The Postcolonial Novel. Richard J. Lane . Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2006. Pp. v+146.

Abstract

Previous article FreeBook ReviewThe Postcolonial Novel. Richard J. Lane . Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2006. Pp. v+146.Ketu H. KatrakKetu H. KatrakUniversity of California, Irvine Search for more articles by this author University of California, IrvinePDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreThis lucidly written text sets up a modest goal, namely, that it is “for readers who are encountering postcolonial literatures for the first time” (vi). Richard Lane's “basic thesis” is that postcolonial theoretical discourse “was developed because of groundbreaking work of the novelists (not the other way around)” (vi). Such close attention to the seminal primary novels along with “critical debates” in this field is a welcome engagement with canonic postcolonial texts, such as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958) and Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988), among others such as Margaret Atwood's Surfacing (1972) and Bessie Head's A Question of Power (1973). Lane explains that his focus on the novel genre is based on “the ways in which postcolonial novels in English have had a rapid, global impact via the international book market” (vi). I would also add that important literary prizes, such as the Booker Prize to Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things (1997), as well as some notoriety, such as the controversy surrounding Rushdie's representation of Islam in Satanic Verses, explain the high profile of certain postcolonial novels. However, many other novels, such as classics in the field by Chinua Achebe or Ngugi wa Thiong'o, are not given the critical attention that they merit in literary circles beyond postcolonial studies.The text is divided into eight chapters beginning with an original selection, Wilson Harris's Palace of the Peacock (1960), as the novel to “Introduce the Postcolonial Novel in English” (1). The conclusion deals with Joy Kogawa's Obasan (1981) and Phyllis Greenwood's An Interrupted Panorama (1997). The text includes a bibliography that provides useful information for both the beginning student and for general readers. Although each chapter deals with a specific text, chapter 2 deals with a unique combination: South African J. M. Coetzee's Foe (1986) and Caribbean (from Dominica) Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). Both texts engage with mainstream British novels, namely, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) in Coetzee's novel and Jane Eyre (1847) in Rhys's text. These authors “do not just write back via character and plot,” remarks Lane, “but also via genre” (29).Chapter 1 begins with the assertion that “all of the novels discussed in this study have had a strong impact upon contemporary literary critical thought either in the field of postcolonial studies or more generally in literary studies and beyond” (1). The study includes useful information about each author's biographical profile, national origin, historical dates covering education, and migration into western metropolitan spaces. The novels are summarized along with astute critical engagement and appropriate critical allusions to significant thinkers on colonization such as Frantz Fanon on the politics and psychology of colonial subjects and domination. Similarly, many postcolonial writers correct misrepresentations of dehumanized natives without language as depicted in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899).As African literature scholar Simon Gikandi notes, Achebe's Things FallApart represented “a transformative moment…in that exciting first decade of decolonization” (32). Lane astutely addresses the “enormous burdens” placed upon Achebe's novel, which continues to be read and translated some forty-odd years after its initial publication. The Postcolonial Novel raises questions about “the types of knowledge that a fictional work can or should communicate” mainly in the “genre of realism” and the need to depict everyday life as ways to counter colonial and racist stereotypes (32). Lane indicates correctly that while it is important to recognize the historical necessity for such realist representations, that “should not blind the reader to the rhetorical devices or the poetics of Achebe's novel” (34). However, a “conundrum” exists between using a realist genre “to set the record straight” (33), as Achebe had expressed it in terms of his motivation for writing Things Fall Apart, and the question of the writer's own relationship to her/his own indigenous cultural practices, not all of which, as is true for all cultures worldwide, can be endorsed.The best postcolonial writers, like Achebe or Wole Soyinka, do not romanticize their cultures or a precolonial past; rather, they engage critically with unfair practices in their own cultures. Lane points out that Things Fall Apart “has facilitated a deeper understanding of the complexities of the colonial encounter. For example, the potential vulnerability of ethico-religious difference as expressed via indigenous cultures is acknowledged and explored by Achebe” (45). Achebe's depiction of the sheer shock of the colonial encounter that challenged a polytheistic religious belief system with the imposition of a monotheistic one, along with the challenge to beliefs sacred to the community, is remarkably useful in a contemporary world of continuing ethnic strife, including “ethnic cleansing.” Similarly, though in a different national context, Ngugi's A Grain of Wheat (1967) depicts the history of the decolonizing struggle along with “the imperative” as scholar Simon Gikandi notes, “to proffer a cultural grammar for understanding the new postcolonial state” (58).Each chapter ends with a subsection exploring the “impact” of the particular text. Here, Lane brings the reader up to date with recent critical material on the text. For example, Lane discusses Bessie Head's A Question of Power in conjunction with issues of sexuality and gender identity via contemporary theorists (69–70), thereby bringing new insight to the ways in which Head's and other postcolonial texts of the 1970s and 1980s were read. Similarly, Lane's analysis of the impact of Margaret Atwood's Surfacing includes Caroline Rosenthal's assessment that Atwood's work “raises and intersects many different issues: Canadian, feminine, anthropological, and cultural studies concerns as well as postcolonialist criticism” (80).Lane traces a literary line from Salman Rushdie's inventive uses of the English language to Arundhati Roy's creative exploration of “compound neologisms” that uniquely present a severe criticism of the Indian caste system as well as “patriarchal values within marriage and society” (97). Lane cites other postcolonial Indian writers such as Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Chandra for “cosmopolitan modes of writing” as well as the use of “mythic-realism” (98). However, Lane correctly recognizes that Roy's “indigenous roots” remain important. Roy's unique literary voice infuses her passionate prose as a political activist who is concerned with, as Lane puts it, “the everyday…reality of local Indian life.” The latter is “impacted heavily,” as Lane notes, “by globalization (be it the construction of a massively disruptive World Bank funded dam, or the introduction of cable television to remote, rural impoverished communities)” (98).Finally, the bringing together of the texts in Lane's concluding section, “Subverting Boundaries,” aptly demonstrates the “counter-discursive writing back and through the canon (Coetzee, Rhys, Harris, Ngugi)…[as well as] the inauguration of new ways of perceiving and mapping colonial contact and postcolonial independence (Achebe, Ngugi); complex representations of ‘madness' and sexuality (Head)…secular critiques of orthodox religions (Rushdie); immense linguistic and aesthetic creativity (Rushdie, Roy); and the evocation of a ‘political consciousness' (Kogawa, and all of the above)” (113). Lane acknowledges that there are certainly other ways of reading these same texts; however, his engagement of how boundaries are subverted “facilitates further reflections on form” (113).This is a highly useful text for students of postcolonial literature. Even advanced scholars would benefit from the sections in each chapter where Lane discusses the “impact” of the text under consideration by including recent critical material in his discussion. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Modern Philology Volume 108, Number 1August 2010 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/653630 Views: 221Total views on this site © 2010 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.