Begc-114 Full Book

BEGC -114
Postcolonial
Indira Gandhi
National Open University
School of Humanities
Literatures
BLOCK 1 NOVEL: NADINE GORDIMER’S JULY’S

PEOPLE 7
BLOCK 2 SHORT STORY 63
BLOCK 3 POETRY 113
BLOCK 4 DRAMA: VIJAY TENDULKAR’S

GHASHIRAM KOTWAL 179
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COURSE COORDINATOR
Prof. Nandini Sahu
Professor, English
School of Humanities, IGNOU
COURSE PREPARATION TEAM

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School of Humanities, IGNOU
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COURSE INTRODUCTION
Dear Students,
Welcome to the BA English Honours course, Postcolonial Literatures.
The importance of this course lies not only in the subject matter that it seeks to
study but also, and more so, in the sound explanations of the multiplicity of
contexts, the background readings, the literary and technical nuances of the
various texts under study. The impact of Colonialism on the Colonies is as
dreadful as is the enormity of its history. Your journey into the realms of
Postcolonial Literatures, we believe, will inspire an equal amount of sensitivity
for our fellow beings from across the globe as it will increase the critical sensibility
in you. By the end of your course, we hope and wish, you will be more
sympathetic, sensitive, sensible, and sincere to the concerns of the world—both,
within and without—than you already are.
This course will discuss some of the seminal Postcolonial works written in varied
genres of literature. It will offer an overview of the fundamental themes, theories
and dominant ideas associated with Postcolonial period and the related literature
from across the world.
From the fifteenth century onwards, capitalist ideals and racial superiority-
complex of the European or Western modernity reached its helm. They enslaved
a major population of the world to plunder, exploit and hoard wealth for
themselves. Their colonial blueprint is still widely practised in the fields of
economics, politics, language and culture worldwide by influential leaders. By
covering diverse disciplines, the postcolonial literary studies aims to sow the
seeds of wisdom in the fertile minds of the scholars about natives and their precepts
about colonialism, hacked traditions, lost grounds, hindered mindsets, bemused
legacy and juggled cultural practices.
This course introduces different literary styles and ‘world Englishes’from former
colonies of the British regime. Their local histories, politics, cultures and traditions
were influenced by the Western culture and practices to redefine the future of the
nations in the post-colonial era. Literature from countries like Kenya, India, West
Indies and Australia provide a glimpse of the experiences of the citizens during
the challenging colonial and post-colonial times. With an exposure to comparative
texts from different colonized countries, the learners of this course will be able
to cross-reference and interpret them better.
Block 1 of the course introduces an innovative hypothetical text supposing that
apartheid has ended in South Africa. Prominent South African writer and Nobel
Laureate in 1991, Nadine Gordimer, speculates fictional uprising by the Africans
for their independence. The African forces defeat their white colonizers in the
Liberation War, in the book July’s People published in 1981. During the luminal
period, when the old socio-political orders have been destroyed and the new
ones have not been established, there arises a sense of trepidation and fear of
being on the fence—and the chapters keep this as the thrust area. The uneasy
gender roles of Madam Maureen’s ‘good boy’, July, the black male household
helper in the African patriarchal system further complicates the text. In the book,
the social restructuring and power redistribution after chaos pushes its readers
into an uncomfortable zone thereby intriguing them to understand the complexities
of life.
In Block 2, the South African writer, Bessie Head’s short story ‘The Collector of
Treasures’is another impressive work that spans the pre-colonial, colonial and
post-colonial era. Published in 1977, it exposed the stance of the South African
women against their exploitation at the hands of men and patriarchy. The social-
injustice and neglect of women in the story help the female characters to stick
together in tough times. In the story, the womenfolk provide a healing touch to
each other while supporting their families through their skills and talents.
During colonialism, the unprecedented changes of intermixing of different races

created more problems for the oppressed than the oppressors. With imperialist
motives, the colonizers displaced natives from their lands. The exploitation
imbued a sense of loss of identity in indigenous people. The colonists oppressed
and terrorised them to such an extent that they lost hope and were sceptical of
their abilities. Their self-expressions were distorted and group communications
were hindered. Colonial rulers divided the natives in every possible way.
Dominant feeling of disconnect among the people in the society penetrated to
the inner selves of the individuals as disintegration and decay. Language played
a major role in colonization. Strategically, the colonizers enforced their language
on ‘the Other’(the natives) and promoted their status, making the colonized feel
powerless. The dominant language was like a powerful magnet, attracting many
people to lucrative ventures like civil services and segregating the society further.
Their lingual divisions brought about major socio-culture changes. The units in
the course precisely discuss these socio-cultural and linguistic issues.
In Block 3, Derek Walcott’s famous post-colonial poems ‘A Far Cry from

Africa’(1962) and ‘Names’(1976) are discussed. With mixed ancestry of African
and English, Walcott never took sides with a particular race but singularly opposed
the gruesomeness of violence and suffering of people. He uses both the languages
differently, articulates through hybridity but the ambivalence creates
indeterminacy in him. His native language provided his ‘food for thought’and
the English language was his medium of expressions.
With the blurring of hard separations between the colonized and colonizers in
the post-colonial era, Postcolonial literature provided ways to vent out and cope
with the psychological distress, political instability, identity crisis, loss and
upheavals for both peoples and places. It branches into new fields like diasporic
studies, the study of hegemony and metanarratives published during colonial
rule. This course problematizes these issues.
Accounts of personal and group struggles for decolonization, rewriting of national

history, and reviving local cultural identities, also form a part of the Postcolonial
literature. These texts help in gauging the extent of damage incurred by the
colonized population as the natives share their experiences of dehumanization
and trauma. The literary expression provides a kind of writing as therapy for the
authors which could help them to recuperate, as well.
Walcott has explored the concepts of racial origin, lost culture, emotional tensions,
names, and identity in the poem ‘Names’published in 1976. He has compared
the lives of indigenous people with newcomers or indentured labourers brought
to the island mainly from China and India. Caribbean Islands were like mere
vehicles for the English to hurl insults at their colonial rivals like a ‘diminutive’
for a pigsty was ‘little Versailles’. While the slaves from different nationalities
and cultures were ‘adopting’and ‘adapting’to the languages of their masters, they
learnt to speak in ‘fresh green voices.’They found emancipation in ‘adeptly’fusing
the different tongues and forging their new linguistic identity.
This course introduces the kind of works by writers who exposed the so called
emancipators’development of linguistic and cultural bonding in slaves. It also
helped them to withstand their traumatic past of slavery and to recommit to their
remnant ethnical, traditional and cultural legacy in the period after colonialism
ended in their regions.
In the course, the influential Australian writer David Malouf’s celebrated works
are discussed. The poetry collection Revolving Days, published in 2008, has the
titular poem “Revolving Days”. It is a memoir of his ‘mistake’, a heart-in-the-
mouth life experience of the moments when he fell in love. In the poem, he
apostrophizes his ex-lover and contemplatively recollects his vivid feelings. A
slightly different point of view of a lover is expressed by Pablo Neruda in his
poem, ‘Tonight I can Write’.
Chilean Nobel Prize recipient for Literature in 1971, Neruda wrote primarily in
Spanish. In his poem, the lover pines for his lost love. Through repetition, he
achieves rhythmic unity of thought and expression. With reflective and youthful
melancholy, Pablo expresses in plain language deeply meaningful thoughts like
‘Love is so short, forgetting is so long’. The two poems reflect individual
differences in lost love and different kinds of yearnings they experience for their
lovers.
Malouf’s poem “Wild Lemons” (1980) is a philosophical and deeply meditative

poem moving across time. When offshore, Malouf is reminded of the history of
his native land and people. He nostalgically recollects memories of his ancestors.
‘Ssomeone had been there before us and planted these’seeds. Nourished with
nature’s support ‘the tough-skinned fruit’, the wild lemons are like proofs of the
resilient and painful existence of the natives.
The paths the aborigines travelled and their presence on the island as opposed to
the British declaration of “Terra Nullius” (Latin for ‘no one’s land’) when they
first lay claim on the island continent in 1770. The poem is adorned with vivid
geographical details that add to the imagery of the poem. The sharp tangy taste
and the strong smell of lemons transport him to his country.
The English translation of the Marathi drama Ghashiram Kotwal is discussed in

Block 4. It was written by Vijay Tendulkar and published in 1972. It renders the
hollowness of political power and corruption. The friction between society and
individual based on religion, gender and class, is the dominant theme of the
drama. As a subaltern, Ghashiram had no voice of his own and was always used
as a means to an end by rulers like Nana Phadnavis. Rulers have used their
authority to create conventions and traditions by using pawns like Ghashiram
for their greed. However, the rulers got rid of such burdens as soon as the situations
went out of control and proved themselves to be innocent. In post-colonial times,
the resurgence of drama in regional languages revived the traditional dramatic
art forms and overtook the English language as the only medium of creative self-
expression. This socio-political play offered a break from colonial restrictive
formations and paved the way for regional folk theatre traditions of India. The
dominant themes of power and exploitation are brought about through tragedy,
satirical fusion of dance, drama and music.
Indian folk theatre, on the global level, is a compelling object of a modernist
recovery that has its uniqueness. This play draws from many folk traditions of
drama like Bahurupi, Dashavatari Khel, Lavani, Tamasha and Gondhal. People
are used as characters as well as props (like the human wall on stage). Through
the literary work, Tendulkar offered resistance as he depicted Ghashiram’s
aloofness to the issues of power, control, race, ethnicity, gender, trauma and
displacement, just like any modern man.
With epistemological knowledge of varied kinds of multicultural texts, this course

encourages decolonization of the mind by shunning rigid binaries of the
‘Occidental’and ‘Oriental’kinds of writings. The romantic and biased view of
‘Orientals’portrayed by the European writers was produced during the colonial
period as they controlled the pen and the people, the sword and the sterling.
Postcolonial writers across the world challenged purity of intentions and identities,
birthplace and skin colour, position and privileges of their colonizers. They rose
against the Western metanarratives through ‘hybridity’and ‘mimicry’, making
their way, without opposing their pasts or internalising them but accepting and
developing them.
A few units of this course have been adapted from the BDP course EEG-07 as a
policy of the University, with approval of the Experts Committee Meeting and
the School Board of SOH. We duly acknowledge the academic contributions of
the course writers of EEG-07 to this course.
Wish you all the best!

BEGC -114
Postcolonial
Indira Gandhi
Literatures
Block
1
NOVEL: NADINE GORDIMER’S JULY’S PEOPLE
UNIT 1
An Introduction to Writings from South Africa 9
UNIT 2
Reading the Text 25
UNIT 3
Social Configurations 43
UNIT 4
Problematizing Gender 53
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s
July’s People BLOCK INTRODUCTION
Block 1 of BEGC-114 is aimed at introducing you to the Writings from South

Africa. By discussing the various contexts of the Writings from South Africa,
this block sets the tone of our course on the Postcolonial Literatures. The block
is divided into four units structured as below:
Unit 1 titled An Introduction to Writings from South Africa explains key

ideas that are seminal to the making of the literature from South Africa. Incidents
of the past that shaped the literature from this region—its thematic concerns
have been discussed to help you contextualise the texts prescribed to you, or
otherwise also.
Unit 2 Reading the text presents an analysis of the text July’s People by Nadime
Gordimer. An overview of the life and works of Gordimer has been discussed
that should be helpful for you in your estimation of the various aspects of the
text.
Unit 3 titled Social Configurations examines the power structures operating in

the imaginatively reconstructed time and setting of this text by Nadine Gordimer.
The juxtaposition of ‘Haves’and ‘Have-nots’in the text has been analysed herein.
The dystopic view of the text has been discussed to give you a minute
understanding of its nuances.
Unit 4 titled Problematizing Gender provides deep insights into gender concerns
highlighted in July’s People. The psychoanalytic reading of the mental conditions
and conditionings of the women in the text has been presented in this unit.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The material (pictures and passages) we have used is purely for educational
purposes. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders of material
reproduced in this book. Should any infringement have occurred, the publishers
and editors apologize and will be pleased to make the necessary corrections in
future editions of this book.
8
An Introduction to Writings
UNIT 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITINGS from South Africa
FROM SOUTH AFRICA
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 How to Make Sense of the Expression, South African Literature?
1.1.2 Communities
1.1.3 Colonisation
1.2 Themes, Issues and the Influence of History
1.2.1 Mfecane/Difiqane
1.2.2 Xhosa Cattle Killing
1.2.3 Colenso Controversy
1.2.4 The Great Trek
1.2.5 Anglo Boer Wars
1.2.6 Enduring Issues
1.3 Apartheid
1.3.1 Looking at a Few Texts
1.4 Broad Periods
1.5 Let Us Sum Up
1.6 Suggested Readings
1.7 Answers to Exercises
1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we shall briefly trace the growth and development of South African
Literature, along with the socio-political and cultural context in which it acquired
its pretenseless, visceral and gritty character. In addition to this, we shall also
briefly look into the major historical movements and events that directly or
indirectly shaped the emergence of what we understand today as South African
literature.
After reading the Unit carefully, you will be able to:
comprehend the scope of the expression, South African literature and
appreciate its intricate contours;
recognize the key historical events that carved the thematic concerns of South
African writings amidst colonisation and the egregious years of apartheid;
apprehend the role of the different communities, how their individual histories
ordained their stature in the South African society and how they have been
represented in South African writings; and
distinguish the two broad periods into which South African writings can be
classified.
9
July’s People 1.1 INTRODUCTION
“I believe it is important for our writers to illuminate all aspects of
our life from a central point in the social structure. That is, whatever
their colour or views maybe, they must accept their presence in the
country as members of one community, the South African community.
After that they can choose to be what they wish.” (Nathaniel Ndazana
Nakasa, 1963. “Writing in South Africa”)
This is the first unit of the first block in your course on Postcolonial Literatures.
We are going to explore how South African literature, as we know it today, gained
prominence in the global literary arena for its hard-hitting portrayal of a range of
intensely thought-provoking issues and sociocultural realities. Before we start
our trip through the history of South African literature, let us first clarify what
we mean or what we refer to, when we use the expression, South African literature.
1.1.1 How to Make Sense of the Expression, South African

Literature?
The expression, South African literature broadly covers the collection of writings
as well as orally transmitted and preserved narratives, in English and Afrikaans,
having their regional origin in South Africa, or as it is officially known after the
1960 referendum, the Republic of South Africa. Geographically, South Africa or
the Republic of South Africa is the southernmost country in the continent of
Africa. Afrikaans is the primary language used by the Boer settlers. It is a
vernacular derived from 17th century Dutchand has a heterogeneous repertoire
of words with borrowings from Bantu, Khoisan, Malay and Portuguese. In terms
of linguistic prestige, due to this admixture, Afrikaans was relegated to the level
of a kombuistaal (kitchen language) and the affluent section within the Boers
treated it and its speakers with condescension, while themselves speaking High
Dutch.Literatures originating in the other African nations, like Ethiopia, Kenya,
Nigeria, etc., are studied under the wider category of African Literature.
1.1.2 Communities
As a nation, South Africa exhibits an intriguingly mosaic and cosmopolitan
lineament with a highly creolised state of its society. Anglo-Afrikaner, Indian,
Nguni-Sotho and Khoisan are the four communities whose interactions,
intercourses and confrontations constitute the motley South African social
landscape.The Afrikaner community consists of descendants of the early Dutch
colonialists or the Boers. The Boers comprised settlers of Dutch, German and
Huguenot lineage, putting down roots in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
The Anglo-Afrikaner is the preponderant aggregation of two communities with
different colonising histories and takes into account the white, tenuously creolised
Afrikaners and the British, united (after the South African war of 1899-
1902)against the black or the non-white South Africans.They were well acquainted
with maritime navigation and industrial production besides being meticulous in
their understanding of market dynamics. In terms of advent and subsequent
presence, the Anglo-Afrikaner community is not very old, being extant since the
17thcentury.The Indian community, brought in from the erstwhile British colony
of India,mainly involving members of the unskilled and the semiskilled labour
class as well as those from the trading class, entered the South African population
10
in a state of thralldom in the 19th century. In terms of assimilation and subsequent An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
presence, the Indian community is quite recent, arriving first in Natal after 1860.
The Nguni-Sotho community includes the Nguni, the Sotho (or Suthu or Suto)
and the Tswana people, all three being speakers of Bantu languages and
experienced in iron production. They also rely heavily on their skills in agricultural
practices, raising and maintaining livestock, herding as well as animal husbandry.
Having been around since approximately the 11th century, the Nguni-Sotho group
is indigenous to the region and considerably old, but not the oldest. Finally, the
ancient Khoisan community is composed of the Khoi and the San (also historically
known as Hottentot and Bushman) people, who were respectively dependent on
and therefore characterised by pastoralist and hunter-gatherer modes of
subsistence. The Khoisan community represents the oldest, distinctly indigenous
group of people, until at a much later stage, an intermingling with the Afrikaner
and the slave communities gave birth to the ‘mixed race’, the Cape Coloured
community, intermediate between the ‘whites’and the ‘blacks’.
Each of these four communities, namely Anglo-Afrikaner, Indian, Nguni-Sotho

and Khoisan,has its own oral and literary tradition. The fusion of these traditions,
as a consequence of social and literary creolisation, beginning from the pre-
colonial period up to the present, creates the labyrinth of South African literary
forms and texts in the larger smorgasbord of world literatures, depicting the
multifaceted nature of regular inter-community exchanges in South Africa ranging
from brutality and ethnic conflict to the expression of love and intimate bonding.
Beyond these communities based on ethnicity and indigeneity, there are super-
communities constituted by homosexuals, queers, cis-gendered straight women
as well as political and religious groups.There have been several influential literary
movements stemming from the concerns and the lived experiences of the members
of these super-communities.
1.1.3 Colonisation
Right from the moment of the 17th century Dutch colonisation, with the
establishment of the first VOC (VereenigdeOostindische Compagnie in Dutch;
Dutch East India company, known officially by the name of United East India
Company) refreshment station at Cape Town in 1652 till the formation of the
first democratically elected government in 1994, the South African society
witnessed a number of volatile transitional phases marked by unremitting violence,
communal tension, discrimination, exploitation, resistance and uprisings. The
colonisation of South Africa was essentially in two waves. The first wave
happened under the Dutch, who were superseded by the second contending
European group of colonisers, the British. So, the second wave was ushered in
by the British who enforced their authority over the Cape in 1795 to safeguard it
from the invading French and its allies during the period of the Napoleonic Wars
(1803–1815).There was a brief period of peace when the British relinquished
their control of the Cape to the Dutch via the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. However,
the British took it back in 1806 and fortified it as an operational base to administer
the strategic sea route to the East.
South African literature portrays the prodigious social and personal journey of
the non-white populace from being subjugated, oppressed and dehumanised by
the arm-yielding whites to earning equal respect, dignity and electoral right for
all South Africans through extraordinary sacrifices and several era-defining
11
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s movements.A stirring oral account of such dehumanisation comes from ||Kabbo,
July’s People
an acclaimed San storyteller and visionary of the 19th century, describing his
journey to incarcerationat Breakwater Prison, after stealing sheep like many others
from the |Xamspeech community to feed their families, as more and more of
their traditional hunting grounds were expropriated by the colonisers to expand
the Cape Province up to the Orange river, from the earlier limit up to the Sak. As
per the documentation by Bleek and Lloyd in Specimens of Bushman Folklore
(1911), ||Kabbo narrates:
“We went to put our legs into the stocks; another white man laid another (piece
of) wood upon our legs. We slept, while our legs were in the stocks. The day
broke, while our legs were in the stocks. We early took out our legs from the
stocks, we ate meat; we again put our legs into the stocks; we sat, while our legs
were in the stocks. We lay down, we slept, while our legs were inside the stocks.
We arose, we smoked, while our legs were inside the stocks. The people boiled
sheep’s flesh, while our legs were in the stocks.”(p. 297)
Besides the representation of the bloody discord insulating the non-white majority
from the white minority, South African literature also mirrors the unsettling
opposition between erstwhile peremptory Europeanist and authentic, anti-
establishmentarian Africanist interpretations of its past. We need to be careful
though, about any academically-oriented attempt to categorise South African
literature into English, Afrikaans, Black and Coloured streams as any such
compartmentalization will compromise its contours and obfuscate the uniqueness
of its texts.
We will next look at the themes and the issues that feature prominently in South
African writings along with the historical events that influence them. But before
we do that, let us answer a few simple questions.
Check Your Progress 1
1) What do you broadly understand by South African Literature? Is it different
from African Literature?
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2) Name and briefly describe the communities whose correspondences and
transactions are found in South African writings.
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12
3) How does colonisation determine the focus of South African writings? An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
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1.2 THEMES, ISSUES AND THE INFLUENCE OF

HISTORY
The dominant themes in South African literature are influenced by a protracted
culture of defiance, dissent and protest in the face of abuse of basic rights by the
colonisers, anarchy, social turmoil and unwarranted violence on the colonised
masses. Apart from the omnipresent note of tension between the whites and the
non-whites, there is also the issue of the tragic loss of invaluable cultural systems
and oral literatures through the obliteration of indigenous groups and communities
by the colonisers. The annihilation of the Khoisan and the resultant wiping out
of indigenous languages, oral narratives, traditional practices and belief-systems
is addressed by Shula Marks in her article ‘Khoisan Resistance to the Dutch in
the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’in the Journal of African History (vol.
13, 1972). Such deplorable episodes of genocide and loss of cultural and literary
heritage,are responsible for the proportionally-skewed visibility index of the
different South African communities.This has motivated several important works
from authors as varied as Olive Schreiner to ZoëWicomb.
1.2.1 Mfecane/Difiqane
Apart from the damage inflicted by the colonising forces, there were also phases
of sporadic internal strife amongst the local communities, civil war and communal
rivalry,that weakened and laid the land bare in front of the predatory intentions
of the white colonisers. Although the Khoisan were geopolitically and culturally
routed by the Dutch colonisers, the appearance of the Nguni-Sotho abated the
influence of the Khoisan, who could not match up to their level of advancement
with respect to iron production and better agricultural practices. The ascendance
and amplifying power of the Nguni-Sotho brought about deep internal segregation.
The descendants of King Phalo of the Xhosa subgroup within the southern Nguni
group, formed two separate houses thereby dividing the Xhosa for the first time
in the 18th century–the Great House under the leadership of Gcaleka and the
Right Hand House under the leadership of Rharhabe. The Zulu subgroup, within
the northern Nguni, under the leadership of Shaka (or Chaka), conjoined with
the Natal Nguni to forge the fearsome Zulu empire. But Shaka’s dominion was
not too long and he was murdered by his half-brothers after the first quarter of
the 19th century. The period from 1820 till the murder of Shaka witnessed the
gruesome Mfecane(Nguni term meaning crushing) or the Difiqane (Sotho term),
a fratricidal civil war that the Zulus waged under Shaka’s military supervision
on the neighbouring communities. These sanguinary communal clashes gradually
eroded the foundations of the indigenous communities, draining them of their
strength to hold out against superiorly armed colonial incursions.The valiant
stance of the Ngunis undeterred by mounting colonial belligerence, is 13
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s foregrounded in works like Thomas Mofolo’s Chaka (1931), Monica Hunter’s
July’s People
Reaction to Conquest (1936), Jeffrey Peires’The House of Phalo (1981), Jeff
Guy’s The Destruction of the Zulu Kingdom (1994) and many others.The colonial
government’s covert prods to fuel genocides, veiled endorsement of slavery and
ulterior land-grabbing ploys are bravely taken on through early works like Thomas
Pringle’s African Sketches (1834), comprising a prose memoir of his stay at the
Cape and thirty-nine poems. Amongst the poems, “The Forester of the Neutral
Ground”was highly polemical for its advocacyof inter-racial sexual relationships
between the Boers and the Khois (specifically the Hottentots).
1.2.2 Xhosa Cattle Killing

On top of the destruction of communities due to prolonged infighting, there was
also the inexplicable episode of self-sabotage of resources, described in history
as the Xhosa cattle killing, from April 1856 to June 1857 and the ensuing famine.
Interpreted as a millenarian movement, guided by the vision of the 15-year old
Nongqawuse, approximately four hundred thousand cattle were butchered and
thousands of acres of crop-fields were set on fire. The aftermath of it was the
death of over 40,000 people due to starvation. Although early colonial historians
had given the impression of this being a mass suicide, later analyses firmly suggest
the Xhosa cattle killing to be the earliest instance of large-scale organised passive
resistance. A considerable volume of literary work has focused on the domestic
power struggles as well as resistance movements like the Xhosa cattle massacre.
Zakes Mda, in his novel The Heart of Redness(2000), uses this very movement
and its disastrous outcome, to polarise the Xhosa community into believers and
unbelievers, pitting adherence to tradition against development driven by
rationality, in the form of an ideological bifurcation. He also traces the history of
this ideological conflict, as in a modern 21st century scenario, the two groups
still cannot reach a consensus about building a casino and a tourist resort in the
picturesque village of Qolorha-by-Sea. Jeffrey Peires’The Dead Will Arise (1989)
is another noteworthy text revolving around the Xhosa cattle killing and also
Nongqawuse.
1.2.3 Colenso Controversy

Another significant case of religio-political power struggle, that attracted literary
attention, was the controversy courted by John William Colenso, the first Bishop
of Natal, in the second half of the 19th century for being too broad-minded in his
support of the Zulu belief systems and questioning the credibility of the Pentateuch
(i.e., the first five books of the Old Testament) in The Pentateuch and the Book
of Joshua Critically Examined (1862).His keen, analytic mind and his scholarly
engagement with the Zulu culture enabled Colenso to learn the Zulu language.
Being open to queries and arguments, Colenso contemplated the ideas of the
Zulu converts problematising the veracity of the Pentateuch. He opposed the
idea of eternal damnation of the heathens, refused to decry the practice of
polygamy by the Zulus, debunked the biblical Doctrine of Creation, refuted the
verisimilitude of the numbers and dates predicated in the Genesis, challenged
the interpretation of biblical miracles and oppugned the long-standing conviction
in the Pentateuch being inspired and Moses being its author. The period of
controversy and outrage that followed, saw his dismissal in 1863 by the association
of South African bishops led by Bishop Robert Gray, his reinstatement through
his appeal to the Judicial Committee of Britain’s Privy Council in 1865 and the
14 first Lambeth Conference in 1867, and eventually the splitting of the Anglican
Church in 1869-70. Colenso’s legacy lies in his liberal appreciation of indigenous An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
cultures and his foresight to realise the need to incorporate South African religious
customs to enable Christianity to creatively engage with South African, non-
Christian belief systems.Olive Schreiner and Douglas Blackburn, in their
novels,have satirically dealt with the Colenso controversy and its wider social
implications.
Centuries-long intercommunal struggles, power struggles and struggles of

resistance have,moreover, made it possible for the authentic South African history
to surface and be sincerely heard via the different genres of oral performance
(songs, narratives, rituals, etc.) as well as the literary memories of poets, folk
artists, playwrights and intellectuals like Magema Magwaza Fuze, John
Langalibalele Dube, Krune Mqhayi, Solomon Tshekiso Plaatje, Thomas Mofolo,
Herbert Dhlomo, Rofles Dhlomo, Benedict Vilakazi and several significant others.
1.2.4 The Great Trek

Migration, its accompanying adversities and moments of coldblooded desperation
as well as its socio-psychological impact on community life and well-being, also
feature as thematic concerns in South African writings like, Solomon Tshekiso
Plaatje’s classic Mhudi (written in 1919; published in 1930)combining song and
prose in an emulation of the Bantu storytelling tradition,Stuart Cloete’s Turning
Wheels (1937), Francis Carey Slater’s long poem The Trek (1938), Peter
Abraham’s Wild Conquest (1951),Philippus Villiers Pistorius’No Further Trek
(1957) and many others: “There are no longer any vast open spaces to which we
can go. There is no further trek possible, because there is nowhere to trek. The
problem of human relations, a problem embracing all men and all races, has
become as insistent as the problem of nature”(1957: 4). The Great Trek of 1835,
undertaken by the Boers or the Afrikaners, was prompted by the search for new
hunting and grazing grounds to stay out of the frequent, attritional confrontations
between the colonising Dutch and British groups over territorial disputes, the
hostile take over of pasture lands and the heavy-handed policies of the British.
Reckoned as a landmark in 19th century Afrikaner history, the Great Trek witnessed
approximately 14,000 Boers permanently moving from the Cape Colony to Natal
and for the first time being able to access territories beyond the Orange and the
Vaal river, impenetrable earlier due to the obstruction by the Xhosa people.
However, this emigration to Natal and the Highveld was not without complications
and bloodshed. The Battle of Blood River or the Battle of Ncome river in 1838,
between the migrating Boers and the dwelling Zulus under King Dingane, resulted
in heavy casualties on both sides and capitalising on a strategicallyfavourable
position near the Ncome river, the Boers were able to achieve a significant victory
under the command of Andries Pretorius and thereafter establish the Republic of
Natal with Pietermaritzburg as the capital. The British greed for newer territories,
after all, did not stop with the evacuation of the Cape by the Boers and the conflicts
that they wanted to sidestep, returned to haunt them as the British rejected the
idea of an independent state of the Boers and took over Natal in 1843. The weary
and broken Boers next moved to the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
1.2.5 Anglo-Boer Wars

Tensions between the Boers or Afrikaners occupying Transvaal and Orange Free
State and the British empire reached its peak during the internecine Anglo-Boer 15
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s wars of 1880-81 and 1899-1902. The discovery of colossal deposits of diamond
July’s People
(specifically in Kimberley) and gold (specifically in Witwatersrand)in those
regions had a catalytic influence as the British ruthlessly scampered,denying
other European contenders the scope, to wrest control over these precious mineral
resources. The first Anglo-Boer War or the Transvaal War, from December 1880
to March 1881, was marked by a decisive defeat of the British forces who
underestimated the guerrilla tactics and the territorially superior mode of combat
of the Boers.The socio-economic repercussions of the discovery of humungous
natural reserves of diamond and gold, the consequential South African industrial
awakening and the first Anglo-Boer War, metamorphosed the nature of conflict
and caused conspicuous ideological shifts –from coveting greater territorial
extension to seeking oversight of the inestimable natural troves of gemstones
and precious metals; from power over people and local administrations to power
over resources and the supply of those resources to form and sustain local
administrations; from governance and proselytization to hypocritical deception
and manipulative plunder.
A subjective perception of these changes and the manner of their manifestation

can be found in Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm (1883) through
the guileful, despicable character of Bonaparte Blenkins, projecting thereby how
imperial melodrama can be unthinkably potent in steering racial discourse.The
Story of an African Farm quite patently zooms in on Africa as the target for
literary and ideological cogitation, and thereby Schreiner’s approach in this novel
is significant as a much-needed course-correction for several literary trends of
the period, that were prone to leaving out Africa or enfeebling the focus on
Africa.Schreiner’s novel is also one of the early literary responses, disapproving
and resisting Positivism as rationality not only invalidating superstition, but also
casting doubt on subjective reason.Subsequent literary pieces by Bessie Head,
Alex La Guma, Eugène Marais and others, deliberate upon later adjustments in
the positivist outlook and their ramifications.
The second Anglo-Boer war or the South African war, from October 1899 to
May 1902,involved not just the British empire against the united Boers of
Transvaal and Orange Free State, but also volunteer squadrons from Australia,
New Zealand, India and Canada arriving as reinforcements. The British forces
were further supported by some indigenous South African allies, regiments from
Cape Colony and Natal.Sadly, however, when the war ended in May, 1902, with
the surrender of the Boers, physically and mentally depleted by Lord Kitchener’s
atrocious tactics (like Boer concentration camps and scorched earth policy), the
British and the Boers or Afrikaners notoriously united against the black and non-
white South Africans. This malicious alliance, together with the industrial reforms
of the late 19th century to promote mining of the vast diamond and gold deposits,
suffocated the blacks and non-whites. The situation and role of the blacks in the
Anglo-Boer war is appraised first-hand in works like Solomon Plaatje’s Mafeking
Diary (1973; published posthumously by John Comaroff),and rigorously
examined in historical studies like Bill Nasson’sAbraham Esau’s War (1991).
The build-up of systematic exclusion, denial of rights, deprivation and racial
subjugation led to the prolonged and historic 20th century struggle for the blacks
and non-whites to mould their distinct identity, be accepted and treated with
dignity as well as secure democratic representation.Poems by Krune Mqhayi,
Herbert Dhlomo, David Darlow, Frank Templeton Prince, Benedict Vilakzai,
Guy Butler and others eulogise the intrepid champions of resistance against
16 colonial usurpation of land and property between 1790 and 1906.
1.2.6 Enduring Issues An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
A gamut of complex issues still plagues the South African social backdrop.
Economic uncertainty, hate crimes, moral turpitude, malfeasance, outbreak of
diseases, periods of food crises due to failed crops and no rain, pose serious
challenges to survival and this vulnerable, rickety existence features heavily in
South African writings. These do not only delineate the perspective of the
marginalised blacks and non-whites.A number of authors like Olive Schreiner,
Eugène Marais, Nadine Gordimer, André Brink, J.M. Coetzee,Antjie Krog, Rian
Malan, Jonny Steinberg, Kevin Bloom and many more present the experiences
and the perspectives of the whites, explore the construction and negotiation of
whiteness, look at identity and belonging as a white in the fragmented South
African social landscape and also highlight the heart-wrenching paradox of
unjustified violence on the whites trying to make amends and give back.
The premise for perennial conflict, too, has been looked into, through the
unpublished work of Christian Louis Leipoldt who was amongst the earliest to
interrogate the nature of colonising influences in South Africa and how numerous
wars eroded the indigenous population before the Union of South Africa came
into existence in 1910. Leipoldt’s play Dielaasteaand (1930) is a scathing critique
of racial segregation introduced by the colonisers in the Cape, exposing how
from the early colonial period, the seed of contemporary racial violence was
sown. In the novels Chameleon on the Gallows, Stormwrack and The Mask
(written in the 1930s; published posthumously from 1980-2000), Leipoldt delves
into the factors and the circumstances that pushed the British and the Boers to
the threshold in 1899, the rupture of which culminated in the South African war
(1899-1902), the horrors of the war including martial injustice, war crimes on
non-combatant non-whites, coercion by the Boers and the hopeless post-war
context,rife with mistrust, animosity and resentment. Apart from all these
compelling issues, there is also the question of alignment that perplexed South
African authors in a cultural melting pot setting, as novelists like Peter Abrahams,
Alex La Guma, Lauretta Ngcobo, Bessie Head and Zakes Mda have dealt with
this by subjecting the white community, the notion of being white and the
pervasive sense of unbelonging to critical scrutiny.

1) How can we interpret the influence of the Mfecane and the Xhosa cattle
killing on South African writings?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
2) Briefly discuss the reasons and the outcome of the Great Trek. How is it
addressed in South African writings?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
17
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s 3) How do the Anglo Boer wars impact the lives of the South African blacks?
July’s People
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
4) What are some of the recurring issues in the South African society? How are
they tackled in South African writings?
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
.......................................................................................................................
1.3 APARTHEID
The iniquities of differential treatment and incongruent exercise of rights based
on racial identity reached an abominable peak with the introduction of the
Apartheid policy in 1948. The apartheid and its effects have been and continue
to be the locus of an array of influential South African writings. Racial bigotry,
inequality and bias were already prevalent from much before 1948 and even
after the end of the apartheid in 1994, they still quite noticeably afflict the post-
apartheid race relations. What was striking about the developments in 1948, was
that with the victory of the National Party (or the Re-united National Party) in
the South African parliamentary election, the Daniel François Malan-led
government legalised the deep-seated racially-prejudiced segmentation through
the enactment of the apartheid (Afrikaans for apartness) policy, further
consolidating the position of the advantaged white Europeans to subordinate the
black South Africans, the Coloured people and other non-Europeans like the
Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, etc.) as well as restrict what they could do, where
they could dwell, how much they could possess, all as part of the white scheme
to curb black and non-white social and political aspirations.
A number of repulsive laws were passed to buttress the ideology and the policy
of apartheid, engendering a state-sponsored trampling over of the black and non-
white majority by the white European minority. The Population Registration Act
(1950) prepared the bedrock by racially cataloguing people and made it possible
for the white minority government to allocate discrete rights and privileges to
individuals on the basis of their registration as white European, coloured South
African, black South African or Asian. The Group Areas Act (1950) escalated
the segregation by adding a spatial dimension to it. It clearly designated residential
and professional spaces in urban areas for each racial group as well as restricted
the entry and movement of members of other groups in areas not stipulated for
them. Together with the Land Acts (1954 & 1955) and the Promotion of Bantu
Self-Government Act (1959), the black South African majority was staring at an
incredible proportion (more than 80 percent) of South African land being totally
under the control and at the disposal of the white European minority, with no
legal way for the blacks, the coloureds or the Asians to own these lands or possess
properties on them.
18
1.3.1 Looking at a Few Texts An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
This jarring process of inferiorisation, delegitimisation, dispossession and

dehumanisation of the black and non-white majority is both chronicled and
satirised by a large number of South African authors, alongside the depiction of
windows of resistance as glimmers of hope. Let My People Go(1962), the
enlightening autobiography of Chief Albert Luthuli, delved into how theological
apathy and political stranglehold were together squeezing the life-breath out of
the blacks, reduced to slaves in the very land they belong to. Moreover, Luthuli’s
masterpiece provides a first-hand account of several milestones in the persistent
20th century South African liberation struggle –the 1952 Defiance Campaign
with the public burning of apartheid pass-books, the 1955 drafting of the Freedom
Charter through the Congress of the People Campaign, the following 1956-1961
Treason Trial, the January–June 1957 Alexandra Bus Boycott (Azikwelwa), the
1957-1959 Pound-A-Day Campaign by the South African Congress of Trade
Unions (SACTU), the 1958 and 1961 mass stay-at-home strikes, the 1959 Potato
Boycott, the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre –through the astute eyes of the 15-year
President (1952–67) of the African National Congress. In the words of Luthuli,
the admonishable socio-political reality required organised resistance and lent
the backdrop for the story of the African National Congress to unfold, as “[w]e
Africans are depersonalised by the whites, our humanity and dignity is reduced
in their imagination to a minimum. We are “boys,” “girls,” “Kaffirs,” “good
natives” and “bad natives.” But we are not, to them, really quite people, scarcely
more than units in a labour force and parts of a “Native Problem.”Now, I refuse
to lend myself to this degraded outlook”(1962: 155).
The theological thorn grievously wounding and paralysing South African socio-
cultural ethos, as pointed out by Chief Luthuli, is further probed by William
(Bloke) Modisane in his poignant autobiography Blame Me on History
(1963).Modisane laments how a distortion of the biblical narrative in Genesis
9:18-27 blatantly continues to ideologically exonerate the white European
colonisers for centuries from enslaving, disenfranchising and fettering multiple
generations of black South Africans:
“The purpose of the religious instruction which I received was to educate me

into an acceptance of the irrefutability of the scriptures of Christendom; they
revealed to me that God in his infinite wisdom singled out the sinful issue of
Ham for punishment even unto the thousandth and thousandth generation.This
issue of Ham was invested—for the purposes of easy identification—with visual
differences in skin colour and damned to eternal servitude. If God had not intended
us to be different He would have made us all the same, and in His infinite wisdom
He has invested with a high visibility for whom no redemption is possible; even
the dying of Christon the cross shall influence no change upon their condition....
I could not accept this faith which was demanding my obedience, was plundering
my body and would not embrace;I was appalled by its tyranny and its honeyed
words which taught me to seek for peace and comfort in bondage. The harbingers
of this faith revealed to me that ‘man was made in the image of God’, then
proceeded to dehumanise me; they taught me to repeat the Ten Commandments,
with particularemphasis on, ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’, but in practice they
showered denunciations on me, defined me as a savage and classed me among
the beasts; there was one morality standard for white Christians and another for
19
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s black Christians,and even the sermon they preach is a colour-bar one”(1963:
July’s People
183).
The seeming unchangeability of this discourse and correspondingly the condition

of the blacks, chokes Modisane as he experiences fatherhood and yet is far from
being happy: “...for me it was also the moment of recognition: I was responsible
for a life, the confrontation terrified and depressed me. I began to brood, as my
father must have brooded over the future of his son. I was a slave in the land of
my ancestors, condemned to a life of servitude, into which life I had inadvertently
committed my daughter; the life I held in my hands was my personal offering to
the jackals of South Africa, my individual contribution placed at the foot of the
master; it was my investment towards the maintenance and the continuance of
the slave dynasty, I had added my share to the nourishment of the cosmic life of
the slave”(1963: 74).
The biblically-scaffolded vilification of the South African blacks, the question

of ‘colour’and its generational reiteration through the institution of the church,
to perpetuate the servile status quo of the non-whites, is evident in Sarah Gertrude
Millin’sGod’s Stepchildren (1924). The trope of miscegenation and its conundrums
are broached, as the progeny of the missionary Reverend Andrew Flood and his
Khoi (specifically Hottentot)wife Silla,is derogated as non-divine creation:”...not
God, but Satan, had made them evil...”(1920: 20), “[f]or the brown people, the
yellow people, might be as abandoned of hope as the inhabitants of Hell”(230),
“...nothing but an untidiness on God’s earth”(293) and this perverse irrationality
even makes pregnancy for a mixed couple, a predicament: “to know suddenly
that there was that growing within her hitherto pure body that was akin –however
distantly –to these unnatural creatures”(275).
The point of racial purity is also invoked as “...one preferred a real, straightforward
black man to a half-caste. Whatever else the black man might be, he was, at
least, pure”(227), whereas those with mixed racial genealogy were disdained as
“mongrels”, “...worse than the real black people....[b]ecause, whatever they are,
they aren’t pure.... they’ve got all the bad of both sides.... It stands to reason...that
the white in them can’t be good white. And the black can’t either.... the decent
natives don’t like to be mixed up.... So the coloured people must be worse than
any one else.”(123–227). The final nail into their already troubled conscience
and the completion of the cycle of self-anathema happens with:”What would
you do if you found out you had coloured blood in you...with that dark skin
andall? I’d drown myself or something, wouldn’t you?”(123).
Furthermore, the complexion spectrum is illogically and subversively yoked with

the mental capacity spectrum as “[t]hey were, in the main, stupid and
indolent”(19), with “a capacity for imitation”(63), unable to “...hold his own
against white competition”having “...not the brain, the persistence, the
temperament”(229). Millin’s remorseless choice of words exposes how the limits
of the potential of the coloured people,were also smotheringly demarcated:
“...nowhere an obviously coloured man in a big commercial enterprise, in a learned
profession or an artistic endeavour. They were many of them astonishingly capable
with their hands, they made goodmasons, or carpenters, or mechanics; but there
they ended. Either they had not the heart or they had not the head to strive for
anything else. They often remained to the end of their days gamins by
disposition,imitative and monkey like”(229).Ultimately, across successive
20 generations, there is a growing sense of alienation, self-hatred owing to racially-
hybrid parentage and the psychosomatic stench of uncertainty. An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
The long-spun contortion of the biblical yarn of Ham, Shem and Japheth is further
deconstructed by Barbara Trapido in Noah’s Ark (1984) as she disparages the
role of the bible through brief yet incisive commentary.The protagonist Alison,
brought up in apartheid-ridden South Africa but later on married to the American
scientist Noah, has an illicit carnal attraction for the nonconformist South African
freedom-fighter and activist,Thomas of coloured ethnicity, whore-enters her life
since their non-consummated, unexpressed longing for each other during their
college days. Thomas, while imprisoned, was handed the Bible, the unspeakable
depravities contained in which, profoundly unsettled him: “I have read it twice
through and I must tell you that it’s gripping. It’s nothing but rape, incest and
vengeance from start to finish”(1984: section 11).Even the piquancy and jitter of
committing adultery cannot obscure the trauma of Alison’s lived experience and
how it affected her judgment: “There were too many things which poisoned the
time and the place for us...being young in a place which manifestly denied the
most basic personal freedoms to most of its people –how could one have hung
up one’s tender youthful conscience and pressed one’s own personal causes? I
believed, I think, in some half-formulated way, that I had no right to care about
whom I married. That was wicked rubbish, of course, but I believed it”(ibid).The
imprint of the unscrupulous theological dismantling of indigenous belief systems
is undeniable as “[f]alse-consciousness was everywhere and Methodism, along
with a variety of more extreme manifestations of patriarchal Victorian evangelism,
appeared to be rife among black woman machinists and garment workers....
whereas once in South Africa the whites had got the Bible and the blacks had got
the land, the thing was now reversed: the blacks had the Bible and the whites had
the land....As far as the women’s movement was concerned, a preoccupation
with the after-life was a severe impediment to the way forward”(section 19).
In conjunction with theological atrophy and moral bankruptcy, interrogating the
issue of colour or the colour problem is a formidable thematic concern in the
South African literary corpus. William Plomer’s pièce de résistance Turbott
Wolfe(1925, reprint 1965) quite sensationally, at its time, pioneered in its
rumination of miscegenation as a possible panacea for all colour problems and
questions of race, while also blowing the lid off the ugly hypocrisy in the treatment
of the blacks by the whites, whose benevolent pretence had been dealt a fatal
knock. The protagonist Wolfe, a British trader having recently arrived in South
Africa, starts operating a general store in Lembuland, whereby he is confounded
by the superiority-driven attitudinal constructs of the colour-obsessed, fusion-
phobic whites and has to painstakingly come to terms with his own impotence to
ameliorate the situation:
“There would be conflict between myself and the white; there would be
conflict between myself and the black. There would be the unavoidable
question of colour. It is a question to which every man in Africa, black,
white, yellow, must provide his own answer” (1965: 68).
The inevitability of this question is apposed with the experience of being-in-
Africa from the pivotal fairground scene, which structures Wolfe’s subsequent
experiences: “Round us as we talked circulated a crowd of black, white and
coloured people: English, Dutch, Portuguese, non descript were the whites; Bantu,
Lembu, Christianized and aboriginal, Mohammedan negroes were the blacks;
and the coloureds were all colours and all races fused. It came upon me suddenly
in that harsh polyglot gaiety that I was living in Africa; that there is a question of
21
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s colour”(62).The prolific influence of Turbott Wolfe, specifically in propelling
July’s People
the evolution of the South African novel, is succinctly elucidated by Laurens van
der Post in the Introduction to the novel’s 1965 edition: “For the first time in our
literature, with Turbott Wolfe, a writer takes on the whole of South African life.
Suddenly, the barriers are down and imagination at last keeps open house in a
divided land. The black people of South Africa are no longer just a problem...Nor,
inTurbott Wolfe, are the black people used merely as an incitement to adventure
and romance. They take their own place in their own rightas individual human
beings.”
1.4 BROAD PERIODS

