other individuality. Both of the prominent writers in their works lay bare many scenes that focus on the problems of the heroes creating the basis of the events in question. That is why they take into consideration the state of the individual, because the central characters’ conflicts and developments present different aspects of the novel while constructing the individuality and identity behind the societal problems in terms of class conflict. They live under different circumstances to discover themselves and in each of the novels we can bear witness to the existence of some characters who achieve a sense of personal and social identity in the Victorian society of England, a time when great social and economic changes were taking place; and then in India where people suffer from the administrations of the members of Gandhi family led by especially Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. This study thereby examines how the individuals are exposed to the social, economic and political factors of the country where they live.
Highlights
Great Expectations (1861) and The White Tiger (2008) were written by writers from two different territories of colonial experience
This paper conveys the purpose of both novels that is to give voice to the oppressed who struggle for a better life so as to seize a place in the newly-established world order. They suggest that the oppressed should not knuckle under the sovereignty of the domineering ruling class, but work hard to overthrow it. It gives the example of the Australian case as a colony in parallel with what Meredith said, in order to associate it with Great Expectations in which Australia is included
Magwitch who was sent to Australia as a convict and cannot be allowed a return to England decides to form his own mimicry upon Pip
Summary
Great Expectations (1861) and The White Tiger (2008) were written by writers from two different territories of colonial experience. The postcolonialism refers to the neocolonial period of the countries concerned as well as both the colonisation and decolonisation: “We use the term ‘post-colonial’, to cover all the culture affected by the imperial process from the moment of colonisation to the present day” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 2010: 2) It points to a period of the first colonial contact as well as that after independence. This study will be discussed in a thematically comparative approach through the practical applicability of the theory to the textual analysis of both novels It will focus on the term ‘identity’ that will be enhanced by some concepts of post-colonialism of different theoreticians such as Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon and Gayatri Spivak and some definitions and explanations of terms such as ‘colonial discourse’, ‘ambivalence’, ‘mimicry’, ‘violence’ and ‘subalternity’ that belong to the postcolonial process will be elaborated
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