Colonial Repetition as Third World Textual Aesthetics: A Theoretical Approach

Abstract

This paper discusses a national allegorical literary style labeled colonial repetition as one way in which literature represents the collective colonial mentality to respond to the oppression of colonization. The national allegory is a socio-political strategy proposed by Fredric Jameson for the reading of third world texts to address themes such as colonial violence, exploitation, paralysis, helplessness, and sense of loss [homeless at home]. The literary style of colonial repetition reflects collective symptoms through the repetition of words, phrases, and sentences in a text. This paper posits colonial repetition in Korean poet Yi Sang’s Crow’s Eye View as a characteristic of Jamesonian third world texts that articulate the tragic circumstances of the colonial system: national misery and national subalternity.