Beyond these pressing issues and ideological undercurrents, South African
literature is broadly about two main periods:
(i) the period before 1960, characterised by the socio-political clout and
intellectual arrogance of the whites with slowly flourishing literary initiatives by
the blacks as well as nascent recognition and acknowledgement of their literary
prowess;
and (ii) the period after 1960, marked by a surge of the blacks as literary
fountainheads and stalwarts, with the white authors too demurring to the
scandalously wrongful apartheid.
We have already discussed the crucial historical events of the period before 1960
and elaborated on how they sculpted the thematic concerns of South African
writings of that period and beyond. The spirited literary initiatives in the pre-
1960 period rose to a crescendo in the 1950s with the publication of Drum, a
magazine that thoroughly transformed the manner of representation of the blacks
and the coloured in the South African society, so much so that Drum became the
most popularly read magazine and was reported about in the TIME magazine’s
December 1952 article, “South African Drumbeats” which extolled its brilliant
reception, as Drum had quickly become the mouthpiece for the grievances of the
informed urban blacks and a springboard for burgeoning African nationalist
movements:”In the teeming Negro and coloured shanty towns of Johannesburg,
where newspapers and magazines are a rarity, a truck piled high with magazines
rumbled through the unpaved streets last week. Wherever it stopped, hundreds
of people swarmed about it, buying the magazine:
“The African Drum. A Life-size monthly, Drum has in less than three
years become the leading spokesman for South Africa’s 9,000,000 Negro
and colored population. In South Africa, torn by racial strife, Drum’s
popularity is easily explained.”
The second period, i.e., the period after 1960, entails the exhausting socio-political
haul for the liberation of all South Africans,spanning thirty-four years.After the
Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, in which 69 unarmed, non-violent protesters were
killed and 180 seriously injured in an unprovoked attack by the police using live
ammunition rounds, the nature of resistance underwent a radical change with
intensification of the process of arming the protestors and integrating guerrilla
units like the Umkhonto we Sizwe (abbreviated as MK) into the African National
Congress.The turbulence, antagonism and suspicion-laden atmosphere that
prevailed never allowed any inter-communal stability and amity to materialise,
the irrepressible nature of socio-psychological scarring across generations
22
negating even further any such scope. Ergo, Desmond Tutu’s vision of a ‘rainbow An Introduction to Writings
from South Africa
nation’, as evinced in The Rainbow People of God (1995), in the post-apartheid
era, never really had the soil suitable enough for its germination. The
unrealizability of harmonious co-existence preceding the sense of despair and
disillusionment with the lure of unabandonable existential hope,occurs as the
characteristic crux in South African writings of the period after 1960, specially
in post-apartheid literature.A diverse range of works in this period like, Miriam
Tlali’s Muriel at Metropolitan(1975)(retitled as Between Two Worlds), Lewis
Nkosi’s Mating Birds (1986),Breyten Breytenbach’s The True Confessions of an
Albino Terrorist (1985) and Memory of Snow and of Dust (1987), John Maxwell
Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians (1980), Life & Times of Michael K. (1983)
and Disgrace (1999), Ivan Vladislavic’s The Folly (1993),Achmat Dangor’s
Kafka’s Curse (1997) and Bitter Fruit (2001), evoke myriad emotional responses
leading to an overwhelming, yet curious, juxtaposition of ebullience and despair.
The period after 1960 is also vital because of the copious international attention
garnered by the absorbing works of authors like Nadine Gordimer, John Coetzee,
Alan Paton, AndréBrink and others. Nadine Gordimer and John Maxwell Coetzee
were honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991 and 2003 respectively
for their illustrious contributions to South African literature. In fact, Gordimer is
the first white African woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize and the first South
African to get it in the field of Literature.
In this Block, we are going to study one of Nadine Gordimer’s most famous
novels –July’s People, first published in 1981 and banned by the apartheid-era
government in South Africa for itsdepiction of a fictional civil war, the vicious
overthrow of the apartheid state by armed black South Africans and the reversal
of roles.
Now, that we have an idea about South African writings and the historical
influences shaping their present state, we will move to the next Unit to discuss
the various aspects of the novel July’s People.
1) How did the apartheid policy affect the black and the coloured South
Africans?
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2) On what ground was the apartheid justified by the white European minority?
How do South African writings throw light on this aspect?
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3) Briefly talk about the two main periods under which South African writings
can be broadly grouped.
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July’s People 1.5 LET US SUM UP
In this introductory Unit, we have provided a brief overview of the history and
the typical concerns of South African writings across the 19th and the 20th century.
We have given you:
an idea of how rich and multitudinous the inventory of South African writings
is, with a number of indigenous communities and their distinct literary
traditions contributing to it.
a bird’s eye view of the cardinal historical events and turning points across
the period of colonisation, the apartheid and the South African struggle for
liberation, all of which heavily influenced the theme, style and
characterisation of South African writings.
a taste of the explicitly honest lexical choices and brutal mode of narration
by looking at certain quotations from salient texts.
an understanding of the two broad periods in South African literature, i.e.,
before 1960 and after 1960, and how they differed.
Before heading over to the next Unit, please make sure that you have answered
all the questions given in ‘Check Your Progress’. This will help you revisit the
events and issues we have already talked about while giving you some practice
in expressing yourself in your own words. We hope that you have enjoyed learning
about South African writings and are excited about reading July’s People.
1.6 SUGGESTED READINGS

If you would like to read more about South African writings, you may consult:
Michael Chapman, South African Literatures (London: Longman, 1996)
Rita Barnard, Apartheid and Beyond: South African Writers and the Politics of
Place (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)
Guy Butler, A Book of South African Verse(Cape Town:Oxford University Press,
1959)
David Attwell& Derek Attridge, The Cambridge History of South African
Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
These are only suggested as additional readings and are in no way compulsory.
1.7 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

For all answers refer to 1.1
For all answers refer to 1.3 and 1.4
24
An Introduction to Writings
UNIT 2 READING THE TEXT from South Africa
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Nadine Gordimer: Life and Works
2.3 Reading July’s People
2.3.1 Analysing the Plot
2.3.2 Narrative Framework
2.4 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 Answers
2.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, based on our understanding of the influence of colonisation, inter-
communal violence, repugnant policies like the apartheid and movements of
resistance, in shaping South African writings and their typical concerns, we are
going to primarily discuss the themes, plot, narrative technique and
characterisation of July’s People. We will realise that in her creditable attempt to
seek a sincere, plausible voice to articulate the lived experiences and histories of
deprivation of the marginalised and systemically excluded South African blacks,
Gordimer in July’s People stirringly projects the possibility of the once-
incapacitated subaltern,being able to reclaim the space to refute and authoritatively
engage with the whites, as power hierarchies implode and long-established roles
are reversed in the backdrop of a raging civil war.
outline the life and works of Nadine Gordimer;
understand the intricacies of the plot of July’s People;
comment on the roles of the major and the minor characters in the novel;
and
appreciate the nuances of the novel’s narrative framework.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
“As a writer and as a human being, Nadine Gordimer responded with
exemplary courage and creative energy to the great challenge of her times,
the system of apartheid unjustly imposed and heartlessly implemented on
the South African people. Looking to the great realist novelists of the
19th century as models, she produced a body of work in which the South
Africa of the late 20th century is indelibly recorded for all time.”(John
Maxwell Coetzee)
This is the second Unit of the first block in your course on Postcolonial Literatures.
In the previous Unit, we have briefly discussed the nature, concerns and trajectory
of South African writings through the 19th and the 20thcentury.We have also looked
25
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s at the different communities along with their historical roles in determining the
July’s People
course of South African writings. In this Unit, we are going to study the novel
July’s People, written by Nadine Gordimer, the bulk of whose works belong to
the period after 1960.
July’s People, first published in 1981, is Gordimer’s eighth novel and one of her
most influential works, set in the volatile context of the Soweto uprising (1976)
and the Elsie’s River Killings (1980) of the immediate past as well as the sombre
atmosphere engendered by the post-Sharpeville (1960) state of resistance. The
novel was immediately banned in South Africa by the erstwhile National Party-
government for its audacious and vexing portrayal of sweeping sociodynamic
ripples and upheaval of power equations in the eventuality of a violent toppling
of the apartheid regime.Gordimer’s troubling prophetic vision was also motivated
by promising geopolitical developments in the vicinity, with the declaration of
independence in neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique and
Angola.
July’s People, along with several other works like A Guest of Honour (1970),
The Conservationist (1974), Burger’s Daughter (1979), My Son’s Story (1990),
The House Gun (1998), corroborates Gordimer’s position as one of the most
illustrious writers to emerge in the 20th century. Clearly oriented as anti-apartheid,
July’s People is a compelling piece of resistance literature that challenges
convenient assumptions on race, identity, power and gender, while deliberately
dispensing with shells of indifference in the envisaged incendiary scenario
engulfing all communities across the country.
The title, too, adds to the unease by subjecting the socially advantaged identities
of the liberal Smaleses to be obliviated in an imagined, yet highly probable,
reality; a reality where the lofty pedestals of the whites have crumbled infront of
the avalanche of black revolutionary onslaughts; in this palpability, a liberal
white family slowly loses its markers of privilege and superiority, and their
recognition is now attached to their black servant, Mwawate, whose real name
had been inert under the foreign sobriquet July, mirroring the coma that had
rendered the black majority supine and destitute in their own country. In this
radical twist of fate, the Smaleses become July’s ‘people’, dependent on July, for
shelter, protection and survival, putting July, for the first time, in a position to
claim responsibility over the Smaleses. The nub of Gordimer’s prognosis is this
dreaded relegation, even the hypotheticality of which, was too unsettling for the
apartheid government.
Before analysing the plot and looking at the different characters in July’s People,
we will briefly talk about Nadine Gordimer, her personal life and her invaluable
contribution to not just South African literature but World literature.
2.2 NADINE GORDIMER: LIFE AND WORKS

Born in the mining town of Springs, near Johannesburg in South Africa, on the
20th of November, 1923, Nadine Gordimer’s early awareness of issues of racial
inequality and political subjugation, was due to the formative influence of her
European Jewish immigrant parents, Hannah Myers and Isaac Wolf Gordimer,
as well as the first-hand teenage experience of witnessing a bizarre police raid
on her family home to confiscate letters and diaries from a servant’s room.Being
26
vulnerable and having no choice but to weather the ubiquitous overlay of violence Reading the Text
muffling voices of resentment, are common to her characters, whom she brings
to life with a rare degree of artistic sincerity and integrity.
Schooled in a Catholic convent till the age of 10, she spent her early adolescent
years, due to a minor cardiac ailment, largely at home, in the company of
acclaimed texts by literary giants like D H Lawrence, E M Forster, M Proust, L
N Tolstoy, F M Dostoevsky and others. This experience, in the words of Gordimer
herself, of “living the life of other people in books”1, pushed her firmly into the
world of books and was responsible to a great extent for her introversion as well
as her preference to lead a private life away from public gaze. Being intimately
bonded with books, she acquired a stupendous command over the English
language and its nuances.She started writing just at the age of nine and had her
first publication on 13th June, 1937, in the form of the short story, “The Quest for
Sun Gold”2 in The Sunday Express, the jubilance of which was unparalleled for
her as she aptly reminisces many years later: “to see this story in print –and they
didn’t know it had been written by a 15-year-old girl –there’s never been a moment
like it. I don’t think even the Nobel Prize was as thrilling”3.
Through her extensive reading and scholarly engagement, Nadine Gordimer

transformed the period of her home isolation and dearth of physical activity into
one of intellectual enrichment and earnest forays into the realm of writing. Her
style, sensitivity and acumen were taken note of and her short stories kept
appearing in South African magazines with the eventual release of her first
collection of short stories, Face to Face in 1949.In between, she was an occasional
student at the University of Witwatersrand in 1946, studying English literature
and language. Although she did not complete her course at that time, she was
conferred with an honorary Doctorate by the university, later in life, in 1984.
She became involved in the 1950s’Sophia town renaissance, placed in a

historically critical interval between the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1960
Sharpeville Massacre. Together with Nathaniel Nakasa as the founding editor,
she oversaw the glorious struggle of the Quarterly Literary and Cultural Review,
The Classic (started in 1963) as a crucial member of its Board of Trustees and
Editorial Advisers,in a period rife with trauma, cynicism and muzzling of anti-
apartheid voices, noticeably in the form of proscription of black South African
literature.
Nadine Gordimer was resolute in her opposition to the debilitating apartheid,

actively participating in demonstrations, delivering speeches and becoming the
literary conduit for the silenced black South African writers, whose spirits she
renewed as she remained true to her commitment to black liberation. Beyond her
subjective engagement with the issue of apartheid, she was a founder member of
the Congress of South African Writersand was associated with the African
National Congress while it was still outlawed. Her entry into politics as a partisan
and her long connection with the African National Congress, which she made
1
Quoted from “A writer’s life: Nadine Gordimer“as per her interaction with Marianna Macdonald
and published in The Telegraph on 4th June, 2003.
2
As recorded in the entry titled Gordimer mss., 1934-1991, available electronically at Archives
Online of Lilly Library, Indiana University. The title of her first published short story is widely
miscited as “The Quest for Seen Gold” .
3
Quoted from “A writer’s life: Nadine Gordimer”, The Telegraph, 4th June, 2003.
27
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s official in 1990, were triggered by the barbaric 1960 Sharpeville shootings and
July’s People
the incarceration of her “closest female friend”4 Bettie du Toit, who had a
remarkable influence in shaping her socio-political awareness: “...face-to-face,
fist-to-fist reality of apartheid politics and practice came from the intimate
presence of Bettie...”5.
Although she lived through a period of intense political turmoil and

intercommunal violence, and her anti-apartheid stance made her susceptible to
state-sponsored punitive measures, she never sought refuge in Europe or the
United States of America, continuing to stay in South Africa, amidst the very
people whose personal lives and regular ordeals found penetrating expression in
her writings.Her political activism and writings edified Nelson Mandela about
“white liberal sensibility”6. She worked closely with Mandela’s lawyers during
the 1963 Rivonia Trial, edited Mandela’s 1964 “I am prepared to die”speech and
testified at the 1986 Delmas trial to protect 22 African National Congress
members. In due course of time, Nadine Gordimer entered the circle of Mandela’s
closest friends and was one of the first he wished to meet when set free from
Victor Verster prison in 1990.
Over the years, she received countless awards, honorary doctorates and
international accolades. She became the first South African writer to win the
Booker prize in 1974 for The Conservationist and subsequently, the first South
African writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. Her death in 2014
has left an unfillable void in the global literary arena.
Selected Works
One-act plays
“The First Circle”,Six One-act Plays by South African Authors, Pretoria:JL van
Schaik, 1966.
Short Story Collections

Face to Face. Johannesburg: Silver Leaf Books, 1949.
The Soft Voice of the Serpent. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1952.
Six Feet of the Country. London: Gollancz, 1956.
Friday’s Footprint. London: Gollancz, 1960.
Not for Publication. London: Gollancz, 1965.
Livingstone’s Companions. New York: The Viking Press, 1971.
Selected Stones. London: Jonathan Cape, 1975.
A Soldier’s Embrace. London: Jonathan Cape, 1980.
Something Out There. London: Jonathan Cape, 1984.
A Correspondence Course and Other Stories. Helsinki: Eurographica, 1986.
Crimes of Conscience: Selected Short Stories.Portsmouth: Heinemann
International, 1991.
Jump and Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1991.
Why Haven’t You Written?: Selected Stories 1950-1972. New York: Penguin,
4
Quoted from the article “The Life of a Revolutionary for Freedom” written by Nadine Gordimer
for News 24, dated 19th May, 2012.
5
Ibid.
28
6
Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom. Little, Brown and Company, 1994.
1992. Reading the Text
Loot and Other Stories. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003.

Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black and Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, 2007.
Novels
The Lying Days. London: Gollancz, 1953.
A World of Strangers. London: Gollancz, 1958.
Occasion for Loving. London: Gollancz, 1963.
The Late Bourgeois World. London: Gollancz, 1966.
A Guest of Honour. New York: The Viking Press, 1970.
The Conservationist. London: Jonathan Cape, 1974.
Burger’s Daughter. New York: The Viking Press, 1979.
July’s People. New York: The Viking Press, 1981.
A Sport of Nature. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1987.
My Son’s Story. London: Bloomsbury, 1990.
None to Accompany Me.New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994.
The House Gun. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998.
The Pickup. London: Bloomsbury, 2001.
Get a Life.London: Bloomsbury, 2005.
No Time Like the Present.London: Bloomsbury, 2012.
Non-fiction, Essays, Reporting

The Black Interpreters: Notes on African Writing.Johannesburg: Ravan Press,
1973.
What Happened to Burger’s Daughter or How South African Censorship Works.
Johannesburg: Taurus Publication, 1980.
The Essential Gesture: Writing, Politics and Places.New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1988.
Writing and Being: The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures.Cambridge: Harvard
University press, 1995.
Living in Hope and History: Notes from Our Century. New York: Farrar, Straus
& Giroux, 1999.
Edited volumes
Telling Tales. New York: Picador, 2004.
Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1950–2008. London: Bloomsbury, 2010.
We will now begin our discussion of the various aspects of the novel July’s People.
But before doing that, we want to remind you to carefully read all the sections
and answer the questions given in ‘Check Your Progress’. This will help you
revisit what has already been discussed and give you some practice in expressing
29
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s yourself in your own words. We do hope you enjoy working through this Unit.
July’s People
4) How did Nadine Gordimer develop her interest in writing?
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5) Briefly discuss Gordimer’s role as an anti-apartheid activist and author.
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2.3 READING JULY’S PEOPLE

July’s People is set in a transitional period marked by political turbulence and
clamour for a thorough social revamp. The intrinsically racist apartheid policy,
though still functional, had lost all validity and was nearing its end along with
the very regime, which had sanctimoniously brought into force such a disgraceful
policy. However, the nature and character of the regime to come cannot also be
clearly mapped in this interlude; the premise for the formation of a new
government is explicit but its manner and aftermath are speculative. It is in this
capricious context that Gordimer foresees an extremist insurgency by the blacks,
pushed to the precipice, and how the resultant collapse of the apartheid regime
metamorphoses the existing social equations between the non-whites and the
whites. Correspondingly, Gordimer resorts to Gramsci’s sagacity in the novel’s
epigraph: “The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum
there arises a great diversity of morbid symptoms”.But the interregnum here is
not simply socio-political; it is also personal and ideological.Even for Gordimer
as an author, the writing of July’s People is in that transitional phase of her life
when she ceased to be the lighthouse of white liberal perspectives and consolidated
her position as a staunch, unyielding proponent of racial justice as well as anti-
apartheid activism.
In her essay ‘Living in the Interregnum’in 1982, a year after the publication of
July’s People, Gordimer bluntly confesses: “I was a coward and no doubt shall
often be one again, in my actions and statements as a citizen of the interregnum;
it is a place of shifting ground, forecast for me in the burning slag heaps of coal
mines we children used to ride across with furiously pumping bicycle pedals and
flying hearts, in the Transvaal town where I was born”. Gordimer’s admission is
not only indicative of her seriously heeding and engaging with locality, but it is
also suggestive of how the mining town of Springs furnished the mental premise
for realising the sort of change chronicled in the novel. Moreover, July’s People
is momentous as it evincesa paradigm shift in Gordimer’s characterisation,
specifically in the stance of her white protagonists. The novel traces a clear swerve
30
in the white protagonist’s allegiance from the overpowered whites to the in- Reading the Text
control blacks, something which can be interpreted by readers as circumstantial
rather than intentional. Before July’s People, Gordimer’s novels situated white
female protagonists in their private lives with privileged appurtenances while
identifying with the blacks at the politico-intellectual level.
2.3.1 Analysing the Plot

Although July’s People was first published in June, 1981, approximately thirteen
years before the end of the apartheid which Gordimer sensationally predicts
without being specific about its manner, the plot of the novel brilliantly anticipates
the new socio-political realities that would make it imperative for the whites,
unaccustomed to this state of powerlessness, to go through a baptism by fire.
This realignment and remaking, however agonising, wasthe need of the hour as
in Gordimer’s own words, “we whites have been brought up on so many lies;
we’ve been led up the garden path, or sold down the river by our ancestors in
South Africa. In other words, whites have developed a totally unreal idea of how
they ought to live, of their right to go on living in that country. Consequently,
they must undergo a long process of shedding illusions in order fully to understand
the basis for staying in South Africa. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people
who have the will to attempt this. It’s very hard to peel yourself like an onion,
without producing a lot of tears in the process. Yet, it is absolutely necessary for
anybody who wants to stay.”7
Despite how wuthering the political climate was and how much pent-up social
frustration was aggregated, July’s People does not shock readers through the
depiction of any form of ugly, visceral brutality, rather the undoing is ethico-
political, socio-cultural as well as material in the form of gradual loss of all the
mechanical tokens of power. Gordimer’s literary acumen is unquestionable as
although she treads tricky territory, she is wise enough to not offer any exact
outline to the dissolution of the apartheid and thereby deny the white regime’s
racist propaganda the chance to exaggerate any sort of fallacy about how black
majority rule would be baleful and dismal.
The story of the novel is hinged on a futuristic sense and quite interestingly it is
sensory bewilderment that grips us, as we, as readers, enter the world of Maureen,
Bamford and July, the protagonist-trio, of which Maureen “is the pivot”8.Their
associations undergo an iconoclastic revision in the grossly unfamiliar setting of
July’s mother’s hut as Maureen Smales, Bamford Smales and their children Victor,
Gina and Royce are forced to flee Johannesburg, move north and seek shelter in
the village of their black servant July, in the event of an extremist Black revolution
and ensuing murderous riots that brutely unseat the apartheid government.The
novel is set in motion quite abruptly with July’s question, “You like to have
some cup of tea?—”. Readers gather after a while that it is in fact the morning
after a physically tiring and mentally draining three-day journey through bush
country, with the Smaleses hiding on the floor of the truck driven mainly by
Bamford. Such drastic measures became exigent in the grim context of
transportation hubs like airports and ports being under siege and white people
7
Quoted from the 1982 two-part interview A Conversation with Nadine Gordimer by Robert
Boyers, Clark Blaise, Terence Diggory and Jordan Elgrably.
8
Quoted from “An Interview with Nadine Gordimer: Harare, February 14, 1992” by Biodun
Jeyifo.
31
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s being attacked on sight. Their desperation and panic are evident in the hasty
July’s People
manner in which they had to pack their belongings, forgetting and being unable
to include several things in the process. After the exhausting and tense transit to
July’s village, the psychophysiological brunt of this flight is evident as Gordimer
places the Smaleses in the zone of ‘sensory dislocation’and ‘delirium’.Beyond
the literal, Gordimer’s intention here is to deliberately push readers into an
unfamiliar, inconsistent and phantasmagorical domain, to enable them to grasp
the ramifications of landing in the terra incognita of an unprivileged
existence,where the uninitiated liberal whites like the Smaleses need to undertake
a painstaking array of adjustments to be able to accept the changed reality and
thereby inhabit their new home. In fact, Gordimer’s candid engagement with
these perspectival and ideological changes is discernible from her own words:
“...to work with blacks not for blacks –no patronizing proxy –in a productive
and progressive way...”as “...it became necessary for young whites to move in
among blacks, to offer their expertise...”and “...stepping out of leadership as
soon as people could take over themselves”.9 Gordimer puts this across
unambiguously to show “that there are some whites who, one way or another,
are looking for ways to prepare themselves, to live differently under a black
majority government in a non-racial state”10. For the liberal Smaleses, acquainted
with the ground reality and decades-long simmering tension,arguably things
unfold distressfully fast and they are unprepared to confront the inevitable, let
alone live it. This unreadiness is construed through the malaise, the ‘delirium’and
the flashbacks that continuously pit vivid glimpses of their past against the present.
Having to come to terms with the unconventional structure of July’s opening

question is the very first cue to a multifaceted adjustment process. The question
perplexes readers not only due to an unsound quantification of what July is offering
but also due to the absence of a fathomable context.Parallel to Maureen’s jerky
egress from the state of slumber, roused by July’s question, we as readers too are
jolted without caution into an unfamiliar space where we falter and flounder as
we gradually figure out its contours and intricacies. This sense of unfamiliarity
is set in contrast to the sense of familiarity in the way July still performs his role
of the Smaleses’servant, “that day for them as his kind has always done for their
kind”11.The opposition between the known and the unknown, the experienced
and the unexperienced finds recurrent reinforcement, the first of which
deconstructs the etiquette of door knocking as Gordimer prudently makes her
readers aware of the plethora of changes surrounding the displaced Smaleses,
whereby such customs and formalities lose relevance and practicality:
“The knock on the door
no door, an aperture in thick mud walls, and the sack that hung over it looped
back for air...
No knock; but July, their servant, their host, bringing two pink glass cups of
tea...”12
9
Quoted from the 1982 two-part interview A Conversation with Nadine Gordimer by Robert
Boyers, Clark Blaise, Terence Diggory and Jordan Elgrably.
10
Ibid
11
Gordimer, N. July’s People, p.1.
12
32 Ibid
The novel progresses with Maureen taking cognizance of the present as July Reading the Text
appears with tea for Maureen and Bamford, and breakfast for Victor, Gina and
Royce. The children are asleep on the seats removed from the truck instead of a
proper bed and this is one of the many patent indications of the loss of corporeal
perquisites, entitlement as well as material security. The stark opposite of how
the Smaleses lived back in Johannesburg now stares them in the face as Maureen
grapples with altered realities like black rural life, subsistence in a mud hut with
a lot of insects and muck, poles apart from being on leisurely camping trips. Still
reeling from disorientation and disillusionment, Maureen enquires about their
truck, the “bakkie”, the retention of which was somehow mollifying to her
otherwise shaken perception of the changed milieu. Bamford’s reply of him having
hidden the truck in the bush, in accordance with July’s instruction, reflects their
ironic dependence on and adherence to July’s counsel for survival in a grave
inversion of their snug white middle-class existence. In fact, the sheer difficulty
in foregoing their settled life in Johannesburg, in order to stay alive,is steadily
reiterated through Maureen’s recollections of the unreclaimable and retracing
herself mentally to a point in her childhood where she recalls the objects in “the
room in the shift boss’s house on mine property”13. This is her way of coping
with the present and in Gordimer’s words, regaining ‘equilibrium’.The changed
nature of dependence on July is distinct as it is no longer the master-servant
spectrum where the Smaleses earlier relied on July for help with domestic chores.
Within this new dynamic of dependence, the interplay of language and power is
unmistakeable as Maureen slowly but surely apprehends the pertinence of now
listening to July’s articulations.
July’s family members too become involved as they solicit an explanation for
the curious arrival of the Smaleses in the village. July’s disclosure of the havoc
being wrought by the black dissidents in the country, is not adequate to convince
his wife Martha as well as his old mother, both of whom sort of discredit July’s
summary because of their own separate understanding of white superiority from
whatever exposure they had till then. The historic impression of the blacks being
totally at the military mercy of the whites is so deep-rooted that July’s mother is
totally unwilling to believe the news of armed insurgency by the rebellious blacks:
“Who shot? Black people? Our people? How could they do that.”14 Furthermore,
she gets anxious about the possibility of white retribution, lacking the optimism
of even imagining a systemic overhaul being now possible and warns July: “White
people. They are very powerful, my son. They are very clever. You will never
come to the end of the things they can do.” 15 This widespread general
mindset,saturated with reluctance, trauma-induced pessimism and dismissiveness,
is one of the ‘morbid symptoms’in the Gramscian ‘interregnum’, that Gordimer
explores while zeroing in on the personal trials that accompany a staggered
transitional process.
Bamford and Maureen’s routine of religiously listening to the news bulletins on

the radio corroborates their state of despair and yearning for the situation to
change. Beyond this routine, Bamford puts his resourcefulness into action and
builds a water tank for the village. Maureen too, in an attempt to get out of the
feeling of doom and gloom, tries reading Manzoni’s novelThe Betrothed when
13
14
15
Gordimer, N. July’s People, p.21. 33
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s July does not allow her to work. However, the throbbing realisation that dawns
July’s People
upon her is that no textual fiction can quite match up to her present knotty situation:
“No fiction could compete with what she was finding she did not know, could
not have imagined or discovered through imagination.”16Correspondingly,
overwhelmed by a trance of nostalgia, Maureen travels back in time to her girlhood
days and conjures the memory of walking back home from school whereby she
had the company of Lydia on many an occasion when she would be out too.
Lydia was Maureen’s family’s black servant. She would relieve Maureen by
carrying her school case on top of her head and they would engage in long
conversations. On one of such days when they were together and Lydia was
carrying Maureen’s case, a photographer clicked their picture with their consent.
Several years down the line, Maureen found that photograph printed in a Life
coffee-table book and for the first time questioned the ritual of Lydia lugging her
case.
Tensions gradually start soaring between Maureen and July as her liberal shell
begins to crack, now that she suspects July’s intentions with him having
disproportionate power over the status quo of the Smaleses. This depletion of
trust is revved up when on one night as Bamford tries in vain to mingle with the
locals, he and Maureen discover with extreme trepidation that July has left the
village in their bakkietagging a friend along. Already at the end of their tethers,
Bamford and Maureen get embroiled in a heated argument and blame one another
for the messy situation. Later in the night, after Bamford goes to sleep, Maureen
attempts to soothe herself by standing naked in the rain. She witnesses their
bakkie returning to the village. Subsequently, she goes to sleep without informing
Bamford about this.
The aftermath of the edgy night is felt the next morning when Bamford confronts
July with the now defunct authority of their previous accord as soon as July
comes to their hut on that day. July clarifies that he had gone to the shop to fetch
supplies like paraffin, salt, tea, jam, matches, etc., without paying attention to
the conspicuous shift in Bamford’s tone. A disturbing convergence of habitual
white dependence on the blacks, present defeatist inertia and gratitude is observed
when Bamford and Maureen do not tell July to handover the bakkie’s keys even
after a harrowing night. Although, the pricking concern is quite plainly July not
asking for permission and approval to use the bakkie, the Smaleses remain
inexplicably reticent about it.
July starts taking driving lessons from his friend while practising on the bakkie.
When Bamford predicts the possibility of July being caught without a license or
people presuming the presence of whites, July tries to allay his worry through
the assurance of him claiming the possession of the bakkie now, as he got it from
his employers in town. Maureen, however, gets the keys to the bakkie at this
point of time, citing the need to bring the rubber floormat to make a warm bed
for Royce who was sick with cough.
Later on, Maureen goes to return the keys to the bakkie to July, underscoring
their reliance on him to procure stuff for them while also emphasising the
prerequisite of ‘asking’instead of just ‘telling’. The charged exchange between
them leads to July venting his feeling of being distrusted even after fifteen years
of service and how he could gauge Maureen being unhappyabout him having the
34
16
keys to the bakkie. July reminds her of the gamut of things tended by him and Reading the Text
how he had always been entrusted with the house keys as he was her ‘boy’.
Moreover, he relates his present feeling with the manner in which his housework
had been minutely scrutinised in the past, resonating Maureen’s chronic
suspiciousness and paranoia.Greatly taken aback, Maureen tries to counter July’s
assertions by highlighting how she has never saddled him with work that was
not for him to take care of. She also spells out how the situation is entirely different
now and he is no longer under their employment as the nature of their old
relationship is obsolete owing to the mutated state of affairs. July’s shocking
retort of “You not going pay me, this month?”17lays bare the precise economic
thread that actually tied them.Additionally, this puts to rest Maureen’s delusive
notion of mutual respect, reciprocation and understanding being the cornerstones
of their protracted association.For July, it has always been a matter of providing
for his family and his commitment to that is indubitable. As July revolts by giving
back the bakkie’s keys, Maureen snaps back at him referring to his town mistress
Ellen and casts doubt on his sense of duty towards her as well as Martha’s opinion
about Ellen. While Maureen succeeds in making July keep the keys, his non-
verbal relay of taking umbrage does resoundingly convey to her that he will
never forget this episode.
Bamford’s hunting initiatives result in two warthogs being killed with his shotgun.
He indulges the intrigued Daniel, his black hunting companion, by politely
suggesting to let him use the shotgun on some occasion, although it is manifestly
prompted by an intersection of being amiable and being powerless. Bamford
subsequently offers the larger warthog for the villagers to gorge on while he
keeps the smaller, tender one for his family. The Smaleses finally get to eat meat
after two weeks, an awkward gap that they had never experienced before. The
meat is relished by all in the village and its stimulating effect, coupled with
sexual abstinence since their arrival, push Maureen and Bamford to make
passionate love in the limited space available.
Parallelly, as July and his family savour their share of meat, they discuss about
the Smaleses. July strives to exert his clout and alleviate Martha’s concern about
the Smaleses being harbingers of trouble. Martha lingers on her trajectory of
woes as Gordimer paints in retrospect the testing times when July, like other
breadwinners, would be working in the city, away from the rigours of rural family
life. This not only hardens Martha but also grants her a number of marital
prerogatives in the rural domestic space.Followingly, Gordimer brings us to the
crux of partnerless existence as a married black woman; to be able to endure and
acquiesce to the cycle of absence of the spouse as inexorably as the seasonal
cycle.
As the novel moves on, Gina’s kindred connection with Nyiko, a local black
girl, comes under focus. Her close rapport with Nyiko, enables Gina to easily
pick up the local language and even get the drift of the cultural subtleties. Contrary
to Bamford and Maureen, Gina is often invited by the villagers. One day as Gina
and Nyiko share a frivolous moment, messing around with new-born kittens,
Maureen rebukes them. Afterwards when Bamford and Maureen are done
scouring the radio channel for news, he asks her if she has been able to find
17
18
Gordimer, N. July’s People, p. 89.
19
Gordimer, N. July’s People, p. 90. 35
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s someone to shelter the kittens. Maureen appallingly divulges that she has
July’s People
“drowned them in a bucket of water.”18The crudeness of this act of “reduction of
suffering”19 and its outright impassive acknowledgement do perturb Bamford
while illustrating Maureen’s shouldering of responsibilities driven by desperation.
This desperation to get rid of the shackle of dependence and take charge, prods
Maureen to try working with the local women in the fields. Subsequently, in the
afternoon, she goes over to wherethe bakkie is hidden. July, who is repairing the
exhaust pipe, is not interested in Maureen trying to update him about the situation
in the city and the mounting death toll. In fact, July attempts to defuse the jittery
build-up through an empty appeal for divine intervention and dispassionately
hoping “everything will come back all right.”20Maureen is confounded and tries
to understand why July would want to be thrown back into the abyss of racial
segregation, crawling out of which has taken so much effort and time. It is at this
delicate moment that the second stormy exchange between Maureen and July
takes place. July reproves her for toiling with the local women and sarcastically
remarks about her state of hunger which must have driven her to pick spinach
from the fields. However, Maureen dismisses it simply as a pursuit to while
away the time. She also stresses the reason of not wanting to burden other women
to gather food for her family. But the hollowness of her statementlies exposed in
view of how July and his family have been their providers since their arrival.
Unable to sway July in her favour, Maureen in a fit of recklessness needles his
sore point by inquiring if he is scared about her revealing ‘something’to Martha,
slipping in a covert reference to Ellen. July explodes and strongly contends how
Maureen can only tell Martha that he has worked fifteen years for her and that
she is satisfied with him. Maureen for the first time is affected by fear of a man;
this fear is not of physical harm but of flawed estimation and misplaced regard:
“...that the special consideration she had shown for his dignity as a man, while
he was by definition a servant, would become his humiliation itself...”21. Moments
later, July informs her about the chief of the villages having summoned him
along with the Smaleses. Although July exercises authority over his village, the
chief has dominion over all the villages in the region. Therefore, it is obligatory
for them to plead for the chief’s endorsement of their asylum. All these directions
suffocate Maureen as she wrestles with this subservience to July. There is also
the symbolic relinquishment of the bakkie’s ownership as Maureen tries to
mitigate July’s tacit worry about seeking Bamford’s assistance to fix the bakkie:
“You don’t have to be afraid. He won’t steal it from you.”22
On the morning of the next day, when the Smaleses visit the chief, Bamford
quails at the thought of them being evicted. The chief desires to comprehend the
reason for their arrival and questions them about the situation in Johannesburg.
On being apprised about the black revolution and the crippled white government,
the chief goes into a state of disbelief as the impending capitulation of the apartheid
regime brings to fore his own insecurity-ridden toothlessness,reeking of white
propaganda that instilled the fear of losing control over his traditional lands in
black majority rule. It is obviously too unpleasant for the chief to believe in the
tumbling of the white government, as he pledges support to the whites against
20
21
22
23
36 Gordimer, N. July’s People, p. 119.
the black insurgents. According to him, these anarchist blacks do not represent Reading the Text
them: “They not our nation. Ama Zulu, ama Xhosa, ba Sotho...I don’t know.”23
Quite stupefyingly, the chief presupposes that the whites will accouter him and
his men with weapons which they will put to full use to exterminate the rebels:
“If they coming, the government it’s going give me guns. Yes! They give us
guns, we going kill those people when they come with their guns.”24 In accordance
with his stance, the chief insists on Bamford teaching him how to shoot with his
gun. Astounded by the chief’s pitch, Bamford incredulously tries to ascertain
whether he plans to kill the black rebels, those who have sacrificed so much to
accomplish the vision of Mandela, Sobukwe, Luthuli and others. Contrary to the
black chief’s apathy and petty divisiveness, Bamford underlines the need for
unification, although this outburst is infelicitous given the chief’s attitude and
the exiled condition of the Smaleses: “You mustn’t let the government make you
kill each other. The whole black nation is your nation.”25Eventually, the chief
allows them to be in July’s village and it is here that July’s actual name, Mwawate,
comes up as reference and this unclogs the Smaleses’unapologetic, self-imposed
ignorance of fifteen years. While being hospitable to the Smaleses, the chief
neatly tucks in the deal of Bamford having to train him how to use his gun.
On their way back to the village, July tries to ease the Smaleses’consternation by
disparaging the chief as just a man of words and not a man of actions. Recounting
the past, he describes how the chief has been too gutless to hold out against
white taxation, erratic claims over livestock and being bossed around.So, for all
his loquacity, the chief is just too poor and too weak to thwart the armed black
insurgents. Returning to their hut, Bamford and Maureen try futilely to get updated
news from the radio channel. Thereafter, they engage in a stinging back-and-
forth over the chief’s gun lessons. It is in this context that they decipher how the
expressions and ideas from their previous life, do not suffice in the unforeseen
circumstance, as the apartheid had moulded white lives into totalitarian blackholes
unruffled by anything beyond their own liberal convenience: “...the words would
not come. They were blocked by an old vocabulary...it was an experience that
couldn’t be forethought. Not with the means they had satisfied themselves with.
The words were not there.”26
Correspondingly, Bamford dissects July’s behavioural evolution especially his

new-found confidence as well as him boldly critiquing the chief’s bootlessness.
Maureen finds it dichotomous wherein July has alluded to his own predicament
and helplessness: “Healways did what whites told him. The pass office. The
police. Us. How will he not do what blacks tell him....”27July is inferred as a
detached figure, neither at the chief’s disposal nor a minion of the rampageous
black horde.On top of that,his unerasable fifteen-year linkage with the Smaleses
and him concealing them in his village,portray him as an expendable ‘sell-out’,
highly likely to be killed for treachery. Although, there is a glaring threat to
July’s life, Bamford breathes a sigh of relief deducing how July might not yet be
conscious of this hazard. Maureen, on the other hand, feels that they should
leave whereby they both come face-to-face with the bleakness of their situation
24
Ibid.
25
26
27
37
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s –the unanswered ‘where’and ‘how’elucidate how they are out of options not
July’s People
only in terms of their next destination but also with regard to the means to move.
When Maureen goes back to work with the local women, she feels that they are
gathering spinach whereas they are indeed cutting grass for thatching July’s
mother, Tsatsawani’s hut, the very hut occupied by the Smaleses, much to her
disgruntlement.Maureen is unable to follow the exchange between Martha and
July’s mother due to the language barrier. Subsequently, as Martha and July
discuss about the Smaleses and the chief’s assent to their sanctuary, July sidesteps
the issue of their further stay by pointing out how Martha has erred in safekeeping
the grass bundles. Placed outside the Smaleses’hut, they will be damaged by the
children playing with it. The conversation moves on to July’s onerous past and
his work in Johannesburg spanning the last fifteen years. While July is eager to
return to the city with Martha and their children once normalcy is restored, Martha
tries to coax him to stay in the village, work the lands and open a trading store.
She cites Daniel to propound how in the near future, without white taxation and
tedious government regulations, he can smoothly open a store in the village and
run it successfully with his metropolitan experience. July, however, attributes
the need to collect his money to go back to the city and thereby has to disclose
the amount in pounds, the British currency understood by Martha and the other
villagers.
A man in short trousers arrives in the village with a battery-powered amplifier.

The villagers drown in a night of unbridled merriment and get sloshed on the
thin beer being passed around in plenty. The Smaleses refrain from the intoxicated
celebration and return to their hut. Bamford and Maureen are horrified to discover
that the gun and the boxes of cartridges are no longer there. Bamford feels clueless
and powerless with no police to investigate the theft and recover the gun. This
incident splinters his morale as he slumps into bed and “...at once suddenly rolled
over onto his face, as the father had never done before his sons.”28 Divested of
the bakkie and now the gun, Bamford’s crashing into bed is symbolic of the
demolition of his masculinity, having lost both its external tokens. Maureen
springs into action and looks for July near the bakkie. Her perennial reliance on
him to retrieve things is reinforced once more as she demands that he has to get
the gun back. July admits that Daniel has teamed up with the rebels and since he
was the only one missing from the drunken revelry, it is rational to conclude that
Daniel is culpable for the disappearance of the gun. Aggravating all of this, Daniel
has now left the village and as Maureen keeps pressing July to do something, he
loses calm attesting that he has had enough of the Smaleses’problems. She
thunders back at him reminding him of petty household thefts from the past,
which she found too distasteful to condemn,as her own rosy impression of his
honesty would be torn asunder.
At this moment, we witness the most emotionally fraught scene with July
fulminating in his own language. As Gordimer puts it, Maureen cannot understand
the language “...but she knows that what’s being said is an absolute rejection of
her...not horrible, but painful.”29 Maureen is sapped of all figments of her liberal
imagination and appreciation of July: “She understood although she knew no
word. Understood everything: what he had had to be, how she has covered up to
28
29
Quoted from “An Interview with Nadine Gordimer: Harare, February 14, 1992” by Biodun
38 Jeyifo.
herself for him, in order for him to be her idea of him. But for himself –to be Reading the Text
intelligent, honest, dignified for her was nothing; his measure as a man was
taken elsewhere and by others. She was not his mother, his wife, his sister, his
friend, his people.”30 Maureen ultimately realises that her mental schemas to
exalt July are pointless as it is not up to her to assess him or mentally defend any
such assessment. She goes on to puncture his ego by specifying how he has
deserted Ellen and is after the bakkie to rise in importance amongst the locals.
However, it will all fade once the money for the fuel dries up and the bakkie will
just be a rusting spectacle for the kids to play around. When this jibe fails to
gnaw at July’s fresh sense of autonomy, Maureen’s next strategy is to bring herself
into July’s fold by trying to seduce him: “The incredible tenderness of the evening
surrounded them as if mistaking them for lovers. She lurched over and posed
herself, a grotesque, against the vehicle’s hood, her shrunken jeans poked at the
knees, sweat-coarsened forehead touched by the moonlight, neglected hair
standing out wispy and rough. The death’s harpy image she made of herself
meant nothing to him, who had never been to a motor show complete with
provocative girls.”31
Maureen’simpetuous attempt at enamouring July is to reattain her symbiotic state

of being. As Gordimer introspects, it is the ‘handed’nature of her existence that
makes her crave a cloistered life, ever aching for a scaffold, growing like
bindweed:
“She has been handed from father to husband. And she has had, in effect, two
husbands-though she didn’t realize it-because July does so much for her. July is
so protective of her, takes care of her, takes all sorts of burdens off her...And
then, of course, both husbands turn out not to be able to protect her anymore,
because her own husband, Bam, without his car and his gun and his office, is
absolutely unable to do anything for her—to protect her, or to feed her, or to do
anything. And July turns out to belong to his own people, to be able to offer
temporary shelter but not the kind of reverse dependency which she had hoped
for....in a subconscious way and in the most unlikely and dangerous of
circumstances, she rejects this and realizes that she’s really not a person on her
own.”32
When Maureen fails to become July’s mistress using her sexuality, she becomes
aware of how her present dependence on Julyis not ribboned with his intuitive
respect or covert lust; it is the sort of adaptive dependence that July had upon the
Smaleses when he was hired by them in Johannesburg; an anomalous dependence
reined in by an anomalous socio-political environment.
In the final chapter, we find that a persistent sound from a distance ruptures the
serenity of the village. As Gina and her friend Nyiko smilingly go out to play and
Bamford takes Victor and Royce on a fishing trip, a helicopter painted with cryptic
symbols,swoops over the village creating a furore among the locals. Crossing
the river, it seems to land somewhere behind the trees. Maureen is conflicted, yet
being at the peak of despondency, she is ready to take a dire leap of faith as she
30
31
32
Quoted from “An Interview with Nadine Gordimer” by Nancy Topping Bazin, as published
in Contemporary Literature, Winter, 1995, Vol. 36, No. 4, p. 571–87.
33
Gordimer, N. July’s People, p. 158. 39
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s abandons her family and starts running towards the helicopter. This devil-may-
July’s People
care transmogrification of demeanour coincides with the uncertainty of character
of those onboard the helicopter, “whether it holds saviours or murderers”33. The
stripping away of all those roles in which Maureen has been ensconced so far,
tilts her to the point where she covets empowered concubinage more than being
positive about her wellbeing; she does not blanch at the prospect of being sexually
violated or physically abused by those in the helicopter as her guiding impulse is
that of regaining a mighty buttress to straddle on. This urge is bestial and for
women like Maureen, with sagas of multiple transferences of custody, it is also
instinctive whereby “[s]he runs...alert, like a solitary animal at the season when
animals neither seek a mate nor take care of young, existing only for their lone
survival....”34 Maureen’s cognition of survival, for a very long time, has orbited
around Bamford and July; the unnerving decision to forsake her familysignals a
deviation in the way she now chooses to survive which, in Gordimer’s observation,
surfaces as “...she goes through a form of cleansing, of baptism, when she’s born
again in a sense, when she goes through the river, running away. She simply
wants to make choices of her own. And of course there’s a political aspect to it,
because Bam wants to go back to town, which means that they would beholed
somewhere with whites defending themselves and their women.”35 The novel
comes to an end with Maureen still frantically pursuing the helicopter, still in the
process of running towards its location.
2.3.2 Narrative framework

This masterpiece of Gordimer’s speculative fiction is in the objective, third-
person narrative style; her pen does not flinch from its commitment to expressive
neutrality while dispassionately detailing the most minute of elements, with a
keen eye for the vacuous liberalities and flagrant pretences of the time. As the
narrative voice progressesin the third person perspective, readers find a clear yet
esoterically worded delineation of Gordimer’s pragmatic observations, that
concoct an uneasy documentary sense of an intractable future. The outlandish
punctuation, weird syntactic configurations and a certain jumpiness of the
narrative are to destabilise readers, as we often need to pore over several sections
more than once, to better grasp what Gordimer is projecting with respect to both
linguistic form and literary plot. The purpose of unsettling readers through her
wordsmithery is to immerse them in the travails of the interregnum. A creeping
uncertainty seeps into our kindled senses as the narrative keeps all factual
information to a negligible minimum whereby there can be no cogent explanation
for the chaos to comfort the flustered readers. This uncertainty is diagnostic of a
cultural transition, a tectonic shift whose tremors would befelt for years to come
and which would extract a soul searing cost from the white survivors to tailor
their expectations in the new normal. AsZoë Wicomb analyses the reference to
Gramscian interregnum: “The epigraph, describing the transitional as a process
bound up with time, displacement, and ambiguities produced by the in-between
condition of delay, readily translates into narrative indeterminacy.”36
34
35
Quoted from “An Interview with Nadine Gordimer” by Nancy Topping Bazin, as published
in Contemporary Literature, Winter, 1995, Vol. 36, No. 4, p. 571–87.
36
Quoted from “Rereading Gordimer’s July’s People”, chapter 11 of Race, Nation, Translation:
South African Essays, 1990–2013 by ZoëWicomb, published in 2018 by the Yale University
40 Press.
The narrative flow mostly zooms in on Maureen as readers are made aware of Reading the Text
her complex emotions and tortuous thought processes. Consequently, the story
is coloured through the socioculturally tinted lenses, Maureen has matured with.
Her worldview,philosophies and realisations sculpt much of the narrative story
line. The temporal back and forths in conjunction with Maureen’s repudiation of
the crisis, obfuscate the narrative’s linearity. Due to Gordimer’s ardent focus on
Maureen and July, we often forget the critical political angle to the story and are
engrossed with the author’s intrapersonal exploration of possible post-apartheid
racial dependency. Sporadically, the narrative spotlight shines on Bamford and
we get brief windows into his mental state. These however are insubstantial in
comparison to the depth with which Gordimer sketches the characters of Maureen
and July.
Gordimer’s fastidiousness is sublime in the way a number of leitmotifs37 have

been manoeuvred for a range of effects; for instance, the novel’s background
score, comprising the sound of the insects, the mundane chatter of the locals, the
playing of the radio, is a recurring reminder of the flipped reality, the melody of
which, like an acquired taste, needs time and unavoidable repetition for the
Smaleses to get used to. Another instance is of the reppearing pink teacups and
July offering fruits to the Smaleses at the end of their meal, both not in sync with
their uprooted, makeshift existence and both thrusted to prolong the reverie of
their bygone urban affluence, the utter incongruity of which in the present impasse
becomes increasingly transparent.
Now, that we have a good idea about the plot and the narrative framework of the
novel, we will move to the next Unit where we will look at the characters and
their interactions in greater detail. We will also try to better understand the
conclusion which has multiple critical interpretations.
Read the following questions and answer the questions in the space that follows:
1) How does the loss of the bakkie and the shotgun affect Bamford? Why do
you think this happens?
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......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
2) “She understood although she knew no word.”What does Maureen realise
at this juncture? Comment on Maureen’s transformation from the time she
left Johannesburg till this very realisation.
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......................................................................................................................
37
Leitmotifs are frequently repeated expressions or features in literary works or musical
compositions. Leitmotifs foreground an emotion or highlight a character or accompany
particular scenes. 41
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s 3) Comment on the use of the third person point of view in the narrative
July’s People
framework of July’s People.
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2.4 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we have discussed in great detail the plot of Gordimer’s July’s People
to facilitate an easier reading experience at the undergraduate level. We have
given you:
• a brief account of Nadine Gordimer’s life, her sources of motivation, the
milestones of her life as an author and her celebrated works.
• a thorough discussion of the plot of July’s People, analysing its complexities
and following the interactions between the characters.
• a clear understanding of the choices made by the characters, their emotional
states and their personal evolution with the progression of the plot.
• an idea of the narrative framework of the novel and Gordimer’s use of
language.

