Female Subjectivities in Postcolonial Literature

Abstract

Reading postcolonial theory prompts the question posed by Leela Gandhi: 'How can the historian/investigator avoid the inevitable risk of presenting herself as an authoritative representative of subaltern consciousness?' (1998, p.3), which arises naturally out of Gayatri Spivak's challenging essay 'Can the subaltern speak?' (1985). Keeping this in mind, it seems necessary to preface any writing about postcolonial literature designed for a young adult readership with a statement of position. The crucial element which informs such writing is after all governed by location, in terms of ideological perspective, as well as geographically. Since the texts proposed for investigation are published by and written for a Western audience, and I am myself educated in a Western humanist tradition, I ought to be aware of the influence of this tradition on my perspectives and judgements. The processes of writing texts exploring cultural difference and the literary-critical practices of evaluating the success of such texts alike form part of a counterhegemonic movement attempting to redress a long history of imperialism, a movement which seeks to promote a feminist postcolonial perspective.