If you would like to explore more analyses of July’s People, you may consult:
AndréBrink, “Complications of Birth: Interfaces of Gender, Race and Class in
July’s People”. English in Africa, 21 (1/2), 157–180(1994).
Edward Powell, “Equality or unity? Black Consciousness, white solidarity, and
the new South Africa in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter and July’s People”.
The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 54(2), 225–242(2019).
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0021989416687349)
Mahmoud Ibrahim Ibrahim Radwan,”The Dystopian Vision of a Revolutionary
Surge: A Study of Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People”. English Language and
Literature Studies, 5(3), 12–24 (2015). (http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ells.v5n3p12)
These are only suggested as additional reading and are in no way compulsory.
2.6 ANSWERS
For all answers refer to 2.2.
For answers to 1 and 2, refer to 2.3.1.
For the answer to 3, refer to 2.3.2.
42
Reading the Text
UNIT 3 SOCIAL CONFIGURATIONS
Structure
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Objectives
3.2 Apartheid and Civil War in the Text
3.3 Interregnum and Locating Power
3.3.1 Relationship of Smales and July
3.3.2 Rural Versus the City Binary
3.3.3 The Bakkie and the Gun
3.4 Reading the Dystopia
3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.6 Check Your Progress: Possible Questions
3.0 INTRODUCTION
July’s People (1981) can be read simultaneously as a social and political story
historicising racism and the struggle against it. Written in 1981, the book envisions
the fall of White supremacy in South Africa. It is the story of a White family,
estranged from their lives in the city, now settled in the rural bush lands of South
Africa. The Civil War, between the Black rebels and the White rulers, that leads
to their displacement is a foreboding presence in the life of this family. Nadine
Gordimer sketches the lives of the privileged middle class Smales family -Bam,
Maureen, and their three children Victor, Royce and Gina- who flee Johannesburg
and now attempt to learn the ways of the village of their servant July. It was July,
their Black servant, who rescued and sheltered them in the war like crisis. July
now a free man decides to help ‘his people’without realising the changing nature
of the term ‘his people’. The text dwells upon the restructuring of power and the
consequent disquiet in the lives of these characters. The narrative explores the
fear and uncertainty of both the Smales family and July in the period of dislocated
power. For the Smales to coexist in the village there needs to be a dual step of
acceptance- one on their part and the other on the part of the Black community.
3.1 OBJECTIVES
In the last unit you learnt how to read the text. This unit will help you to add a
critical lens to the story and contextualise the meanings generated in the language
of the narrative. At the end of this discussion you will be able to
locate the text in the historical and social context of South Africa
understand the dynamics of racial and colonial politics in Apartheid
comprehend the myriads of social configurations of class, urban and rural
understand the tropes of writing the country and the city, nation and war
appreciate the critical nuances in the writing of Nadine Gordimer
43
July’s People 3.2 APARTHEID AND CIVIL WAR IN THE TEXT
Gordimer’s July’s People (1981) was banned in South Africa for its envisioning
of the fall of the White rule and the rise of the Black people’s power. Predicting
the history of the fall of White supremacy about 13 years before the real advent,
the text opens up debates about Apartheid or racial discrimination in the South
African nation and the privileges of the White colonisers and settlers. In fact, the
history of colonisation and slavery was at the root of the racial discrimination.
The early slave traders and colonisers in South Africa were the Dutch. Their
descendants Afrikaners and later British were the white settlers who ruled the
nation for years to come. Despite the abolition of slavery, the ruling White
coloniser exploited the Black majority on grounds of race and colour. The ruling
National Party instituted the practice of Apartheid or ‘apartness’from Blacks in
1948. In simple terms, Apartheid was a systemic segregation of the Black
community. Laws were passed to disenfranchise the Blacks from all spheres of
politics and social equality. It was an ideology premised on exploitation and
racial prejudice. For example, laws were introduced for stripping them of working
right unless endowed with a pass. All public areas were segregated making the
presence of Blacks in these areas illegal. There was forced evictions of Blacks
from White residential areas. Shops, beaches, schools in White areas were
cleansed of Black presence. Inter race marriages were prohibited and education,
recreation and even medical care was restricted. Despite international and regional
opposition to this inhumane codification, these laws persisted till 1991. A long
resistance movement and civil unrest lead by Black leaders clouded the nation
till Apartheid was the final ended with the majoritarian rule of the African National
Congress under Nelson Mandela.
With such an intense history, the text July’s People can be read in the light of the
political foresight. As a South African native, Nadine Gordimer both understood
and condemned the Apartheid as a political rule that would be inevitable replaced
with a Black majority government. Several of her early books like An Occasion
for Love (1963), Burger’s Daughter (1979) and My Son’s Story, touch upon this
theme. In July’s People book, the white Smales family escapes the Civil war
(fictitious) that finally overthrows the White governance. Gordimer writes:
It began prosaically weirdly. The strikes of 1980 had dragged on...Riots, arson,
occupation of the headquarters of international corporations, bombs in public
buildings-the censorship of newspapers, radio, and television left rumours and
word-of-mouth as the only sources of information about this chronic state of
uprising all over the country. (10)
When the riots in Johannesburg escalate and the people start fleeing the city for
safety, Bam Smales realise that “(t)here was nothing left to do but the impossible,
now they has stayed too long.”(17) Once offered shelter by their Black servant
July in his native village, they escape with him and some provisions in the yellow
bakkie with an uncertain plan for the future. Their arrival in the village is viewed
with doubt and July’s mother asks him “White people must have their own people
somewhere. Aren’t they living everywhere in the world…Don’t they go anywhere
they want to go? They’ve got money.”(28) July’s wife is also suspicious of the
white presence that her husband has brought to the village as ‘his people’and she
echoes uncertain sentiments when she says: “White people here! Didn’t you tell
us many times how they live there…Now you tell me nowhere...”(26) It is hard
44
for July to explain the violence and loss of Whites in the city to a Black community Social Configurations
that disenfranchised by the Whites themselves. He tells his wife how the houses
were burnt down and roofs blown off.
In spite of the disintegration of white power, the racial gap is vast. The book
charts how the subversion of power structure by the defeat of the Whites was not
a direct decolonisation of the minds of the existing communities. July’s mother
shocked asks: “Who shot? Black people? Our people?”(28) To her mind the gun
belongs to Bam who hides it under the roof like the other Whites who are powerful.
The white presence in the village is seen as a threat as the history of colonisation
and racism is not easy to shrug off. Despite their liberal stance the Smales are
seen as July’s white masters. July’s mother reiterates “White people. They are
very powerful, my son. They are very clever. You will never come to the end of
the things they can do.”(29)
The foreboding sense of danger of violence for the family is a recurring theme in
the book and the reference to the war outside appears several times. Their only
source of news from the city is the radio which they tune into. They do not cross
the water limits of the village and lay low to avoid trouble. When July’s drives
off in the bakkie unexplained, Bam Smales and Maureen are worried if the bakkie
is seen in the outback it will reveal their hiding location to the police or
government. Bam feels an uncanny threat and an urge to flee with “nowhere to
run. Nothing to get away in.”(55) Maureen’s fears that “we were mad to run”(66)
and hand over their lives to this uncertainty. Later the local chief wants July to
bring them to seek permission to stay on their land. This is direct inversion the
White practices in the city. In their visit to the chief they are asked questions
about the nature of violence they have fled. When the chief expresses a disbelief
of their story of escape which exposes their vulnerability, Bam explains: “It is
war. It is not like that anymore... The blacks have also got the guns.”(163) He
adds “Us and them. Who is us, now, and who them?”(164) explaining the
transforming nature of the political and social configurations in the text.
3.3 INTERREGNUM AND LOCATING POWER

The destabilised binary of us and them that Bam posits is a direct reference to
the shift in loci of power post the overthrow of the Whites. Gordimer believes a
new political and social system must give way to the new future. The epigraph to
July’s People is Antonio Gramsci’s envisioning of this political and social shift
in the Fascist regime of Italy. He writes in Prison Notebooks (1926) “The old is
dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum there arises a great diversity
of morbid symptoms.”This Interregnum in the book is crucial in locating the
transforming nature of power and where to locate it. The interregnum is an
interlude in between shifting rulers, with a slow change in power structure. When
the white Smales escape from the city, they are renders powerless in the hands of
their Black servant July. Now a free local, July becomes the point of mediation
and protection for the Smales in times of crisis. The text dramatises this shifting
power and the anxiety of the community. Both July and Smales acknowledge the
ruptures in authority and struggle with this new dynamics of privilege. This is
best examined in three aspects in the novel:
1] Understanding the pre- and post-revolutionary relationship between the
Smales and July
45
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s 2] Locating power in the country versus city binary
July’s People
3] The role of the bakkie and the gun as symbols of power
Let us explore these themes in the following pages.
3.3.1 Relationship of Smales and July

The Smales family with Bam, his wife Maureen and three children- Victor, Royce
and Gina live in a middle class Johannesburg community. As a family that is not
racist but complicit in the bourgeois values of its times, Bam and Maureen do
not see their treatment of July as problematic. Their liberal worldview blinds
them to the dark side of the Apartheid. In fact in the text they pride the
‘indulging’comforts they provide their staff. Maureen refers several times to
lavish room July as a servant lives in back at their house and the small charities
she made before he left for home. Their master slave relationship dwelt on the
unsaid compliance of the Black man as most of pre-Apartheid South African
labour regime did. July on the other hand plays the subservient master slave
relationship well too. He works hard, keeps his papers in order and lives with
family and his city woman Ellen.
This happens until the civil unrest posits violence and overturns power. When
July sees the White Smales family helpless in their own home, he offers to assist
their escape, but till then neither the Smales nor July had imagined a role reversal.
Smaleses realise that “(t)he decently-paid and contented male servant...-he turned
out to be the chosen one in whose hands their lives were to be held; frog prince,
saviour July.”(14) The political restructuring unfolds the social reordering in the
story and the White master is now at the mercy of the Black servant to save his
family. This reversal of authority unfolds as the basis of the anxiety in the text.
Gordimer begins the novel with “July bent at the doorway and began that day
for them as his kind has always done for their kind.”(1) July their servant and
now host now decides what is best for them. This is also the start of the steady
loss of authority for the Smales.
As the story unfolds we see the complexity that this shift in power entails. Bam
and Maureen are now dependent on July’s judgement and discretion to use their
time and effort. From working in the fields, to procuring daily needs, chauffeuring
the bakkie, to meeting the local chief, each assessment is made by July. This is
the ‘morbid symptoms’of disenfranchisement, loss of privilege and authority
shakes up Bam and Maureen. Their discontent and resistance is ironic and evident
when Bam says “I would have never thought he would do something like that.
He’s always been so correct”(81) and he later adds “In town?— He was affable,
deprecating his own ability, or reminding them that they knew he had known the
limits of his place.”(88) In the village this limit is redefined. July now owns the
house they live in and his people now provide for the Smales family.
Not being used to such an arrangement Maureen complains how July who had
been living on their casts offs has become a person of opinion. When she confronts
July about his other woman Ellen to provoke his guilt and humiliate him, his
anger and discomfort makes Maureen realise how she is no longer his master
who would “pay him that month”(99). Her relationship with him now bears a
mark of equality and though July is hesitant, he is aware of the transformation.
She unwittingly lies to him “The Master.Bam’s not your master...Nobody ever
46 thought of you as anything but a grown man.”(99)
Despite this in the story, there are moments when Maureen recognises“we owe Social Configurations
him everything”referring to July’s risky proposition of harbouring his white people
in his Black village. This reordering of hierarchy makes Maureen more adaptable
to the social change and she finds it a refreshing change to go out and work with
the local women in the fields. She notices how the children have adapted more
organically with the rural surrounding without much hint of racial prejudice.
The children make friends, learn the village ways and thrive. She recognises her
lack of power and agency in this new structure. Her flight towards the helicopter
at the end of the novel is also an attempt to flee this inevitability of change.
Bam, on the other hand, is the least adept to his new surroundings. He too realises
that his masculine role of the protector has now moved hands. He attempts to
exercise his knowledge by building useful things just like the colonial master.
He shoots the pig to feed the village. Yet his failure to provide and assert is
apparent, much in contrast to July who seems in control. In contrast, July’s
recognition of this turnaround that ‘his people’are at his mercy, in his village,
with the dynamics of political power changed makes the tension more apparent.
July too acknowledges “They can’t do anything. Nothing to us anymore.”
3.3.2 Rural Versus the City Binary

The shift in power is most apparent in the spatial change that the Smales family
experiences. They flee from the city to the village about 600 kms from
Johannesburg. The rural African bush land is a radical departure from their seven
bedroom house in the city. Here living in the borrowed space of July’s mother’s
hut, they feel like the outsider. From affluent architects in the city with servants
and cars, they become refugees in July’s village. Moreover, they are seen as
threat by July’s mother and wife who cannot fathom “Why do they come here?
Why to us?”(25) Later in the text the chief also expresses his disbelief that the
Whites did not have a place to escape and the Smales family were threatened
murder by Blacks. In the text, Gordimer explains a gap so vast and historically
entrenched cannot be filled overnight. The Whites are now ironical victims.
The text also drives home that the material possessions of Bam and Maureen
have little or no value in the village and their way of life is not conducive to a
rural existence. Maureen bemoans their loss “(t)hey had nothing.”(40) The lack
of space and resources is new to the family and children cannot understand why
they cannot get a coca cola or go watch cinema. Gordimer’s subtle critique of
the white man’s privileges cannot be ignored. She points out to the reader how
the power of possession and wealth was a driving force of the South African
Whites. By disenfranchising the Blacks of homes and basic needs, the Apartheid
was a cruel and humiliating system of segregation. Now possession less and
being killed in their own homes, the Smales too feel equally powerless. July
sums up the dilemma when he says “They looked different there—you should
have seen the clothes in their cupboard. And the glasses—for visitors, when they
drink wine. Here they haven’t got anything—just like us.”(31)
In July’s equating of the sameness, Bam and Maureen are simultaneously stripped
of their racial and class superiority. Now in the village without money and
possessions, the couple have nothing to claim them apart. Maureen says “(S)he
was already not what she was. No fiction could compete with what she was
finding she did not know, could not have imagined or discovered through
imagination.”(40) The village for the Smales harbours flies, malaria and chores. 47
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s For the subservient July who has seen their days of glory feels obliged to help
July’s People
them procure small luxuries like chocolates, soap and toilet paper. He even tells
Maureen not to work in the fields like his women or give her son native medicines.
Yet the social reshuffle compels Smales to learn the new way of life in the village.
From eating mealies, to sleeping without beds, children playing in the mud they
adapt to the new surroundings. They realise they are “Lucky to be alive...that
was how people lived, here, rearranging their meagre resources around the bases
of nature, letting the walls of mud sink back to mud and then using that mud for
new wall...”(35) When Bam shoots the hog, they partake in the celebration of
small luxuries by the villagers: “they had not known that meat can be
intoxicating”(110)
Yet most of their native know how comes from July and his folks who decides
what they can do. The interregnum was giving way to new ways of life that the
bourgeois urban Whites had discredited. This is another layer of powerlessness
the city bred folks like Smales felt in the rural Africa. The last conversation of
Maureen and July indicates this discontent and horrific realisation for Maureen:
“Suddenly he began to talk at her in his own language, his face flickering
powerfully. The heavy cadences surrounded her; the earth was fading and a
thin, far radiance from the moon was faintly pinkening parachute-silk hazes
stretched over the sky.” (213)
Africa was now as much his country, the village was his and the shift in hierarchy
was something Maureen had not yet accepted.
3.3.3 The Bakkie and the Gun

In the narrative of power and possession, Bam’s bakkie (truck) and his gun gain
symbolic significance. The bakkie not suited for the city was Bam’s leisurely
pursuit back in his days of prosperity and the gun was his self-defence when he
escaped the war torn city. In the text both these possessions are the only two
material things that help Bam assert his masculine bourgeois white self in his
otherwise restructured world. They are also his only source of possible escape
when need be. Eyed with curiosity both objects become desired as symbols of
power. July wants to own the bakkie and the local chief wants the gun.
The bakkie is first introduced to us as a vehicle of escape but soon to be a burden

to the Smales family. The yellow bakkie is sure marker of something foreign in
this rural outback. July suggests they hide the vehicle to shield the presence of
the family in the village and he keeps the key. In time, Bam and Maureen find
out that July is not only learning to drive the bakkie to assert his new found
prowess in the overturned power structure but has also taken off with the vehicle
with his aid Daniel. The Smales are disconcerted at this disobedience of July but
they realise their powerlessness when they confront him words like “a minefield”.
When they are too embarrassed to ask Gordimer writes “Here was the moment to
ask him for the keys. But it was let pass.”When they warn him about his lack of
license, July shrugs off the proposition with a laughter pointing out “...No one
there can ask me, where is my licence. Even my pass, no one can ask me anymore.
It’s finished.”(84) The tide has turned and the Smales realise the fruitless attempt
at power. Later we see Maureen contests July’s attempt at appropriating the bakkie
and he reminds of her dependence on him by undercutting their ability to pay
him as their servant. His implies that Maureen she does not trust him and fails to
48
see him as an equal. His gesture of indulging Bam by letting him drive the bakkie Social Configurations
to the Chief’s house takes Bam by surprise. Bam, too, can sense July’s desire to
appropriate the vehicle as his own. The struggle concludes with July telling the
Smales that he would tell his people he took the bakkie from them, reasserting
the new power equations.
The gun that Daniel escapes with is the other symbol of power. In their meeting
with the chief, the leader blatantly asks Bam the favour of using the gun in times
of crisis and wishes to learn how to use it. Bam realises the gun is a fascinating
object for the local chief who is trying to understand how the Black rebels had
procured the white man’s tools. He tries to reason with the Chief when he says
“(y)ou’re not going to shoot your own people”(168) for land and power? Bam’s
possession of that tool then becomes both an asset and the bone of contention for
the chief. In the final scene when it is stolen, Bam is miserable in the loss of any
chance of escape. His only possessions the bakkie and the gun have been taken
away from him.
The relationship of the Smales-July power was also constituted on language.

July can speak the white man’s language but his vocabulary becomes a marker
of his race and class. It is this ambiguity of usage that July eventually holds as
power in his village. Whether communicating with his family, or the chief in his
native language, or the use of broken English and Afrikaans, he uses it to his
advantage. To Maureen he asserts that the “place”(135) is not hers when she
goes to the fields with his wife, making his statement unclear. Later he similarly
declines the knowledge of the stolen gun. Both Maureen and July know he is
lying. He is aware that Daniel has stolen and escaped with the gun while the
family was watching the gumbagumba show. Furthermore, Daniel probably joins
the Black rebels with the guns, jeopardising the existence of the Smales in the
village. His silence is possible change of loyalty and a threat to the Smales family.
He tells Maureen “...trouble from you. I don’t want it from you. You see?”(196)
She is confronted with the idea that she is not related to him and the overturn of
power has reshaped his priority to please her. The moment of crisis is symbolic
of the Smales fall from the power to powerless in state of interregnum.
3.4 READING THE DYSTOPIA

Nadine Gordimer’s book can be read as a dystopian vision of the South African
Apartheid. The futuristic fall and the reshaping of the political and social structure
is the book’s critique of the Apartheid. The text anticipates the inevitable fall as
an outcome of the exploitation that cannot be justified on any moral grounds.
The tensions arising from the social restructuring makes the core of the text as
discussed in the earlier sections. The fear and uncertainty of the community
marks the dystopia. The authorial politics is markedly anti-Apartheid but the
ambiguity in the text lies in Gordimer’s use of the dystopian genre. The
interregnum is seen as a violent revolution, discrediting the real violence in the
history of colonisation and racism itself. The underlying sense of fierce rebellion
the text proposes is negated by the Smales liberal values. Their complicitness
with apartheid yet not racist attitude is ambiguous, much like Nadine Gordimer’s
insider outsider position in South Africa. As a White anti-Apartheid writer, she
was often seen an outsider in the Black struggle.
49
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s The novel is a challenging read in this framework. Smales are shown as tolerant
July’s People
but equally capable of inherent racism against their servant and his way of life.
Maureen can loot in times of crisis but she questions July’s choices in
appropriating the car or wanting to be “a big man”(91). Her unaware racist self
accuses July of abandoning his city woman Ellen in crisis, yet she tries to flee in
the last chapter. Her life was so unassuming that she failed to recognise why her
friend Lydia carried her case. The coffee table book with their picture highlighting
the racial discrimination was the social realism that escapes Maureen. Gordimer
leaves the meaning to be teased out. The reader can very well see the equating
sameness in human nature irrespective of race and colour and how White
privileges assumed a moral superiority. In Maureen and July’s final confrontation,
one ends up with a realisation that Maureen has:
She understood although she knew no word. Understood everything: what he

had to be, how she had covered up for herself for him, in order for him to be her
idea for him. But for himself- to be intelligent, honest, dignified for her was
nothing...(197)
3.5 LET US SUM UP

July’s People is an anti-Apartheid dystopian text. It is a futuristic collapse of the
White rule in South Africa and the coming to power of the Blacks. Rooted deeply
in the history of unfair racial segregation, the text anticipates the fall of the White
community in Johannesburg traced through the lives of the Smales family. The
family becomes homeless and is rendered powerless in the hands of political and
social changes that ensue from the fall of the White rule. The role of their Black
servant July is significant as he rescues and shelters them. However the changing
times has also freed July who is no longer a subservient. The tension, fear and
loathing, created by the social reordering, are captured in the interactions of July
with his former masters Bam and Maureen. The inability of the couple to accept
this equality is manifested in their hanging onto the bakkie and the gun as tools
of White man’s power. The loss of these material possessions along with the loss
of other privileges in the text marks the steady downfall of the Smales in power.
This is in stark contrast to rise in July’s rise in confidence and power. The text
beautifully captures this transformation through the interregnum of power.
3.6 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE

QUESTIONS
Answer the following in about 200 words each:
1) What are the social groups that we see in the text?
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2] What do you understand by Apartheid in the text? Social Configurations
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3] How are the Smales treated in July’s village?
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4] Does the Smales’s relationship change with their servant July post the
revolution?
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5] Why does Maureen confront July?
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6] What changes for the Smales family in the village?
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7] How does the ownership of the car keys become an important power struggle
in the text?
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Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s 8] Who steals the gun in the text? Why does July lie about knowing who stole
July’s People
it?
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9] In the text Bam and July’s relationship changes. Explain how and why.
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10] How do you see Bam and Maureen’s political viewpoint in the text July’s
People?
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Gordimer, Nadine. July’s People. London: Penguin Books, 1982.
Head, Dominic. Nadine Gordimer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1994.
Jan Mohamed, Abdul R. Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in
Colonial Africa. Amherst: U of Mass.P, 1983.
Omond, Roger. The Apartheid Handbook. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd,
1986.
Ukedi- Kamanga, Brighton J. Cracks in the Wall: Nadine Gordimer’s Fiction
and the Irony of Apartheid. Trenton: Africa World Press, 2002.
White, Landeg and Tim Couzens eds. Literature and Society in South Africa.
Harlow: Longman, 1984.
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Social Configurations
UNIT 4 PROBLEMATIZING GENDER
Structure
4.1 Objectives
4.2 Introduction
4.2.1 About the Author
4.2.2 A Short Summary of July’s People
4.3 Locating the Protagonist
4.4 The Relationship of Maureen and July
4.5 The Other Woman Ellen
4.6 Maureen’s Marriage
4.7 The White Woman in a Black Village
4.8 A Novel Ending
4.9 Let Us Sum Up
4.1 OBJECTIVES
This brief study of Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People (1981) shall enable you to:
Gather a brief summary about gender roles in the text
Understand the author’s background and writing styles
Locate the text in a fictional time when Apartheid has ended
Study in depth the characterization of Maureen
Maureen’s relationship with the Black women in the text
Analysis of the climax with the protagonist rushing towards a helicopter
4.2 INTRODUCTION
4.2.1 About the Author
Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer, political activist and the first South
African recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991. Gordimer’s writing
managed moral and racial issues, especially politically sanctioned racial
segregation in South Africa. Under that regime, works, for example, Burger’s
Daughter (1979) and July’s People (1981) were banned. She was strong in the
anti-apartheid movement, joining the African National Congress during the days
when the association was banned. The arrest of her closest companion, Bettie du
Toit, in 1960 and the Sharpeville slaughter prodded Gordimer’s entry into the
anti-apartheid movement. Gordimer additionally served on the directing board
of South Africa’s Anti-Censorship Action Group. That Gordimer should evolve
into a revolutionary writer is not very surprising. Her radicalism is predicted
through a very secular upbringing that she had received right from her salad
days. Her father was a Jewish immigrant from Russia but he was hardly
sympathetic towards the cause of the blacks. It was her mother, a political activist
53
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s of her times and working for the emancipation of the blacks that Gordimer draws
July’s People
her most inspiration from. Gordimer emerged as a writer of two dozen works of
fiction, novels and short stories but it was the genre of the short stories that she
thought defined her time and age. She wrote a collection of short stories at a very
tender age of fifteen. Till her death in 2004, Gordimer continued to write
provocative works, raising voices against unjust ideologies even in an anti-
apartheid regime and perhaps July’s people though written before Apartheid ended
is a precise visualization of what the world of tomorrow shall unfurl.
4.2.1 A Short Summary of July’s People

The novel opens up with Maureen, the third-person narrator of the story
recollecting how they had spent the last three days manoeuvering their way from
Johannesburg to a black village of their black servant July. The sudden and drastic
change of events happen with the outbreak of violence and bloodshed in their
city, the blacks have finally stood up for their rights and freedom and are
employing every possible means to take charge. In the process, there is widespread
rioting, looting and burning of ports, houses and market places. Maureen, her
white husband Bamford Smales and the three children are left with no other
choice but to flee from their suburban existence and take recluse in their servant’s
home village six hundred kilometers from their town. What follows is a gradual,
painful and a frustrating process of their adaption into a black community that
reveals the inherent racism of the white couple. The author introduces them right
at the start of the novel as someone who themselves claim to be liberals and to
have always taken up the charge of black people’s emancipation. Yet the falsity
of statement is very obvious.
We follow the journey through Maureen’s vision as she does her regular day
activities while attempting her best to understand her situation around. Bamford
Smales, her husband and the three children are least affected and quickly adjust
to the situation after a fit of tantrums and Maureen is left isolated with no one
around to express her situation to. What comes to the light in the short narration
is the complex relationship between July the black servant and Maureen the
white mistress. While the former, because of the psychic and the emotional
conditioning of always being subjugated still imagines himself to their servant
the latter sees the entire episode as a more egalitarian one, creating fresher bonds
of friendship. However, the couple is still very disturbed by the loss of power
and privilege and being at the mercy of a community whose language they do
not understand and whose world they do not wish to inhabit. There’s hardly any
interaction between the characters because of the lack of a common language
and each work with their own levels of intuition until the frustrations start taking
voices. July’s mother and Martha, his wife who gets little voice in the narration
depict their own fears and uncertainties at having encountered such an unusual
situation. The significant episode is the missing of the bakkie, the yellow truck
on which they had travelled from Johannesburg to the village. All suspect July
revealing their inherent racism when the culprit is Daniel, July’s friend. July
himself is in a complex situation unable to understand the new dynamics until
one day they all hear a helicopter flying overhead. Each comes with their own
amusement at having seen a helicopter in a primitive environment. It is only
Maureen who understands it the least and in a fit of anxiety rushes towards it.
The novel closes at this juncture with the author inviting interpretations of
Maureen’s mental state when the novel closes.
54
Problematizing Gender
4.3 LOCATING THE PROTAGONIST
Maureen Smales occupies the central position in the plot, and it is most evident
for it is her vision that occupies the reader’s imagination. We follow her
imagination as the plotline manoeuvers deep into the psychic complexities of
other characters. Her characterization depicts that even when the social and
geographical conditions have altered with migration from Johannesburg to July’s
remote village, the women’s roles still remain the same. Maureen is still seen
doing the household chores as the lady of the house perhaps with many more
challenges and fewer privileges. She’s bathing the kids, cooking with the bare
minimum, picking up the wild greens and ponders over her situation in her
remaining time. The opening chapters describe Maureen to be respectful, attentive
and gracious for having being saved. It takes her a while to understand that her
unconscious fears are now her conscious reality as she scans the mud hut she
wakes up in. Despite the drastically changed scenarios, she doesn’t forget her
motherly duties. She’s seen worrying about the children, their hygiene and health.
The author hints at how irrespective of the race and the privileges, the woman is
always a nurturer echoing Beauvoir’s statement how ‘one is never born a woman
but becomes one’. Her utilitarian outlook never escapes the readers even for a
moment. From the very start she analyses the gross worth of each object and
even humans, from the bakkie to the book comes under her scrutiny. The author
takes a conscious effort to describe the difference in motherly instincts and how
privilege makes the ideology more complex. Maureen worries about the quality
of water her kids are consuming, goat’s milk over the sterilized milk in their
suburban homes while the black children hover around their mothers barefoot.
What worries a mother with lesser privileges is something that the author
consciously skips.
In the text, Maureen picks up wild greens, flowers and leaves. The gendering in
the text is limited not only to the category of labor but also to objects. Everything
primitive, natural is feminine while hunting, helicopters, radios and guns are
masculine. When Maureen is sewing; Bam, Daniel and July are riding in the
bakkie, experimenting with the rifle, and fidget with the radio while working to
pick up fragments of the outer world. What they are expecting is perhaps a black
suppression and the restoration of power to the white, an ideology that hints at
how superficial their ideal of black emancipation is.
The unsettling idea that runs throughout the novel is the fact that no cannot do
away with psychic oppression, gendered or racial. Tension and contestation of
identity in the novel appears most frequently between Maureen and July and
therefore, there is a complex interplay of race and gender. K Anish in his essay,
Reflections of Social Realism in Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People and My Son’s
Story explains how Maureen considers herself to be a liberal member of the
social standing up for the cause of the black emancipation but it is truly her
children who are more liberal. They adjust seamlessly to the norms, lifestyles
and value systems of the black community and soon forget what it is to live in
suburban societies and go for the movies. Anish writes: “…while coming to
Maureen respond is totally slower to their environment that their children. But
their children Gina, Royce, and Victor are adapted easily to the environment. In
other words, it is not Maureen who is qualified for taking a leading role in the
new South Africa but it is her children who have absorbed the African ideologies,
traditions, values, language and emerge both consciously and unconsciously
delving in the African society to be accepted by them....”(Anish,183) 55
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s It hints at the relevance of social upbringing. Maureen’s children have consciously
July’s People
been brought up in a liberal environment where both their parents have
championed for humanitarian rights while Maureen herself has spent her days in
extreme Apartheid conditions.
4.4 THE RELATIONSHIP OF MAUREEN AND

JULY
The primary tension in the plot is the relationship between Maureen and July.
While we see a certain companionship between July and Bam as “they work
together more or less as they did when Bam expected July to help him with the
occasional building or repair jobs that had to be done to maintain the seven-
roomed house and the swimming pool”(Gordimer 25). However, the relationship
of Maureen and July is more strained now. Her actions in the regular course of
the day are quite evident of the same. She offers to wash her own clothes and
when July insists that his wife will do so, she offers him a few banknotes in
return. Even in a displaced position, her unconscious sprouting of privilege both
as a white woman and as the mistress of the house who has been expecting
things out of a black servant never really escapes her. The point of irony in the
plot stems from the fact that in spite of being propagators of anti-apartheid
movements, they continue to have a black servant in their suburban house.
Gordimer describes with nuances how he is well provided for yet he does not
occupy the same position as that of the Smales. He has a separate living area,
with a washroom and a kitchen but he never indulges with the family. Hardly has
he entered the living area of Smales’house and the one time he did, as his bleak
memory would recall was again for work. Gordimer perhaps makes a conscious
choice by addressing July as the black servant rather than a house help.
Tensions surmounts when Maureen’s latent racism comes forth when she shifts
into July’s village. In the changing scenarios, Maureen is unable to do away with
the employer-employee dynamic. For her July is a safety net- that is physical
and momentary but never psychic or emotional. He is their Black servant after
all. This is especially prominent in Maureen who grows more distrustful of July
and his people the moment she enters his village. It seems as if the person who
has been tending to their needs for more than fifteen years suddenly is the most
distrustful person for her and her family. This culmination of the pent-up fear
and frustration presents itself in the climax where she rushes towards the helicopter
in the hope to save herself. The array of the things the Smales hurriedly pick up
when they flee Johannesburg is an indication of the idea of power they attach to
things. The author states explicitly that they do not forget to carry a gun. In
reality, it might not have served any practical purposes but it does evoke a sense
of safety for the Smales. July’s wife, Martha is worried about the fact that the
Smales possess a gun. Yet, while the man carries a gun, the women carries a
book. Maureen picks her copy of book The Betrothed. It might be an unconscious
act but it does hint at what the two individuals attach power to. Like the gunn,
the book was brought is never read. Maureen is also troubled by the fact she
would soon finish the text and would not have much to do. It’s not only the idea
of reading for leisure that Gordimer is hinting at but reading to be in a familiar
zone, to understand a language, to occupy a zone which is not questionable every
moment. She writes:
56 But the transport of a novel, the false awareness of being within another time,
place and life that was the pleasure of reading, for her, was not possible. She was Problematizing Gender
in another time, place, consciousness; it was pressed in upon her and filled her as
someone’s breath fills a balloon’s shape. (29)
The anxiety and fear of the Smales family becomes heightened when the gun
gets stolen one night. It leaves the two in a state of anxiety, fear and shock. All
these days without serving any utilitarian purpose, the gun was their symbol of
power and the absence of it represents their lack of power in an alien community.
It hints at their entrapment in a foreign land without any resources or aid.
Maureen’s confrontation of July thereafter, is the outpour of her frustration and a
reflection of how she never really trusted her even in her white household setup.
July on the other hand is hurt beyond measure. The focus is no more the gun but
the generalization we attach to each community.
Much like the bird rifle, the bakkie becomes a symbol for the freedom of the
Smales. As long as they possess it, their dependency on July and the larger black
community is lesser but when the latter has the keys and takes it around without
their permission it becomes a matter of disobedience. The possession of the keys
of the bakkie by July makes them aware of their dependency on him. They cannot
survive without him. Maureen and July’s heated conversation over the tangible
keys of the bakkie becomes a manifestation of their relationship which is shaky
and uncomfortable. July considers himself to be their service even in his village,
looking after the needs, bringing them water, petrol and groceries, guarding them
for security and expecting a pay at the end of the month. For Maureen, however
it has become a more egalitarian relationship. She tells him:
If I offended you, if I hurt your dignity, if what I thought was my friendliness, the
feeling I had for you—if that hurt your feelings... I know I didn’t know and I
should have known. (72)
4.5 THE OTHER WOMAN ELLEN

The steady collapse in Maureen’s power over July is evident. The transformed
nature of post- Apartheid power makes July a free man who needs no paper to
drive the bakkie, neither does he need permission to appropriate the vehicle.
Unaccustomed to his disobedience and disconcerted with his taking the keys,
Maureen confronts July who reminds her he is no longer paid by them. Her
humiliation is complete when he exposes her distrust in him and her assumption
of being her master. To take the last dig she accuses him of pretending is a ‘big
man’who incidentally has a keep/other woman named Ellen in the city, hidden
from his wife. She also alludes that he abandoned Ellen just like he has given up
on her. July’s anger at this accusation shakes her faith in any moment of personal
fondness they have had back in the city. In her final confrontation with July,
Maureen realises she is not relation of his. Neither was Ellen. They both were
just meaningless and he rather sees them as ‘trouble’. This inversion of power
that allows July to reject Maureen, helps her realise what powerlessness means.
The final scene when she runs, she too abandons all ties.
57
July’s People 4.6 MAUREEN’S MARRIAGE
The conversation between Maureen and her husband is anything but emotional
or romantic. It is artificial, tailored and bare minimum. The two accuse each
other, label names and constantly bring up the past. When we compare the
relationship between Maureen and July is definitely distrustful but her relationship
with her white husband is equally toxic bordering on nothingness. There is hardly
a conversation and whenever there is one in the times of crisis, it is ridden with
shame, guilt and complaining. Bam realises that his failing masculinity lies in
inability to protect his family from the external threat of violence. His wife too
see that in his failure is July’s rise in power. The provider now is July. The final
loss of the gun and the bakkie is complete emasculation of Bam. He has no tool
or possessions to assert his bourgeois White supremacy in the village. The only
moment of passion in the couple we see is the night after the intoxicating meat
festivity. The morning after Bam realises the blood on his penis is his wife
menstruating. Like the racial tension, the gendered discrimination in the text is a
moot point. This helps the readers comprehend Maureen’s urge for an all
independent identity. She is living in complex lives of revolutionary changes
and no form of existence provides her solace.
4.7 THE WHITE WOMAN IN A BLACK VILLAGE

Once placed in the black community, Maureen’s racial and gendered identity
doesn’t escape her either. Her whiteness stands in stark contrast against a black
wife and mother. She’s tall and constantly stooping, bowing to greet as if with
the intention of each one around. It is especially evident when Martha, July’s
wife admonishes how her imagination of the white women has always been
overhyped. Martha imagined the white women to be beautiful but she can hardly
call Maureen beautiful with her tall posture, frayed hands and coloured streaks
of hair. Maureen’s white legs, with her varicose veins, becomes a private joke
among the black women, who see it as an unspoken sisterhood with the white
woman. The criticizing of Maureen’s appearance can be Gordimer’s entry plot
in establishing how deep-rooted the psychic patronization of the whites has been
in the mind of the black.
Maureen, on the other hand, in her new environment tries to gel only with the
womenfolk of the village. She digs up roots and leaves in the field with July’s
wife and tries to establish a bond of sisterhood which a male counterpart of the
story- July grows uncomfortable with. The sisterhood she feels is expressed in
the lines:
It was early morning but in their hut the women were dreamy, as at the end of the
day…perhaps they had been since the first light gathering wood or working in
their fields. Maureen was aware, among them in the hut, of not knowing where
she was, in time, in the order of a day as she has always known it.( 9)
July however treats her outside his women- his mother and wife. He hints that it
is “not her place’’in the fields, probably indicating her class and racial otherness.
It is one of the first instances where Maureen becomes uncomfortable and in fact
conscious of how July has come to occupy an upper hand in her daily chores. His
gendered identity overarches his racial identity leaving Maureen at the loss of
words.
58
Maureen faces a linguistic incongruence in the village community. When she Problematizing Gender
attempts to interact with the other women in village, there can hardly be any
conversation thereby. They understand and misunderstand each other through
gestures, actions, July’s commands and instincts. July is the one person in the
black community who understands English owing to his fifteen-year long stay in
the town. It makes it but natural that the only possible conversation between the
Smales and the blacks is through July for he acts not only as a linguistic mediator
but also as the one responsible for them.
It is a dislocation, therefore at all level and therefore, the only language that
Maureen is left to understand is that of The Betrothed, the single book she has
managed to carry with her in a rush. The process of reading, therefore, becomes
a means of conversation for her and the inherent fear of having to run out of that
is evident when she initially shy away from it. It much, however, be noted that
Bam doesn’t feel a similar linguistic exclusion. There’s hardly any linguistic
incompetence that he is depicted to undergo as July is always next to him. This
linguistic demarcation is also gendered. Even the Chief of the village points out
why he should learn the master’s language. His source of power comes his political
role as a leader and a man in the text.
Gordimer, however, takes a moment to describe July’s wife. Martha is educated,

depicted by the fact that she reads the letters that he must have sent her to form
the town. She prides herself over the fact that July would not have married her
otherwise. However, her education is only vernacular and never cosmopolitan.
She can perhaps never step into Johannesburg, sustain herself like July’s town
mistress and eventually learn English. The layering of social constructs and
boundaries is best depicted here.
In another such instance Maureen’s relationship with her childhood friend Lydia
is evoked. A photographer clicks their picture for a coffee table book that years
later is used to depict the way of life of the Whites. Maureen’s relationship with
her Black friend is so naive that the racial act of Lydia carrying her bag on her
head, escapes Maureen. Gordimer writes:
Did the photographer know what he saw, when they crossed the road like that,
together? Did the book, placing the pair in its context, give the reason she and
Lydia, in their affection and ignorance, didn’t know? (46)
Now with the transformation in the hierarchy she is reduced to a cognizant White
woman.
4.8 A NOVEL ENDING

Like many other works of Gordimer, the novel provided has an open ending
igniting thought and imagination. Most critics like the Erritouni view the ending
of the novel as only being limited to the appearance of the helicopter and Maureen
rushing towards it. He calls the ending working ‘on the principle of hope’
(Erritouni, 69) where Maureen is rushing towards a future that is more hopeful
and identity driven. The entire image is pleasing to the visualization and represents
hope. However, Erritouni is conscious enough to read the novel both as a utopian
and a dystopian novel. He calls it a dystopian imagination because the readers
are made aware of the underlying racism of the Smales. They understand that
struggles of the black community but cannot be a participant to it. The Smales 59
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s continue to hire a black servant and are unwilling to share their economic wealth
July’s People
with the other community. Erritouni also calls it a utopian novel because he feels
that a redistribution of wealth will give enough impetus to do away with years of
suffering. He doesn’t account for the emotional, psychic and mental oppression
of the blacks that have seeped in and out of generations. Abdullah K Shehabat
and Hussein H Zeidanin, among many other critics can see the flaw in this
proposition. They explain how
They tightened their grip on their own properties and decided not to abandon
their past…they were not convinced that the past was over and that there was no
use crying over spilt milk (Shehabat, 134).
Clingman provides a complete different outlook to the final scene. He proposes

how Gordimer makes an attempt to describe the present through the trope of the
future which is ridden with riots and violence. He is not very confident in seeing
hope in the helicopter and even in the least probability it does represent any
resolution, Maureen is seen only waiting for it and could never approach it.
Clingman’s approach though interesting present an image of no better future, of
nothingness and unfulfilled hope. The most interesting argument lies in the
argument of Shehabat and Zeidannin. They do not attach the climax only to the
helicopter that would possible denote a postmodern world and Maureen rushing
towards it but the confrontation of July and Maureen right before. The
confrontation is crucial not only because of the issues already discussed but
because it polarities in one image, a male and a female, a black and a white, an
employee and an employer and a bond of egalitarianism, now displayed by July
versus a bond of subjugation represented by Maureen. This ending would perhaps
provide a better understanding of the novel in its totality.
4.9 LET US SUM UP

The above analysis has allowed us to conclude that
Gordimer’s July’s People marks a shift from her initial writings. This text is
a visualization of the future, providing a utopian image with hints of
underlying dystopia. It probes the readers to re-think how one ideology and
power structure gets replaced by another
In her characterization of Maureen and her relationship with various people
and objects around revealing layers of the protagonist’s personality
We can make an analysis of how the irrespective of race and privilege,
gendered roles are defined and rigid
The utilitarian approach of most characters in the novel reveals how we
attach power to different objects
An analysis of the closing scene and how it can be read and re-read to provide
various perspectives.

1) Godimer Nadine, July’s People. New Delhi Bloomsbury Publication, 2005.
2) Visel, Robin. Othering the Self: Nadine Gordimer’s Colonial Heroines. Print
3) Madden, Mike. Planting the Seeds of a Non-Racial Society: white women
60
as Agents of Change in July’s People, Disgrace and a Black of Grass. Nova Problematizing Gender
Scotia: Dalhousie University, 2007.
4) Anish K. Reflections of Social Realism in Nadine Gordimer’s July People
and My Son’s Story. Bodhi International Journal of research in Humanities,
Arts and sciences. Vol 2. 2018. <www.bodhijournals.com>
5) Shehabat, Zeidanin. Maureen between Criticism and praise: Reading the
Ending of Nadine Gordimer’s July People. International journal of
Humanities and Social Sciences. Vol 2, No 11. June 2012.
6) Erritouni, Ali. “Apartheid Inequality and Postapartheid Utopia in Nadine
Godimer’s July’s People.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 37 no. 4,
2006, p. 68-84. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/ral.2006.0087.
7) Clingman, Stephen. The Novels of Nadine Gordimer: History from the Inside.
London: Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, 1986.

QUESTIONS
1) Is Maureen’s daily routine in the village any different from her work in the
city?
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
2) Do you feel that Maureen distrusts July? Why?
......................................................................................................................
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3) How does the July-Maureen role invert in the village?
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4) Is Maureen’s marriage with Bam a happy one?
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61
Novel: Nadine Gordimer’s 5) How do the Black women perceive Maureen?
July’s People
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6) Can you explain the unspoken bond of sisterhood between the various women
in the text?
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7) Who is Ellen and what is her significance in the text?
......................................................................................................................
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8) How does language distance Maureen from the other women in the novel?
......................................................................................................................
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9) Why does Maureen run at the end of the text? Can we understand the run
through a feminist prism?
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10) Does July’s People attempt to draw linkages between gender and racial
segregation? Are both forms of marginalisation according to the author?
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62
BEGC -114
Postcolonial
Indira Gandhi
Literatures
Block
2
SHORT STORY
UNIT 1
An Introduction to the Postcolonial Short Story 65
UNIT 2
Bessie Head, ‘The Collector of Treasures’ 78
UNIT 3
Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl Who Can’ 89
UNIT 4
Grace Ogot, ‘The Green Leaves’ 99
Short Story
BLOCK INTRODUCTION
This is Block 2 of the Postcolonial Literatures (BEGC-114) titled Short Story.

The block is designed to discuss selected important postcolonial short stories.
The block consists of following five units:
Unit 1 titled An Introduction to the Postcolonial Short Story. This unit is

designed to familiarise you with the various concepts and contexts of
‘Postcolonial’. A brief overview of the evolution of the Postcolonial Short Story
and the mention of some important authors and their short stories have been
presented.
Unit 2 discusses ‘The Collector of Treasures’ by Bessie Head. Various aspects

of the short story along with the author’s brief bio has been discussed herein.
Unit 3 presents a reading of Ama Ata Aidoo’s ‘The Girl Who Can’. The nuances
of writing a story in the oral tradition as exhibited by the writer has been examined
in this unit.
Unit 4 discusses the important aspects of Grace Ogot’s ‘The Green Leaves’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
64
An Introduction to the
UNIT 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE Postcolonial Short Story
POSTCOLONIAL SHORT STORY
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Defining Postcolonial
1.2 Exponents of the Postcolonial Theory
1.3 Postcolonial Countries or Regions
1.4 Language of the Postcolonial
1.5 Short Story As A Literary Genre
1.6 Evolution of the Postcolonial Short story
1.7 Key concerns in the Postcolonial short story
1.8 Postcolonial writers: An Introduction
1.9 Canonical Texts
1.10 Women writers of the postcolonial short story
1.11 From Australia and New Zealand
1.12 From Africa
1.13 From Latin America
1.14 From Asia
1.15 From the rest of the World
1.16 Comprehension Exercises
1.17 Let’s Sum Up
1.0 OBJECTIVES
This unit introduces you to the concept of the postcolonial world of literature.
• It underlines the importance of the native language besides the English
language in the understanding of the postcolonial literature.
• It offers you a historical perspective of the evolution of the postcolonial
short story as a literary genre with its major concerns.
• It introduces you to the leading texts and their writers with specific focus on
women writers of the postcolonial short story.
1.1 DEFINITION POSTCOLONIAL

Postcolonial literature is the literature that has grown on the fertile soil of the
pristine land, has breathed in free air and does not need to conform to the European
literary traditions. When we talk of the postcolonial literature, world literature
from sovereign countries like Russia, China, Japan, America and the European
countries is not included in it. Instead literature from those countries only which
have been the former colonies of the European countries comes within the ambit
of consideration. Postcolonial literature is no longer a miniscule body representing
a minority rather more and more languages, cultures, countries and ethnicities
65
Short Story are getting added continually to the corpus of the postcolonial genres and is
rightly called the postcolonial ‘literatures’. Postcolonial literature is not limited
to the narrativisation of accidents between the native culture and the so called
advanced European culture only. It is not just the literature written in English
after the subjugated regions attained freedom from the colonial rule. It is a fusion
of the ancient and the modern; it is a retelling of a grandma’s folk tale by a
grand-daughter. It is an attempt to explore the treasure buried in one’s own home.
It is an attempt to find one’s moorings so as to take off from a firmer base. It is to
affirm that a tree which has deep roots stands tall and attains a larger spread. Post
colonialism cannot be defined in simplistic terms either by the erstwhile rulers
or by the ex-ruled. The perspectives in this regard vary as widely as the regions
concerned or the related ethnicities. This is not a body of literature but literatures.
It is like a salad bowl or like a wilderness with myriads of flowers of different
kinds. Reading postcolonial literature is a kind of experience which offers reading
about original sensibilities rich in history and culture and exuding fragrance of
the native soil free from the sense of oppression or subjugation or alienation.
1.2 EXPONENTS OF THE POSTCOLONIAL

THEORY
The founding exponents of the postcolonial theory, Bill Ashcroft , Gareth Griffiths,
and Helen Tiffin in their seminal text The Empire Writes Back: Theory and
Practice in Post-Colonial Literature systematically examine the field of
postcolonial studies, the dynamics of language and the inter relationships among
the different postcolonial literatures. In this book the writers have discussed
theoretical aspects of a wide range of postcolonial texts.
1.3 POSTCOLONIAL COUNTRIES OR REGIONS

Literatures from countries and regions which have been erstwhile colonies of
the European countries form the body of the postcolonial literatures. These include
African countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Sudan and others,
the Caribbean and Latin American countries like Chile, Saint Martin, Jamaica,
Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, West Indies, Barbados,
British Columbia, etc. Asian countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar,
Singapore etc., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Within the limited scope of
this unit only some of the fiction writers and some women short story writers are
briefly discussed below and accordingly only some of the relevant countries
have been mentioned here for reference.
1.4 LANGUAGE OF THE POSTCOLONIAL

The colonial experience generated a new political equation and narratives spun
around this new relationship. English became gradually the language of the
educated and the literature which is essentially native in its sensibility,
characterization and issues came to be written originally in English. The rise of
the nationalistic fervor following independence of the slave countries from the
yoke of the European rule promoted the literary works to be written originally in
the native languages and then translated into English. Some writers translated
their own works written originally in their native language into English. It is an
irony that some of the writers articulated in their works the painful experience of
66
subjugation of the natives, loss of land and land rights, onslaught on culture, An Introduction to the
Postcolonial Short Story
abrogation and replacement of the ancient political laws, mass religious
conversions and oppression of different kinds by the European or mainly the
English rulers in the language of the oppressor only, i.e. in English. However it
is interesting to note that just as the literature of one region is different from that
of the other, the kind of English spoken and used in one region is different from
that used in the other. British English is no longer followed as the standard English
in the erstwhile colonies, rather these regions have an English of their own.
There are now many Englishes all over the world like American English, Indian
English, Jamaican English, Kenyan English etc. and these regional varieties are
distinct and unique in their own right.
Here is an excerpt from Caliban’s Voice, a book written by Bill Ashcroft, an

authority on postcolonial literature –
“The unshakeable link between ‘our’language and ‘us’has made language not
only the most emotional site for cultural identity but also one of the most critical
techniques of colonization and of the subsequent transformation of colonial
influence by post-colonized societies ... it is incontestable that language is the
mode of a constant and pervasive extension of cultural dominance –through
ideas, attitudes, history and ways of seeing –that is central to imperial hegemony
…This book pivots on a moment in Shakespeare’s The Tempest which has become
the very symbol of the impact of a colonial language. When Caliban says to
Miranda and Prospero:
You taught me language, and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language
he gives voice to an issue that lies at the centre of post-colonial studies.”
Ashcroft further writes: “Most of the battles fought over language in postcolonial
theory stem from a confusion between language as a communicative tool and
language as a cultural symbol.”
The same analogy was also brought out in 1971 by the Cuban poet Roberto
Fernandez Retamar, one of the most distinguished Latin American intellectuals
of the 20th century who stated:
“Our symbol is not Ariel but Caliban …I know no other metaphor more expressive
of our cultural situation, of our reality.”
1.5 SHORT STORY AS A LITERARY GENRE

A short story is defined as a self contained prose fiction or narrative about an
incident or linked incidents evoking a particular effect and which can be read in
a single sitting. It is shorter than a novel and revolves around a few characters.
Bigger is not necessarily better. In the smaller space of a short story the central
theme is often conveyed more poignantly and the characters are also stoutly
built up. Small is beautiful. Writers can hone their skills of writing through writing
short stories. However, short story as a genre received very little critical attention.
This fact is true in the context of the postcolonial short story as well and in the
postcolonial critical canon the short story has been systematically sidelined. The
67
Short Story most important thing about short story according to Edgar Allan Poe is that it
must have a compact unified effect. In its content short story may range between
a highly imaginative tale and a symbolic sketch. Chinua Achebe’s “Chike’s School
Days”and Salman Rushdie’s “The Courter”are examples of postcolonial short
stories.
1.6 EVOLUTION OF THE POSTCOLONIAL

SHORT STORY
The postcolonial short story is a developed version or next generation version of
the oral folk tale tradition and the short story writer may be termed as the modern
day minstrel. Colonial experience and concerns were not similar in all the
subjugated territories across the globe which differed in their respective history
and culture hence the stories also differed in their subject matter and its treatment.
In the previous block you have read at length about writings from South Africa
which comprises of many nation states proud of their unique history, cultures
and literatures and which shared the common predicament of being colonies of
Europe in general and of the United Kingdom in particular. Having attained their
liberation from the European or the English rule in the twentieth century these
erstwhile colonies worked towards regaining their lost moorings by going back
to revive and reclaim their heritage. History, culture, language and literature
became matters of national pride. This kind of exploration of the native and the
aboriginal cultural pride can be witnessed not only among the countries of the
African continent but also among the newly liberated countries to the east as
well as to the west of Africa viz. the South American countries and the Asian
countries including India. Literature in these countries flourished in all its forms.
Its reach spread over to various genres viz. novel, drama, poetry, story, folklore
and retellings of history and classical literature. Among all these, short story
occupies a very snug corner. Innumerable forms of short stories are available
which include real stories, surreal stories, fantasy stories, horror stories, gothic
stories, comic stories, tragic stories, ghost stories, fairy tales, animal stories,
religious stories, didactic stories, mythological stories, heroic tales, bed time
stories, stories within stories and stories involving the colonial experience. Some
of these forms developed through the oral tradition of story-telling. These stories
can quite often be identified as related to a particular time period, geographical
location, community and tribe etc. These stories invariably remind the reader of
the interesting and captivating features of oral literature. In the present unit we
will discuss some of the representative postcolonial short stories. Major
postcolonial short story writers will be discussed and we shall also discuss those
short story writers who besides writing in their native language not only translated
their own stories into English but have also written some of their stories originally
in English. Among these writers we shall particularly discuss postcolonial African
women short story writers.
1.7 KEY CONCERNS IN THE POSTCOLONIAL

SHORT STORY
Challenging colonial authority, challenging patriarchal authority, resolving
complications and tensions caused by the colonial rule, greed of the western
world in grabbing land, extensive mining, exploiting forest produce, grabbing
68
raw farm produce, exploiting land resources and worst of all indulging in human An Introduction to the
trafficking are some of the key issues addressed in the postcolonial short story.
The large scale enslavement of the men of the native tribes by the whites in the
Caribbean, yoking these black slaves like animals to row the ships, keeping them
in chains, their transatlantic supply to America, subjecting them to extreme
physical torture and the sub-human treatment meted out to them became the
subject matter of a large number of stories woven around the appalling crime in
human trade. The agony, both physical and psychological, their longing to return
to their native land, the hatred and enmity towards their white masters including
their attempts both successful and unsuccessful to break free served as the
background of the stories written from the point of view of the oppressed. Before
the advent of the whites to these regions, the aborigines were living in a perfectly
harmonized society with their own set of laws, rituals, customs, family systems,
power equations, occasions of celebration and methods of festivities which were
different from those of the white people. The whites considered their way of
living as uncivilized and tried to replace it all with their own life style and way
of looking at things. This bigotry and sense of false supremacy was met with
tough resistance and generated hateful and violent clashes. French psychiatrist
Frantz Fanon in his 1961 book The Wretched of the Earth analyzed the
dehumanizing effects of colonialism upon the individual and the region and has
also discussed the implications of building up a movement for the process of
decolonizing the individual mind and the nation. Through, a critique of
imperialism and nationalism it is established that the process of decolonizing
was as much through violence as was the process of colonization. Nonetheless
negotiated colonizing and negotiated decolonizing are the truths of the existing
world. These real experiences and many other related sagas provided fertile soil
for the postcolonial story whether it was based on facts or was for greater part
fictionalized. During the process both the so-called ‘civilised’and the
‘savage’underwent a transformation and there emerged the ‘new man’who paved
the way towards turning the world into a global village. Postcolonial story is the
story of the decolonized man making his own destiny by knowing himself and
reconstructing himself. It is also the story of realization by the colonizer that the
colonized, dehumanized ‘thing’is as much human and as much evolved as the
colonizer himself. Decolonization spurred the urge to search one’s roots via the
memory lanes of ancestry, history and oral legacies in order to locate the individual
and the community in the pre-colonial past. This search gave birth to a large
body of literary treasure. Whether the postcolonial writers reveled in the nostalgia
of the past or made the present as the only relevant point of reference, they all
spun stories around the struggle for freedom, their diverse glorious indigenous
cultures, utopia of equality, their faith in human dignity and ambivalent moods
of hope and despair. The journey of the postcolonial story thus originates in the
pre-colonial past, moves through the colonial period, coincides with the
postcolonial present and aims to culminate in a globalised future.
The indigenous structure was systematically attacked by shaking people’s faith

in their religion, societal and community laws, traditional medicines and healing
therapies, everyday routine and above all education. A system of granting titles,
advantageous positions, higher social status and participation in administration
was put in place for those who renounced the aforesaid in favour of adopting a
whites-centric perception of the world. English was made the compulsory medium
of education which struck at the root of analytical and critical thinking, promoted
rote learning, suppressed inquisitiveness, caused hesitation in speaking and
69
Short Story generated slave mentality. It turned an entire generation of the so-called educated
into obedient clerks and yes-men. The teaching learning environment at the
schools was artificial and far-removed from the home environment relegating
the mother tongue to a secondary position. These concerns were later voiced by
postcolonial writers in various essays and short stories. An envious environment
with a spirit of unhealthy competition which pitted the children against one another
in schools was promoted. It systematically killed the spirit of unity and cooperation
and infused a sense of achievement in betrayal against their own brethren. The
missionary schools devised many ways of ensuring that nobody spoke the native
language. Punishment was imposed for using the mother tongue and children
were rewarded for doing well in the English language. Scientific spirit and
mathematical acumen which are language neutral attributes among children were
purposefully ignored. The colonial policies hit at the root of the faiths, beliefs
and value system of the natives and at their self confidence and sense of national
pride. From this insecure sense of self and nation emerged the postcolonial short
story.
1.8 POSTCOLONIAL WRITERS –AN

INTRODUCTION
The postcolonial writers were all from among the subjugated class of natives;
they were born to the colonized population, had the privilege to get educated and
learn the language of the colonizer which in most of the cases was English,
wrote in their language and continued to write more fearlessly and with greater
authenticity even after their country got political freedom. Like Caliban, they
used the language to their own advantage as a tool to expose the cunningness,
meanness, greed and cruelty of the colonizers or the colonizing nation while
also, at times, acknowledging the constructive modernization and advancement
brought by the colonizers. There were only a few exceptions in the form of the
white writers who like Sinclair, the British writer represented those who migrated
to the common wealth countries to settle there permanently and wrote about the
colonial experience from the point of view of the oppressed. They rejected the
colonial hegemony and recognized endless possibilities in the indigenous potential
and the storehouse of immense knowledge inherited and developed through
generations.
1.9 CANONICAL TEXTS

Some of the foremost texts which carry a discourse on racist undertones and take
up the issues of political and cultural independence termed as postcolonial are
mentioned here. These canonical texts paved the way for the postcolonial
movement which offered to the world a body of literature diverse in content but
unified and unique in its appeal. The Empire Writes Back by Bill Ashcroft and
others is considered the seminal text for a critical understanding of the postcolonial
genre.Things Fall Apart a novel by Chinua Achebe from Nigeria is about the
influence of the Christian missionaries and colonialism on the Igbo speaking
Umuofia tribe of Nigeria. The Wretched of the Earth by the French psychologist
Frantz Fanon, as discussed above, presents the psychic perspective of
colonization.Midnight’s Children is a novel by the British Indian Author, Salman
Rushdie which deals with India’s partition and its freedom from the British
rule.Orientalismis a cardinal text of postcolonial culture studies of the colonized
70
territories of Asia, North Africa and the Middle East by the Palestinian American An Introduction to the
critic Edward Said. Black Skin White Masks, another book by Franz Fanon, is
about effects of racism and dehumanization on the psyche of the colonized
populace. Decolonising the Mind by Ngugi wa Thiongo is a collection of essays
about politics of language in African literature and the role of language in the
history, culture and identity of a nation. Ngugi’s novel Petals of Blood set in the
newly independent Kenya was a novel written by him originally in English which
he himself translated into Gikuyu. He wrote his subsequent works originally in
his native language, Gikuyu.Season of Migration to the North is a novel in
Arabic by Tayeb Salih, one of the greatest twentieth century authors of Sudan. It
shows the impact of colonial rule and European modernity on the rural culture in
Sudan. Nervous Conditions, a novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga, the first ever book
by a black Zimbabwean woman published in English takes up gender issues
besides issues of race and colonialism in the present day post-colonial Zimbabwe.
A Bend in the River by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul from Trinidad and Tobago
is among the hundred best English language novels of the twentieth century. It
faithfully renders the plight of a member of the Indian community in Africa but
ascribes to the African Blacks kind of a “mysterious malevolence”. It is praised
as a “full-bodied masterpiece”and simultaneously accused of defending European
Colonialism in Africa. One Hundred Years of Solitude a landmark novel in
Spanish is considered the magnum opus of the Columbian postcolonial author
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This widely acclaimed novel has been translated into
thirty seven languages.Ania Loomba an Indian scholar of postcolonial studies is
a professor of English literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Postcolonial
Shakespeares, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East,
Postcolonial Studies and Beyond are some of her acclaimed works. The
Inheritance of Loss by Anita Desai deals with the contemporary issues of multi-
culturalism, terrorism, economic inequalities and loss of identity. July’s People
is a speculative novel by the South African author Nadine Gordimer in which
she predicted how apartheid would end in South Africa through a violent civil
war. Another historical political novel, Burger’s Daughter by Gordimer, winner
of the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature, details the attempts of a group of white
anti-apartheid activists in South Africa to overthrow the colonial government.
Both these novels were banned at that time by the then government in South
Africa. In Block 1 of this course you have learnt about Nadine Gordimer and
have read in detail her novel July’s People.
Besides the above mentioned writers and their representative postcolonial texts
there are many other writers of repute who made valuable contribution to the
corpus of postcolonial fiction, some of whom are : Alfian Saat of Singapore,
Saint Lucian poet and playwright Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, George
Lamming of Barbados, Canadian Indian writer Rohinton Mistry, Ayi Kwein
Armah of Ghana, Pablo Neruda from Chile, Witi Ihimaera of New Zealand,
Novelist Caryl Phillips born on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, writer and
scholar of racial cultural study Paul Gilroy of Britain, and one of Australia’s
greatest writers David Malouf.
1.10 WOMEN WRITERS OF POSTCOLONIAL

SHORT STORY
To make you aware that the postcolonial writers’world consists of a mammoth
body of literature which is still growing and to acquaint you with its pioneers 71
Short Story and star writers, some names along with their leading works are mentioned above.
However, your course outline suggests that the focus here is more on women
writers. In this block you are going to read short stories by three women writers,
one each from the eastern, western and southern part of the African continent.
For a wider understanding of the range and their global spread let us have a look
at some notable women writers of postcolonial short story and fiction and their
representative short stories. The three African women writers whose one story
each you have to study in detail in the units which follow are not being harped
upon much here. A short introduction of almost twenty other women writers and
their works is given below. The postcolonial world is broadly divided into five
regions, viz. Australia and New Zealand, Africa, Latin America, Asia and the
rest of the world. The women writers being discussed below are grouped
accordingly. It may be viewed as a list of suggested readings. As an illustration
summary outline of one of the stories, namely, “Ghosts” by Edwidge Danticat
and gist in a line or two each of all the ten stories in a collection of short stories,
namely, ‘Bodies of Water’ by Michelle Cliff is also given below –
1.11 FROM AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

a) Patricia Frances Grace: This Maori writer from New Zealand was the first
female published writer. She has to her credit more than a dozen collections
of short stories and children’s fiction. She is the key figure in the field of
Maori literature in English. Her works written in the Maori language have
been translated variously in French, German and English. She won many
prestigious awards. Her first collection of short stories is Waiariki. At 82
she is still an active writer.
b) Alice Tawhai: This short story writer of Tainui and NgaPuhi tribe of New
Zealand writes under the pen name Alice Tawhai maintaining anonymity.
She calls herself as one who writes in colours. She has published several
collections of her short stories. Her stories present an account of bittersweet
experiences of the ethnic minorities in New Zealand, a land of wonders.
Her characters include circus workers, tattoo artists, sex workers,
immigrants, bikies, wild children and people living on the fringe of the
society. She has a natural and dream like skill for story-telling. Her stories
contain compassionate humour, sensory imagery and an impressive flow
and freshness of language. Writing is like painting and poetry for her. Her
collections of short stories include Festival of Miracles (2005), Luminous
(2007), and Dark Jelly (2011). Alice is widely anthologized in New Zealand.
1.12 FROM AFRICA

a) Bessie Head: Bessie Head took up contemporary, postcolonial and gender
specific issues in her stories but consciously avoided the polarity which
existed among the whites and the anti-apartheid groups. Born as the child
of a black South African worker and a white upper class woman she got
marginalized like an outcaste in the country of her birth. You will read in
the next unit about this author and her story ‘The Collector of Treasures’.
b) Ama Ata Aidoo from Ghana: Ghana which was formerly known as Gold
Coast being situated between two rivers and being on the western coast of
the continent of abundance, Africa was greatly exploited by the European
72
countries. Not only were the forest resources and rich metals and minerals An Introduction to the
plundered but the tribal people were also hunted, chased, enslaved and
smuggled to Europe and across the Atlantic to the newly discovered land of
America so much so that the Gold Coast and the adjoining Ivory Coast
region came to be known as Slave Coast. Aidoo’s stories are her expressions
of resistance as an African nationalist woman. In the story ‘The Girl Who
Can’a seven year old girl is viewed as trapped in the perceived inadequacy
of her body as if a fulsome body were the be all and end all of a woman’s
life. Her grandmother is worried that her thin legs may not prove to be
capable enough to bear children while her mother who shares this skepticism
thinks that the least of all that her legs can do is to walk her to school. The
girl puts her legs to a surprising use when she becomes the racing champion
among juniors. The grandmother carries the trophy won by her on her back
like one carries children.
c) Grace Ogot: You may read about this Kenyan author and study in detail her
short story ‘The Green Leaves’in one of the units which follow.
d) Nadine Gordimer: This prolific fiction writer has to her credit twenty one
collections of short stories besides thirteen celebrated novels. To name a
few Beethoven was One-Sixteenth Black and other stories, Loot and Other
Stories and The Soft Voice of the Serpent and other stories are some of the
collections of short stories by her. She occupies a very prominent place in
the literary canon. Among some must read stories are “Six Feet of the
Country”, “Once Upon a Time”, “A Beneficiary”, “Is There Nowhere Else
Where We Can Meet”, “Loot”, “Africa Emergent”and “Not for Publication”.
e) Buchi Emecheta: This Nigerian author, a champion of female rights, wrote

more than twenty books which include novels, plays, an autobiography,
stories and other writings for children. “Apart from telling stories I don’t
have a particular mission. I like to tell the world our part of the story while
using the voices of women,”said Emecheta in an interview.
f) Yvonne Vera: This Zimbabwean author had a writing career of only 12

years cut short by her death at the age of 40. Her first published book was
a collection of short stories, Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals. Then
there followed five novels, distinguished for their poetic prose. The recurrent
theme of her works is the difficult history of Zimbabwe. She occupies an
important place in the postcolonial African Literature.
g) Tsitsi Dangaremba: Writer of the acclaimed novel Nervous conditions,

Dangaremba of Zimbabwe, besides being a novelist is a playwright, poet,
activist, short story writer, publisher and a film maker. A Family Portrait, a
collection of short stories, is the first book of short stories by her.
1.13 FROM LATIN AMERICA

a) Edwidge Danticat: This Haitian American writer’s stories mainly revolve
around the themes of national identity, revolutionary struggle, diasporic
politics and mother-daughter relationships. She has written many novels.
Krik Krak! and Everything Inside are collections of her short stories.
73
Short Story Her story “Ghosts” is about the life of Pascal, a slum boy whose parents
used to rear pigeons for a living in their village. People would buy these
pigeons for a bizarre custom which his parents found disgusting. They moved
to the outskirts of a city and started a restaurant. His brother Jules moved to
Canada with his girl friend while Pascal worked as a news writer for one of
the most popular radio stations, Radio Zorey. Gang leaders and other
criminals used to visit the restaurant and talk freely about their activities.
Once when he overheard Tiye, a one armed, bald headed gang leader it
struck to Pascal that he could run a radio programme “Man to Man”on
these people. He discussed his plan with his friends and many gang members
also came to know of Pascal’s plan. His idea was stolen by other people
and they started airing the programme on Radio Zorey. Pascal was teased
by the visitors and they instigated him to take action but Pascal did not
want to react. Radio Zorey building was torched by the Tiye gang and Tiye
named Pascal as the mastermind. Pascal was suddenly arrested and given
third degree torture in the prison cell. His family including his brother spent
huge sums and made all out efforts to free him but failed. When Tiye struck
some deal with the police and the judges Pascal was released. Tiye visits
their restaurant again and Pascal by noticing his prosthetic arm dreams of
running a radio show by the name “Ghosts”on people with lost limbs.
b) Michelle Cliff: This Jamaican American writer of novels, short stories and
prose poem stakes up issues of multicultural identity, race and gender and
attempts to view history from a perspective different from the mainstream
narrative. She probes the psychological and historical distortions imposed
by colonialism. Bodies of Water (1990), The Store of a Million Items (1998)
and Everything is Now (2009) are some of her books of short stories. Some
of her stories contain themes of prejudice and oppression from the point of
view of the immigrants. Some stories are based on historical events like the
civil rights movement, the Holocaust etc. Her stories depict the common
man’s courage, fortitude and determination to rise above his circumstances.
The collection Bodies of Water comprises ten stories with compelling social
themes clustering around man’s inhumanity to man whether in a political
scenario or in a historical one. The title story “Bodies of Water”is a story of
an old woman reaching out to a brother from whom she was separated. The
brother and sister relive, through letters to each other, their childhood days
of harsh upbringing, particularly the trauma related to the early discovery
of the brother’s homosexuality. “Election Day 1984” is about a spinster
who reveals her involvement in a murder and explains to a new immigrant
her decision to rescue a child only to give him away for his own benefit.
“Burning Bush”is about the mass murder of her family by a 75 year old
woman. “Columbia”, the only story with a Jamaican setting, is about a boy
who is forced by his employer to kill his pet doves for food. “The Ferry”is
about a boy in his teens who looses his father to alcoholism. “Screen
Memory”is a story in the flashback about a girl who could pass for a white
and become an actress. “A Hanged Man”is about the torture inflicted on
the black slaves and the pre civil war hypocrisy. “A Woman who Plays
Trumpet is Deported”is about a black American woman artist who flees
America after the lynching of her brother and then dies in a Nazi
concentration camp. “American Time, American Light” is the story of an
elderly Vietnamese who dies in an abandoned farmhouse in New England,
74
America. The last story in this collection “Keeper of All Souls”portrays the An Introduction to the
itinerants’ search for a free society. The ironic fulfillment of their search
lies at Sam’s altar where relics from the past of parallel lives are arranged
and rearranged after their deaths by Sam, the recorder of lives and deaths.
c) Jean Rhys: Jean Rhys was born and grew up in the Caribbean island of
Dominica. She was sent for her education to England where she lived for
most of her life. Her early experience in the Caribbean had given her a
viewpoint for stating the case of the ‘underdog’.
d) Andrea Levy: Andrea Levy is regarded by many as the voice of the people
who migrated to Britain from the commonwealth countries after World War
II. Her father belonged to the Windrush generation who arrived in Britain
in 1948 from Jamaica. She was born in London in 1956. In her essay in Six
Stories and an Essay she wrote: “The racism I encountered was rarely
violent or extreme but it was insidious and ever present and it had a profound
effect on me.”
1.14 FROM ASIA

a) Anita Desai: An alumnus of Delhi University Anita Desai was thrice
shortlisted for Booker Prize for her novels, In Custody, Clear Light of Day
and Fasting, Feasting. She is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, U.S. The Artist of disappearance, Diamond Dust and other
Stories, Games at Twilight and Fire on the Mountain are some collections
of her short stories. She has written half a dozen novels and a dozen
collections of short stories.
b) Mahashweta Devi: This postcolonial writer was born in Dhaka of the pre-
divided India which is now the capital of Bangladesh. She settled in Calcutta,
India. She wrote most of her works in Bengali. Her works are translated in
many languages. Ordinary people with extra ordinary grit are the inspirations
behind her writings. She has also been an activist for the rights of the
marginalized people like the tribals, and the Dalits. Her works tally goes
beyond a hundred.
c) Suchen Lim: Born in Malaysia, Suchen Christine Lim is a citizen of

Singapore who has written many books for children, several novels including
Fistful of Colours and books of short stories of the unsung, unsaid and
uncelebrated in Singapore titled The Lies that Build a Marriage (2007)
and The Man Who Wore his Wife’s Sarong (2017).
1.15 FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD

a) Doris Lessing: Born in Iran to British parents, Doris Lessing spent her
formative twenty five years in southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before
coming to Britain. She is winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Her
stories in her collection of short stories titled African Stories are set in
Zimbabwe. She has written at least twenty books of short stories. Her first
novel The Grass is singing was published in1950. During her long period
of creative writing from 1950 to 2013 she wrote a whole range of fiction
and non-fiction including Drama, Poetry Collections, Cat Tales,
Autobiography, Memoirs and Essays. 75
Short Story b) Wena Poon: Wena Poon is a writer of short stories in English and is settled
in the U S. She is the true representative of her generation — multi-cultural,
transnational and continental. Her stories are set in London, New York,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Hanoi and all over.
c) Alice Munro: Alice Munro, the Canadian short story writer, is the recipient
of the 2013 Nobel Prize for literature. Her works do not fall strictly in the
category of the postcolonial but this author is the most faithful to the genre
of the short story. Her stories are straight from life; they grow on her
experiences. She explored relationships in her stories most of which are
very short. She has a unique and terse way of understanding things and
saying them.
d) Jhumpa lahiri: Jumpa Lahiri is an American postcolonial novel and short

story writer of Indian roots. Experiences of the Indian immigrant in America
form the bedrock of her writings. Her collection of short stories Interpreter
of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, 2000. Another of her short
story collections, Unaccustomed Earth won the Frank O’Connor
International short story award, 2008. The Lowland and The Namesake
are her other notable works.
e) Elleke Boehmer: Elleke Boehmer, a professor of World Literature in English

at the Oxford University is one of the founders in the field of postcolonial
studies. Boehmer is known internationally for her well researched study on
the after effects of the colonial rule. Her short story collections are Stories
of Women (2005), Sharmilla and Other Portraits (2010), and To the
Volcano (2019) about which J.M. Coetzee remarked, “…with passion and
intelligence, and rare moral insight, Elleke Boehmer traces the scars left on
the psyche by the tortuous histories of the South.”
1.16 COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

a) What do you understand by postcolonial literature? How is it different from
other literature?
b) Who are some of the pioneers of postcolonial short story? Write about any
two representative short stories.
c) Chart the growth of postcolonial short story.
d) What are the major issues generally discussed in the postcolonial short story?
e) Write a note on the language of the postcolonial literature.
f) Discuss any five African women writers of the postcolonial short story.
g) Discuss the contribution of the non-native writers to the postcolonial
literature.
1.17 LET US SUM UP

Postcolonial literature is the literature from those countries which have been
the former colonies of the European countries. It encompasses many
languages, cultures, countries and ethnicities and is rightly called postcolonial
literatures.
76
Postcolonial literature is essentially native in its sensibility though the An Introduction to the
language is English.
Postcolonial short story is the modern day version of the oral folktale and it
presents a fusion of the native culture and the colonial experience.
The postcolonial writers are either from the subjugated educated class of the
natives or from the Europeans who migrated to the common wealth countries
to settle there permanently and wrote about the colonial experience from the
point of view of the oppressed. They rejected the colonial hegemony and
recognized endless possibilities in the indigenous potential and the storehouse
of immense knowledge inherited and developed through generations.
The postcolonial short story challenges the colonial as well as the patriarchal
authority. Greed of the western world in grabbing land, extensive mining,
exploiting forest produce, grabbing raw farm produce, exploiting land
resources and worst of all indulging in human trafficking and large scale
enslavement are some of the key issues addressed in the postcolonial short
story.
Postcolonial story is the story of the decolonized man making his own destiny
by knowing himself and reconstructing himself. It is also the story of
realization by the colonizer that the colonized, dehumanized ‘thing’is as
much human and as much evolved as the colonizer himself.
There is a long list of postcolonial fiction writers, both men and women
which include writers like Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe, Nadine
Gordimer, Salman Rushdie, Pablo Neruda, David Malouf, Grace Ogot and
so on.
In the end women writers of postcolonial short story are discussed under
five regional categories to help you understand the global spread of the
postcolonial literature.
77
Short Story
UNIT 2 BESSIE HEAD, ‘THE COLLECTOR
OF TREASURES’
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 The Writer’s Bio-brief
2.1.2 Story of The Collector of Treasures
2.2 Characters
2.3 Historical Classification of Men
2.4 Redemptive Powers of Female Solidarity
2.5 Oral Storytelling
2.6 Dikeledi’s Crime
2.7 Animal Imagery in the Story
2.8 Check Your Progress: Possible Questions (with answer key)
2.9 Select Reading List
2.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we will learn about Bessie Head. We will discuss her position as a
significant writer whose attempts to chronicle life in Botswana have yielded
powerful creative output.
After reading this Unit, you will be able to:
Learn about the life and works of Bessie Head
Investigate the living conditions of women
Understand the reasons for oppressive masculinity
Find the redemptive powers of female solidarity
Locate the story in the tradition of oral literature
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Bessie Amelia Emery Head (1937-1986) was a significant voice amidst the notable
writers of sub-Saharan Africa. She wrote several novels and short stories. Some
of her remarkable works are When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), Maru (1971), A
Question of Power (1973) and an anthology of short stories; Collector of Treasures
(1977). Bessie Head was born of mixed parentage in South Africa. It is important
to note, dear student, that under Apartheid (South African policy of racial
segregation), a mixed-race marriage was considered illegal in South Africa at
the time of her birth. Her mother, Bessie Amelia Emery, was a white woman and
her father, a black groom employed by her family. Their alliance was not
welcomed by the society. Her mother was admitted to a mental asylum because
of her liaison with a black man and she subsequently gave birth to Bessie Head
78
there. Due to apartheid, it was illegal for people of mixed races to marry each Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
of Treasures’
other. Her mother was admitted to a mental asylum during her pregnancy and as
a result, Bessie Head was born there. She was sent to a foster family who rejected
her when they realized that she was coloured. Children of mixed parentage were
considered coloured children and they found no solidarity from either the white
supremacists or the subjugated black population. She was raised in an orphanage
and later tried her hands at teaching and journalism. Dear student, it is of utmost
importance to understand that being a coloured person, Bessie Head struggled
with acceptance and it shaped her writings as well. When she felt alienated by
South African milieu, she sought refuge in Botswana and that’s where she found
her literary voice. She lived in rural Botswana and observed the lives of poor and
disenfranchised women. She learned that the black women are doubly
marginalized; as black subjects suffering under colonial rule as well as women
suffering from deep rooted patriarchy. This theme found prominence in Head’s
literary output. Alice Walker regenerated interest in Head’s writings by hailing
her as one of her “favourite uncelebrated foreign writers...whose work deserves
more attention in this country.”
1.1.2. Story of The Collector of Treasures

The story begins in media res (in the middle of events) where we see a woman
being driven to a prison far away from her home. As she looks wistfully at the
passing landscape, she realizes that she will not be able to see the mundane
things like cattle grazing in the fields, bushes, and forest from her jail cell. As the
woman is ushered into the jailhouse, late in the evening, her crime is revealed.
The guards talk to each other and introduce her as the husband killer of Puleng
village.
It is revealed that her name is Dikeledi Mokopi and the wardress wryly tells her
that she will be in good company since her cell mates include four women who
have been convicted of killing their respective husbands. The wardress calls it a
fashionable amongst women to kill their husbands these days. Her tone suggests
lack of empathy and understanding of the social or domestic reasons for these
women to murder their spouses.
In her conversation with her cellmates, we learn that Dikeledi literally means
tears. Her very birth was associated with tragedy, as her father expired when she
was born. She was named after her mother’s tears. The name can be seen as a
metaphor for her life. Her childhood and her married life were both sorrowful.
She recalls it as she learns the life stories of her companions. Each of her cellmates
had killed her husband. Dikeledi had castrated the private parts of her husband
and her new cellmate, Kebonye had done the same to her respective husband.
Kebonye’s story had been a harrowing one too. She lived with an abusive husband
who often subjected her to sexual violence. He was an education officer at a
school. There was rampant sexual abuse of schoolgirls by their male teachers.
He was himself guilty of abusing these young girls. When he impregnated one of
the young students and Kebonye found out about it, she killed him to finally put
the abuse at rest. The short and matter of fact discussion between the cellmates
sheds light upon a few things. Firstly, nobody is surprised that sexual abuse of
young girls is routine at the hands of teachers and other personnel in authoritative
roles. Secondly, Kebonye as well as Dikeledi suffer in silence for a prolonged
duration before gathering enough strength to kill their respective husbands.
79
Short Story Finally, none of the women entertain the idea of approaching civic authorities or
police to help them out, implying that taking recourse to institutional law and
justice is not a possibility. Women’s position in society is shockingly marginalized
and their human rights are abused with impunity by chauvinistic men.
The prison where Dikeledi was lodged was a rehabilitation centre where the
inmates were encouraged to perform small acts of labour to earn some money
and to keep their prison sentence constructive. Men would build bricks, shoes,
cultivate vegetables and women would knit, sew, weave baskets etc. It was soon
revealed that Dikeledi was a talented woman. She knit intricate designs on a
sweater in a few hours earning everyone’s admiration. She told Kebonye that
she took pride in hard work. In absence of a supportive husband, she sustained
her family by thatching people’s roofs, knitting, sewing, weaving baskets etc.
She earned money and respect from her fellow villagers. At the end of her first
day in prison, Dikeledi remarks to herself that although her life is sad, she has
found a treasure in friendship and solidarity of Kebonye and other inmates. Having
a sordid life, these moments of compassion are her only treasures that she collects
and holds close to her heart.
The writer goes on to discuss men in her society and states that there are two
kinds of men. The first kind is at the same psychological level as animals such as
dogs, bulls and donkeys. He is predatory, cruel and selfish in nature. He dominates
women and sexually abuses them with no regard to creating a family life. He
takes no responsibility for the children he produces. With violence and a tendency
to cater to his own sexual appetite, he causes women to abort some time.
Unfortunately, these kinds of men are in the majority, according to the writer.
She then follows up with an analysis about these men. She presents a division of
history to understand men, patriarchy, and their behaviour. She says in pre-colonial
days, the elders of the tribes laid out conventions and taboos for everyone to
follow. The rules were patriarchal in nature. They put men in a superior position
and women in a subordinate one. The unruly men were kept somewhat in check
due to the rigid societal norms. These norms were, however, very general and
did not take into account specific problems.
Second phase is identified as that of colonialism. The colonial powers ensured

that most of the men spent their lives toiling in mines in distant lands. They were
cut off from family, community, and societal values. They worked for a pittance
and suffered greatly for it. The moral framework ensured by society eroded as a
result of this.
The final phase, i.e. the independence of the nation didn’t help these men either.
Freedom from colonial rule saw its own complexities. Salaries and purchasing
power grew exponentially. But the newfound financial independence came with
reckless power for these men. Now they had no societal rules or colonial rules to
discipline themselves with. They became dizzy with power and cared for none
except themselves. Dikeledi’s husband, Garesego Mokopi was an example of
this kind of man. He now had enough money and resources to womanize. He
moved from one extra-marital affair to the next without providing for his wife
and three sons.
The second kind of man used financial and constitutional freedom to reinvent
himself. He was a caring family man who used his time, money and emotions to
sustain life around him. He lived a life of happy domesticity by nurturing people
80
who came into his contact. One such man was Paul Thebolo, Dikeledi’s neighbour. Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
of Treasures’
He was a kind husband and an upright member of the community. He laughed
easily, took good care of his family and contributed to the community by lending
a helping hand to anyone who needed it. Most importantly, he treated his wife as
an equal partner in their marriage. He loved and respected her. It is evident from
Dikeledi’s discussions with his wife Kenalepe. When Kenalepe learns that
Garesego was brutish in his relationship with Dikeledi, she offers to share her
husband with her. In a very unconventional measure, she tells Dikeledi that she
must learn for herself how fulfilling sexual relationships could be between two
individuals who respected each other. Although Dikeledi never redeems this offer,
it depicts the depth of female friendship that is shared between the two women.
Dikeledi keeps this offering as a treasure in her heart.
She makes peace with her austere life marked by hard work and good friends.
The tranquility of her frugal life is ruptured when she needs 20 rupees for her
eldest son’s school fees. She requests her husband Garesego, who accuses her of
having an extra-marital affair with Paul and refuses to pay her. He believes that
men only help women who sleep with them and conversely, women only do
household chores for men they’re sleeping with. His own perverted mindset
prevents him from seeing selflessness in others’good deeds. His chauvinism is
reinforced when Paul Thebolo comes to accost him. He starts the rumour that his
wife is Paul’s concubine to degrade Paul’s social standing in the village. The
base men in the village relish the gossip because it reduces a good man like Paul
to their level.
To assert his dominance over his first wife and to spite Paul Thebolo, Garesego
decides to pay for his son’s school fees. He sends a message to Dikeledi that he
will visit her, and she should keep a hot meal and bath ready for him. Dikeledi
understands that he wants a sexual favour in return for the payment. She feeds
him and when he goes to sleep, she castrates him. She asks her son to call the
police and surrenders herself peacefully. She is assured by Paul that he will take
care of her children. The story ends with this assurance.
2.2 CHARACTERS
Now that we have undertaken a brief analysis of the story, it behooves us to
familiarize ourselves with the main characters. It will assist us in understanding
their motives, strengths and flaws, among other aspects.
Dikeledi - Dikeledi is a tragic figure who is literally named after her mother’s
tears. She is married to an abusive husband who abandoned her and their three
children. She uses ingenuity and industry to eke out a respectable living for her
small family. Her kindness and willingness to help others wins her the friendship
and regard of many people. Amidst wretched penury, she forges strong bonds
with her friends. Her husband demands sexual submission from her in return for
a small sum of money she needs for her son’s school fees. Unwilling to bow
down in the face of her sexual, social, and financial humiliation, she kills her
husband by chopping off his genitals. Even prison cannot diminish her spirit as
she goes on to make friends, gathering their loyalty and love as treasures of life.
She has a harrowing life, but she still manages to find beauty in it.
Garesego - Garesego is a chauvinistic man who feels entitled to his wife’s
complete sexual submission without providing her with any real sense of home,
81
Short Story love, and security. He believes in male supremacy and abuses his wife constantly
before leaving her and moving on to greener pastures. He keeps several concubines
without committing to any of them. He is driven by a false sense of superior ego
and doesn’t think twice before abusing or physically assaulting his wife. His
new job enables him to spend freely but not once does he reconcile his financial
abundance to his own responsibilities as a parent and a husband. He is described
as a ‘female prostitute’by the narrator for his propensity to seek attention and to
parade his sexual conquests.
Paul Thebolo- Paul is described as a ‘poem of tenderness’. He is in a symbiotic

relationship not only with his wife but also with the rest of the village. Paul is an
icon of the evolved man that the narrator refers to when she talks about the
binary of the kinds of African men. You may refer to later units to learn more
about this. He is presented as a foil to Garesego’s character. Unlike Garesego, he
loves and cherishes his wife and family. When he notices the good in people, he
acknowledges it. His honest compliments and generous provisions to his less
priviledged neighbours are indicative of his character as a pillar of the community.
At the same time, his refusal to copulate with Dikeledi is indicative of his character
as a man of integrity. He becomes the epicentre of the village community as
uneducated men come to him seeking help with their forms and correspondence
and, educated men come up to him to discuss contemporary politics. He confronts
Garesego when the latter indulges in malicious speculation about his relationship
with Dikeledi. Although Garesego and many villagers indulge in denigrating
him, he doesn’t stop caring and providing for her household. He proves that he is
a virtuous man when he promises to send Banabothe to school and provide for
Dikeledi’s children while she suffers her prison sentence.
Kenalepe- Kenalepe is Dikeledi’s bosom friend and Paul’s wife. Her arrival in
Dikeledi’s life marks the only time of bliss in Dikeledi’s otherwise tragic life.
She was beautiful and vivacious and liberally shared her good fortune with her
friend. They became keepers of each other’s intimate secrets. She offers to loan
her husband to Dikeledi so her friend can experience a rewarding sexual
experience. She is utterly confident that neither Paul nor Dikeledi will misuse
this proposition. She is a little naive since the constant bliss of her life doesn’t
provide her with depth of thought. She was blessed with fawning parents and a
loving husband who adores her thoroughly. Her soulful friendship with Kenalepe
is one of the few joys in the latter’s life.
Kebonye - Kebonye is Dikeledi’s cellmate in the prison. She is guilty of the

same crime as Dikeledi. Tired of her husband’s abusive ways, she castrates him
with a razor. She shares her own harrowing tale in a straightforward manner. Her
account adds to Dikeledi’s own testimony as a woman who has suffered from a
brutish man. He kicks her in her private parts when he wants to sleep with her.
He also rapes and abuses his young students and impregnates them. Kebonye is
finally exhausted from his abuse and castrates him. Her story is aligned with
Dikeledi’s to underscore the plight of disenfranchised women caught in unequal
marriages. They don’t have any legal or social escape from brutal husbands. The
only option left to them is either to suffer throughout their lives or to kill their
husbands and end the abuse.
Banabothe - Banabothe is the eldest of Dikeledi’s three sons. He passed his school
exam with Grade ‘A’. To Dikeledi’s joy and pride he is qualified to have a
82 secondary education. However, his school fees proves to be a struggle for her
and works as a catalyst for the events to come. In the absence of a sturdy father Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
of Treasures’
figure, he could have become a wastrel, but he sees his mother struggle to afford
a good education for him and his brothers. So he puts his heart and soul into his
studies.
Wardess- The wardess of the prison in which Dikeledi is lodged represents the
public attitude towards female criminals. Instead of attempting to understand the
context and reasons behind Dikeledi’s crime, she treats her with wry sarcasm.
She tells her that there are other women who have committed the same crime so
she’ll be in good company. She casually reduces the crime to a new fad amongst
women. Her indifference and callous disregard to her inmates shows the systemic
apathy towards women.
Sundry villagers - Bessie Head portrays the simple joys and stark prejudices of
rural life with equal ease. Most of the villagers lead lives of poverty and although
they share the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives but they are also quick to
slander Paul and Dikeledi’s relationship. They delight in cruel gossip especially
about Paul Thebolo since they are envious of his superior moral standards.
2.3 HISTORICAL CLASSIFICATION OF MEN

Bessie Head undertakes a socio-historical classification of men in the African
society. She says that there are two types of men. The first kind is a selfish, cruel,
irresponsible male who acts without any consideration to others. He sexually
subjugates women and does not fulfill any responsibilities towards his progeny.
He is reduced to the level of base animals who copulate with the females of their
species without any regard to her consent and who don’t nurture their young.
She uses the imagery of animals like dogs, bulls, and donkeys to illustrate her
argument. She further analyses historical treatment meted out to such men in
three-time spans. In ancient tribal societies, before colonialism, elders of the
community created social mores, taboos, and moral guidelines which influenced
people’s attitudes and behaviours. The moral framework was broadly created for
the entire community and was extremely male centric. Women were considered
secondary and therefore their needs, aspirations, and rights were neglected.
The colonial invasion did no favours to this category of men. The imperialist
policies dictated the African men to work in perilous conditions in South African
mines, often away from their families and children. The racial policies and
discriminatory taxation ensured that African men were reduced to migrant
labourers who led isolated lives for long durations of time. This led to the
breakdown of family life and traditional community in their original tribes. The
ancient stronghold of tribal morals and customs saw deep erosion as a direct
result of this male exodus.
Independence from colonial rule, presented a unique opportunity to rediscover

and recreate the nation and the community. However, a long postcolonial
degradation had robbed these men of any moral integrity. They found new forms
of employment and financial excesses, but they were free from any social or
systemic obligations. Instead of finding an opportunity to alter their lives and
rebuild their communities, they used the money and freedom for reckless
decadence. Garesego is presented as an example of such men. He used his money
and influence to indulge in sensual pleasures while neglecting his wife and
children. 83
Short Story Garesego can be contrasted with the second category of men. The second kind of
man, according to Head, can be exemplified by Paul Thebolo. He was enlightened
enough to create and nurture his family as well as his community. He is kind and
generous towards his family and his neighbours. His house becomes the epicentre
of political discussions, evening gatherings, and general bon-homie amongst the
villagers.
Women, however, have been excluded from this categorization as doubly

marginalized. Colonialism stripped them of their rights as citizens and they were
subjugated as being inferior to men during all three periods of history that Head
discusses. Women like Dikeledi weren’t benefitted by any socio-political changes
accompanied by independence. Their condition as doubly repressed is made amply
clear by the women characters of the story. Even women in improved
circumstances, like Kenalepe are kept out of important spheres of power such as
local politics and world affairs. Paul’s marriage with Kenalepe might be blissful
but it is by no means egalitarian. In an increasingly unequal society, men and
women are both victims of oppression.
2.4 REDEMPTIVE POWERS OF FEMALE

SOLIDARITY
Bessie Head creates a model of female solidarity as can be experienced in the
rural world of Dikeledi and Kenalepe. Conventional patriarchy and
postcolonialism had collectively rendered women virtually powerless in an uneven
world. The lives of women are restricted to domestic quarters. The world of
employment, politics, current affairs etc are beyond their means. This exclusion
from decision making and financial empowerment worsens the conditions of
women. Women like Dikeledi cannot have a dialogue with the systemic patriarchy
because they aren’t equipped with any tools of negotiation. They lack higher
education, important jobs, and are deliberately kept out of local politics. They
are heavily dependent on the goodwill of their husbands to sustain their lives.
Within this unequal world, they can only turn inwards and to other women to
draw comfort and sustenance in an otherwise bleak existence. Dikeledi turns to
women like Kenalepe and Kebonye, who understand her suffering and provide
solace to her.
When Dikeledi’s husband deserts her and their three children, she takes recourse
to the cottage industry of sewing, knitting, thatching roofs to financially sustain
her family. She has no access to formal education or formal employment. When
she hears Paul discuss world politics with other male members of the village
community, she realizes that there is a larger world around her and education
provides access to it. Unlettered women like herself are excluded from it. She
savours these details with her friend as she mentions that ‘a completely new
world opened up’as she heard these lively political discussions. Women only get
conversational scraps about politics and philosophy while men are given the
liberty to participate in policy making. Although Kenalepe was born to loving
parents and married to a progressive man, her role in life is restricted to the
domestic sphere; birthing children, cooking and caring for her family. As far as
Dikeledi and her ilk are concerned, male oppression and domination are part and
parcel of being women. Women desiring a more detailed political awareness are
kept out of the modern knowledge systems and employment.
84
Dikeledi’s circumstances have always been cruel but she finds lightness in the Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
of Treasures’
form of female friendship she strikes with Kenalepe and other women, including
Kebonye. The poignancy in the story stems from Dikeledi’s unfaltering optimism
regardless of unmitigated cruelties she is subjected to. Her grit and determination
are a testimony to her unflinching belief in basic human kindness. Her willingness
to share, and to help others creates the bedrock of her relationship with the people
around her. The deep friendship between women is a potent salve against perpetual
alienation that women like Dikeledi feel.
2.5 ORAL STORYTELLING

‘In reality, all I simply did was record stories that had happened and had been
told to me and described to me. Most of the stories there are based on reality,
they are not inventions. They happened, they are changed. They are decorated,
they are interpreted. But there’s a basis there in fact, in reality.’(Head)
Bessie Head wrote in an exclusively oral tradition of storytelling. Dear student,

if you read the story aloud, you will notice it has a different auditive flavour. It
will feel like a true story that you have heard from the narrator. Botswana, like
many other African countries, had a rich tradition of oral literature that included
folktales, songs, proverbs etc. Bessie Head uses real incidents and fictionalizes
them for her anthology. The Collector of Treasures, itself is based on a real incident
that she learned about. The fictional world draws upon the oral history and uses
it to provide relevant social commentary. It becomes the voice of the marginalized
African women and enables the reader to comprehend their lives without
fetishizing their poverty or race. The act of storytelling implies participation.
The act is based on sharing. The individual’s life experiences must bear lessons
for the community. Dikeledi’s story is thus, the story of several other women
who suffer years of patriarchal abuse and are finally pushed to commit acts of
violence.
The oral gossip between Dikeledi and Kenalepe is different from the informed
conversation between Paul Thebolo and his friends. However, both are valid
forms of oral tradition. Dikeledi’s tale of her life with the richness of experience
sheds copious amounts of light on the rustic life and women’s subordinate position
in it. She borrows from an oral culture when she narrativizes her own experiences
to characters within the story. As her own introduction, she tells Paul proudly,
‘all my friends know that I’m the woman whose thatch doesn’t leak.’She repeats
it to her new friends in the jail cell. The simple sentence highlights her
resourcefulness in the face of a bleak life and her pride in it. The manner of
speaking is anecdotal. With ‘everyone knows’she establishes the beginning of
her story. It lays the ground for the forthcoming veracity of her story as that of a
sustained struggle. She doesn’t take a new husband or choose to be someone’s
concubine to survive, she worked hard and gave what little she had generously.
Her conversations with Kenalepe are marked with the unbridled joys of sharing
each other’s lives. While neither has access to books or formal education, their
conversations are rife with emotional knowledge and a desire to learn more. Idle
gossip or the manipulation of truth is the other side of the story for village life.
People speculate about Dikeledi’s relationship with her neighbour. They also
chastise Garesego for not paying the fees of his own son. However, the reasons
are never charitable. The reason is to establish conjugal control on Dikeledi’s
sexuality.
85
Short Story
2.6 DIKELEDI’S CRIME
According to Craig Mckenzie, ‘Dikeledi’s act should not be perceived as an
arbitrary act of retribution but as a socially determined act’. To examine this
statement, one must retrace the story as a work of fiction based on real incidents
Bessie Head had documented from her life in rural Serowe. Her engagement
with real women and their daily struggles garbed in the familiar strains of a short
story provide valuable insights in the female domain. The Collector of Treasures
is a fictionalization of a gruesome incident that actually took place in rural Serowe.
Head understands the need to flesh out the story around the incidents in order to
provide context to the women who are compelled to commit crimes.
Dikeledi’s crime can only be comprehended within the framework of her travails
in a lop-sided system where women have no social or political currency. She is
housed in the company of four other women who have committed the same type
of crime. At this juncture it is of critical importance to note that her cellmate
Kebonye killed her husband in similar vein, and for similar reasons. Her husband
was a serial rapist. After raping and impregnating several of his charges at the
rural school, he was finally killed by a desperate Kebonye. Like Garesego, he
was guilty of committing sexual crimes against defenseless women and getting
complete exemption from any kind of punishment. Men slip through the biased
legal system which does not hold them responsible for crime against women.
Women like Dikeledi and Kebonye are emblematic of many disempowered
women who suffer for years before acting against their tyrants. In the story called
‘Life’, from the same collection, the husband gets a prison sentence of merely
five years after murdering his wife. Compare the quantum of justice in ‘Life’with
that of ‘The Collector of Treasures’where Dikeledi gets a life term for killing her
abusive husband. This highlights the institutionalized bias against women
criminals versus male criminals. It also raises doubts on the very definition of
the idea of crime.
To the community, sexual crime against young female students by an education
officer is not a matter of legal significance. The parents of the raped teenager
come to Kebonye’s house to complain about her husband instead of reporting
the matter to the police. Similarly, Dikeledi doesn’t bring the issue of conjugal
negligence and marital rape in the judicial purview. Sexual crime committed by
men is conveniently out of the sphere of the legal justice system. Women like
Dikeledi and Kebonye are expected to suffer in silence. Bessie Head talks about
the breakdown of communal conventions of the tribes before colonization. The
old tribal structure was corroded by colonialism. Hence, there isn’t the tribal
hierarchy of elders who, hypothetically, could have dealt with men like Garesego.
In the absence of redressal at the community level and at the legal level, vulnerable
women such as Dikeledi find themselves forced to commit acts of violence to be
freed of oppression. Garesego ruptures the peaceful purity of Dikeledi’s life with
her children and friendly neighbours. Dikeledi’s crime is her act of revolt against
the perpetual maltreatment she receives at the hands of her husband.
Bessie Head’s story encourages the reader to see Dikeledi’s crime as a part of the
marginalized women’s resistance. In a complex world marred by patriarchy,
erosion of traditional tribal value-systems, and postcolonial exploitation, her final
act of violence is her refusal to conform to the status quo. Her crime can not be
treated as an ordinary crime committed by an individual. Her crime is her
86 statement against misogyny and society’s failure to correct it.
Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
2.7 ANIMAL IMAGERY IN THE STORY of Treasures’
Head borrows motifs from the world of animals to comment upon the social
behaviour of male characters. Dikeledi and the women of rural Botswana are
constantly imperiled by the barbaric behaviour of the patriarchal men.
Emboldened by newly found economic abundance, misogynistic men like
Garesego believe that they can prey upon defenseless women. The declining
power of the tribal customs and traditions enables predatory men such as Garesego
to reject any sense of responsibility and to lead a selfish hedonistic life. The
narrator uses animal imagery to underscore the bestial nature of such men. Head
categorizes him with animals like bulls, donkeys, and dogs, since he doesn’t
assume any responsibility for his progeny and he has no respect for women. She
furthers the imagery by suggesting that sexual intimacy has no relevance for
such men. Like animals, they fornicate to satisfy their own sexual urges and then
leave the female to fend for herself. Threatened by Dikeledi’s humble prosperity,
he baits Paul to confront him. He goes to Dikeledi’s house to‘mark his territory’
like an animal. On the other hand evolved men such as Paul symbolize empathy
and compassion and therefore, have become a poem. Essentially, Head’s usage
of animals like bulls, dogs, cocks etc. is to establish the lack of societal principles
of dignity in marriage and family which form the base of the community in
Serowe.
2.8 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS (QUESTION WITH

ANSWER KEYS)
i) Is Dikeledi’s crime unique or representative?
One needs to situate Dikeledi’s crime in the widespread domestic violence
and abuse faced by African women. Within the context of the story, we see
how there are at least five women in Dikeledi’s cell who are sentenced for
committing similar crimes. Discuss the implications of a growing number
of women who have chosen to refuse sexual manipulation and violence at
the hands of their husbands. Since there is no viable scope of justice in the
formal legal system, and the traditional system of tribal justice has been
weaned, the only recourse left for the cornered women is to take their
husband’s lives.
ii) Examine the potential of female solidarity in ‘The Collector of Treasures’.

Inclusive feminist consciousness permeates the works of Bessie Head. In
times of severe distress, Dikeledi is supported by her kind neighbours in a
symbiotic relationship. True friendship if forged between Dikeledi and
Kenalepe. Locate the tangent of their relationship as it starts with neighbourly
reciprocity and evolves into love and respect for one another. Explore the
mutual accord among fellow prisoners lodged in the same cell as Dikeledi.
Their misfortune and empathy for each other binds them in a reassuring
relationship.
iii) How does Bessie Head classify the types of men in the society?
Head engages in a socio-historical classification of men into two categories
across three distinct periods of time, pre-colonial, colonial, and post-
independence. Read the relevant unit to analyse the male characters in the
87
Short Story story according to this categorization. Evaluate the life choices made by
Garesego in the wider context of men’s position in the village community.
Also, look at the rampant sexual crime committed by men in the position of
power. Men like Kebonye’s husband and Garesego hold important public
offices and yet they abuse their positions to exploit women.
iv) Examine the male chauvinism prevalent in the African society in light of
the story,
‘The Collector of Treasures’.

Bessie Head’s ‘The Collector of Treasures’is peopled with chauvinistic men
who have sexual exploits with complete impunity. Garesego is the stereotype
of such men. He marries a much younger woman and leaves her and their
children to fend for themselves. Explore the idea of his toxic masculinity
and how it harms him as well as people around him. Revisit the relevant
section to understand how male oppression is not an isolated phenomenon.
It is a byproduct of socio-political changes and postcolonial restructuring
of the society in men’s favour.
v) Critically comment on the title of the story, ‘The Collector of Treasures’.

‘The Collector of Treasures’refers to the central protagonist of the story;
Dikeledi. Remember, she is optimistic in the face of astute poverty, husband’s
abuse and abandonment, and skewed gender dynamics. However, she
remains optimistic and cherishes whatever little tokens of kindness and
friendship life offers her. She lays more emphasis on these moments of
syncretic harmony rather than myriad oppressions she is subject to.
2.9 SELECT READING LIST

Head, Bessie. The Collector of Treasures and Other Botswana Village Stories (a
collection of 13 short stories concerning human treasures). London: Longman,
2008.
_____ Maru. Oxford: Heinemann Educational, 1971.
_____. A Woman Alone: Autobiographical Writings. London: Heinemann, 1990.
_____. A Question of Power. London: Longman, 2009.
Brown, Barbara B. “The Impact of Male Labour Migration on Women in
Botswana.”African Affairs. 1983. P 367-88.
Kuria, John Mike Muthari. The Challenge of Feminism in Kenya: Towards an
Afrocentric Worldview. Leeds: University of Leeds, 2001.
Mackenzie, Craig. “Short Fiction in the Making: The Case of Bessie Head”.
English in Africa. Vol.16. No. 1. May 1989. Rhodes University. P 17-28
88
Bessie Head, ‘The Collector
UNIT 3 AMA ATA AIDOO, ‘THE GIRL WHO of Treasures’
CAN’
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 The Writer’s Bio- brief
3.1.2 Story of The Girl Who Can
3.2 Characters
3.3 Role of Adjoa as a Child Narrator
3.4 Oral Storytelling
3.5 Narrativizing Mother’s Silence
3.6 Agency of Adjoa’s Self
3.7 Walking and Running as Metaphors for Tradition and Modernity
3.8 Check Your Progress (Questions with Answer Keys)
3.9 Summing Up
1.10 Select Reading List
3.0 OBJECTIVES
In this unit, we will learn about Ama Ata Aidoo’s life and works. We will examine
her works as distinct literary representations from Ghana. We will situate the
short story, ‘The Girl Who Can’within the larger oeuvre of women writers of
Africa. After reading this Unit, you will be able to: learn about the life and
works of Ama Ata Aidoo.
comprehend ‘The Girl Who Can’as a story written in oral tradition.
understand the role of society and culture in placing reproductive expectations
at the very core of women’s lives.
situate the power dynamics within matrilineal families.
understand the strength of female solidarity in uplifting women in the vastly
changing cultural milieu.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Ama Ata Aidoo was born in 1940 to progressive parents, Mfantse Chief, Nana
Yaw Fama and Mme Elizabeth aba AbasemaBosu, in central Ghana. Her father
firmly believed in the importance of learning and established the first school in
her village. She was amongst the first students to enroll in that school. Her family
belonged to the matrilineal tradition and she grew up recognizing the female
authority and potential. Her parents’progressive views ensured a constant influx
of travelling artists, wandering prophets, and communal gatherings in their
household which influenced her worldview. Her unique family life enabled her
89
Short Story to develop a nuanced understanding of Ghanaian culture, colonialism, and
women’s position in the society. At a young age, she decided that she wanted to
be a poet and published her first short story when she was nineteen years old.
She studied literature at the university of Ghana and subsequently worked there
as a lecturer. She was appointed as the Minister of Education in 1982 and she
resolved to make free education accessible to all. When she realized that she
could not achieve her aim, she resigned from active politics and moved to
Zimbabwe to develop a career as a full time writer. She also taught at the African
Studies Department at Brown University.
Aidoo’s notable works include, The Dilemma of a Ghost (1965), Anowa(1970),

Our Sister Killjoy (1977 ), Someone Talking to Sometime (1986), An Angry Letter
in January (1992), The Girl Who Can and Other Stories (1997). She was awarded
the 1992 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Africa) for Changes: A
Love Story (1993). She also went on to found The Mbaasem Foundation in 2000
to provide much needed support to the development and growth of African women
writers and to promote their work.
3.1.2 Story of The Girl Who Can

The Girl Who Can and Other Stories is Aidoo’s second book of short stories
published in 1997. The anthology has stories with strong female protagonists.
There are various issues and concerns addressed in all the stories. Most of them
deal with maternity and reproductive issues, feminism, societal definitions of
gender roles, misogyny, influence of postcolonialism etc. Most of the stories are
written in a clear and conversational prose, drawing from the oral literary tradition
of the Fanti people. The conversational writing style of Aidoo enables us to
witness the lives of the characters very closely.
The Girl Who Can is a short story written in an oral style. The very first line
‘They say that I was born in Hasodzi; and it is a very big village in the Central
Region of our country, Ghana’sounds like an anecdote orally recounted by the
young narrator. Written in first person narrative, it deals with the life of a seven
years old girl, Adjoa who lives in a house with her mother whom she calls Maami
and her grandmother whom she calls Nana. Adjoa is a bright young girl who
finds it hard to express herself without being silenced or ridiculed. She is often
perplexed at the duality of Nana’s approach. She is either met with a shocked
Nana who forbids her from repeating her statements sometimes, and other times
she finds Nana racked with laughter over their childlike innocence and repeats
them to her friends and neighbours. Young Adjoa is confused at this hypocrisy of
the grown-ups. Her thoughts are stifled as she doesn’t know if she should express
herself or be quiet.
Moreover, Nana and Maami constantly discuss the state of Adjoa’s legs to her
consternation. Nana finds them too thin and long for a girl destined to become a
mother. She is concerned about the fact that in future Adjoa’s thin legs may not
be able to support strong hips for childbearing. Here, it is important to remember
that Nana believes that the blame for being born with thin legs rests with Adjoa.
It is squarely her fault for not being born with thicker legs and fleshy calves. The
present skinny state of her legs is constantly lamented as they are considered
useless. At such instances, Nana refers to her daughter’s poor choice of a husband
who is not in the picture. It reduces the mother to helpless tears as she finds it
unbearable to reflect upon her unfortunate marriage.
90
Adjoa is herself curious about the entire issue. Being a child, she doesn’t Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl
Who Can’
understand what childbearing legs look like and wishes to see them. Since she is
perfectly capable of walking long distances and running fast, she doesn’t find
any shortcoming in her own legs. She walks to her school daily. It is estimated to
be five kilometres away from her own village but unlike others, Adjoa doesn’t
mind walking so far because she enjoys her time at school. As an unlettered
woman herself, her mother firmly believes that a school education would greatly
benefit her daughter. She wants Adjoa to rise above ignorance and acquire
knowledge for self- advancement.
The major breakthrough in the story comes when Adjoa is selected as a runner
for her age group, to represent the school in district sports events. The news is
met with disbelief at her home and Nana marches to the school to confirm the
veracity of it. To Adjoa’s great surprise, she finds that Nana takes up washing
and ironing her school uniform daily indicating her acceptance of Adjoa’s new
role as an athlete. When she wins the award for the best all- around junior athlete,
Nana carries the trophy on her back with great pride. The undue concern regarding
Adjoa’s thin legs is finally dispelled. Her thin legs may not support childbearing
hips, but they can enable her to run very fast and be a good athlete. The trifecta
of the three generations of women in the house end the story on distinct notes of
a newly found sense of pride and contentment. While Nana is proudly exhorting
her granddaughter’s achievement, the mother is overwhelmed at her child’s
success and absolution from the blame of birthing a girl with thin legs. Young
Adjoa is perplexed at this change in the adults’behaviour but rejoices in her
newly discovered agentive self.
3.2 CHARACTERS
After reading the story, we must undertake the exercise to familiarize ourselves
with the main characters. All the characters have distinct perspectives towards
their lives and issues and it would help us understand their motives better.
Adjoa
Adjoa is the narrator and the central character of the story. She is a seven years
old girl and presents the events with her childlike innocence and natural curiosity.
Her forthright opinions and guileless observations about the world around her
enable us to see her small village from a child’s eyes. In the small family comprised
of her mother and grandmother, she struggles to understand the world inhabited
by the adults. She is alternately told to keep her thoughts to herself or she is
made to repeat them for the adults’amusement. When she wins a sports tournament
regardless of grandmother’s constant lament about her legs, it reaffirms her faith
in her own self. She is able to achieve respect, recognition, and her grandmother’s
pride using the same legs which were considered useless.
Nana
Nana is the head of the tripartite household. As the matriarch, she represents the
traditional outlook in the story. As the leader of the house, she is dominant but
loving towards her daughter and Adjoa. At the same time, she taunts her daughter
for marrying unwisely. She provides a frank commentary on the social position
of women as mothers. Adjoa is outspoken and has the imagined disability of
being born with long and thin legs. To the grandmother these qualities won’t let
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Short Story her be a mother. She draws a parallel between children born with disabilities and
Adjoa who has legs too skinny to support childbearing hips. However, her
character evolves with her granddaughter’s victory as a runner. Her perception
about women’s role in life alters as she examines new possibilities and potential
in Adjoa’s future.
Maami
Mother is a quiet character who acts as a bridge between Adjoa’s restive curiosity
and her own mother’s orthodoxy. She lives with a strong sense of repentance as
she is constantly reminded that she did not choose a husband wisely. To compound
her grief, Nana berates her for birthing a girl with perceived deformity of thin
legs. Despite being admonished by her mother for being a failure as a mother,
she resists the idea that her daughter is useless as a girl. Since she was denied a
formal education, she understands the need and significance of it. Going against
Nana’s wishes, she enrolls Adjoa in the school so that she does not lead a life of
ignorance. The story ends with her state of speechlessness. We shall discuss that
in greater detail in subsequent units.
3.3 ROLE OF ADJOA AS A CHILD NARRATOR

Ama Ata Aidoo uses the seven years old Adjoa as the narrator of her story.
Although she is a small child, she is extremely observant and intuitive. She
watches the world around her keenly and presents a unique worldview to the
reader using simple vocabulary. Her doubts and questions about her village life
seldom elicit comprehensible responses from the adults. She is often given
contradictory advice by Nana. She is alternately told to either be quiet or to
repeat what she has already said for the purpose of adults’entertainment. They
find her ideas so preposterous that she is repeatedly told to ‘never, never, but
NEVER to repeat that.’The abrupt dismissal comes without any accompanying
reason. She is never told why she mustn’t utter a few things and conversely why
she must repeat others only to have adults laugh at them. Her predictable
discontent at this duality leads to a vociferous internal monologue.
Although Adjoa might have stifled her voice, her inner monologue is as perennial
as ever. She tells herself, ‘when I think back on it now, those two, Nana and my
mother, must have been discussing my legs from the day I was born. What I am
sure of is that when I came out of the land of sweet, soft silence into the world of
noise and comprehension, the first topic I met was my legs.’The exasperation of
Adjoa is legitimate because the discussion is so relentless, it might have started
at her very birth. Her exaggeration does not make her an unreliable narrator. On
the contrary, it is a mark of the oral tradition. She doesn’t see the world from the
adults’perspective and hence leads to a clearer account of the daily rhythms of
the village life.
Adjoa shows great insight in understanding that her small, all female family had
divided opinion on the state of her legs. She finds her two ‘favourite people’,
Maami and Nana arguing about her thin spindly legs. As the narrator who is the
center of her mother’s and grandmother’s love and concern, she wishes to assure
them that her legs are not of any consequence. Yet, she lacks the linguistic finesse
of her grandmother to make a compelling argument.
Dear student, you must have noticed that the child narrator doesn’t provide a
92 social commentary about hunger or social issues out of context. This is a story
set in rural Ghana. Since the child is merely seven years old, she only tackles Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl
Who Can’
issues that directly impact her. When she leaves food in her plate, she is met with
Nana’s disappointment for being insensitive to the famine victims. Thus, she is
able to connect with the larger reality of others in Ghana who are struggling for
adequate nourishment.
At the same time, the usage of the child narrator limits the narrative since she
can’t describe her mother’s silences. She articulates the incomprehensible silences
within the context of her mother’s supposed failures in marriage and birthing a
girl with thin legs. She understands the implications of the hushed protests and
defeated tones, but she doesn’t possess the requisite socio-political vocabulary
to analyze them. It is left to the reader to grasp the implications of absences in
the otherwise straightforward narrative. The narration doesn’t falter when dealing
with the absent father figure. It is hinted, through breaks and silences in Adjoa’s
narration, that he was an inadequate husband although neither Nana nor Maami
emphasize it. The women only household comes to life with the direct perspective
of a child. As Nana Banyiwa Horne says, ‘By making the girl-child the narrative
voice in this story, Aidoo makes the reclaiming of voice for girl-children a
universal prerogative.’
3.4 ORAL STORYTELLING

“We cannot assume that all literature should be written. One doesn’t have to be
so patronising about oral literature...the art of the speaking voice can be brought
back so easily...We don’t have to write for readers, we can write for listeners.”
(Aidoo)
Dear student, we have discussed the role of Adjoa as a child narrator in earlier
units. The story starts like an anecdotal account of a little girl. She directly
addresses the reader in a familiar tone of an acquaintance. The emphasis on
words enables the reader to visualize the authoritative and wizened Nana,
incredulously staring at the young Adjoa after she has made an observation, ‘you
say what?’. The self-deprecating modesty with which she says, ‘as far as I could
see’or ‘that I don’t know’highlight the orality of the tale told by a child narrator.
The repetition is not redundant. The stress on ‘Never, ever, but NEVER’paints
the picture of a conversation between the young curious Adjoa and her wiser,
no-nonsense grandmother. The orality of the tale makes it universal. Usage of
local proverbs in conversation, such as touching wood in a gesture of superstition,
is instrumental in reinstating the orality of the story. Aidoo herself says, “...I
haven’t tried to speak the Queen’s English. I’ve always tried to let the flavour of
my African background come through in terms of the idioms and so on”
Adjoa is the narrator but she isn’t ubiquitous. She sees and remarks upon looks,
silences, and sounds of her family life but leaves her mother’s and grandmother’s
thoughts to speculation.
The girl child navigates the world of adults and absorbs more than she expresses.
Her silent remarks to herself about the elders’ambiguous behaviours are
reminiscent of the universal childhood experiences. Since the story borrows from
oral literary traditions, Aidoo doesn’t reveal the name of the grandmother who is
the hierarchical head of the three-member family. She is referred to as Nana for
the entire length of the story. The mother is referred to as Maami. They are 93
Short Story defined by their socially determined names. Any independent identity they have
is secondary to their gendered identity as mothers and daughters. Within the
scope of the story, the scope of their character is fixed by the young girl who is
telling the story. The reader hears the secrets that the storyteller divulges and is
free to speculate about the gaps and silences. As Ghanaian scholar Abena Busia
says for Aidoo, “She is a consummate storyteller. We do not so much ‘read’her
stories as listen to them, or rather, overhear them.
3.5 NARRATIVIZING MOTHER’S SILENCE

Ama Ata Aidoo presents Maami as the mother with small acts of courage and
hushed silences. She inhabits the small world of the trinity as she is poised between
Nana and Adjoa. The quiet mother has limited authority of her own in the domestic
space. Aidoo deftly deals with Maami’s disenfranchisement with half sentences,
long looks, and small acts of valour such as speaking up for her daughter. She is
found guilty of choosing an irresponsible husband and birthing a girl whose legs
are too thin and long. Her protests about Adjoa’s legs are stifled in the
grandmother’s presence. The absent father is always referred to as a ‘man like
that’. A considerate Nana, who is sharp of observation, fails to see grievous
harm she subjects her daughter to. In the absence of men, the tyranny is held by
the parochial tradition that is quick to assign blame to women. Even the matrilineal
families can assign blame to women and hold them responsible for circumstances
beyond their control. Women such as Maami find it difficult to assert their opinions
in contempt of the conventional wisdom.
It is pertinent to note that Maami herself never silences her own daughter. The
stringent act of censorship and disciplining is solely grandmother’s prerogative.
Maami pushes for her child’s right to a formal education. In an argument about
the role of education, grandmother finds futility and wastage of time. Maami
firmly believes in enlightening powers of formal education. Her state as an
unlettered woman leads her to live a life of ignorance and darkness. She doesn’t
want her child to be deprived of learning. Maami’s silences are indicative of her
own disadvantaged positioning as a single mother who doesn’t have the benefits
of a mainstream schooling. Her self-affirmation comes from vicariously living
through her daughter and seeing her acquire life skills that Maami couldn’t afford
for her own self.
Maami’s silence serves dual purpose. It demonstrates her own marginalization

within the small family headed by a rigid Nana. At the same time, her small
voice gives her daughter moral strength and encourages her to ask inconvenient
questions. Her opinions are truncated and denied by the constant reminder of her
unfortunate past. Women who don’t fit neatly into the socially prescribed roles
are deliberately silenced and pushed to the margins. Adjoa’s defiance is a
disruption of Maami’s silence. She speaks for herself and her gagged mother.
Education and athletic ability empower her to speak out.
3.6 AGENCY OF ADJOA’S SELF

Adjoa’s legs are the focal point through which one can understand the position
of the orthodox grandmother, the voiceless mother, and the young and defiant
grandchild. The central dilemma is one that is based on traditional perception of
women’s role in the society as mothers. The matrilineal family of the three women
94
lives in domestic harmony for most aspects except Adjoa’s legs and the mother’s Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl
Who Can’
husband. The constant refrain in the house is that of a future problem about
Adjoa’s reproductive self. According to the grandmother, Adjoa’s very existence
would be a failure if she can’t become a mother. In the matrilineal tradition, it is
the women’s imperative and responsibility to ensure continuation of the family
line. While the birth of a girl child is a welcome occasion in the household, her
importance rests on her ability to reproduce. Her hypothetical transformation
from a child into a mother connects her with the strong matrilineal tradition of
ancestors, mothers, aunts, and companions. Her future inability to do so, arouses
feelings of fear and failure amongst her mother and grandmother. Her identity is
reduced to her gender and her gender is defined by her ability to bear children.
Here, it is important to note that Nana’s worry is rooted in the anxiety of the
socio-cultural expectations from women. She doesn’t speak from an individualistic
desire for Adjoa to have children. Her fretting situates Adjoa in the Ghanaian
milieu of her time as would-be mothers.
Adjoa’s positioning as a young, school going child is in stark comparison with

her grandmother’s and mother’s. The generational distance allows her to speak,
think, and act without the restrictions faced by her mother and grandmother.
Armed with all the myriad advantages of a formal education, she wished to
reassure her elders that her body is alright. Being raised in an all girl household,
she values the nurturing affection of her mother and grandmother but she is also
able to register the oppression of the elderly over the younger members. Her
own life is not cushioned with comforts. We read that she must walk over five
kilometers to reach her school daily. She doesn’t complain about it like the rest
of her schoolmates for she finds school a refreshing break in her life. With a
child’s simplicity, she concludes her school going experience into one sentence;
‘school is nice’. She doesn’t brag about winning in races in her school to her
family until she is selected to run for the junior section of the district games. The
extraordinary feat about Adjoa’s running is not her winning but that of the dramatic
shift it brings in the perception of her legs at home. The news of her selection
draws remarkable responses at home, since Nana starts repositioning her legs as
something useful.
Adjoais able to claim her subjectivity and redefine herself because of generational
distance and the benefit of formal education. At seven, she uses logic and
deduction to understand that childbearing wouldn’t likely be a problem for her
since her mother and grandmother have been able to give birth. Although it isn’t
mentioned in the story itself, the reader can understand the biological determinism
inherent in the soundness of this logic. She comes from a tradition of strong and
nurturing women. She repeats to the reader that she had faith in her body all
along even though she doesn’t say it out loud for fear of ridicule. Her self-
affirmation comes from being able to find newer and perhaps, more fulfilling
potentials of her body.
3.7 WALKING AND RUNNING AS METAPHORS

FOR TRADITION AND MODERNITY
Female solidarity between the authoritative grandmother and the precocious Adjoa
is represented by the tropes of walking and running in the story. Nana’s attempt
to first verify and then support Adjoa as a junior runner for the sports tournament
leads to evolution of one’s understanding of her character. She re-examines 95
Short Story Adjoa’s legs as the ones that are capable of performing other glorious functions
even if they aren’t thick enough to support her as a future mother. She steals
glances at them as if assessing their worth in the fresh light of this discovery. Her
efforts to wash Adjoa’sschool uniform and iron them with a charcoal iron
borrowed from a neighbour point to her desire to assist Adjoa in her newly
discovered aim. She irons the school uniform with such determination that it
shines with stiffness. Her contribution towards enabling Adjoa’s full potential
points to the larger female communal support for each other.
Nana’s choice in taking pride in Adjoa’s appearance and bearing witness to her
feats of athletics connect the two ends of the family hierarchy. The long walk
from home to school and back is the confluence of grandmother’s tradition and
Adjoa’s modernity. Grandmother chooses fresh clothes from her old brass bowl
to walk to school every day while she sends Adjoa in a stiffly ironed school
uniform. She walks a little behind Adjoa and other children to distance herself
from them. She pointedly tells Adjoa that she doesn’t care for athletics but is
secretly won by the idea that her grandchild could be a successful runner. The
novelty of running brings with it a sense of introspection of the traditional
structures of culture.
When Adjoa wins every race she participated in, Nana carries the shiny trophy
home. She carries the ‘gleaming cup back. Like they do with the babies, and
other precious things’. Running and winning at something that tests an individual’s
strength and endurance is the true subversion in the story. The patriarchal
structures that define women solely in the roles of wives and mothers crumble
by Adjoa’s running and Nana’s walking by her side. Adjoa’s victory brings her
closer to a self-awareness which opens new prospects for her and girls like her.
Her resistance comes from action since she isn’t allowed to use words that might
disrupt the societal order. The conventional gender roles of mothering are replaced
by a choice that is symbolized by running. Her ability to win accolades for winning
opens new avenues for her future self and marks the beginning of a new order in
which girl children aren’t confined to a single function.
3.8 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS (QUESTIONS

WITH ANSWER KEYS)
a) What do you think of the child narrator in ‘The Girl Who Can’?
Ama Ata Aidoo uses the first-person narrative of the seven years old Adjoa
in ‘The Girl Who Can’. While it makes the narration a tad simplistic, it
appears to be real and reliable since the central conflict of the story surrounds
the narrator and her imagined incapability to bear children. Since the narrator
is a young child, there is no ambivalence in her understanding of the world
around her. Explore the self-reflexive nature of the narrative. Although the
young narrator is forbidden to voice certain opinions, she doesn’t stop herself
from introspecting them. Explore the distinctness of a child narrator as
compared to an adult one.
b) Examine the techniques of oral literary tradition in ‘The Girl Who Can’.
African literature had a strong oral heritage in the form of songs, folktales,
proverbs, beating drums etc. The verbal messages which could be sung,
tuned on musical instruments, and narrated from one generation to another
96
form the bedrock of Afante tradition. Aidoo draws upon the same tradition Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl
Who Can’
in her literary works. While reading the story you must have found examples
of audible culture in the form or repetition, different structuring of sentences,
proverbs etc.
c) What is the role of education in Adjoa’sself-emancipation?

The narrator states that other than her legs, the other topic that elicited
divided opinions was Adjoa’s enrollment in the formal school. It bears
merit to emphasize the pivotal role that formal education plays in her life.
Her long walks to school materialize into an opportunity to run for the
district level sports competitions. Her victory brings a sea change in the
grandmother’s perception of her body and it reaffirms her confidence in
her own self. In addition to that, Adjoa’s formal education must have honed
Adjoa’s arguments to a degree. Compare Maami’s lack of education to
Adjoa’s experience at school and the recognition it brings her.
d) Discuss Nana’s relationship with Adjoa.

Notice how the tripartite family is a part of the matrilineal tradition. With a
strictly conservative grandmother at the top of the family hierarchy, and a
feebly resistant mother, Adjoa finds herself loved but patronized. Nana’s
fierce disciplinarian is a mark of tougher times. Her love for Adjoa and her
solidarity with her running is magnified by her acts of support. You must
investigate Nana’s change of stance towards Adjoa’s education and her
body in the light of her generational difference and an evolution into a
liberal matriarch.
e) What is the significance of Maami’s silence in the story?

Maami’s character is provided with long silences, truncated arguments cut
short by a strict mother, defeated tones and a sure zeal for her child’s better
future. In the relevant section, you must have read about Maami’s guilt at a
failed marriage and Adjoa’s supposed inability. Develop upon her
victimhood as the site of oppression as Nana constantly admonishes her for
being a failure as an individual since she failed as a wife and a mother.
Regardless of her own marginalization, she works tirelessly for a better
prospect for her child. Examine the implication of her silence at the end.
Could her final silence be a symbol of her vindication?
3.9 SUMMING UP
To conclude our Unit on ‘The Girl who Can’, we must return to the Objectives
outlined at the beginning of this unit. Dear reader, now you must be able to
locate ‘The Girl who Can’as a progressive work of literature. You must be able
to investigate the reasons behind Maami’s insistence upon a formal education
for her daughter. The story would have made you curious to learn more about
Ghanaian societies with their matrilineal structure. Moreover, Ama Ata Aidoo
would have provided you a discursive space to perceive gender as a social
construct which is flexible. Little Adjoa’s story is a story of exploring one’s
potential and it must have inspired you to do the same in your own life.
97
Short Story
3.10 SELECT READING LIST
Aidoo, Ama Ata. The Girl Who Can And Other Stories. Portsmouth, Heinemann,
2002.
_____. Our Sister Killjoy: Or Reflections From a Black-Eyed Squint. Harlow,
Longman. 1977.
_____. Anowa. New Jersey, Prentice Hall Press, 1970.
_____. No Sweetness Here and Other Stories. New York, CUNY, The Feminist
Press, 1995.
Sati, Someshwar. A Warble Of Postcolonial Voices: An Anthology of Short Stories
and Poems. Delhi, Worldview Publications, 2015.
Horne, Nana Baniywa. “The Politics of Mothering: Multiple Subjectivity and
Gendered Discourse.”Azoda, Ada Uzuoamaka Azoda and Gay Wilentz (eds).
Emerging Perspectives on Ama Ata Aidoo. Trenton, Africa World Press, 1999.
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London, Heinemann. 1976.1992.
Emecheta, Buchi. The Joys of Motherhood. New York, George Brazilier, 2013.
Brown, Lloyd W. Women Writers in Black Africa Westport, Connecticut:
Greenwood Press, 1981.
James, Adeola. In Their Own Voices : African Women Writers talk Portsmouth,
New Hampshire: Heinemann Educational Books Inc, 1990
Odamtten, Vincent O. The Art Of Ama Ata Aidoo :Polylectics and Reading Against
Neocolonialism Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1994.
George, Rosemary Marangoly and Helen Scott. “‘A new tail to an old tale’: An
Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo”, Novel : A Forum on Fiction 26. 3 (Spring 1993)
p.297-308.
Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney. “An Interview with Ama Ata Aidoo”, The
Massachusetts Review 36.1 (Spring 1995) p.123-133.
Mohanty, Chandra T. “Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the
Politics of Feminism” from Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism,
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.p.1-47.
Ama Ata Aidoo at 70. New African Magazine. https://newafricanmagazine.com/
3015/ March 2012. Visited on 14/12/2019
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Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘The Girl
UNIT 4 GRACE OGOT, ‘THE GREEN Who Can’
LEAVES’
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Life and Works of Grace Ogot
4.1.1. Introducing Grace Ogot
4.1.2. Life History of Grace Ogot
4.1.3. Works of Grace Ogot
4.1.4 Characterization in the Stories of Grace Ogot
4.2 The Green Leaves
4.2.1. Introducing the Story
4.2.2. Text of the Story The Green Leaves
4.3 Analysis of the Story
4.3.1 Significance of the Green Leaves
4.3.2 Greed as the Cause of the Tragedy
4.3.3 Family and Social Life
4.3.4 Beliefs and Superstitions
4.3.5 Clash between Ideologies
4.4 Comprehension Exercises
4.5 Let Us Sum Up
4.0 OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this unit is to familiarize you with the short story ‘The Green
Leaves’by Grace Ogot,
to offer a brief introduction of the life and works of the author,
to provide a detailed analysis of the story,
and to help you appreciate it as a piece of postcolonial fiction by looking at
it from the point of view of the natives as well as from the point of view of
their so-called civilized white masters.
4.1 LIFE AND WORKS OF GRACE OGOT

4.1.1 Introducing Grace Ogot
Grace Ogot (1930-2015) is one of the pioneers of postcolonial literature of East
Africa. This Kenyan woman short story writer led the revolutionary trend of
creative writing in East Africa which till the 1960’s was conspicuous by its absence
although African literature was at that time a well established genre. In the 1962
Makarere Convention this absence was painfully observed by Grace Ogot and
Ngugi wa Thiongo who took it upon themselves the responsibility to ensure due
share of the East African literature in the canon of the postcolonial African
literature. The East African postcolonial literature thus has a comparatively shorter
history although the region abounded in native literature in the form of a rich
oral tradition including local narratives, tales of ghosts, mythological tales,
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Short Story historical tales of valour, bed time stories etc. and in the form of some religious
books, primitive laws, history chronicles etc.
4.1.2 Life history of Grace Ogot

Grace Ogot was born in a Christian Luo family in Asembo, a village in district
Nyanza, Kenya. She grew up listening to folk tales of the area in her mother
tongue from her grandmother and stories of the Old Testament from her father, a
teacher in a Christian school. Her marriage in 1959 to Bethwell Ogot, a historian
of Kenya, helped Grace Ogot pursue her career as a writer with a greater zeal as
her husband’s knowledge and interest in the history and oral tradition of the Luo
people fanned her creative imagination further. As a multi-faceted personality,
Ogot worked as a nurse, a journalist, a teacher, a script writer, a radio announcer,
a columnist, a public relations officer, a block development officer, a cabinet
minister and as a diplomat besides being a novelist and a short story writer.
4.1.3 Works of Grace Ogot

Ogot was the first published woman writer of East Africa. Initially she wrote in
English but soon she started writing and publishing her stories both in English
and in Luo. Collections of her short stories appeared under the titles Land without
Thunder (1968), The Other Woman (1976) and The Island of Tears (1980). Her
stories present an insider’s account of the life of the Luo people and their folklore
and mythology with the recurring themes revolving round their tribal culture,
ancient laws, community customs and practices, superstitions, marriage and
family life, conflict between the native and the colonial rule, conflict between
the traditional healing system and the modern medicine etc.
4.1.4 Characterization in the Stories of Grace Ogot

Grace Ogot’s depiction of women in her works is a peculiar one. She has shown
the female characters as strong willed but within their limited sphere in a
patriarchal set up. Ogot has expressed her faith in a solid family structure at the
centre of which is the male authority but the woman wields her sway and enjoys
her independence within her own space. Ogot is often criticized for accepting
patriarchy as her ideal for a strong society. The man-woman relationship is defined
within the institution of marriage. Her women characters do not rise in revolt
against the patriarchal order, rather they respect the system and feel snug and
content within the family hierarchy.
4.2 THE GREEN LEAVES

4.2.1 Introducing the Story
The short story ‘The Green Leaves’is included in the collection Land Without
Thunder which presents an insight into the ancient Luo culture of the pre-colonial
East Africa with its primitive laws and their conflict with the laws of the white
rulers. The interference of the European masters is in direct conflict with the
authority of the head of the clan. Distrust develops between the members of the
hitherto unified tribal community. Ogot explores in this story the themes of native
laws, cultural practices, superstitions, gender roles, greed, concept of crime, family
and relationships.
100
Read and enjoy the text of the story ‘The Green Leaves’given below. An analysis Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
of the story follows the text.
4.2.2 Text of the Story The Green Leaves

It was a dream. Then the sounds grew louder. Nyagar threw the blanket off his
ears and listened. Yes, he was right. Heavy footsteps and voices were approaching.
He turned round to wake up his wife. She was not there. He got up and rushed to
the door. It was unlocked. Where was Nyamundhe? “I’ve told her time and again
never to leave my hut without waking me up to bolt the door. She will see me
tomorrow!”
“Ero, ero, there, there!”The noise was quite close now—about thirty yards away.
Nyagar put a sheet round his well-developed body, fumbled for his spear and
club, and then left the hut.
“Piti, piti, Piti, piti.”A group was running towards his gate. He opened the gate
and hid by the fence. Nyagar did not want to meet the group directly, as he was
certain some dangerous person was being pursued.
Three or four men ran past the gate, and then large group followed. He emerged
from his hiding-place and followed them.
“These bastards took all my six bulls,”he heard one voice cursing.
“Don’t worry—they will pay for it,”another voice replied.
Nyagar had caught up with the pursuing crowd. He now realized that three or
four men he had seen run past his gate were cattle thieves. They rounded a bend.
About thirty yards away were three figures who could only be the thieves.
“They must not escape,”a man shouted.
“They will not,”the crowd answered in chorus.
The gap was narrowing. The young moon had disappeared, and it was quite
dark.
“Don’t throw a spear,”an elder warned. “If it misses, they can use it against us.”
The thieves took the wrong turning. They missed the bridge across the River
Opok, which separated the people of Masala from those of Mirogi. Instead they
turned right. While attempting to cross the river, they suddenly found themselves
in a whirlpool. Hastily they scrambled out of the water.
“Ero, ero,”a cry went out from the pursuers.
Before the thieves could find a safe place at which to cross the river, the crowd
was upon them. With their clubs they smote the thieves to the ground. The air
was filled with the howls of the captured men. But the crowd showed no mercy.
During the scuffle, one of the thieves escaped and disappeared into the thick
bush by the river.
“Follow him! Follow him!”someone shouted.
Three men ran in the direction in which he had disappeared, breathing heavily.
The bush was thick and thorny. They stood still and listened. There was no sound.
They beat the bush around with their clubs—still no sound. He had escaped.
Another thief took out his knife and drove it into the shoulder blade of one of the
101
Short Story pursuers who fell back with the knife still sticking in him. In the ensuing confusion,
the thief got up and made straight for the whirlpool. To everybody’s amazement,
he was seen swimming effortlessly across it to the other side of the river.
Nyagar plucked the knife out from Omoro’s shoulder and put his hand over the
wound to stop the bleeding. Omoro, still shaken, staggered to his feet and leaned
on Nyagar. Streaks of blood were still running along his back, making his buttocks
wet.
One thief was lying on the grass, groaning. As the other two had escaped, the
crowd were determined to make an example of this one. They hit him several
times on the head and chest. He groaned and stretched out his arms and legs as if
giving up the ghost.
“Aa, aa,”Omoro raised his voice. “Let not the enemy die in your hands. His
spirit would rest upon village. Let him give up the ghost when we have returned
to our huts.”
The crowd heeded Omoro’s warning. They tore green leaves from nearby trees
and covered the victim completely with them. They would call the entire clan in
the morning to come and bury him by the riverside.
The men walked back in silence. Omoro’s shoulder had stopped bleeding. He
walked, supported by two friends who volunteered to take him home. It was still
not light, but their eyes were by now accustomed to the darkness. They reached
Nyagar’s home—the gate was still ajar.
“Remember to be early tomorrow,”a voice told him. “We must be on the scene
before the women start going to the river, to stop them.”
Nyagar entered his home, while the others walked on without looking back. The
village was hushed in quiet. The women must have been awake, but they dared
not talk to their husbands. Whatever had happened, they thought, they would
hear about it in the morning. Having satisfied themselves that their husbands
were safely back, they turned over and slept.
Nyagar entered his hut, searched for his medicine bag and found it in a corner.
He opened it, and pulled out a bamboo container. He uncorked the container, and
then scooped out some ash from it. He placed a little on his tongue, mixed it with
saliva and then swallowed. He put some on his palm and blew it in the direction
of the gate. As he replaced the bamboo container in the bag, his heart felt at
peace.
He sat on the edge of his bed. He started to remove his clothes. Then he changed
his mind. Instead he just sat there, staring vacantly into space. Finally he made
up his mind to go.
He opened the door slowly, and then closed it quietly after him. No one must
hear him.
He did not hesitate at the gate, but walked blindly on.
“Did I close the gate?”he wondered. He looked back. Yes, he had closed it — or
it looked closed.
“He must have a lot of money in his pocket,”Nyagar thought.
102
Apart from a sinister sound which occasionally rolled through the night, Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
everything was silent. Dawn must have been approaching. The faint and golden
gleams of light which usually herald the birth of a new day could be seen in the
east shooting skywards from the bowels of the earth, he said aloud. He knew that
stock thieves sold stolen cattle at the earliest opportunity.
“The others were foolish not to have searched him.”He stopped and listened.
Was somebody coming? No. He was merely hearing the echo of his own footsteps.
“Perhaps the other two thieves who had escaped are now back at the scene,”he
thought nervously, “No, they can’t be there—they wouldn’t be such idiots as to
hang around there.”
The heap of green leaves came in sight. A numb paralyzing pain ran through his
spine. He thought his heart had stopped beating. He stopped to check. It was still
beating, all right. He was just nervous. He moved on faster, and the echo of his
footsteps bothered him.
When Nyagar reached the scene of murder, he noticed that everything was exactly
as they had left it earlier. He stood there for a while, undecided. He looked in all
directions to ensure that no-one was coming. There was nobody. He was all
alone with the dead body. He now felt nervous. “Why should you disturb a dead
body?”his inner voice asked him. “What do you want to do with money? You
have three wives and twelve children. You have many cattle and enough food.
What more do you want?”the voice persisted. He felt even more nervous, and
was about to retreat when energy stronger than his will egged him on.
“You have come this far for one cause only, and the man is lying before you. You
only need to put your hand in his pockets and all the money will be yours. Don’t
deceive yourself that you have enough wealth. Nobody in the world has enough
wealth.”
Nyagar bent over the dead man, and hurriedly removed the leaves from him. His
hand came in contact with the man’s arm which lay folded on his chest. It was
still warm. A chill ran through him again, and he stood up. It was unusual for a
dead person to be warm, he thought. However, he dismissed the thought. Perhaps
he was just nervous and was imagining things. He bent over the man again, and
rolled him on his back. He looked dead all right.
He fumbled quickly to find the pockets. He dipped his hand into the first pocket.
It was empty. He searched the second pocket—that, too, was empty. A pang of
disappointment ran through his heart. Then he remembered that cattle traders
carried their money in a small bag stringed with a cord round their neck.
He knelt beside the dead man and found his neck, from which hung a little bag.
A triumphant smile played at the corners of his mouth. Since he had no knife
with which to cut the string, he decided to remove it over the man’s head. As
Nyagar lifted the man’s head, there was a crashing blow on his right eye. He
staggered for a few yards and fell unconscious to the ground.
The thief had just regained consciousness and was still very weak. But there was
no time to lose. He managed to get up on his feet after a second attempt. His
body was soaked in blood, but his mind was now clear. He gathered all the green
leaves and heaped them on Nyagar. He then made for the bridge which he had
failed to locate during the battle.
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Short Story He walked away quickly—the spirit should not leave the body while he was still
on the scene. It was nearly dawn. He would reach the river Nigua in time to rinse
the blood off his clothes.
Before sunrise, the clan leader Olielo sounded the funeral drum to alert the people.
Within an hour more than a hundred clansmen had assembled at the foot of the
Opok tree where the elders normally met to hear criminal and civil cases. Olielo
then addressed the gathering.
“Listen, my people. Some of you must have heard of the trouble we had in our
clan last night. Thieves broke into Omogo’s kraal and stole six of his ploughing
oxen.”
“Oh!”the crowd exclaimed.
Olielo continued, “As a result, blood was shed, and we now have a body lying
here.”
“Is this so?”one elder asked.
“Yes, it is so,”Olielo replied. “Now, listen to me. Although our laws prohibit any
wanton killing, thieves and adulterers we regard as animals. If anyone kills one
of them he is not guilty of murder. He is looked upon as a person who has rid
society of an evil spirit, and in return society has a duty to protect him and his
children. You all know that such a person must be cleansed before he again
associates with other members of society. But the white man’s laws are different.
According to his laws, if you kill a person because you find him stealing your
cattle or sleeping in your wife’s hut, you are guilty of murder—and therefore
you must also be killed. Because he thinks his laws are superior to ours, we
should handle him carefully. We have ancestors—the white man has none. That
is why they bury their dead far away from their houses.”
“This is what we should do. We shall send thirty men to the white man to tell him
that we have killed a thief. This group should tell him that the whole clan killed
the thief. Take my word, my children. This white man’s trick work only among a
divided people. If we stand united, none of us will be killed.”
“The old man has spoken well,”they shouted. Thirty men were elected and they
immediately left for the white man’s camp.
More people, including some women, had arrived to swell the number of the
group. They moved towards the river where the dead thief lay covered in leaves,
to await the arrival of the white man.
Nyamundhe moved near her co-wife. “Where is Nyagar? My eye has not caught
him.”
His co-wife peered through the crowd and answered, “I think he has gone with
the thirty. He left home quite early. I woke up early this morning, but the gate
was open. He had left the village.”
Nyamundhe recollected that as they entered the narrow path which led to the
river, their feet felt wet from the morning dew. And bending across the path as if
saying prayers to welcome the dawn, were long grasses which were completely
overpowered by the thick dew. She wanted to ask her co-wife where their husband
could have gone but, noticing her indifference, she had decided to keep quiet.
104
“I did not like the black cat which dashed in front of us when we were coming Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
here,”Nyamundhe said to her co-wife.
“yes, it is a bad sign for a black cat to cross one’s way first thing in the morning.”
They heard the sound of a lorry. They looked up and saw a cloud of dust and two
police lorries approaching.
The two lorries pulled up by the heap of green leaves. A European police officer
and four African officers stepped down. They opened the back of one of the
lorries and thirty men who had been sent to the police station by the clan came
out.
“Where is the clan elder?”the white officer demanded.
Olielo stepped forward.
“Tell me the truth. What happened? I don’t believe a word of what these people
are saying. What did you send them to tell me?”
Olielo spoke somberly and slowly in Dholuo, pronouncing every word distinctly.
His words were translated by an African police officer.
“I sent them to inform you that we have killed a thief last night.”
“What! You killed a man?”the white officer repeated.
“No, we killed a thief.”Olielo maintained his ground.
“How many times have I told you that you must abandon this savage custom of
butchering one another? No-one is a thief until he has been tried in a court of law
and found guilty. Your people are deaf.”The white man pointed at Olielo with his
stick in an ominous manner.
“This time I shall show you how to obey the law. Who killed him?”the white
officer asked angrily.
“All of us,”answered Olielo, pointing at the crowd.
“Don’t be silly. Who hit him first?”
The crowd was getting restless. The people surged forward menacingly towards
the five police officers.
“We all hit the thief,”they shouted.
“If you want to arrest us, you are free to do so. You’d better send for more
lorries.”
“Where is the dead man?”the white man asked Olielo.
“There,”Olielo replied pointing at the heap of leaves.
The police moved towards the heap. The crowd also pushed forward. They wanted
to get a glimpse of him before the white man took him away.
The last time a man had been killed in the area, the police took the corpse to
Kisumu where it was cut up into pieces and then stitched up again. Then they
returned it to the people saying, “Here is your man—bury him.”Some people
claimed that bile is extracted from such bodies and given to police tracker dogs;
and that is why the dogs can track a thief to his house. Many people believed
such stories. They were sure that this body would be taken away again by the
police. 105
Short Story The European officer told the other police officers to uncover the body. They
hesitated for a while and then obeyed.
Olielo looked at the body before them unbelievingly. Then he looked at his people,
and at the police. Was he normal? Where was the thief? He looked at the body a
second time. He was not insane. It was the body of Nyagar, his cousin, who lay
dead, with a sizable wooden stick driven through his right eye.
Nyamundhe broke loose from the crowd and ran towards the dead body. She fell
on her husband’s body and wept bitterly. Then turning towards the crowd, she
shouted, “Where is the thief you killed? Where is he?”
As the tension mounted, the crowd broke up into little groups of twos and threes.
The women started to wail; and the men who had killed the thief that night
looked at one another in complete disbelief. They had left Nyagar entering his
village while they walked on. They could swear to it. Then Olielo, without any
attempt to conceal his tear drenched face, appealed to his people with these words,
“My countrymen, the evil hand has descended upon us. Let us not break up our
society. Although Nyagar is dead, his spirit is still among us.”
But Nyamundhe did not heed the comforts of Jaduong Olielo nor did she trust
the men who swore that they had seen Nyagar enter his village after the incident
with the thieves. She struggled wildly with the police who carried the corpse of
her husband and placed it at the back of the lorry to be taken to Kisumu for a post
mortem. A police officer comforted her with the promise that a village wide
inquiry would start at once into the death of her husband.
But Nyamundhe shook her head, “If you say you will give him back to me alive,
then I will listen.
Nyamundhe tore her clothes and stripped to the waist, she walked slowly behind
the mourners, weeping and chanting, her hands raised above her head.
My lover the son of Ochieng
The son of Omolo
The rains are coming down
Yes, the rains are coming down
The nights will be dark
The nights will be cold and long.
Oh! The son-in-law of my mother
I have no heart to forgive,
I have no heart to pardon
All these mourners cheat me now
Yes, they cheat me
But when the sun goes to his home and
Darkness falls, they desert me.
In the cold hours of the night
Each woman clings to her man
There is no-one among them
106
There is none Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
There is no woman who will lend me a
Husband for the night
Ah, my lover, the son of Ochieng
The son-in-law of my mother.
4.3 ANALYSIS OF THE STORY

4.3.1 Significance of the Green leaves in the Story
The green leaves gain special significance because it is the shifting of the green
leaves from the body of the thief to the body of Nyagar which has given the story
its shocking and surprising turn. The emergence of Nyagar’s face from underneath
the green leaves instead of the thief’s remains an unresolved enigma for the
people of the entire clan as well as the white police officer, the agent of ‘law’.
The title is ironic in suggestion as the green leaves which are generally associated
with the beauty and bounty of Nature get associated with a hideous killing and
sow the seeds of suspicion on one another among the people of the clan. The
headman who is a cousin of the deceased and who is the symbol of unity and a
unanimous voice himself becomes the prime murder suspect in the eyes of
Nyamundhe, the widow of Nyagar. The integrated Luo society of the village
starts falling apart. The green leaves are generally symbolic of life and resurrection
and a source of happiness and optimism. But in the story the green leaves become
symbolic of death, disintegration, discord and distrust among the people of the
tribe. The policeman consoles and assures Nyamundhe by saying that they will
question each and every man in the village in order to find out the culprit. The
reader can easily visualize that soon there would be a spree of accusations, counter-
accusations and witch hunting corrupting the psyche and shredding to bits the
very fabric of the society.
4.3.2 Greed as the Cause of the Tragedy

The Luo society is essentially patriarchal. The head of the family feels proud to
possess several wives, many children, numerous cattle and rich produce from
his land. Nyagar knows that he does not need money as he is sufficiently rich
with three wives and twelve children, many cattle and enough food and that he
lacks nothing. It was pure greed of easy money which lured him towards his
doom. Greed, one of the basic flaws of human nature, becomes the prime cause
of Nyagar’s undoing. Nyagar does not justify his need for money rather he himself
mentions that he is sufficiently rich and has absolutely no need to steal money
from anyone yet he feels compelled to go secretly in the night to search the
pockets of the ‘dead thief’and rob him of whatever money he carried on his
person.
Nyagar exhibits his knowledge about the behaviour of the cattle thieves and in
his heart of hearts feels proud about his superior insight in seeing what nobody
else could see. He knows that the thieves sell the stolen cattle at the earliest
opportunity and keep their money in a small bag stringed with a cord round their
neck. But in reality Nyagar is impulsive and lacks both prudence and experience.
Sitting at the edge of his cot in his hut, he had already started undressing in order
to retire to bed when it struck him to go stealthily and rob the dead thief. He is so
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Short Story much blinded by greed that he does not reflect on why the man’s body was still
warm. Instead of applying common sense that the man could be alive he attributes
the phenomenon to some superstition. Contrary to it based on his common sense
and experience, an elderly man had warned the villagers against throwing a spear
towards the thieves because if it missed the target it could in turn be used by the
thieves to hurt them.
4.3.3 Family and Social Life

It is common among the men in these tribes to have more than one wife at the
same time. Polygamy is not just a prevalent custom, it is also a symbol of a
man’s social status within the tribe. The man occupies a separate hut and one of
the wives would go to his hut in the night. Spears, knives and clubs are their
weapons and it is the duty of the men to provide protection to the families in the
village and to also protect the boundaries of the village. Thieving is a common
activity and since the cattle are a valuable resource they are at high risk of being
stolen. With experience comes wisdom and the elders are highly respected for it.
The old man had rightly warned the hunting party not to throw the spear which
the thieves could aim back at them whereas Nyagar who was convinced within
himself that the thief whose pockets he was going to search was dead could not
think that the warm hand of the man could mean that the man was not dead but
alive. Instead, he started imagining that there was something unnatural and
ominous in the dead man’s hand being warm. He did not apply reason and common
sense and was caught completely unawares when the dead thief fatally attacked
him.
Hunting in the primitive tribe is a community activity. Hunting is just hunting

and it doesn’t matter whether an animal is being surrounded and hunted down or
it is a man. In their primitive laws thieves and adulterers are regarded as animals
and if one kills any of them he is not considered guilty of murder. The events
which unfold their ignorance and hearts of darkness take place on a dark moonless
night. The thief had failed to spot the bridge across the river in the dark night and
fell into the hands of the blood thirsty crowd. In the story the white masters
attempt to create a bridge between the laws of the ‘primitive society’and the
laws of the ‘civilized society’.
Natural topography marks the boundaries and defines territories. River Opok
and river Nigua serve as the natural borders which divide the villages. The dead
are buried near the river bank outside the village. The tribals are children of
Nature. Activities like swimming come naturally to them. One of the thieves
could swim through even a whirlpool effortlessly. Their desire is limited to having
several wives, many children, many cattle and enough food.
The concept of a self-contained nuclear family is alien to the tribal community.

It is a community in which a wife even in the death of her husband acknowledges
his relationship with his parents and other members of the extended family like
his mother-in-law (her own mother) and empathizes with them for their loss as
well. She visualizes her lonesome future and laments that having lost a husband
she has in her store dark, cold, long and lonely nights without conjugal bliss. The
lament which Nyamundhe vents out is both frenzied and somewhat customary.
The verse format of the dirge allows the woman mourner some breathing space
to express her personal loss. Nyamundhe tears her dress and strips to her waist as
108 she walks behind the lorry. She laments not only the loss of her lover but also
realizes the loss that Nyagar’s parents shall suffer keenly. She does not fail to Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
empathize with her mother who shall also be saddened at the death of her
daughter’s husband. The way she addresses her dead husband shows that in the
Luo society relationship is of utmost importance. She mournfully imagines the
lonely bleak rainy days and the dark and long winter nights awaiting her remaining
life. She is sorry for her cursed fate and realizes that all the sympathy which the
men and women are showing towards her is a mere sham and nobody is going to
exchange their fate with hers. The men will soon forget her plight and the women
in the balmy company of their husbands will not bother themselves to think
about her miserable state of loneliness. Perhaps there exist in Dholuo folk songs
for every occasion. The song of lament which Nyamundhe sings is one of those
songs. In India also such a custom is very common. During the funeral procession
women follow the hearse to a point, generally upto the pond outside the village.
Women lament in a sing-a-song tone the cessation of the different relations the
departed person had cherished with the various members of the family. During
the thirteen day period of mourning hordes of relatives visit the house in which
death has occurred and women relatives with their faces hidden behind veils
start to sing and weep aloud simultaneously just when they are within the boundary
of the village. There are many folk songs detailing the funeral procession, the
cremation, the period of mourning, sense of bereavement and personal loss and
about the futility of life.
4.3.4 Beliefs and Superstitions

There are many superstitions which these tribal communities nurse and observe.
Death is not the end of existence rather according to them it is a transformation
from bodily existence to ghostly existence. They believe that when someone
dies his ghost is liberated from the body and it clings to or sits over the person
who is available at hand, so they do not kill their enemy rather leave him fatally
wounded to die alone with nobody around so that when the person gives up his
ghost, it does not settle on anyone or over the village. One of the ways to save
themselves from the ghost is by using ash. And people keep ash with them to
protect themselves in the same way as one would keep weapons. Nyagar swallows
some ash and also scatters some in the direction of the gate of his house to ward
off the ghost. The sound of the dogs barking in the night is considered a bad
omen. Also, it is a bad sign for a black cat to cross one’s way first thing in the
morning. Nyamundhe gets worried and mentions about the black cat to her co-
wife as she enquires after the whereabouts of Nyagar whom she could not find
anywhere.
Providence plays an important role in the story. Earlier Nyagar was ensuring that
nobody saw him search the dead man’s pockets but when he realized that he was
alone with the dead man he felt nervous. He experienced an uncanny fear. He did
not realize that true fear resided not in the man being dead but in the man being
alive. As mentioned above, thieving and adultery are considered the kind of
crimes which rob a man of his humanity and such a man is considered no better
than an animal and earns for himself the vulnerability to be treated like an animal
and as such is rightly hunted down according to their primitive law. By an analogy
someone who robs or attempts to rob a thief is a worse thief and deserves to meet
a similar fate. Here Nyagar’s intention to rob the dead cattle thief had
providentially sealed his fate. His angry resolve, regarding his wife who had left
his hut in the night without waking him up to lock the door, to make her pay
109
Short Story dearly for her mistake the next day is fulfilled in the most unexpected way.
Nyagar’s words of warning–”She will see me tomorrow”for his wife Nyamundhe
attain an ironic flavour when we find that Nyamundhe actually rushed to see
Nyagar’s dead body when the green leaves were removed off the face of the
corpse.
One of the villagers told Nyagar to, “Remember to be early tomorrow,”when he

saw Nyagar enter his house. These prophetic words of the villager assumed
specific connotation as the following morning Nyagar was there on the scene
before everybody else. He, in fact, replaced the thief. The echo of his own footsteps
followed him like the echo of his bodeful fate. Certain activities are men-centric
and killing or handling the dead body or burying it is one of such activities.
Women are kept out of it. Women do not even dare ask their men about it. As
long as a dead body is lying in the village and has not yet been duly disposed off,
activities like eating, drinking and fetching water remain suspended.
4.3.5 Clash between Ideologies

The corruption of the innocent thoughts of the aboriginals by the imperial
oppressor is hinted at through the gradual and systematic surrender to such cardinal
flaws as greed and distrust. Nyagar’s inner voice forbade him from going ahead
with his plan to rob the dead thief but an unknown energy propelled him and he
dismissed his voice of reason saying, “Don’t deceive yourself that you have
enough wealth. Nobody in the world has enough wealth.”
The tribes have their own unwritten but well defined and widely understood
system of laws and punishment for different crimes. What is justice in the eyes
of the tribes may be a crime in the eyes of their white lords.
It is a crime to rob someone and the punishment for such a crime is death by
lynching but to rob a robber is not a crime.
The white man’s way of investigation of a crime is beyond the comprehension of

the tribes. They wonder at the mysterious power which the whites possess by
use of which they are able to find out the killer. The tribes find the idea of post-
mortem of a dead body too uncanny as for them it is either ghostly or sacred and
in both the cases the dead body must not be tempered with.
The Head of a tribe is considered to be a representative of God Himself and as

such his word is meant to be obeyed like an oracle. But after the arrival of the
whites the authority of the Headman of the village is much diminished. He is
like a toothless tiger. The villagers no longer repose complete faith in him and he
has also accepted his position as one without power. Nyagar’s wife Nyamundhe
does not consider even the Headman blameless in her husband’s murder.
4.4 COMPREHENSION EXERCISES

a) Write a note on Grace Ogot as a postcolonial short story writer.
b) What do you know about the family life of the people of the Luo tribe?
c) What is the significance of the title of the story?
d) Describe the circumstances which led to Nyagar’s death?
110 e) Comment on the position of the Headman of the tribe.
f) Give an account of the events that took place in the night. Grace Ogot, ‘The Green
Leaves’
g) What is the significance of the lament by Nyamundhe at the end of the story?
h) What happened after the green leaves were removed from the dead body?
i) Comment on the practice of patriarchy in the Luo tribe.
j) Bring out the author’s point of view on human greed.
k) Do you think the story describes degeneration of values in the tribal society?
Comment.
4.5 LET US SUM UP

1) Grace Ogot (1930-2015) is one of the pioneers of postcolonial literature of
East Africa which has a comparatively shorter history although the region
abounded in native literature in the form of a rich oral tradition.
2) Grace Ogot was born in a Christian Luo family and grew up listening to
folk tales of the area in her mother tongue from her grandmother and stories
of the Old Testament from her father, a teacher in a Christian school.
3) *Ogot was the first published woman writer of East Africa who wrote both
in English and in Luo. Collections of her short stories appeared under the
titles Land without Thunder (1968), The Other Woman (1976) and The Island
of Tears (1980).
4) Ogot has expressed her faith in a solid family structure at the centre of
which is the male authority but the woman wields her sway and enjoys her
independence within her own space.
5) The story ‘The Green Leaves’is included in the collection of short stories
titled, Land Without Thunder. Ogot explores in this story the themes of
native laws, cultural practices, superstitions, gender roles, greed, concept
of crime, family, relationships and conflict between the native African and
modern European ideologies.
6) *The green leaves which are generally associated with the beauty and bounty
of Nature get associated with a hideous killing and sow the seeds of
suspicion on one another among the people of the clan. The integrated Luo
society of the village starts falling apart. The green leaves are generally
symbolic of life and resurrection and a source of happiness and optimism.
But in the story the green leaves become symbolic of death, disintegration,
discord and distrust among the people of the tribe.
7) Greed, one of the basic flaws of human nature, becomes the prime cause of
the main character’s undoing. He himself mentions that he is sufficiently
rich and has absolutely no need to steal money from anyone yet he feels
compelled to go secretly in the night to search the pockets of the ‘dead
thief’and rob him of whatever money he carried on his person. He is so
much blinded by greed that he does not reflect on why the man’s body was
still warm. Instead of applying common sense that the man could be alive
and could attack him, he attributes the phenomenon to some unknown being.
Providence plays an important role in the story.
111
Short Story 8) Hunting is a community activity. According to the primitive laws of the
tribe, thieves and adulterers are regarded as animals and if one kills any of
them he is not considered guilty of murder.
9) The concept of a self contained nuclear family is alien to the tribal

community. Polygamy is common. The tribes have a unified living which
is threatened by the white invasion.
10) The tribes have their own unwritten but well defined and widely understood
system of laws and punishment for different crimes. What is justice in the
eyes of the tribes may be a crime in the eyes of their white lords.
112
BEGC -114
Postcolonial
Indira Gandhi
Literatures
Block
3
POETRY
UNIT 1
An Introduction to Poetry in the Postcolonial Space 115
UNIT 2
Pablo Neruda: “Tonight I can Write”, “The Way
Spain Was” 126
UNIT 3
Derek Walcott: “A Far Cry from Africa”, “Names” 145
UNIT 4
David Malouf: “Revolving Days”, “Wild Lemons” 167
Poetry
BLOCK 3 INTRODUCTION
Block 3 of the Postcolonial Literatures (BEGC-114) titled Poetry has been

designed to introduce you to important poets from the world of postcolonial
poetry and their selected important poems. The block consists of four units
structured as below:
Unit 1 An Introduction to Poetry in the Postcolonial Space explores the origins

of the Postcolonial Poetry.
Unit 2 discusses two important poems ‘Tonight I Can Write’and‘The Way

Spain Was’by Pablo Neruda. An overview Latin American Literature has been
given for a better understanding of tradition of poetry from this space.
Unit 3 Explains the plural contexts of the culture of the Caribbean. The unit then
goes on to discuss Derek Walcott’s two important poems, ‘A Far Cry From
Africa’and‘Names’. Both these poems have been analysed and annotations have
been provided.
Unit 4 briefly discusses David Malouf’s ‘Revolving Days’ and ‘Wild Lemons’.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
114
An Introduction to Poetry in
UNIT 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO POETRY IN the Postcolonial Space
THE POSTCOLONIAL SPACE
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 The Origin or History of Colonialism
1.2 Postcolonial India
1.3 Poetry in Postcolonial Space
1.4 Language
1.5 Literature
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 Glossary
1.0 OBJECTIVES
This particular unit will provide an introduction to the concept of colonialism
and the connection with the various regions or countries that came under the
clutches of colonial rulers. The discussion will revolve around the various aspects
that colonialism takes within a particular geographical location and the impact it
has on the peoples’ mind that face the wrath of colonialism. Certainly, you will
get to know in detail about the consequences the people who were colonized had
to face and how they had to pay a heavy price. When we talk about consequences
in this context, we will lay emphasis on the language that transformed before
and after the colonial era. Herein the primary focus will be laid on the post-
colonial spaces in the Poetry of various poets.
1.1 THE ORIGIN OR HISTORY OF COLONIALISM

The process or act of becoming a colony by an external force is known as
colonialism. We can trace the origin of colonialism after the medieval period in
Western Europe, when European explorers travelled around the nook and corner
of the world discovering new regions and establishing themselves as part of
their own Nation. With the rise of Science and Technology in the Western
Civilization, navigation became suitable/enough to chart out the various routes
through ships as trading allowed to look for new areas for raw materials and
manufactured goods.
The whole idea of colonialism was to establish a stronghold over the indigenous
population. To rule over a Nation which is not its own and that required long-
term planning and military and ideological commands. Hence, it was very
convenient for the Colonial powers to assert themselves as superiors to the
Indigenous population by importing the customs, law, education system, language,
literature and most importantly religion. The indigenous population was
considered primitive and hence slavery came into force in all those colonized
regions.1. The seeds of postcolonial era were sown around 1945 i.e during the
second world war. However, the real momentum was gathered around the 1970s. 115
Poetry Before we move on to Postcolonial Poetry it is of utmost importance to understand
the constructs of Orientalism and The Theory of Deconstruction. By the term
Orientalism, the dictionary meaning of it is the study of the history, languages
and cultures of the East. Whenever we talk of Orientalism the only person’s
name which comes to our mind is Edward Said. He was the one who was entirely
instrumental in opening up the vistas of postcolonial studies in general. The
entire credit goes to Edward Said for the colonial discourse undertaken by him
in his epic work “Orientalism” that was published in the year 1978. This historic
work of Said actually offered a whole range of critical and analytical dimension
of Oriental studies. In fact, to be precise the whole gamut of oriental study is the
construction of knowledge by the West. Edward Said has provided three
definitions of Orientalism. The First definition states that, “Anyone who teaches,
writes about, or researches the Orient- and this applies whether the person is an
anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist- either in its specific or its
general aspects, is an Orientalist, and what he or she does is Orientalism”. The
second definition pertains to academic aspect and it states that, “Orientalism is a
style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made
between the Orient and the Occident” In the third definition Edward Said makes
a transition from academy to socio- political dimension. It states that, “Taking
the late eighteenth century as a very roughly defined starting point Orientalism
can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the
Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it,
describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a
Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient”.
Edward Said had to face numerous criticisms in his discourse on Orientalism.
However, he was asserted by the following argument that, “Indeed, my real
argument is that Orientalism is - and does not simply represent- a considerable
dimension of modern political-intellectual culture, and as such has less to do
with the Orient than it does with ‘our’ world”.
When it comes to decolonization the first and foremost nuances that comes to
our mind is the question of language. In the post-colonial space language plays a
major role in understanding the cultural domination. Decolonization as per
Cambridge dictionary, is the process in which a country that was previously a
colony (controlled by another country) becomes politically independent. As the
very notion of colonization involves the process of destroying the local structure
in terms of social, political, economic and all other aspects and establish a new
set up on the basis of the coloniser’s goals. On the other hand, the notion of
decolonisation means discard the whole structure set by the colonial rulers in the
pre-colonial era and setting up a new one to match up with their needs and
aspiration. In this era, they would restructure every aspect of the society in terms
of economic, political, religious and other aspects. Here the mind set of people
would have a transition from the colonial times to the onset of a new country
evolved out of the clutches of slavery, exploitation, depression and emptiness.
The language had a deep impact in the decolonised society. The society was left
in a fractured state. The ancient traditional language was replaced by the colonial
language and soon after decolonisation the language also had a sea change to
bring back to its near original form. In India the colonisers came for the purpose
of trade and commerce whereas in countries like America and Australia their
intention was to settle down. Hence the style of the resistance movement was
different from one country to another depending on the nature of colonisation
process of each country. Apparently the decolonisation of mind was one of the
116
focal aspects of the entire gamut of discourse of the colonial process and An Introduction to Poetry in
the Postcolonial Space
subsequently the decolonisation.
1.2 POST COLONIAL INDIA

As the colonisers left India there was a conflict amongst the people of India
regarding the onset of globalization and nativism. There was a tremendous clash
between the East and West. The colonisers established their hegemony upon the
local population.
Gauri Viswanathan (1989: 1-4 passim) opines that the discipline of English [in
India] came into its own in an age of colonialism … and in the long run served to
strengthen Western cultural hegemony in enormously complex ways . The history
of education in British India shows that certain humanistic functions traditionally
associated with literature – for example, the shaping of character or the
development of the aesthetic sense or the disciplines of ethical thinking – were
considered essential to the processes of socio-political control by the guardians
of the same tradition. … A vital and subtle connection exists between a discourse
in which those who are to be educated are represented as morally and intellectually
deficient and the attribution of moral and intellectual values to the literary works
they are assigned to read.
India had a rich traditional value since time immemorial. Sanskrit was the
language which defined the rich cultural heritage of India. With the advent of the
colonial power the master tongue English replaced all the respective mother
tongues including the classical language such as Sanskrit and Urdu. Macaulay’s
Minute wiped out the root of Indian Language in its entirety. The colonial rulers
wanted to break the very fabric of Indians and divide them as much as they can
as this would enable them to further strengthen their stronghold over the vulnerable
Indian population and then rule this Nation. With this aim in view the Britishers
tried to change the entire societal system of India including language, culture,
religion, education and the list is endless. There was severe discomfort amongst
the Indians as they had no other option then to be a silent spectator and accept
their fate without a word of protest. Amongst the Indian there was one western
educated gentleman by the name Michael Madhusudan Das who fully supported
the English Education system. Though many Indians during that time opposed
him but directly or indirectly many reforms in the Indian Society took place. The
abolition of Sati, Child Marriage and other superstitious beliefs were practiced
by the tradition loving Indian people there was support for widow remarriage
but still. The English language and Indian English literature are considered to be
the offshoot of British Colonialism.
There was a time when the question of an official language arose for a multi-
lingual state. The framers of the Indian Constitution had in 1951 designated
English as the associate official language of India along with Hindi until 1965,
after which it was to be withdrawn from official use. That has not happened as
yet, primarily languages for official purposes rather than Hindi, which many of
their inhabitants do not speak at all – thereby leaving English even today as the
sole link language within the country. Incidentally, English is the ‘official’
language of at least two Indian states, Meghalaya and Nagaland, whose various
tribes speak vastly different sub-languages, with no common medium of
communication other than English. English is also the native tongue of the small
Eurasian or Anglo-Indian (the more usual term) community, the offspring of 117
Poetry mixed marriages during the colonial period, whose numbers are fast dwindling
due to emigration to Britain, Australia and Canada. Hence, English does have a
status other than being solely a colonial legacy. There has always been a strained
relationship between the mother tongues and the ‘other tongue’.
Another threat that lingered in front of the Indians was the question of nativism.
How after the colonisers left India and the language and literature was severally
affected by the imposition and cultural imperialism. A new form of Literature
evolved out of the fractured society. And this transition took a lot of lot of effort
and time.
To quote in the words of critic Bhalchandra Nemade’s uncompromising ‘nativism’
(deshiyata):
It is expected that native perceptions naturally express themselves in any literature.
However, as a result of years of slavery under crafty European rulers, a peculiar
kind of colonialist internationalism was born in various parts of the colonial
world in the mid-twentieth century. … It is time to tell people who are used to
such elitism that any human being or literature can stand tall only in its own
native land and linguistic group. …being native means being attached to a
particular place. … But when non-native, alien, imported values, languages, and
cultures coming in from outside threaten native values, languages and cultures,
communities have to become nativistic in order to survive. (Nemade 1997: 233-
236 passim).
It was the great task of the Asiatic Society that was founded by Sir William Jones
at Calcutta in 1784 to glorify India’s classical Vedic and Sanskritic past. In the
post-colonial environment, several poets made its mark by various heart rendering
composition. These composition still hold strong impact in the heart and minds
of millions of Indian.
The writers in the post-colonial India reject the tradition and ethos of the colonial
masters/rulers. They had their own notion of identity and the result is seen in the
writings of the time.Basically, the literature that emerged after the end of British
regime is known as the postcolonial literature. In the fifties a new school of
poets emerged who turned their back from romantic writings and were more
fascinated with the circumstances of the time and wrote according to the age.
Nissim Ezekiel is one of the most important Indo-English poets of the post-
independence era and his “Night of the scorpion” is one of his best known poems.
During that time the female poets also had some fiery ideas of post colonialism
and it reflected in their writings in the true sense of the term. Kamala Das is one
of the leading female poets of that age and even till date, she is revered in a great
way. The most outstanding poet of the sixties is A.K.Ramanujan. India and his
Indian experience are the subject matter of his writings. The Poets who dearly
show the postcolonial aspect in their writings are Nissim Ezekiel, A.K.Ramanujan
and Kamala Das to name a few.
1.3 POETRY IN POSTCOLONIAL SPACE

In this segment we are going to discuss and interrogate about what happens
when postcolonial identity politics intersect and complicate the neat binary of
globalism and nativism? The mother tongue by the master tongue, and the
consequent jeopardizing of national identity, are too well known to need repetition.
The legacies of colonialism have created lot of blemishes in the post-colonial
118 spaces.
If fiction or any similar literary work of art can create the material of everyday An Introduction to Poetry in
life through density and accumulate of real life, then poetry is also detailed
information capable of garnering a similar aim through its usage of imagery and
metaphor. Before we proceed further to delve deeply into postcolonial poetry
it’s very essential to understand the language used. The constructs of the social
fabric changed and so did the poetic fervor. A ‘new world’ came into being after
the colonizers left. The ‘new world’ languages were first deconstructed from the
left-over material and then reformulated in order to enable the suitability and
convenience of the burden of postcolonial phase.
There is dearth of books on postcolonial poetic voice. Whatever little poetic

work is available is replete with nationalistic tone reflecting upon the history,
politics and sociology of the colonizers. The first generation of postcolonial era
had no other option then to lend their poetic expression in the foreign tongue i.e
English. As the colonizer imposed upon the colonized population their language,
they had no option but to adhere to the imposition. With the passage of time the
language has been modified and reworked as per the suitability of the postcolonial
subjectivity3.
The postcolonial poet had to negotiate with the colonial past and neo colonial
present struggling hard to find a definite space to situate the sense of belongingness
to its own native land and its inhabitants and also the constant fast changing
world in times of globalization. There is no denying the fact that the postcolonial
poet is caught between the threshold of two worlds. One is the imposed culture
and the other is the inherent culture. And under such circumstances we have
such fiery poetic voices of Pablo Neruda Derek Walcott, David Malouf to name
a few.
Pablo Neruda’s (1904-1973) poetry sought to find a distinct identity of Latin

America from that of Spain. PabloNeruda, was born as Neftalí Ricardo Reyes
Basoalto, (born July 12, 1904, Parral, Chile—died September 23, 1973, Santiago).
He was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician who was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1971. He was perhaps the most important Latin
American poet of the 20th century. He is widely known as the Picasso of
poetry.Neruda was the son of José del Carmen Reyes, a railway worker, and
Rosa Basoalto. He lost his mother very early and the whole family moved
to Temuco, a small town farther south in Chile, where his father remarried. Neruda
began to write poetry at the tenderage of 10, but his father never encouraged him
in writing poems, which was why probably the young poet began to publish
under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda. He entered the Temuco Boys’ School in
1910 and finished his secondary schooling there in 1920. He was a voracious
reader and was very introvert as a person. The good thing was he was
tremendously encouraged by the principal of the Temuco Girls’ School, Gabriela
Mistral, a gifted poet who would herself later become a Nobel laureate.
He had a very struggling life. Though he composed many poems but still he was
unable to earn a living from his poems. In order to make ends meet he started
publishing in all kinds of newspapers and other means. Neruda’s body of poetry is
so rich and varied that it defies classification or easy summary. It developed
along four main directions. His love poetry, such as the youthful Twenty Love
Poems and the mature Los versos del Capitán (1952; The Captain’s Verses), is
tender, melancholy, sensuous, and passionate. In “material” poetry, such
as Residencia en la tierra, loneliness and depression immerse the author in a 119
Poetry subterranean world of dark, demonic forces. His epic poetry is best represented
by Canto general, which is an attempt at reinterpreting the past and present
of Latin America and the struggle of its oppressed and downtrodden masses
towards freedom. And finally, there is Neruda’s poetry of common, everyday
objects, animals, and plants, as in Odaselementales. During his time the Spanish
Civil War broke out in 1936. His poetic journey was again disrupted. He even
participated in the political arena of his Country and he had to face banishment
from his own country for opposing the ideology of the regime in power.He was
actively engaged in negotiating between colonial and neo-colonial oppression.
The poetic space he created in his native tongue is truly admirable. His writings
have unity of style and purpose for which he was a recipient of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in the year 1971.
Derek Walcott’s full name was DerekAltonWalcott, (born January 23,

1930, Saint Lucia—died March 17, 2017, Cap Estate), West Indian poet and
playwright noted for works that explore the Caribbean cultural experience. Walcott
was best known for his poetry, beginning with In a Green Night: Poems 1948–
1960 (1962). This book is typical of his early poetry in its celebration of the
Caribbean landscape’s natural beauty. The verse in Selected Poems (1964), The
Castaway (1965), and The Gulf (1969) is similarly lush in style and incantatory
in mood as Walcott expresses his feelings of personal isolation, caught between
his European cultural orientation and the black folk cultures of his native
Caribbean life. Another Life (1973) is a book-length autobiographical poem.
In Sea Grapes (1976) and The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), Walcott uses amore
economical style to examine the deep cultural divisions of language and race in
the Caribbean. The Fortunate Traveller (1981) and Midsummer (1984) explore
his own situation as a black writer in America who has become increasingly
estranged from his Caribbean homeland.
He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 for his tireless efforts to
compose poetry to build bridges in his multi-cultural society. We see language as
a major tool used to assert the Caribbean identity especially in the poems of
Walcott. The society of Saint Lucia is a crossroad of cultures, languages and
races; this linguistic and racial diversity is attributed to colonialism. The island
alternated between France and England several times before finally being ceded
to the United Kingdom in 1814. Due to these changes in the colonial government,
Standard English, English Creole and French Creole are spoken in Saint Lucia.
These are the three languages Walcott uses in his poems in order to portray the
richness and advantages of cultural diversity. He felt that the imagined homeland
of the ancestral past has been absolutely transformed by the colonizers. We can
see extensive use of memory and imagination in the work of Walcott:
We were blest with a virginal, unpainted world
With Adam’s task of giving things their names… (collected poems 294)
Walcott always had an inner conflict within him as he could not take sides since
his grandfathers from both sides were white, while his grandmothers from both
sides were black. His woes can best be understood in the following lines:
I had no nation now but the imagination
After the white man, the niggers didn’t want me
When the power swing to their side
120
The first chain my hands and apologize, ‘History’; An Introduction to Poetry in
And next said I black enough for their pride.
(Collected Poems 350)
David Malouf’s full name is David George Joseph Malouf, (born March 20,
1934, Brisbane, Australia). He is an Australian poet and novelist of Lebanese
and English descent whose work reflects his ethnic background as well as his
childhood and youth spent in Queensland. Malouf received a B.A. with honours
from the University of Queensland in 1954. He lived and worked in Europe from
1959 to 1968, then taught English at the University of Sydney until 1977. After
1977 he became a full-time writer, dividing his time between Australia and Italy.
Malouf’s volumesof poetry include Bicycle and Other Poems (1970; also
published as The Year of the Foxes and Other Poems), Neighbours in a
Thicket (1974), Wild Lemons (1980), First Things Last (1980), Typewriter
Music (2007), and Earth Hour (2014). Malouf even authored several plays and
novels which was significant of the ages.
Malouf’s Interiors, is his first body of published poetry. With his treatment of
interior spaces, Malouf introduces a subtle critique of postcolonial Australia.
The interiors are actually perceived as sites of memory. This links them closely
to ‘the enculturation of a subject’ into the linguistic order, and with this, into the
social order. For this reason, the moments in which the interior space is
undermined are those moments of connection to something outside this order. The
interiors spaces offer two ways of being in Australia: one that encapsulates the
postcolonial mindset (in the sense of internalized colonial structures), and one
which is decolonial, if only in relation to the white subject. The first is reflected
in the interiors as sites of memory: specifically, those memories and cultural
artefacts that were imported from England. These are the basis of suburban living
and interaction with the Australian landscape.
‘First Things Last’ and ‘The Crab Feast’ stand out for the way they make a study
of consciousness itself. They offer a way of dramatising the process of ‘being
aware.’ Malouf in ‘First Things Last’presents a surgery conducted in a hospital.
The patient loses the sense of awareness under the influence of anesthesia, and
then gradually regains consciousness. The whole process is observed or perceived
as a metaphor of the mind’s structure and of the mind’s way of acquiring
knowledge and have a sense of values. Malouf shows empathy and imagination
in presenting this state of loss and recovery. Senses and judgment disappear,
only then to recreate themselves awkwardly after the event. The concluding poem
in the sequence delivers a startling, challenging effect:
Laying the small bones out
in rows for the moon
to suck. We call this Living
from One Day to the Next.
To lie tight-wrapped in butcher’s

paper and bleed
events: you all know this one:
it’s Learning from History.
121
Poetry You mount a bicycle
without wheels. What falls away
as you pedal uphill?
The Joys of the Flesh
The styles are as many as

the players. Strict rules
apply but can be broken.
Nobody wins. (First Things Last 39-40)
It is an ingenious presentation on how moral and social values come to be, and
how society generally comes to find and hold these values. In these final stanzas
Malouf takes simple images from dreams or newspapers and juxtaposes them
against giant clichés or proverbs. It is implied that this is the way society stumbles
on its values. There is irony and even comedy here of a rare and strangely dignified
kind. The wit in the title ‘First Things Last’ has been pointing in several directions.
It suggests we live in either unfinished times or deep down in times of innocence.
The cryptic point made in the final verse (above) is for Malouf a serious statement.
Styles, players and rules are for real, yet relative and provisional. ‘They can be
broken.’ Social contracts come and go. ‘Nobody wins.’ There is a poised and
stoical respect, here, for social order and the way it comes into being. It is a
wisdom that edges its way out of Malouf’stumultuous journey into the
unconscious.
Malouf’s postcolonial narratives found expression in the Australian landscape.
The trace of aboriginal history and the postcolonial dilemma had a beautiful
expression in the following way:
Here the sheer edge
Of a continent dry weed
Clutches, grey gulls turn
From the sea and gather
Here, precariously
Building their nest.
And here too at the edge
Of darkness where all floors
Sink to abyss, the lighted
Bar is of light
The furthest promontory
And exit sheer fall.
(‘Sheer Edge’)
Most of his poems reflects the treatment meted out by the white settlers to its
native population. David Malouf as a postcolonial author demonstrated the
consequences of colonization for the feeling of national identity on the territories
which have been previously colonized.
1.4 THE LANGUAGE

The question of national identity is one of the main themes discussed in
122 postcolonial literature. Shedding light upon the outcomes of colonization, the
postcolonial authors criticized the beliefs in racial superiority and emphasized An Introduction to Poetry in
the importance of resurrection of national identity on the territories which have
been colonized previously. In the means of discussing Literature, language is of
utmost importance. So now we will lay emphasis on the language of postcolonial
writings.
The language of postcolonial literature is notsomething that is used in common

parlance. In the postcolonial era there was a constant threat of dominance from
the master tongue to the mother tongue. A conflicting situation filled the mindset
of people who had just got over with the colonial masters who had been having
a dominating influence over the food, culture, lifestyle and above all the language.
Let me remind you one thing here that the words, tones, grammar, syntax were
used to register landscape, show the patterns of social relationship that is shaped
by displacement, dispossession and resistance, conquest, subjection and struggle.
The concept of ‘new world’ was abundantly used by the writers of that time. The
languages are first constructed and again deconstructed to suit the sentiments of
the burden of postcolonial era. English was transformed by post-colonial writers.
Language has changed phenomenally. New writers are writing to a global
audience. Changing language is synonymous to changing the order. In Derek
Walcott’s poetry the language is used in such a manner which presents the model
of a ‘new world’. Walcott used more metaphors than lyric or poetic language
that reflected the local world which is purely organic. For instance, in “Islands”
the poet observes that,
But islands can only exist if we have loved them.
I seek as climate seeks its style to write
Very crisp as sand,
Clear as sunlight,
Cold as the curled wave,
Ordinary as a tumbler of
Island water.
(“Islands”, p.52)
The island here for the poet is not just nature’s bounty but the effect and the
presence of it matters.
1.5 THE LITERATURE

As it has already been discussed in the previous segment that the Literature of
the postcolonial phase was one of mixed response to the culture that was imposed
upon by the colonizers and the inherent culture of the colonized. The central
theme of postcolonial literature is the result of the process of colonization on the
colonized territories and their population. The postcolonial writers criticized the
racial and cultural prejudices which were meted out by the colonizers as
justification for their actions. The authors working in this literary style focused
mainly on the social aspect of postcolonial problems. Hence it will not be wrong
to mention here that the literature of the postcolonial poetic space had the freedom
to generate a new world literature that had thrown sufficient light on nation
building aspect after the colonizers left. According to Bill Aschroft, redefining
the ‘post-colonial’ as no longer only subversive and resistant, but transformative
and liberatory: ‘It is transformation that gives these societies control over their
future. Transformation describes the way in which colonised societies have taken 123
Poetry dominant discourses, transformed them and used them in the service of their
own self-empowerment.’ This creative transformation of imperial discourses
might well be termed ‘postcolonial’ (minus the hyphen), since it involves a
productive osmosis rather than mere continuation.
1.6 LET US SUM UP

A liberal Democracy allows one to equally participate in the political space. In
order to do so the political space needs to be hospitable. The cultural dominance
of the imperial power and the aftermath of the post-colonial stage created a void
in the mindset of the inhabitants to explore the lost legacy and tradition of the
colonized nations. The language had to go through a transition to reach its own
space. The poetry in the postcolonial period provided that space to some extent
and the aftermath of that arena brought in tremendous contribution in terms of
reflecting the society through compositions of poems that clearly sang the woes
and pathos of the people the colonizers left them with.
1.7 GLOSSARY
Creole: A person of mixed European and black descent, especially in the
Caribbean
Colonial: The act of acquiring full political control over another country,
exploiting it economically
Orientalism: The style, artefacts, traits which are characteristics of the people
and culture of Asia (Eastern World).
Decolonisation: means the process of deconstructing the colonial ideologies
of the superior power.
Displacement: it is mostly defined to be the change in position of an object
or person.
Globalisation: is the process of interaction and integration among people,
companies, government and other agencies worldwide.
Nativism: Original inhabitant of a particular place.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used in an object
which is not the literal meaning of it
Syntax: The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed
sentences in a language

QUESTIONS
1) What is the source of Colonialism?
2. What is the definition of Orientalism according to Edward Said?
3. What does decolonising the mind signify?
4. What are language constructs of Postcolonial time?
5. Write a brief note on Postcolonial poetry.
6. What are the constructs of English language in India?
124
7. Briefly comment on the poetic sense of Pablo Neruda. An Introduction to Poetry in
8. Write a short over view of Derek Walcott’s Poetry.

1. Klages, Mary. Key Terms in Literary Theory. London: Continuum, 2012
2. Satpathy, Sumanyu. The Southern post colonialisms The Global South and
the New Literary Representations. Delhi: Routledge, 2009
3. Sati, Someshwar. A warble of postcolonial voices An anthology of short
stories and poems Vol.II. Delhi: Worldview publicaions, 2018
4. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pablo-Neruda
5. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Derek-Walcott
6. https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Malouf
7. Appreciating David Malouf as a Poet by James Tulip
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Poetry
UNIT 2 PABLO NERUDA: “TONIGHT I CAN
WRITE”, “THE WAY SPAIN WAS”
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Brief Overview of Latin American Literature
2.2 Introduction to Pablo Neruda
2.3 “Tonight I can Write” -Text with Annotations and Analysis
2.4 “The Way Spain Was” - Text with Annotations and Analysis
2.5 Let Us Sum Up
2.6 References
2.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we shall discuss the poetry by Pablo Neruda. After reading the Unit
carefully, you will be able to:
recall names of prominent Latin American poets;
outline the life and works of Pablo Neruda;
critically comment on “Tonight I can Write”; and
critically comment on “The Way Spain Was”
2.1 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN

LITERATURE
In this section we will learn about the major authors and trends in Latin American
Literature. But let us first understand; what is meant by the term 'Latin America'?
In terms of geography, Latin America includes all parts of Central and South
Americas that were part of Spanish or Portuguese Empires during the colonial
period. It also includes the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto
Rico and Brazil. In the United States, all the countries south to it on the American
continent are broadly called the Latin America. Thus, English speaking countries
like Belize, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Antigua and
Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the
Bahamas, the French-speaking Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana
and even the Dutch-speaking Netherlands Antilles, Aruba and Suriname, all are
included under this category. However originally, Latin America designates all
those countries and territories in the Americas where a Romance language
(languages derived from Latin i.e., Spanish, French, Portuguese or the Creole
languages) is spoken. The term came into use in the second half of the nineteenth
century. It was coined by intellectual leaders who were looking to France for
cultural leadership instead of Spain or Portugal. It was during the French invasion
of Mexico in 1862 under the Empire of Napoleon III. The motive of using the
126
term ‘Latin’was to mark a difference from the Anglophone people of the North Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
Write’, ‘The Way Spain Was’
America. The term came in vogue even more in the twentieth century as then
Mesoamerican, Central American, Caribbean and South American countries tried
to establish their cultural distinction from the United States. However, Scholars
today find the term highly problematic because it elides and subsumes the many
distinct countries with different pre-conquest origins into one collective entity.
The corpus called 'Latin American Literature' includes oral and written works in
Spanish, Portuguese and English. It also encompasses work in any native language
by authors from parts of North America, South America and the Caribbean. Critics
usually adhere to the following classification of major periods of Latin American
Literature: Pre-Colombian, Colonial Resistance, Modernismo, Boom, and
Contemporary.
The Pre-Colombian period refers to the time before the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. Latin American literature of this period was primarily oral and created
by people of Omlec, Mayan, Aztec and other Mesoamerican civilizations. It
primarily dealt with accounts about religion, astronomy, agriculture and political
history. Many scholars consider the term pre-Columbian flawed because it takes
the colonial explorer as the frame of reference and does not directly indicate the
indigenous people. Ancient Americas is regarded as more suitable term to indicate
the flourishing cultures of Mesoamerican civilizations.
The Colonial period began in the 15th century. The colonization of America began
with the arrival of Christopher Columbus at the islands now called Haiti and the
Dominican Republic. Mistakenly assuming that he had reached India, he
proclaimed the natives of these islands as ‘Indians’. It is in this period we see the
beginning of the written tradition in Latin American literature. It comprises of
the first-person accounts of European explorers. Some Natives also created
anecdotes of the way life changed after coming of colonizers.
Neoclassicism, Realism and Naturalism are the prominent trends in the 19th
century Latin American literature. The first novel called El Periquillo
Sarniento was published in 1816. It was written by José Joaquín Fernández de
Lizardi It was romanticism and popular poetry that informed the Latin American
public opinion in the 19th century thereby in many ways influencing the invention
of the concept of Latin America. In this context, the contribution of José Martí
Heredia of Cuba exiled in Mexico and Antônio Gonçalves Dias of Brazil has
been immense. Both are well known for their poems on exile. Some of the widely
known poems by Heredia are about Niagara Falls, Aztec ruins, and other natural
wonders such as a storm. His ode “Himno a un desterrado”relates his experience
as an exile. It is difficult to present generalized picture of characteristics of
romanticism in Latin American poetry, yet some commonly identifiable traits
have been as follows; advocacy of individual freedom, nature as a source of
knowledge, nature metaphorically depicted as the eternal witness of history turned
to ruins, the quest for voice of the people and a reaction against Spanish
imperialism couched in nationalist and anti-colonial discourse. Another major
poetic voice of this era was of José Hernández who wrote ‘gauchesque’poetry.
These are romantic verses about the persecuted Argentinean gauchos in the wake
of modernization and industrialization. The Argentine gaucho is a type of cowboy
and occasional laborer located in rural Argentina. Hernández poetic and prosaic
works elucidate all aspects of the life of these people. His epic poem Martín
Fierro written in Spanish is about the life of the gaucho. Written in a style that 127
Poetry evokes the rural Argentine ballads known as payadas. It was originally published
in two parts; El Gaucho Martín Fierro (1872) and La Vuelta de Martín
Fierro (1879). Notable for enunciating the contribution of gauchos in Argentina’s
independence from Spain, it has now been translated into over 70 languages.
The late 19th century is marked by the rise of Resistance literature. It includes
anti-establishment works of fiction written in Romantic and Naturalist tradition.
The prominent themes are quest to establish a sense of national identity, rights of
indigenous people and national independence from the Spanish and the Portuguese
colonizers. Doris Sommer’s has called these narratives foundational fictions and
include works such as Facundo (1845) by Argentine writer Domingo
Sarmiento,Maria (1867) by Jorge Isaac from Columbia, Cumanda (1879) by
Juan León Mera from Ecuador etc. With the rise of women’s education women
writers also wrote fiction highlighting the oppression and marginalization of
indigenous people, slaves and women. Some notable works are Sab (1841) by
Cuban author Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. He wrote in Romantic conventions.
Blanca Sol (1888) by Mercedes Cabello de Carbonera is another important text.
One of the most important novels of ‘indigenismo’, Aves sin nido (1889) was
penned by the Peruvian Naturalist author Clorinda Matto de Turner. Beginning
in Mexico with the Revolution of 1911, indigenismo was a nationalist political
ideology expressed in various policies, educational and economic reform
programs as well as through artistic expression. It advocated dominant social
and political roles for Indians in constructing a nation-state, according to Indian
heritage by drawing a sharp distinction between Indians and Europeans.
The first distinctly Latin American literary movement in Spanish that had a global
impact is called 'Modernismo' that emerged in the 19th century. It was an
amalgamation of Romanticism, French Symbolism and Parnassian school of
poetry. This Spanish American modernism that flowered in 1880s must not be
confused with the Anglo-American Modernism of poets such as T.S. Eliot and
Ezra Pound that peaked around 1922 or with the Brazilian modernism that arose
around 1928. Global industrialization, capitalism, Spain’s loss of all its colonies
and the rise of North American cultural and economic imperialism were some
factors that ushered in a new poetic era of Modernistas who were critical of the
conservative thematic and stylistic structures that persisted from the colonial
period. The poetry of José Martí, Julian del Casal (Cuba), Salvador Díaz Mirón
(Mexico), José Asunción Silva (Columbia), Leopold Lugones (Argentina),
Ricardo Jaimes Freyre (Bolivia), Amado Nervo (Mexico) and Delmira Agustini
(Uruguay) is usually considered to have started the trend. Manuel Gutiérrez
Nájera , a renowned journalist from Mexico and founder of the literary review
La Revista Azul, promoted Modernismo throughout Latin America. It was the
publication JoséMartí’s Ismaelillo in 1882 which is regarded as a definitive
moment in the growth of the movement. Martíis considered the first great
visionary Latin American poet as he sought to define Nuestra América. That is
casting the identity of Latin America as one struggling for artistic, political and
economic independence. However it is Rubén Darío’s collection of poems Azul
(1888) which is considered a foundational text of this poetic movement. The
Nicaraguan poet Dario is regarded the central figure and also the father of this
movement. His poetry was a reaction to the decadence of Romanticism.
Modernismo poetics has many stages and diverse poets yet there have are some
defining notions associated with it such as; cosmopolitanism or transnational
preoccupations, a cult for the exotic, use of Greek and Nordic mythology as
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inspiration, use of free verse, propensity for musicality, adherence to the ideal of Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
arts for art’s sake and a search for aesthetic ideals of perfection and beauty. Jean
Franco has summed up modernismo’s key features in the following words:
“rejection of any overt message or teaching in art, the stress on beauty as the
highest goal and the need to free verse from traditional forms”(119). Nevertheless,
the movement began to wane by 1914 and other avant-garde artistic and aesthetic
movements gained prominence.
In the 1920s a number of innovative but somewhat ephemeral artistic movements

that are categorized under the heading avant-garde cropped up as an attempt to
free art from having to respond to needs other than those of artistic creation and
expression. Their impact was most strongly felt in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Cuba
and Mexico. However, some critics say that these trends also inspired visual
artists, Cubist poets etc. in Eastern, Western Europe and the United States,
culminating in surrealist tendencies. These movements were guided by the
intention of defying and revising the 19th century literary and artistic tradition.
Many groups were also connected to social and political antagonism against
hegemonic trends of the time. They laid emphasis on stripping poetic language
of ornamental devices and other conceptual debris of tradition to foster powerful
newly created imagery. Art was thought to be an unmediated expression of the
genius of its creator. The poet was perceived as a small God and the main thrust
was to create from scratch. Vincente Huidobro’s essay “El creacionismo”of 1925
was an influential manifesto to proclaim these ideas. The publication of Altazor
in 1931 by the Chilean Vicente Huidobro marks a break with the past. The
ingenious stylistic practices that Huidobro devised and his poetic vision came to
be known as 'creacionismo' as he sought to create a poem the way nature made a
tree. He invested his words with autonomous linguistic and symbolic significance.
His unique antilyrical, intellectual use of words which were disconnected from
emotional and spiritual experience created a world different from other words
and captured poet’s experience of the existential angst. His poems “Arte
poética,“Depart,”and “Marino”exemplify this. Huidobro’s influence is also
evident in the school of thought centered on the 'theory of Ultraísmo' which
attempted to construct alternative linguistic choices and synthesized Latin
American with Spanish and European tendencies. The main proponent of this
movement was Jorge Luis Borges. Some of his most representative poems that
embody his theory of unification of lyricism and metaphysics as means of the
poetic process are “Everything and Nothing,” “Everness,” “Laberinto,”
“Dreamtigers,” and “Borges y yo”, though he was frequently nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature primarily for his short fiction. Another distinctive and
eminent figure that emerged during this phase was César Vallejo from Peru.
Though, he was hardly recognized during his lifetime, he created an idiom to
render the Spanish tradition, his own Peruvian heritage as well as the
contemporary concerns involving war, depression, isolation and alienation. His
first book of poems titled Los heraldos negros (1918) got translated as The Black
Heralds. It shows stylistic influence of Parnassianism and Modernismo. It was
in Trilce a major work published later where we see abundant use of startling
imagery, neologisms, colloquialisms, typographic innovations. In 1945, the Nobel
Prize for Literature was given to Gabriela Mistral. A Chilean poet, educator and
diplomat, she became the first Latin American to be awarded. Enjoying popularity
throughout her life she is remembered as Latin America’s most honoured woman.
She was the recipient of National Award for Chilean Literature as well. Further,
she received honorary doctorates from the University of Florence, the University
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Poetry of Chile, the University of California, and Columbia University. Her poetry
infused with lyricism, inspired by strong emotions is considered representative
of the idealism of the Hispanic American World. Her influence is profoundly
evident on Pablo Neruda who won the Nobel Prize in 1971. For an elaborate
discussion on Neruda as a poet read section 2.2. Another significant poet from
the region who was internationally famous as a distinguished poet, critic and
essayist is Otavio Paz. One of his best-known books, The Labyrinth of Solitude
is a comprehensive portrait of Mexican society and culture. Awarded the Nobel
prize in Literature in 1990, his eminence was recognized as early as the mid-
1960’s when J. M. Cohen, in his influential study Poetry of This Age, 1908-
1965, called Paz and Neruda, “two of the chief Spanish-American poets.”In the
presentation speech of Nobel Prize his poem “Piedra de sol”(“Sunstone”) was
praised as a magnificent instance of surrealist poetry. His early poetry bears
influence of Marxism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Buddhism and Hinduism.
However in the later poems, love, eroticism and Buddhism become dominant
themes. It is the opinion of many critics that Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda,
Cesar Vallejo, Aleio Carpentier and Jorge Luis Borges created the groundwork
for the next phase in Latin American Literature called 'the Boom' that peaked
during the 1960s and 1970s.
Boom is the phase after the II World War. It is the time when some seminal
works by writers like Julio Cortazar (Argentina), Carlos Fuentes (Mexico),
Octavio Paz (Mexico), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez
(Columbia) brought international acclaim to Latin American Literature. It did
not constitute a formal movement or had any clearly defined manifesto. The
writers in focus were mainly authors of prose fiction who brought to fore the
concept of magical realism although it predates the boom period. These writers
did not follow a credo but shared perceivably common traits. Some common
features of Boom fiction are: it is heavy in metaphor, has freewheeling non-
linear use of time, has shifting perspectives, tends to be folklorist, is often
politically charged but the themes are largely metaphysical and universal in nature.
William Faulkner, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Federico Garcia Lorca are
regarded as inspiration for this literary effusion. Another important factor that
was a significant political event and became the intellectual rallying point for
the writers of this period was the Cuban Revolution. Many of the Boom writers
were pro-revolution. They saw themselves as public intellectuals. They explicitly
supported the regime of Fidel Castro. One of the definitive literary features of
the texts written during this time was the non- linear and experimental narrative
structure. Julio Cortázar’s Rayuela (1963) and Gabriel García Márquez’s Cien
años de soledad (1966) published in Spanish became hugely popular. They were
pretty soon translated into English as Hopscotch and One Hundred Years of
Solitude respectively. Márquez’s novel especially became a landmark text in
World Literature. It led to the association of magic realism with Latin American
literature. A nebulous term to define, magical realism is a mode of writing in
which the fantastical and magical elements are presented as normal/commonplace
and ordinary is presented as extraordinary to question the normative reality. It is
because it constructs an alternative to accepted reality this mode is also considered
a genre of political subversion because many writers have used it as a tool against
political regimes. Also known as “marvelous realism”or “fantastic realism”, the
concept was introduced as “lo real maravilloso”(“the marvelous real”) by the
Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in his essay “On the Marvelous Real in Spanish
America”(1949). According to him the dramatic history and geography of Latin
130
America appeared 'fantastic' in the eyes of the world. But it was the critic Angel Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
Flores who in 1955 adopted the term 'magical realism' instead of 'magic realism'
to describe Latin American authors writing in the mode that transformed “the
common and the everyday into the awesome and the unreal”. Today, magical
realism is as an international trend. However, the popularity of magic realism as
literary trend increased tremendously when in 1967 the Nobel Prize for literature
was awarded to Miguel Angel Asturias. Augusto Roa Bastos’s Yo, el supremo
(1974) is also considered a monumental text. In 1982 García Márquez received
the Nobel Prize and published Love in the Time of Cholera. Some other important
novelists of this period were Chilean José Donoso, the Guatemalan Augusto
Monterroso and the Cuban Guillermo Cabrera Infante.
The next phase is called 'the contemporary era'. It is also called 'the post-boom
phase' because writers had started reevaluating the success of the Boom period
to be burdensome. They condemned the caricature that stereotyped Latin
American Literature to magical realism. The literature written in this phase is
often characterized by a propensity towards irony, humour and popular genres.
However some writers continue to ride the success wave of Boom. Laura Esquivel
in Como agua para chocolate translated as Like Water for Chocolate (1989) is
one such text. It employs a pastiche of magical realism. The writing in the
contemporary period is varied. Some other significant authors who have earned
international acclaim in the recent years are Paulo Coelho, Isabel Allende, Diamela
Eltit, Giannina Braschi, Luisa Valenzuela and many others. In the recent years
the genre of testimonio has gained a lot of popularity after Rigoberta Menchu (a
feminist and human rights activist for Indigenous people of Guetamala) earned
international acclaim. Some prominent contemporary Latin American poets are
Nicanor Parra, Carmen Ollé, and Ernesto Cardenal. Nicanor Parra is the originator
of the contemporary poetic movement in Latin America known as antipoetry
(poems that are antiromantic, demeaning and aggressive). Ernesto Cardenal’s
poetry blends revolutionary political ideology with Roman Catholic theology to
reveal ugly truths. Another important contemporary poet has been Rosario Ferré
who is known for her radical and militant feminist poetry. In general, the poetry
since the 1980s focuses majorly on themes of oppression and exile. For instance,
Mario Benedetti from Argentina and Juan Gelman focus on the experience of
exile. There have also been number of poets such as Alejandra Pizarnik, Rosario
Murillo, Giaconda Belli, Claribel Alegría, Juana de Ibarbourou, Ana Istarúwho
write poetry about the marginalization and oppression of women in a male
dominated society. Finally, the 21st century Latin American poetry characterized
by experimental orientation and socio-political consciousness about national and
international issues, signals the work of los nuevos, the new poets.

1) Recall briefly the names and contributions of the prominent Latin American
poets.
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Poetry 2) What do you understand by the term magical realism?
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2.2 INTRODUCTION TO PABLO NERUDA (1904-

1973)
Hailed as 'Picaso of poetry' for his inclination to experiment and change his
poetic style frequently, Pablo Neruda was a poet-diplomat from Chile. He was
born in the town of Parral on 12 July 1904. Earlier known as Neftali Ricardo
Reyes, he adopted Pablo Neruda as a pseudonym. The pseudonym later became
his legal name as well. Neruda’s work is central to Spanish American Poetry
between the 1920s and 1970s and forms a critical link between the surrealist
movement and the Magic Realism of the 20th Century. He is considered the greatest
poet writing in the Spanish language in his lifetime. Neruda won the Nobel Prize
for poetry in 1971. His poems have been translated into many languages.
The early part of Neruda’s life was spent in Temuco where he received his
education. His father is known to have been a railway employee and mother was
a teacher. Unfortunately both the parents died when Neruda was still very young.
Brought up by his stepmother, Neruda’s poetic talent was encouraged by his
school teacher Gabriela Mistral. Mistral, a Nobel Prize winner herself, gave him
books to read and mentored him. In the early 1920s he went to the capital city of
Santiago to study. A precautious boy he published some of his first poems in the
student magazine Claridad and contributed some articles to the daily “La
Mañana”. In 1920, he adopted his pen name and started contributing to the literary
journal “Selva Austral”. He greatly admired the Czechoslovak poet Jan Neruda
(1834-1891). It is reported that he took his name to honour his memory. His first
book was published in 1923. It was titled Crepusculario. His best-known work
Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a
Song of Despair) was published the following year. This internationally celebrated
and critically acclaimed collection of poems made him immensely popular and
the much quoted Latin American poet. Poems in this volume are lucid, lyrical,
contain vivid nature imagery and are highly symbolic. The poem ‘Tonight I Can
Write’is taken from this collection. The predominant tone in the entire collection
is modernista- simple, meditative and highly suggestive that brings strong images
and memories to mind. In his article “Pablo Neruda: Overview”Renéde Costa
states that this book when published was judged by critics to be brazenly titillating.
It was criticized for being highly erotic and its daring departure from the
established tradition of genteel Hispanic lyricism. In Saturday Review Robert
Clemens observes that this book “established [Neruda] at the outset as a frank,
sensuous spokesman for love.”
The second phase of Neruda’s life, when he emerged as a poet diplomat, spans
from 1927 to 1935. During this phase he was put in charge of number of honorary
consulships by the government. Subsequently he travelled to Burma, Ceylon,
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Java, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, and Madrid. His experiences in these Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
countries left a powerful impact on Neruda. He felt pained to see the intellectual
servitude of the culturally rich South Asian Masses. Anguished about the
contemporary social disorder he increasingly identified with the downtrodden
masses. In 1933 he published Residencia en la tierra , which contains esoteric
poem with marked surrealist tendencies. Subjects like past, death and chaos are
recurrent and are presented as nightmarish visions of disintegration. Some poems
are difficult, cryptic, mysterious and obscure. Chile’s relationship with Spain
and the aftermath of colonization is a predominant theme. The style is fragmented
which is an outcome of abandoning normal syntax, rhyme, and stanza
organization. There is deliberate juxtaposition of opposites; crude against the
beautiful. Conscious references to violence and vagueness are also pervasive.
Nature imagery is intensified.
In 1934, Neruda was appointed Chilean consul in Barcelona, Spain. However

soon he got transferred to Madrid, where he met and befriended Fedrico García
Lorca. Later García Lorca became a close friend of Neruda. Lorca was an
enthusiastic supporter of Neruda’s poetry. It is around this time that Neruda
emerged as a people’s poet and developed staunch communist leanings. He also
came in contact with Rafael Alberti, Meguel Harnandez and Peruvian poet Cesar
Vallejo. The Spanish Civil War that broke out in 1936 (the military revolt against
Republican government in Spain, supported by conservative elements) and the
execution of García Lorca affected him deeply, motivating him to join the
Republican Movement. His poetry written during this phase is concerned with
social and political matters. In 1937 he returned to Chile. Hereafter he became
actively involved in his country’s political life. He also gave many lectures and
did poetry readings. He was a supporter of Republican Spain and Chile’s new
centre-left government. In 1940 moved to Mexico as Chile’s consul general.
Here he began writing the epic poem Canto-General. Hailed as the Bible of
America, the poem celebrates Latin American flora, fauna and history. Neruda
returned to Chile in 1943. In 1945 joined the Communist Party of Chile. During
1946 elections he campaigned for the leftist candidate Gabriel Gonzalez Videla.
1947 was the year of publication of Third Residence, that contained the poem
The Way Spain Was. Embodying his attitude of solidarity for the people of Spain,
as a poetic response to the horrors of the Spanish civil War, the poem recounts
the repeated strife and suffering that Spain had to endure historically. Feeling
betrayed by the President in 1948 he published an open letter criticizing Videla
for his repressive policies. Consequentially, Neruda was expelled from the senate
for his subversive activities. Persecuted, he went into exile. During his banishment
he visited Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary and Mexico. It is also reported that
during this time that he met a Chilean woman, whom he later married. Her name
was Matilde Urrutia.
In 1952 the political situation in Chile had become favourable for Neruda to
return. In this last phase of his life simulated by international fame and personal
happiness, he wrote incessantly and published Elemental Odes in 1954. These
odes are written in simple language, humorously capturing minute details of
everyday objects. Between 1958 and 1973 he published about 20 books. Among
his works of the last few years are Cien sonetos de amor (1959), Memorial de
Isla Negra, Arte de pajáros (1966), La Barcarola (1967), the play Fulgor y
muerte de Joaquín Murieta (1967), Las manos del día (1968), Fin del
mundo (1969), Las piedras del cielo (1970), and La espada encendida. After
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Poetry being diagnosed with cancer in 1970, Neruda was bed ridden between 1972 and
1973. The Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to him in 1971. Neruda died in
September 1973. His funeral turned into a public protest against the Chilean
dictatorship, when thousands of grieving Chilean flooded the streets
spontaneously.
Now before we read the prescribed poems, let us first answer the following
questions.
2) Make a critical appraisal of Pablo Neruda as a poet.
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3) Name the collection of poems that catapulted Neruda to fame. Critically
comment on its prominent literary features.
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2.3 “TONIGHT I CAN WRITE’’ –TEXT WITH

ANNOTATIONS AND ANALYSIS
From Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair [1924]
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.

How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
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Tonight I can write the saddest lines. Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.

And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.
What does it matter that my love could not keep her.

The night is shattered and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.

My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
My sight searches for her as though to go to her.

My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees.

We, of that time are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.

My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.

Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms

my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.
ANNOTATIONS
Tonight I Can Write–The word ‘tonight’in the title indicates that the devastating
sorrow had perhaps prevented the poet from writing about the loss till now. The
poem is a lyrical evocation of speaker’s relationship with the woman he has
loved and lost
“blue stars shiver in the distance”-suggests the distance between the lovers and
the figidness of the speaker’s isolation.
line 4 sings- the whistling sound made by the wind (wind is personified)
line 13 immense- endless, infinite
line 14 verse- poetry
dew-tiny drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night, when atmospheric
vapour condenses.
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Poetry pasture-land covered with grass and other low plants suitable for grazing animals,
especially cattle or sheep
line 24 touch her hearing- deliberately intermixed sensuous imagery.
ANALYSIS
The poem has been taken from the collection titled Veinte poemas de amor y una
cancion desesperada published in 1924. In English it reads as Twenty Love
Poems and a Song of Despair. It was translated in English by W. S. Mervin in
1969. According to Anil Dhingra, “Vinte Poemas is a series of tense and
desperately sad poems, often sensuously erotic in which the poet analysis the
nature of his feelings for two separate girl friends “Marisol”of Temuco and
“Marisombra”, who was a fellow student in Santiago. The poem is a lament. The
theme of the poem is regret due to heartbreak and loss of love. Written in simple
language the poem is a lyric expressing poets sadness because he has been
estranged from his lover. A lyric is a formal poetry, typically spoken in first
person and expresses personal emotions and feelings of the poet. This poem is
written in free verse with no rhyme scheme or meter. But it does have a sense of
rhythm. A mixture of consonance and assonance brings it through. The
predominant mood is that of melancholy and nostalgia indicative of poet’s
conflicted emotional state. The imagery is sensuous and vivid. Nature as trope is
highly ambiguous and symbolic of different things such as memory, the backdrop,
and indicator of time as well as emblematic of poet’s feelings. The speaker is
contemplates on the aspects of nature that remind him of his lost love. Thus
nature not only becomes a link to past memories but also his current emotional
state.
The title of the poem lends significant sub-text to the poem. Written with ellipses,
it is incomplete yet suggestive of the main idea that the pain of separation that
causes much sadness to the poet is also a catalyst for him to compose this poem.
The first line ‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines”is repeated three times in the
poem thus it also forms a refrain emphasizing the melancholic mood. The
repetitions also provide thematic unity to the poem. After stating the major theme
the poet then uses nature imagery as symbols to depict his passion, emotional
turmoil and grief. As if echoing the poet’s heartbreak, ‘The night is shattered’.
Blue stars shivering in distance are symbolic of the coldness and distance between
the former lovers. The personified ‘night wind’indicates poet’s emotional turmoil.
The poem remarkably captures the ambivalence of the poet who claims that he
loved his beloved and in reciprocation his beloved also sometimes loved him.
Night is a recurrent trope in this poem. In the line “Through nights like this one
I held her in my arms”, night becomes a trigger of memories reminding the poet
of intimate times when the poet kissed his beloved over and over under the
boundless sky. Yet night is also a setting for the poem to unfold and amplifies the
immensity of poet’s loneliness. In retrospection, the poet then claims that his
beloved loved him and sometimes he too loved her back. The word
‘sometimes’used again brings connotations of uncertainty. This implies the
treacherous nature of memories that are susceptible to ambiguity and deterioration.
The poet then acknowledges that perhaps it was the beauty of her “great still
eyes”that compelled him to love her. The use of the refrain reiterates the sense of
loss, making the poet realize,”I do not have her”,”To feel that I have lost her”.
This feeling is heightened to a mournful suffering when in the next line poet
states that the immense night has only intensified the feeling of loss. However,
136 despite the anguish he finds recompense in poetry as, “the verse falls to the soul
like dew to the pasture”. The poetry wells up in the heart of the poet as gently as Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
moist water drops upon green fields. This expression is a poetic device called
simile. The idea is continued in the next line where he consoles himself by
saying, “what does it matter that my love could not keep her”, yet in the very
next line he contradicts himself by recounting that the night is shattered and the
lover is not with him. In the next two lines the poet says that though he is aware
of “someone singing in the distance”but he is so much engulfed by sadness and
his soul is unable to come terms with his loss. Overwrought by it he yearns to be
with her, so much so that “his sight searches for her”and “his heart looks for
her”. Night as a trope is repeated in the next line, fussing the idea of night as a
backdrop and an indicator of the passage of time. “The same night whitening the
same trees. /We, of that time, are no longer the same” encapsulates the idea that
while the world remains the same, the lovers have changed drastically. The moon
is not mentioned but it is suggested that it is moonlight that makes trees appear
white. The next few lines of the poem capture poets conflicted emotions where
he first claims with certitude that he doesn’t love her anymore but then
immediately recalls the passion with which he had loved her. This makes him
yearn for her again, and his “voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing”.
Contradictorily, he is reminded that the lady now belongs to someone else, though
in his mind he vividly remembers, “Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite
eyes.” In this line he expresses his longing to reunite with his lover but he can’t
so he tries to console himself by repeating to himself that he no longer loves her.
However, his heart belies him and he doubts himself again saying, “but maybe
I love her”. This emotional turmoil makes him come to a realization that “Love
is short, forgetting is so long.” The line is indicative of the profound and lasting
impact love has on people. Forgetting a passionate love affair or an estranged
lover is thus a difficult and time taking process. Also, love as an idea is universal
and eternal in the sense that it transcends the lovers who are only objects of love
and prone to change. Once again the poet mentions the night because it is “through
nights like this one he had held her in his arms”so he is made to reminisce the
amorous intimate moments he shared with her. The night is a reminder of these
memories so his “soul isn’t satisfied that he has lost her”. But these sentiments
act as impetus for the poet to transmute his pain into poetry, making him conclude,
“though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer and these the last verses
that I write for her.” Rejection in love becomes an inspiration for the poet to
write. From a flux of complex and contradictory emotions that the speaker feels,
the poem becomes a medium to crystallize his resolves to move on. In Agosin’s
opinion this poem along with some others in this collection, “marks a clear
transition from the era of Spanish-American modernism to that of surrealism,
with its often disconnected images and metaphors, which will dominate Neruda’s
next phase.”
1) Discuss the significance of the title “Tonight I can Write . . . “. Does it aptly
reflect the theme?
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137
Poetry 2) Examine the symbolic use of nature imagery in the poem.
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3) Make a short critical appraisal of the poetic devices used in the poem ,
“Tonight I can Write”.
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2.4 “THE WAY SPAIN WAS” –TEXT WITH

ANNOTATIONS
From Third Residence [1947]
Taught and dry Spain was,
a day’s drum of dull sound,
a plain, an eagle’s eyrie, a silence
below the lashing weather.
How unto crying out, unto the very soul

I love your barren soil and your rough bread,
your stricken people!
How in the depths of me
grows the lost flower of your villages,
timeless, impossible to budge,
your tracts of minerals
bulging like oldsters under the moon,
devoured by an imbecile god.
All your extensions, your bestial solitude,

joined with your sovereign intelligence,
haunted by the abstracted stones of silence,
your harsh wine and your sweet wine,
your violent and delicate vineyards.
138
Stone of the sun, pure among territories, Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
Spain veined with bloods and metals, blue and victorious,
proletariat of petals and bullets,
alone alive, somnolent, resounding.
ANNOTATIONS
taut: tensed, rigid
day’s drum of dull sound: dreary monotonous rhythm of time
eyrie: eagles nest usually made high on mountain cliffs
lashing weather: tempestuous storm
barren soil: infertile land
tracts: large expanse
bulging: swelling outwards
oldsters: opposite of youngsters, old people
devoured: eat , consume
imbecile: foolish
bestial: savage
sovereign: monarch, supreme
haunted: frequented by ghosts, possessed
abstracted: intellectual, withdrawn
harsh: coarse
violent: aggressive, brutal
proletariat: the wage earners that comprise the lowest rung of the society and are
oppressed by the bourgeoisie in a capitalist regime.
somnolent: sleepy, tired, drowsy
resounding: emphatic and ringing
ANALYSIS
The Spanish Civil War forms the context of this poem which was published in
Third Residence 1947. Between 1936 to 1939 Spain got engulfed in civil strife
due to conflict between the leftist Republicans who were in the government and
the Nationalist who were conservatives who were supported by Fascist forces.
The right wing nationalists had the support of army, Catholic church, monarchists
and large landowners. There were a number of reasons for the war to break out.
One reason was the decline of the Spanish Empire, as by 1930s Spain had lost all
of its colonies. The Second Empire formed in 1930s had proved incompetent in
maintain law and order. The Church was strongly opposed to the social reform
measures and army had always interfered in the country’s politics. The feeling
of unrest was compounded by the fact that by this time Spain also had been
lagging behind industrially in comparison to the rest of the Europe. During this
time Neruda had been posted in Spain as a consul and was deeply affected by the
Spanish Civil War as it claimed the lives of two of his close friends, Garcia
139
Poetry Lorca and Miguel Hernandez. Neruda returned to Chile in 1937. Hereafter he
became a member of the Communist Party of Chile and continued to express his
concerns for social issues. In John Felstiner’s words, “Spain’s trauma affected
Neruda unexpectedly: in teaching him a form of patriotism, an identification
through time with land and people, the war on Spanish soil tightened his bond to
Chile”(55).
Tejwant Singh Gill in “Neruda and Spain”argues that the Spanish Civil War
deeply moved the intelligentsia world over who perceived General Franco’s revolt
against the Republic, abetted by German Nazism and Italian Fascism, as a threat
to the treasured ideals of freedom, democracy and socialism. For poets and artists
who felt overwhelmed by this contest between the democratic and the despotic
forces, this war became a metaphor that they rendered in different ways through
creative compositions. Some notable examples are the poem ‘Ode to Spain’by
W. H. Auden and Pablo Picaso’s painting ‘Guernica’. In Latin American poetry
Pablo Neruda and Cesar Vallejo showed forceful engagement with this metaphor.
For instance, Neruda’s Spain in My Heart published in 1937 was written with
the intent to extend his support for the republican cause. The poetry collection
provided solace to the refugees. Expressing his sympathy with the vast multitude
of strife stricken people, it contains poems such as “I Explain a Few Things”that
invoke Spain’s glorious past, full of prosperity and happiness, which is then
contrasted with a decaying Spain ridden with endemic poverty perpetrated by
royalty and also religion, and also the horrors perpetrated upon the civic population
by the despotic forces. Further, many poems also express his compassion for the
innocent people victimized, written with an intent to instil hope and show
solidarity. In this poem too (The Way Spain Was) he recounts with deep anguish
the suffering that people of Spain had to endure repeatedly. Some critics also
opine that it is due to his experience in the diplomatic service he cultivated a
feeling of solidarity for the tormented masses of Spain. He mourns for the ‘stricken
people’going through the hard times, and historically rich and glorious Spain
destroyed by the despotic fascist forces. This sentiment is reflected in the title of
the poem, The Way Spain Was. It is because the poem is a retrospective recollection
of Spain’s glorious past juxtaposed with contemporary disintegration and decay.
It charts out his emotional response towards Spain through the use of surrealist
poetic techniques. Before we begin stanza by stanza explanation, let us understand
what is surrealism? Surrealism is a movement in literature and visual arts that
emerged in Europe with Paris as the centre, between the I and the II World Wars.
It grew out of the earlier anti-art Dadaism. It was a reaction against excessive
rationalism and bourgeois values which were pervasive in the European culture
and politics and had culminated in the horrific destruction caused by these wars.
The term ‘surrealism’was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. The major
spokesman of the movement was the poet and critic André Breton, who was also
trained in medicine and psychiatry. He published the Surrealist Manifesto in
1924. Breton who regarded it as a revolutionary movement was influenced by
the theories of Sigmund Freud, particularly his book The Interpretation of Dreams
(1899), and perceived the unconscious (especially dreams and fantasy) as a means
to unlock imagination because the rational mind repressed imagination by
weighting it down with taboos. He also advocated the need to bypass reason and
rationality, to embrace chance through “pure psychic automatism”while creating
art. Thus, the thrust of the movement was to reunite the conscious and unconscious
realms of experience to create an absolute reality or super reality/surreality. Unlike
their forefathers of Romanticism who also stressed upon the importance of
140
personal imagination, the surrealists believed that revelations could be found on Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
the street and everyday life. These writers were also influenced by Karl Marx
and believed in the potential of imagination to encourage the revolution by
revealing the contradictions in the everyday life. The most recognisable element
of the movement is the element of surprise which is achieved though incongruous
juxtaposition of content. The literary device called 'non sequitur' (denotes an
abrupt, illogical, or unexpected turn in plot or dialogue by including a relatively
inappropriate change) is used for comic purposes. Another prominent feature is
the perplexingly outlandish and uncanny imagery meant to jolt the reader out of
complacency and normative assumptions. Nature imagery is frequently used but
with a twist, for instance the German painter and sculptor Marx Ernst used a bird
as his alter ego. W.H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Ted Hughes, Robert Bly, Allen
Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, etc. are some Surrealist poets in English. Paul Eluard,
Louis Aragon and Federico García Lorca have also created their most enduring
work under the influence of surrealism. In Latin American poetry surrealist
aesthetic is discernible in poems by Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz.
In the light of above discussion let us now analyse the poem, “The Way Spain
Was”.
The first stanza presents a visual impression of Spain’s topography as a severe

land caught in the monotonous rhythm of time; a country with mountains where
birds like eagle make their nest and plains that are full of tumultuous storms.
Through these symbolic images Spain is invoked here as a land ridden with
turmoil both in geographical and topographical sense.
The second stanza records Neruda’s personal attitude to Spain, his love for the
country, the people in its villages, its infertile land, and its rudimentary crude
food. He is deeply moved by the suffering of its people who remain sunk in
endemic poverty. He yearns to see the fresh bloom of life, which is not to be
found anywhere because be it rich minerals or old people, all alike are being
consumed by an ‘imbecile god’the despotic General Fransico Franco who led
the military uprising backed by right-wing nationalists.
In the third stanza Neruda reflects on the condition of Spain by juxtaposing past
and present. Spain is historically rich but reduced to a state of destitution at the
time if the Spanish Civil War. Neruda personifies it and juxtaposes contradictory
qualities as its attributes. For instance, it is gifted with supreme intelligence as
well as withdrawn quietude. Its wine is both potent as well as mild. Its vineyards
are turbulent as well as delicate.
In the last stanza too Neruda presents a surrealistic collage of images to recall
the lost glory of Spain and its condition during the civil war. The antiquity of
Spain in evoked through the phrase “stone of sun, pure among territories”. Its
rich mineral reserves evoked with the phrase “Spain veined with bloods and
metals”. A land once governed by great monarchs, “blue and victorious”it is
now “proletariat of petals and bullets”because of the protesting masses. Here
Neruda deliberately juxtaposes the coarse against the alluring. The motive is to
shock the reader out of complacency. The concluding line of the poem instils
hope, that despite the strife, and despite its sleepy, lonely state, in future, Spain
will emerge emphatic and reverberating in victory.
In terms of use of poetic technique, inspired by surrealism the poem is highly
cryptic and obscure. The meaning is not easily conveyed because of the use of 141
Poetry the mysterious and unusual images. Nature imagery is intensified. The syntax is
fragmented. There is predilection with alliteration. According to Marjorie Agosin
(2011), the inspiration behind this chaotic enumeration in the collection The
Residence Cycle was not just Neruda’s experience of the Orient during his sojourn
in the South East Asia but also a culmination of the avant-garde movement that
had been gestating in Europe and Latin America in the early decades of twentieth
century. In “The Residence Cycle Neruda and the Avant-garde”she writes “we
see that the language of these books, charged with metaphor, intense subjectivity,
and distilled aestheticist vocabulary, unleashes the imagination and makes possible
a break with the order characterized by logical structures, established rhythms,
and other traditional norms of poetic expression”(77).
1) Discuss Neruda’s attitude towards Spain in “The Way Spain Was”.
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2) Critically comment on the poetic techniques used by Neruda in “The Way
Spain Was”.
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2.5 LET US SUM UP

In this unit the following ideas have been discussed:
Latin America refers to territories in the Southern American continent. It also

includes Mexico (North America) where the (Romance languages) Spanish,
Portuguese or French are spoken. In the first half of the 19th century Latin
American literature shows influence of Neoclassicism, Realism and Naturalism.
The first distinctly Latin American literary movement in Spanish that had a global
impact is called Modernismo. It emerged in last decade of 19th century and
eventually gave way to avant-garde tendencies in the 20th century, which are
evident in movements like Creacianismo and Ultraísmo. In fiction of the next
phase called 'the Boom' the literary mode of magical realism came to the fore
with many Latin American writers getting international acclaim.
There have been many illustrious poets from Latin America like, Gabriela Mistral,
Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz who won the Nobel Prize. Among them Pablo
Neruda is the most widely read poet of the 20th century. His poetry collection
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, a collection of poetry from which
the poem “Tonight I can write…”has been taken, brought him into limelight.
142
The poem is a lyric where poet persona laments the loss of a lover. The next Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
poem “The Way Spain Was”is from the collection titled Third Residence. Infused
with surrealist poetic tendencies the poem invokes Spain’s glorious past and
juxtaposes it with its decaying, degenerating condition under the grip of despotic
forces after the Spanish Civil War.
2.6 REFERENCES
Agosin, Marjorie, “Chapter 2: Love Poetry,”in Twaynes World Authors Series
Online, G. K. Hall Co., 1999.
Agosin, Marjorie, “The Residnce Cycle: Neruda and the Avant-Garde”. Neruda,
Walcott and Atwood Poets of The Americas, (ed.) Ajanta Dutt, Worldview
Publications, 2002.
———, Pablo Neruda, translated by Lorraine Roses, Twayne Publishers, 1986.
Clemens, Robert, Review in Saturday Review, July 9, 1966.
de Costa, René, “Pablo Neruda: Overview,”in Reference Guide to World
Literature, 2d ed., edited by Lesley Henderson, St. James Press, 1995.
Dhingra, Anil. “Pablo Neruda: An Introduction”. Neruda, Walcott and Atwood
Poets of The Americas, (ed.) Ajanta Dutt, Worldview Publications, 2002.
Felstiner, John. “Chile (1938-40) “. Neruda, Walcott and Atwood Poets of The
Americas, (ed.)Ajanta Dutt, Worldview Publications, 2002.
Franco, Jean. An Introduction to Spanish American Literature. New York,
Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Gill, Tejwant Singh. “Neruda and Spain”. Neruda, Walcott and Atwood Poets of
The Americas, (ed.) Ajanta Dutt, Worldview Publications, 2002.
Hart, Stephen M. A Companion to Latin American Literature. Boydell & Brewer,
2007.
Reisman, Rosemary M. Canfield. Critical Survey of Poetry Latin American
Poets.SALEM PRESS, 2012.
web links
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1971/neruda/biographical/
https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/tonight-i-can-write

Wilson, Jason. A Companion to Pablo Neruda: Evaluating Neruda’s Poetry.
Tamesis, 2008.
Dawes, Greg. Verses Against the Darkness: Pablo Neruda’s Poetry and Politics.
Bucknell, University Press, 2006.
Feinstein, Adam. Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life. Bloomsbury, 2004.
Rowe, William. Poets of Contemporary Latin America: History and Inner Life.
Oxford, University Press, 2000. 143
Poetry
For your answers refer to 2.2
For answers refer to 2.3
144
Pablo Neruda: ‘Tonight I can
UNIT 3 DEREK WALCOTT: “A FAR CRY Write’, ‘The Way Spain Was’
FROM AFRICA”, “NAMES”
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Brief Overview of Caribbean Literature
3.2 Introduction to Derek Walcott
3.3 “A Far Cry from Africa” -Text with Annotations and Analysis
3.4 “Names” - Text with Annotations and Analysis
3.5 Let Us Sum Up
3.6 References
3.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we shall discuss the poetry by Derek Walcott. After reading the Unit
carefully, you will be able to:
recall names of some prominent Caribbean Writers;
give a brief outline the life and works of Derek Walcott;
critically comment on the poem “A Far Cry from Africa”;
critically comment on the poem 'Names'.
3.1 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF CARIBBEAN

LITERATURE
The title 'Caribbean Literature' is derived from the Caribbean Sea that surrounds
the West Indies. The sea is named after Caribs, one of the many Amerindian
indigenous ethnic groups of this region. Considering the linguistic diversity,
heterogeneity and the cultural plurality of the region, critics consider presenting
a general overview of Caribbean literature a difficult task. What makes it
challenging is the fact that, as argued by some critics, geographically the
Caribbean zone must consider not only the group of islands that extends from
Cuba to Trinidad, but also Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, and the coastal
areas of Venezuela and Colombia that are at the continental edges of South
America and Central America. It also includes Panama, Costa Rica, Belize, and
the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua that border the Caribbean Sea. Moreover, the
presence and chaotic proliferation of five European languages namely: Spanish,
English, French, Dutch and Portuguese (a result of a chequered history of imperial
rivalries for the conquest of this contested region from the 15th to the 19th century)
as well as the growth of other local languages like Haitian Creole and Papiamento
due to creolization, makes charting the literary history of this region a herculean
task. Further, the Caribbean culture is a culture transplanted and transposed,
riven with a sense of dislocation, a historical void, lack of a common indigenous
roots and clarity of tradition. It is because demographically the region is inhabited
145
Poetry by people of mixed racial background –of European, Asian and African origin
who are the descendents of European planters, the African slaves and the
indentured labourers from India and China.
The Caribs, an indigenous Amerindian tribe that was one of the dominant groups
in the Caribbean (besides Arawaks) that inhabited the islands before the arrival
of Columbus in 1492 has been reduced to very small population mostly
concentrated in the northern part of Dominica. It is because the consequent wave
of European invaders that came after Columbus brought with them infectious
diseases, such as smallpox to which these people had no immunity, caused large
scale deaths. Later the warfare, enslavement and annexation of their territory by
the imperial powers caused much displacement and destruction of this ethnic
community. During the 16th till the 19th century, with the proliferation of the
Atlantic Slave Trade, ship loads of slaves were brought from West Africa to
work on the island plantations of coffee, tobacco, cocoa, sugar and cotton,
established by the European colonizers. These slaves were subjected to
dehumanizing practices and were bought and sold like objects. They belonged
to different tribes and lacked common language or tradition. When slavery was
abolished in most British colonies by the Emancipation Act of 1833, a new system
replaced it. Under this indentured labourers were transported from India and
China to work in these plantations, thereby further complicating the notion of a
unified Caribbean identity. Further in the 20th century after the disintegration of
the West Indian Federation, each of the islands projected identity of independent
nation-states.
In order to overcome these challenges, some literary critics discuss the distinct
literatures emerging from this region by using linguistic blocs as a parameter for
categorization which is as follows: Spanish-speaking Caribbean, the French-
speaking Caribbean, the Dutch speaking Caribbean and the English-speaking
Caribbean. A few critics also argue that despite the bewildering cultural disparity,
the experience of colonialism, the consequent persecution and enslavement of
people because of the establishment of the plantation economy and the resultant
creolization serve as common context to synthesize the literary output of the
Caribbean. This literature is also studied as expressing predominantly diasporic
thematic concerns of displacement, sense of exile, a search for roots and a yearning
for returning to the homeland. Many expatriates and intellectuals also take the
traditional Black culture expressed in myths, folk lore, music, speech rhythms
and dialects as a reference point to chart distinct Caribbean aesthetics.
Before we proceed further let us briefly discuss some important terms in the
context of Caribbean culture.
a) Creolization: It is the process of cross-fertilization, intermixture and

aggregation of cultural elements through which Amerindian, European and
African; customs, traditions and languages, have blended to yield new
cultures in the Caribbean. It takes a long period of time to unfold. A Creole,
in terms of ethnicity, refers to a person of mixed African and European
race, who lives in the West Indies and speaks a Creole language. The heavily
accented language of the underprivileged, poor black peasants and labourers
are also called Creoles. These languages developed overtime from pidgin
(mixing of various languages) by the slaves due to the exigencies of finding
a medium to communicate in the absence of common native tongues.
146 Appropriated later by indentured labour they eventually became the main
languages in these parts. However, English, French, and Spanish the Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
from Africa’, ‘Names’
language of the upper crust of society, of the expatriate plantocracy and the
middle class, have been the language of education and officialdom. This
has created in the region the problematic of the ‘agony over language’,
spoken of by Edward Baugh. From the 1960s to the contemporary times,
this phenomenon has been important in Caribbean writing. It indicates that
language use in the Caribbean corresponds to racial power equations,
hierarchy and class stratification. Despite strong nationalist movements in
the 1940s the entrenched racial attitudes towards languages persist.
b) Negritude Movement: A literary and ideological movement aimed at

cultivating ‘Black Consciousness’across Africa and its diaspora, it emerged
in Paris around the 1930s and 1940s led by French-speaking African and
Caribbean writers, artists, politicians and intellectuals. The term was coined
by Aimé Césaire, in his epic poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal (1939),
translated as Notebook of a Returnto the Native Land or Journal of a
Homecoming. He later emerged as a prominent Caribbean Surrealist writer.
The other prominent proponents of the movement were Léon Damas and
Léopold Sédar Senghor who shaped the idea of Negritude with their poetry.
They were inspired by Harlem Renaissance (the intellectual, social and
artistic, New Negro movement of 1920s that flourished in New York) and
the works of Claude McKay and Langston Hughes who laid the groundwork
for black expression. The Negritude writers rejected the French colonial
hegemony evident in the policy of assimilation and voiced dissent against
physical/psychological violence perpetrated by colonialism.
Etymologically, the term is constructed from the French word nègre that
meant ‘a black man’and had a derogatory meaning. By redefining the word
in positive terms these writers claimed dignity of their identity. They instilled
in it a sense of pride by establishing cultural, racial and historical ties to the
African continent. The movement also emphasized the shared black heritage
of the African diaspora.
c) Rastafarian Movement: It was a spiritual movement that emerged in Jamaica

in 1930s following the coronation of Emperor Ras Tafari in Ethiopia (Africa),
who took the name of Haile Selassie. The movement was built on the notion
held by African slaves about soul’s return to Africa from exile in the
Caribbean. At the core of the movement was the idea of faith in Selassie’s
divinity (who was placed in the legendary line of King Solomon) and his
agency in the literal repatriation of Jamaican people to their African
homeland. The genesis of the movement is complex. It was initially a
spiritual movement of the underclass but soon spread across the Caribbean
to sections of the middle class and intellectuals. It later gained global
attention through the music and lyrics of Bob Marley who was a devoted
Rastafarian. In fiction, the movement took shape in the works Roger Mais
(1905-55) who talks of the experience of dislocation and estrangement. It
was later elaborated in the dramas of Walcott as well.
d) Créolité: It is a literary movement that developed around 1980s by writers

Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant who hailed from
Martinique. It was a response to the inadequacies of the Negritude movement
that projected a monolithic perception of black identity. It is based on Edward
Glissant’s views that heterogeneous Caribbean identity cannot be formulated
exclusively in terms of African descent as it negates the influences of the 147
Poetry indigenous Caribbeans, the European colonialists, and the indentured
servants from India and China. The movement also rejects French dominance
in literature, culture and academic context by promoting French-based
Creole language called Antillean Creole that has elements of Carib, English,
and African languages in its vocabulary and grammar. It is spoken primarily
in the group of islands in the Caribbean called the Lesser Antilles.
Now, let us read briefly about some prominent writers from the Caribbean writing
in English.
George Lamming’s novel In the Castle of My Skin (1953) is an important text.

Its publication had a huge impact in creating a distinct identity of Caribbean
literature. Set in a hamlet, in following the experiences of the protagonist, the
novel examines the legacy of colonialism, slavery, feudalism and racism in the
Caribbean village society. George Lamming was born in 1927 in a Carrington a
small village in Barbados. He is regarded as one of the most significant writers
in the Caribbean Anglophone literature. Other than him there have been many
notable fiction writers from the Caribbean such as Roger Mais, Edgar Austin
Mittelholzer, V.S. Reid, Samuel Selvon, Wilson Harris, Michael Anthony, Garth
St. Omer, Jean Rhys and V. S. Naipaul, who dealt with the themes of colonialism,
the dilemmas of the West Indian diaspora and the sense of alienation felt by
black people in a society with white values and traditions as norms. For instance
the novel A Brighter Sun (1952) by Selvon, set in the Warld War II era, depicts
the life of East Indians and Creoles in the racially split Trinidad. Similarly A
Morning at the Office (1950) a novel by noted Guyanese writer Edgar Mittelholzer
depicts the ‘contradiction of being white in mind and black in body’as phrased
by Derek Walcott. it is done through a sympathetic portrayal of characters from
the middle and lower-middle-class in Trinidad. The novel New Day (1949) by
V.S. Reid is hailed as a landmark in West Indian literature. Reid was a major
exponent of the Jamaican heritage and anti-colonial ideas. In this novel, he depicts
the political history of Jamaica by using a dialect as the language of narration.
Wide Sargasso Sea published in 1966 gave an indomitable reputation to Dominica
born author Jean Rhys. A prequel to Jane Eyre, the novel depicts the suffering,
the racial/sexual exploitation of the Creole heroine Antoinette and the complexities
of being white minority in the Caribbean. The character is a feminist as well as
anti-colonial re-imagination of Bertha Mason (Rochester’s mad wife locked up
in the attic in Jane Eyre). Among other notable women writers, Jamaica Kincaid
from Antigua is considered the best novelists of autobiographical fiction for texts
like At the Bottom of the River (1983). This discussion cannot be completed
without mentioning V.S.Naipaul who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2001.
He was of Indian descent and hailed from Trinidad but spent most of his life
domiciled in England. Known for writing with a sense of disappointment,
discontent and pessimism about the postcolonial conditions in the Third World,
his much acclaimed A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) is set in Trinidad and centers
on the main character’s attempt to assert his personal identity and establish his
independence symbolized by owning a house. His other novels The Mimic
Men (1967) and The Enigma of Arrival (1987) are also considered key texts in
postcolonial literature.
A search for distinctively authentic Caribbean voice has been a prominent concern
implicit in the broadness of the range of West Indian theatre which includes the
conventional drama of social realism, the yard theatre, roots theatre, pantomime,
148 Jamaica’s Gun Court theatre, church theatre, carnival theatre, calypso theatre,
theatre of ritual, folk theatre and such other. Some leading playwrights from the Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
Caribbean have been Errol John, Douglas Archibald, Dennis Scott, Trevor Rhone,
David Edgecombe, Michael Gilkes and most certainly Derek Walcott.
The names of Derek Walcott and Edward Kamau Brathwaite have almost become
synonymous with Caribbean poetry. However, there are many other significant
poets like Lorna Goodson from Jamaica, Wayne Brown from Trinidad and Tobago,
Dennis Scott from Jamaica, David Dabydeen from Guyana, Cyril Dabyden, Claire
Harris, Dionne Brand, etc who have contributed to te growth of Caribbean poetry.
The collection titled Rites of Passage (1930) by Edward Brathwaite is popularly
regarded as the starting point of West Indian literary studies. Acutely attuned to
the experience of dispossession and exploitation wrought by slavery, his poetry
expresses deep empathy for the West Indian slaves and examines African and
indigenous roots of Caribbean culture. He was the winner of the Sixth Annual
Griffin Poetry Prize in 2006 for Slow Horses (2005). Brathwaite as a poet and
historian was the exponent of social consciousness wrought through creolization
in literature of the Caribbean. He vigorously advocated and promoted the Creole
as a national language in his critical and theoretical essays. He also cofounded
the Caribbean Artists Movement. Some other works by him include
Masks (1968), Islands (1969), Our Ancestral Heritage: A Bibliography of the
Roots of Culture in the English-speaking Caribbean (1976) and Barbados Poetry:
A Checklist: Slavery to the Present (1979), Black + Blues (1976), Middle
Passages (1992) and Ancestors (2001). In contrast to Brathwaite’s Afro-centric
approach, Derek Walcott has given importance to the cross-cultural aspect of the
Caribbean region but with focus on the postcolonial era. Patricia Ismond has
aptly summarized the difference in “Walcott vs. Brathwaite”by calling
Brathwaite’s approach as vernacular-oriented “nation poetry”whereas in contrast
Walcott’s aesthetic orientation exhibits metropolitan sophistication. Walcott’s
contribution to the Anglophone Caribbean poetry and drama is discussed in detail
in the next section.

4) Why do critics consider presenting a comprehensive history of the Caribbean
a herculean task?
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5) What do you understand by the term Negritude?
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6) What is the significance of creolization in the Caribbean context?

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149
Poetry
3.2 INTRODUCTION TO DEREK WALCOTT
Derek Walcott and his twin brother Roderick Walcott were born on January 23,
1930 in Castries, St. Lucia. His father Warwick Walcott was a civil servant, a
poet and a visual artist. His mother Alix Walcott was a school teacher. Major
supporters of art, both the parents encouraged him to learn painting and get
involved in the local theater activities in his childhood. Originally trained as a
painter, Walcott later switched to poetry as a medium of creative expression.
Under the influence of his mother who inculcated in him a love for poetry Walcott
began writing poetry at an early age. His first poem was published at the age of
14. Then by the age of 19 he had managed to self-publish two poetry collections
titled: 25 Poems and Epitaphs for the Young: XII Cantos. After studying at St.
Mary’s College in Castries initially and at the University of the West Indies in
Jamaica, Walcott moved to Trinidad in 1953. Here he has worked as theatre and
art critic. In 1959, the Trinidad Theatre Workshop was cofounded by him with
his brother. It produced many of his early plays. However, it was with the
publication of In a Green Night (1962) that he achieved a literary breakthrough.
The book celebrates the Caribbean landscape, its history and interrogates the
ramifications of colonialism. The poems deal with the themes of language, power
and place. These become leitmotifs in later collections as well. The poems
published in Selected Poems (1964), The Castaway (1965), and The Gulf (1969)
render his dilemma of being caught between European cultural orientation and
native Caribbean black folk cultures. Some other works by him are; a book-
length autobiographical poem Another Life (1973), poetry collections where he
explores the theme of linguistic, cultural and racial divisions in the Caribbean,
Sea Grapes (1976), The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979), The Fortune Traveller (1981)
and Midsummer (1984) where he explores the theme of his estrangement from
the Caribbean and his precarious situation as a black writer in America . Tiepolo’s
Hound (2000), The Prodigal (2004), Selected Poems (2007), White Egrets (2010)
and Morning Paramin (2016) are his later collections. Walcott’s impressive oeuvre
comprises of both poetry and drama. His plays draw upon various genres such as
fable, allegory, folk and morality. They also deal with the socio-political and
epistemological effects of post-colonialism as reflected in West Indian experience.
He has earned a lot of awards and honors. The notable ones include; the British
Knighthood, MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’award and the Obie Award for his
play Dream on Monkey Mountain. But most importantly he won the Nobel Prize
in Literature in 1992 for Omeros (1990). While maintaining a steady stream of
poetry and drama throughout his life Walcott also taught at various universities
across the world including, Boston University, Columbia University, Yale
University, Rutgers University, and Essex University in England.
Among Wolcott’s critics some key areas of debates that also constitute the
interpretative framework for his literary corpus have been; his quest for Caribbean
poetics, his troublesome relationship with the western canon, his ideological
engagement with the idea of Caribbeanness, his exploration of the interface in
divide between Europe and Africa, his stance on the complex linguistic dynamics
of the Caribbean with respect to Standard English vs. Creole of the Anglophone
Caribbean and most prominently his ‘quarrel with history’. Walcott’s early
education in British colonial education system made him well versed with western
canon. In poetry, he is deeply influenced by the study of Virgil, Dante, Eliot,
Pound, Dylan Thomas etc. Critics argue that western models also inform the
150
frames of many of his plays, such as influence of the Irish playwright J M Synge Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
is visible in The Sea at Dauphin; Bertolt Brecht’s influence and oriental techniques
can be seen in Drums. The atmosphere in Dream on Monkey Mountain is
reminiscent of August Strindberg and Shakespeare’s influence is discernible in
A Branch of Blue Nile. Despite being heavily influenced by British and American
literature, a dominant trait in the body of work created by Walcott is the
juxtaposition and cross fertilization of both colonial and folk cultures which
mirrors the cultural hybridity of the Caribbean region. Critical of Afro-centric or
Eurocentric purism, his poetry and drama espouse the discourse of cross-cultural
aesthetics. For instance he evinces a mastery of the Standard English, has
knowledge of French, experiments extensively with the dialects of the Caribbean
and often amalgamates them all in his work. In theatre too, he employs hybrid
practices by seamlessly interweaving wide-ranging modern theatrical conventions
with popular Caribbean performance modes. Be it form or content, Walcott shows
sustained engagement with the idea of 'Hybridity', which is a key concept in
postcolonial theory and is profoundly entrenched with the ideas of identity and
multiculturalism. In literature it is often used to challenge the essentialist racist
mindset, as historically speaking European Colonizers had used the argument of
their racial supremacy to justify colonialism and slave trade. For the preservation
of this supremacist racial discourse, undiluted pure culture was considered a
necessity; hence they considered racial intermixing was considered denigrating
influence and a threat. Hybridity in Walcott’s work is a fundamental ideology in
general and symptomatic of creolization (discussed in section (2.1). A prominent
trope in Walcott’s writing is grappling with the past- prehistoric and historic.
Walcott perceives history as an ideological construct in the colonial discourse.
He rejects it to advocate myth as an alternative. This has been discussed in detail
in section 2.4 with reference ‘Names’. Another recurrent motif in his plays and
poetry is ‘poet persona’s quest for self which is ridden with contradictions, conflict
as well as continuities and metamorphoses’. Often the metaphor of
‘migration’literal or figurative is employed to flesh out this theme. This is also
played out evidently in both the poems ‘A Far Cry from Africa’and ‘Names’. For
detailed analysis read the sections 3.3 and 3.4.

7) Make a critical appraisal of Derek Walcott as a poet and a dramatist.
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8) Why is hybridity as a concept fundamental to Walcott’s body of work?
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151
Poetry
3.3 A FAR CRY FROM AFRICA- TEXT WITH
ANNOTATIONS
A Far Cry From Africa
From In A Green Night [1962]
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries:
“Waste no compassion on these separate dead!”
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendables as Jews?
Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilization’s dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read
As natural law, but upright man
seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.
Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman.
I who am poisoned with the blood of both,
Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love?
152
Betray them both, or give back what they give? Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and l
ANNOTATIONS
tawny pelt: tan coloured undressed skin of an animal
Kikuyu: ethnic tribe of Kenya . In 1963 Kenya gained independence from the
British but only after a prolonged violent campaign by Kikuyu African anti-
colonial organisation called Mau Mau.
veldt: uncultivated or open country that is not forested
carrion: rotting flesh of dead animals
compassion: pity
savages: uncivilized people The natives inhabitants of the colonies were
considered sub-human animals by the colonisers who justify colonisation as a
‘civilizing mission’.
Jews: The Bible provides various incidents of persecution of Jews. It could also
be a reference to the holocaust perpetrated by Hitler during the World War II
when millions of Jews were killed in the concentration camps.
rushes: tapering plants that grow at the edge of water
ibises: birds that wade in shallow waters
natural law: the food chain according to which animals kill to feed on other
animals in order to survive but not out of greed. It could also indicate Darwin’s
Theory of Evolution.
as with Spain: Spanish conquistadors made settlements in the Caribbean Islands
after Christopher Colombus chanced upon West Indies while trying to discover
alternative sea route to India. Eventually, slaves from West Africa were brought
to the Caribbean Islands to work in the plantations set up by the settlers.
gorilla: symbolic representation of African people as monkey like because of
their dark skin and apparent lack of civilization
superman: symbolic representation of the white race indicative of their apparent
technological progress
betray: not to be loyal, refuse to accept
ANALYSIS
The poem is taken from the collection titled In a Green Night published in 1962
that brought Walcott to limelight. Search for identity is the overarching theme of
the collection and A Far Cry from Africa is considered the most representative
poem. The title of the poem is ambiguous as well as ironic and doesn’t convey
clearly the main theme of the poem. The theme of the poem is Walcott’s conflicted
feelings arising due to his mixed racial lineage. The theme is explored through a
recollection of Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya during the rise of African nationalism
against the British and its violent consequences. The phrase ‘a far cry’in the title
literally means something that is different from what is expected. Figuratively
153
Poetry the word ‘far’also conveys a sense of ‘long distance’from the African continent.
Wes Davis observes that “far cry is both a distant cry and dissimilarity... a great
distance separating places”. Thus, the title is ambiguous and is indicative of
Walcott’s dilemma about yearning for a lost culture as well as a distancing from
it. However, the conflicted feelings are transmuted into a poetic creation.
The opening stanza of the poem recalls Africa ravaged by the conflict between
the British colonizers and rebels of the Kikuyu Tribe. Here African land is pictured
as a tan animal skin being tousled by wind of violence and racial prejudice. The
word ‘flies’is a metaphor for the Kikuyu rebels that are growing fat by gorging
on the bloodstream of the African grasslands, a veritable Eden now strewn with
corpses. Similarly, among the colonizers a high ranking officer is the ‘worm’crying
out to show no pity to the misfortunes of those massacred from both the opposing
sides. This violence is explained even by academics and scholars who cite statistics
to justify the salient features of colonial policy. But placing this in critical light
the poet rhetorically questions the efficacy of these facts and figures that are of
no use to the innocent victims treated inhumanly as savages and persecuted like
Jews. Poet’s own liminal position makes him perceive both the colonizers and
the colonized as murderers.
The second stanza presents a vivid account of topography of a pre-colonial Africa

as an ancient civilization teeming with flora and fauna that has now become
ridden with strife due to colonization. Since the beginning of civilization, this
land with sun-baked rivers as well as verdant plains teeming with beasts, has
been inhabited by people who threshed out the grains, making the reed that grows
along the marshes break and rise above like the birds of swamp called ibises.
However, the colonizer who thinks of himself as an ‘upright man’ironically tries
to obtain godliness by tormenting these indigenous natives. The coloniser feels
madly ecstatic because of being victorious in the wars perpetuated by him for
the purpose of colonial conquest. In his euphoria he calls it bravery. However,
the native out their fear of the widespread massacre dread the ‘white peace’(which
is a metaphor for apparently beneficial aspects of the colonial rule). In this
stanza the anti-colonial critique becomes more evident as, in comparison to the
animals who live by the laws of nature, Walcott presents the civilized white man
as more monstrous for wreaking havoc on this land and celebrating his war
victories by sadistically oppressing the natives.
The final stanza then brings out Walcott’s own dilemma about his mixed racial
identity. He begins by reiterating his remorse at the cruel and violent ways of
men deemed necessary in the instances of racial conflict. This necessity is
‘personified’. It is called ‘brutish’who acts guiltlessly and wipes its hands clean
of any remorse ‘upon the napkin of a dirty cause’. Though vaguely, Walcott
makes a reference to the Spanish conquest of the Caribbean Islands to emphasize
the misuse of compassion on such violent upheavals where ‘gorillas’come in
conflict with ‘the superman’. Having articulated the outward manifestations of
racial conflict Walcott then directs the focus to his own emotional turmoil. Divided
by his dual heritage as both black and white blood flows through his veins, he
feels troubled by his biological mixed ancestry. His hatred for imperialism comes
in contradiction with his love for the English language. He realises that
imprecating the colonial officer does not diminish his love for the English
language. The poem ends with rhetorical questions that iterate not only his dual
heritage but also his dilemma; should he refuse either of the heritages? But neither
154
can he reject English nor dismiss the slaughter of the African natives. Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
Carolyn Cooper in a “Language Beyond Mimicry: Language as Metaphor and
Meaning in Derek Walcott’s Oeuvre”, states that Walcott’s poetry captures the
aesthetic problem peculiar to the Caribean Literature due to the linguistic
heterogeneity of the region. “His early work reveals a seminal thematic
preoccupation- a conflict of cultural values which is rooted in language. The two
languages of his native St. Lucia, the West African/ French based Creole and
Received Standard English, symbolizes for Walcott two radically opposed modes
of perception: Creole articulates the dynamic spontaneity of folk culture, English
expresses the rigorous intellectual discipline of the letters”(159). Mervyn Alleyne
has also explained that in St. Lucia there exists a ‘fundamental schism’with
encoded ‘master servant polarity’between Creole and English. This is a remainder
of slavery in the Caribbean. Creole language as a medium is also a repository of
the folklore, popular customs, ceremonies, rituals spoken by a huge section of
population. It is spontaneous medium of expression. It also reverberates with the
private mores of the people. On the contrary, English is the medium for formal
and official communication. It is very conservative, and is spoken mostly by
people who have received it through schooling or literary exposure. Thus, the
two languages are very different in nature and function. They are indicative of
the cultural dualism which creates a sort of conflict of values in the Afro-Caribbean
psyche. Expressing this effect in his poem Codicil Walcott calls himself a
“schizophrenic, wrenched by two styles”and A Far Cry from Africa extends this
theme. Cooper argues, “The ambiguity of the poem’s title demonstrates Walcott’s
ambivalence: The Mau-Mau revolution against British colonial policy is a
powerful cry, whose intensity distance can not diminish. The shared experience
of British colonialism which the Blacks in Caribbean and Kenya have survived,
establishes a bond of empathy. But despite that commonality of experience Walcott
recognizes that his own experience is distinct, is a far cry from Kenyan. He
abhors the savagery of British culture which has provided him the language he
must use to indict it”(160). However, in an essay titled “Meaning”published in
1970 Walcott proposes that a creative synthesis of this cultural dichotomy is a
the positive inheritance of colonialism in the Caribbean. He also delineates three
distinct stages in his own artistic development. A withdrawal into the world of
English literature is the first stage. The second stage is of movement outward
towards the folk rhythms expressed in Creole. Finally, the third stage of attempts
to combine the two cultures in a synthesis. These stages are enumerated in “What
the Twilight Says: An Overture”, a collection of literary essays.
Read the following questions and answer in the space that follows:
4) Comment on the ambivalence of the title, A Far Cry from Africa.
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155
Poetry 5) Discuss the significance of animal imagery in the poem.
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6) Explain the theme of racial/cultural conflict in the poem.
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3.4 NAMES –TEXT WITH ANNOTATIONS

I
Names
From Sea Grapes [1976]

My race began as the sea began,
with no nouns, and with no horizon,
with pebbles under my tongue,
with a different fix on the stars.
But now my race is here,

in the sad oil of Levantine eyes,
in the flags of the Indian fields.
I began with no memory

I began with no future,
but I looked for that moment
when the mind was halved by a horizon.
I have never found that moment

when the mind was halved by a horizon-
for the goldsmith from Benares,
the stonecutter from Canton,
as a fishline sinks, the horizon
sinks in the memory.
Have we melted into a mirror,

leaving our souls behind?
The goldsmith from Benaras,
156
the stonecutters from Canton, Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
the bronzesmith from Benin.
A sea-eagle screams from the rock,
and my race began like the osprey
with that cry
that terrible vowel,
that I!
Behind us all the sky folded,

as history folds over a fishline,
and the foam foreclosed
with nothing in our hands
but this stick

to trace our names on the sand
which the sea erased again, to our indifference.
II
And when they named these bays

bays,
was it nostalgia or irony?
In the uncombed forest,

in the uncultivated grass
where was there elegance
except in their mockery?
Where were the courts of Castille?

Versailles’colonnades
supplanted by cabbage palms
with Corinthian crests,
belittling diminutives,
then, little Versailles
meant plans for a pigsty,
names for the sour apples
and green grapes of their exile.
Their memory turned acid

but the names held;
157
Poetry Valencia glows
with the lanterns of oranges,
Mayaro’s
charred candelabra of cocoa.
Bing men, they could not live
except they first presumed
the right of every thing to be a noun.
The African acquiesced,
repeated and changed them.
Listen , my children say:

Moubain: the hogplum,
cerise: the wild cherry
baie-la: the bay,
with the fresh green voices
they were once themselves
in the way the wind bends
our natural inflections.
These palms are greater than Versailles,

for no man made them,
their fallen columns greater than Castille,
no man unmade them
except the worm, who has no helmet,
but was always the emperor,
and children, look at these stars
over Valencia’s forest!
Not Orion,
not Betelgeuse,
tell me, what do they look like?
Answer, you damned little Arabs!
Sir, fireflies caught in molasses.
ANNOTATIONS
name: a noun, a word used to address a person, indicator of one’s identity
fix: position, predicament
pebbles under my tongue: It is said that the Greek orator Demosthenes treated
his speech impediment by talking with pebbles in his mouth.
sad oil: sad here means nostalgia for homelands left behind, oil means the extracts
from the olive fruit that grows abundantly in the Mediterranean lands
Indians: It refers to both the American Indian indigenous people of Caribbean as
well as the Indians transported to the Caribbean as indentured labours
158
Benaras: A holy city on the banks of River Ganga Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
Canton: A highly populated city of south China.
fishline: a line attached to hook used for fishing
Benin: Earlier called Dahomey is a North African Country
Osprey: a large broad-winged fish-eating bird
foreclosed: rule out, prevent, preclude
indifference: complacence, disinterestedness
bays: basin, cove
nostalgia: a sentimental longing for past
irony: state of affair contrary to what is expected
uncombed: unkempt, wild
mockery: parody, jeering, derision, contempt
Castille: A historical region in Spain. It was a large powerful kingdom in the
Middle Ages.
Versailles’colonnades: Versailles is a city in France. It is famous for The Palace
of Versailles that was the principal royal residence of France between the 17th
and 18th century until the start of French Revolution. The palace is a historical
monument and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
supplanted: substituted , replaced
belittling: denigrate, deride, underestimate, insult
diminutives: miniature
Valencia: The third largest city in Spain known for its heritage in Arts and Science
Mayaro: A Beach at the east coast of island of the Trinidad and Tobago.
Candelabra: a candlestick holder with many branches
green voices: symbolic meaning of green here is growth and learning
inflections: the rise and fall of voice while talking.
columns: pillars
Orion: a prominent constellation also called a hunter in Greek mythology.
Betelgeuse: A distinctly reddish and the second brightest star in the constellation
of Orion. The name is a corruption of the Arabic Name “yad-al-jauza”which
means the hand of al-jauza. Al- jauza was a character in Arab mythology.
Molasses: the remaining thick brown syrup left after sugar is crystallized
ANALYSIS
Published in the collection titled Sea Grapes the poem ‘Names’articulates

Walcott’s preoccupation with the themes of history, identity and language. The
focus of the poem is on the idea of West Indian crisis of consciousness due to a
sense of historical void. Divided in two parts the poem conveys the diasporic
anxieties of Caribbean Islanders. It describes the perspectives of descendents of
migrant slaves brought from Africa, India and other parts of the world as well as
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Poetry the colonizers from Europe. The title is indicative of the role played by language
as a carrier of cultural identity and as a medium to record history. It also indicates
how language gets wielded as an instrument of control by colonizers to impose
Eurocentric norms and history upon the colonized subjects. However, as natives
interpellate these norms through mimicry they ironically also subvert them.
In the first part, the poet attempts a journey into his racial and subjective
consciousness to trace the origin of his ‘race’. The word is a pun implying the
meaning of ‘running’as a verb, and also ‘ethnicity’as a noun. Although, the
existence of his people is as old as the sea yet he is unable to find any ‘nouns’to
represent the same, indicating an erasure of his people’s history. His search for
accounts of his origin seems difficult like trying to speak clearly with pebbles
under the tongue. It is perhaps because he speaks in English which is the
coloniser’s language. The difficulty is compounded by his predicament of having
a different perspective on stars/constellations in the sky that have been used as
nautical signposts for navigation in the sea from antiquity. The line ‘no noun, no
horizon’registers a pessimistic tone. It evokes the exasperation that comes with
the realization of loss of memories, loss of connections with one’s ancestral land,
and lack of a cohesive identity due to forced migration. All this compounds to
make the search of a past previous to colonial history appear futile. This idea is
developed in the next stanza where the poet acknowledges that the journey of his
people despite beginning in antiquity thousands of years ago and thousands of
miles away has now brought them here in the West Indies, where his people
worked in plantations as slaves like the indentured labourers from India and
China. Consequently, the poet who is of mixed racial descent, a successor of
these exploited immigrants forcefully transported and brought to the Caribbean,
the poet’s quest for cultural identity begins with a void with no memory of the
past or the future. This makes him probe for the exact moment when
discriminatory colour consciousness seeped into human mind dividing the world
as black and white with racial prejudice. The phrase ‘I have never found that
moment’emphasises the fruitlessness of his search. This is due to the socio-
linguistic complexity of the Caribbean milieu. This is flux of influence is further
reflected in the interactions between people of different ethnicities such as “the
goldsmith from Benaras”and “the stonecutters from Canton”. For these people
who were brought to the Caribean generations ago, from faraway places (Benaras
–a city of India at the banks of River Ganga and Canton- a populous city of
South China) the search for cohesive identity sinks in the memory like a fish line
sinks in the sea water without any trace. In the next few lines, the poet laments
the loss of distinct ethnic roots of these people by posing a rhetorical question,
“Have we melted into a mirror, leaving our souls behind?”. This fleshes out his
concern about the distortion of reality and loss of memories of past as the glorious
cities of Benaras, Canton or Benin that once held sway are now have lost their
glory with the passage of time. This sense of historical void results in an agonising
process when it comes to articulation of identity in the multi-ethnic Caribbean
territories. The assertive cry of ‘I’, the first person singular pronoun that contains
the sense of self of an individual is to be made against the racial prejudice. It is to
be carved out in spite of persistent dehumanization wrought upon the people of
the Caribbean by a long history of colonial oppression. Phonetically, this shrill
and agonising cry sounds like the terrible scream of the sea-eagle. Despite these
earnest efforts the poet is tormented by the lack of a definite identity due to the
lost, collapsed, devalued historical past of the Caribbean people. He compares
the condition of his people with that of children trying to write on sand. For
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Walcott the attempt “to trace our names on sand”yields no results as the sea Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
erases them waves after waves. The word indifference here indicates the ethnic
conflict and divisions that have been endemic to the Caribbean. In these lines
there is also a note of resignation to the fate of the oppressed.
In the second section the poem depicts a different perspective. It shifted from
poets own conflicted state of mind (embodied in the first section) to the condition
of the colonizers who were also dislocated in the process of colonization.
However, their migration was voluntary. They had left their homelands and
come to the Caribbean in search of a better life. Displaced far away from the
countries of their origin these people also suffer from nostalgia. It is evident in
their attempts to recreate their homelands on these distant shores by naming
places as Castille, Versailles and Valencia. They gave European names to bays,
unexplored forest and uncultivated land. This is also indicative of their efforts to
continue their famed histories and relive their past glories. Walcott problematizes
this sentimental yearning as ironical through rhetorical questions such as, “was
it nostalgia or irony?”This replication on the part of the colonisers that lacks the
refinement of manners and elegance of the original homelands appears as
“mockery”due to the absurdity of the comparison between the ornate architecture
of pillars of Versailles with the columns of cabbage palms which is a common
vegetable. The ridiculousness of these attempts is highlighted when the plans for
dirty filthy settlements like pigsty are named little Versailles, after famed European
cities. The word ‘little’used with Versailles is indicative of the habit of the
colonisers to add “little”or “grand”to names imported from their native country.
However these efforts to fashion these newly conquered lands after European
models often prominently leads to much pretence in their state of self-imposed
banishment. Walcott calls this “the sour apples/ and green grapes of their exile”.
One can read here an allusion to the popular Aesop’s fable of the fox and the
grapes. Despite the errors of memory that fades over time and “turns acid”, these
names remain. Therefore, Valencia originally a province of south of Spain, in the
Caribbean glows with oranges instead of lanterns and Mayaro a beach town in
the south-eastern Atlantic coast of the republic of Trinidad and Tobago, instead
of scorched candle holders of the royal gatherings, blooms with foliage of cocoa
the tropical African tree that resemble the shape of the candelabra. These lines
are an implicit criticism of the civilizing mission of the colonizers. Blind to the
beauty of the Caribbean landscape before them and they denigrated it by taking
Eurocentric frame of comparison. Then they assiduously enforced their own
limited worldview on the ‘slaves’. Also, presuming themselves to be the
representative of the category of ‘man’, they take for granted the right to name
things. Though, the Africans gave in to the enforcement of European language
and culture, yet in their attempts to imitate they also reinterpreted and modified
the norms. This aspect is brought out in the next stanza where the poet refers to
the subversive potential of mimicry. The colonizers enforce foreign names on
the natives yet even in their innocent imitation and calling the hogplum, the wild
cherry and the bay by their French names, moubain, cerise and baiel-la
respectively, the natives effect a change in the pronunciation due to inflections
caused by linguistic interference of their Creole languages.The word “inflection”
comes from the Latin inflectere. It means “to bend”. Further the colonizer as
master instructs the natives, who are infantilized and treated patronizingly.
Ironically, they are taught about their own geography but couched in European
terms. He calls the palm greater than Versailles and the fallen trees greater than
the pillars of Castilles because they grew and fell naturally without human
161
Poetry intervention. Then pointing to the sky he asks the children to name the
constellation known Orion with the star Betelgeuse. Walcott then presents the
persona of the master/teacher who demands “tell me, what do they look like?/
Answer, you damned little Arabs!”Caught helplessly in the coloniser’s ideological
grip and habit to dictate names, the native respond, “Sir, fireflies caught in
molasses.”The last line of the poem metaphorically conveys the condition of the
natives. They are trapped in the sweet sticky mess of forcefully imposed yet
difficult to resist identity of the colonized subject, like fireflies stuck in molasses.
Yet, despite their plight they glow. In Rei Terada’s words “It is because
paradoxically forcing the children to speak English only makes the ironies of
their situation more obvious, as their innocent pronunciations deflect their
textbook version of political geography. Even though they don’t realize it, their
mispronunciation amount to reinterpretation”(222). Terada in “The Pain of
History Words Contain”: Walcott and Creole Poetics”, interprets the metaphor
in the last line of the poem in the following words “children poignantly suggest
that stars are as small, live, and vulnerable as fireflies in the matrix of the universe”.
She also points out that fireflies are a recurrent motif in Walcott’s poetry. Focusing
on the logic of linguistic mimicry in the poem, Terada then compares it with
another poem “Saint Lucie”, also published in Sea Grapes. She states that Walcott
makes association between words and fireflies in the phrase “text of fireflies”in
“Saint Lucie”. In this context, the ephemeral luminosity that these creatures
conjure is related with the short-lived magic of the Creole words spoken by the
children in the process of naming. Therefore, the last image is connected to the
title. In her opinion the two parts of the poem “Names”recount the linguistic
complexities of the society. The use of Roman numeral I indicating part one of
the poem is also a visual pun implying the meaning of personal pronoun I.
However, Walcott’s concerns are not limited to his own anxiety alone, but are
reflective of his community which is clearly articulated in the line “my race
began like the osprey/ with that cry,/ that terrible vowel, / that I!”(223). This line
suggests that history, be it of an individual or a community, is an important aspect
for construction of one’s identity.
Interrogating Eurocentric History has been key concern in postcolonial literature.

This entails examining the appropriation of history by the colonial master which
included interfering with local traditions/customs, rejecting native beliefs as
superstitions, imposing their own language as a medium of education and
infantilizing the native. It also includes attempts to retrieve and re-write alternate
histories from subaltern perspectives by the natives, which invariably involves
dredging through horrific memories of racial discrimination, dehumanization
and subjugation. Like many writers from the West Indies, Walcott has also tried
to address these postcolonial concerns through his poetry, plays and essays. To
substantiate this let us consider a few instances. In The Gulf (1969) Walcott
states that “his fear/or history was its lack “(26). In Sea Grapes (1976), he writes
“History/ is natural- famine, genocide”(31). In a Green Night (1962), he mentions,
“And I, with a black/Heart, and my back/healing from history”(24). Walcott’s
work is replete with such engagement with history as an ideological construct.
Robert Elliot Fox in his essay, “Derek Walcott: History As Dis-ease”highlights
this by making an assessment of Walcott’s attitude towards history through a
study of his work. According to Fox, “Walcott’s attitude towards history is scarcely
one of respect or admiration”(241). As cited by him, in the essay titled “The
Muse of History”, the epigraph that is, “History is a nightmare from which I am
trying to recover”, is a quotation from Joyce. Further Walcott calls it “Medusa of
162
the New World”, “amnesia”; then eventually declares that there is, “No history, Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
but flux, and only sustenance, myth...”(241). Reflecting on the West Indian crisis
of consciousness, Fox argues that Caribbean islands have been a “pepper pot of
languages, races and cultures, because of their geographic location. Not only are
they scattered in the sea between two halves of the Americas, but they have also
acted as the contact point between the New World and the Old, furthermore,
these Islands are peopled by the posterity of Europeans, Africans, Indians, Chinese
and people of mixed racial descent. Consequently, a history of this region only
emerges, “each distinct, yet inseparable from the rest”(237). Faced with such
complexity, for compilation of historical account imagination can prove more
effective than academic ordering of facts. He further explains:
One of the problems with history is that it becomes inevitably entwined with
politics, harried by ideologies. History is not true collective memory; it is selective
and hierarchical for the most part. Ancestral memory is enshrined archetypal in
myth, which has always proved more valuable to art than the most acute historical
sense- and individual memory can hope to link up with origins only when it
consciously eschews the weight of history. As for modern mass memory, it is,
when not amnesia, mostly nostalgia, which is one of history’s agonising offspring.
(237)
History as an academic discipline is popularly understood as the study of

significant events of the past recorded in written documents. V. S. Naipaul in
The Middle Passage (1962) a book of travel essays had cynically remarked,
“that history of the islands can never be satisfactorily told . . . “as “History is
built around achievement and creation; and nothing was created in West
Indies”(29). What he implies is that the people of West Indies do not have glorious
or outstanding achievements that typically constitute a teleological historical
account, rather their sense of past is ensconced in the humiliating experiences of
invasions, slavery and racism. However, what critics have found problematic
with Naipaul’s pessimistic vision is the condemnation of future possibilities in
his claim that under the overwhelming influence of the past, “these small islands
….will never create”( 25). In comparison, though Walcott also rejects the idea of
History as time but instead of a distrustful and disparaging outlook about future
possibilities, he posits the idea of myth as an alternative to transcend history. He
also highlights the significance of ‘imagination’as a means to overcome the sense
of a lack of history. As recorded by Edward Baugh, Walcott states, “In the
Caribbean history is irrelevant, not because it is not created, or because it was
sordid; but because it never mattered. What has mattered is the loss of history,
the amnesia of the races, what has become necessary is imagination, imagination
as necessity, as invention”(2006, 10). For Walcott myth, because it does not
negate the imaginative mechanizations of memory as invalid, is preferable to
history that as a narrative in absolute terms depends primarily on the unimaginative
accumulation of details. This is evident in his poem “The Sea is History”, a
poem which is a retort to the proposition that Caribbean is ahistorical. Figuratively
speaking, it projects the idea that the sea has been an archive as well as a chronicler
of the Caribbean. In the poem Walcott recalls significant events of colonial history
but overwrites them by entwining several biblical myths, episodes and incidents
to present the idea that for the Caribbean islanders, the Sea has not only been a
significant factor shaping their lives but has also been a source of their history.
163
Poetry Check Your Progress 4
Read the following questions and answer in the space that follows:
1) Comment on the structure of the poem Names. How does the structure mirror
the thematic concerns of the poem ?
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2) Discuss the use of journey as a motif in Names.
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3) What are your observations about Walcott’s attitude towards history?
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3.5 LET US SUM UP

In this unit the following ideas have been discussed:
The Caribbean is considered a politically, culturally, and linguistically fragmented

region. Geographically it is not limited to the islands in the Caribbean Sea but
also includes some mainland regions of the North and South American continents
surrounding the sea.
Between the 15th and the 19th century the area was colonized by the Spanish,
English, French, Dutch and Portuguese which has led to a chaotic proliferation
of languages. Creolization has added to the linguistic diversity of this region.
Because of the historical experience of slavery Caribbean literature is acutely
concerned with issues of racial prejudice, creolization, nation building, cross-
cultural identity and hybridity. Walcott who has emerged as one of the
representative poets from the Caribbean also voices these concerns in his poetry
and drama. His poem A Far Cry from Africa, noted for its striking animal imagery,
deals with the theme of conflict of cultural values which is rooted in language
that causes the anxiety of split identity in the poet persona because of his mixed
racial heritage. His other poem Names highlights the fact that during the era of
imperialism, domination was compounded by the processing of naming landscape,
landmarks and settlements in the New World with Eurocentric names. The poem
raises questions about politics of naming; such as who has the power to name
164
whom? What is the language used for naming? The poem also fleshes out Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
Walcott’s leitmotif, the theme of ‘quarrel with history’through a challenging and
futile metaphorical quest for past. It is because other than name, past is a also a
significant prerequisite for construction/assertion of one’s identity.
3.6 REFERENCES
Alleyne, Mervin C. “Language and Society in St. Lucia.” Caribbean Studies,
vol. 1, no. 1, 1961,
pp. 1–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25611645. Accessed 1January. 2020.
Baugh, Edward. Derek Walcott. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Baugh, Edward. “Derek Walcott and the Centering of the Caribbean
Subject.” Research in
African Literatures, vol. 34, no. 1, 2003, pp. 151–159. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/3821102. Accessed 19 Feb. 2020.
Cumber Dance, Daryl. Fifty Caribbean Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical
Sourcebook.
New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.
Colón, Viera, Hugo M. “Overview of Caribbean Literature”. ENCICLOPEDIA
DE PUERTO
RICO. https://enciclopediapr.org/en/encyclopedia/overview-of-caribbean-
literature/
Cooper, Caroline. “A Language Beyond Mimicry: Language as Metaphor and
Meaning in Derek
Walcott’s Oevre”, Neruda, Walcott and Atwood Poets of The Americas, (ed.)
Ajanta
Dutt, Delhi, Worldview Publications, 2002.
Donnell, Alison, et al. eds. The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature. NY,
Routledge,
1996.
Fox, Robert Elliot. “Derek Walcott: History As Dis-ease”, Neruda, Walcott and
Atwood Poets of
The Americas, (ed.) Ajanta Dutt, Delhi, Worldview Publications, 2002.
Naipaul, V.S.. The Middle Passage. London, Andre Deutsch, 1962.
Naupaul, V.S.. The Overcrowded Baracoon, London, Andre Deutsch, 1972.
Rei Terada. “”The Pain of History Words Contain”: Walcott and Creole Poetics”,
Neruda,
Walcott and Atwood Poets of The Americas, (ed.) Ajanta Dutt, Delhi, Worldview
Publications, 2002.
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Poetry
Burnett, Paula. Derek Walcott : Politics and Poetics. Gainesville, University Press
of
Florida, 2001.
Goldstraw, Irma E. Derek Walcott : an Annotated Bibliography of his Works.
New York,
Garland, 1982.
Hamner, Robert Daniel. Derek Walcott. Boston, Twayne, 1981.
Ismond, Patricia. Abandoning Dead Metaphors : the Caribbean Phase of Derek
Walcott’s
Poetry. Kingston, Univ. of the West Indies Press, 2001.
King, Bruce. Derek Walcott : a Caribbean Life. Oxford, Oxford University Press,
2000.
King, Bruce. Derek Walcott and West Indian Drama. Oxford, Clarendon Press,
1995.
The Art of Derek Walcott. (ed) Stewart Brown. Bridgend, Seren Books,1991.
Walcott, Derek, & Baer, William. Conversations with Derek Walcott. University
Press of
Mississippi, Jackson, 1996.
Walcott, Derek. Selected Poems, Edward Baugh (Ed.). United States of America,
Farrar, Straus,
Giroux, 2007.

For all answers refer to 3.1.
For your answers refer to 3.2.
166
Derek Walcott: ‘A Far Cry
UNIT 4 DAVID MALOUF: ‘REVOLVING from Africa’, ‘Names’
DAYS’, ‘WILD LEMONS’
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 David Malouf
4.2 Australian Postcolonial literature
4.3 The Text Revolving Days
4.4 Analysis
4.5 The Text Wild Lemons
4.6 Analysis
4.7 Glossary
4.8 Let us sum up
4.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit, you will be able
a) to provide information about David Malouf’s life and work as a Poet,
dramatist, novelist and short story writer,
b) to analyze the poems prescribed for you. The major themes and concerns of
the poems and understand the age where the poet lived and reflected upon
through his composition.
You can begin by reading and re-reading the poems minutely and go through the
glossary if any further understanding is essential. Do the poems speak about
Australian life or is it a reflection of the postcolonial era? These are some
ponderable facts that need to be addressed.
4.1 DAVID MALOUF THE PERSON
Source: Google 167

Poetry David Malouf graced this planet on the 20th of March, 1934 in South Brisbane to
a Catholic father and a Sephardic Jew Mother. His paternal family has arrived in
Australia in 1880s from Lebanon while his mother’s family came to England via
Holland before finally migrating down to Australia in 1913. And this is the reason
why Malouf always took keen interest in cross-cultural aspects and his writings
truly reflect this spirit. He went to Brisbane Grammar School and after that
graduated in Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. At the age of
24, like many young Australians he travelled to different countries, and stayed
abroad for almost a decade. He taught in England and travelled in Europe. Finally,
in the year 1968 he returned to Australia and worked as a senior tutor and soon
after became Lecturer in English at the University of Sydney. He became a full
time writer from 1977 onwards after taking voluntary retirement from the position
of Lecturer. He used to enjoy the quiet and tranquility of southern Tuscany but
since 1985 lived in Sydney. He has many feathers in his hat in the sense that he
is a poet, novelist, dramatist, short story writer, literary critic orator and the list is
endless1.
His first two published books were both collections of poetry: Bicycle and Other
Poems (1970) and Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems which was published in the
year1974. His first venture to pen down a novel, Johnno published in the year
1975, is the semi-autobiographical tale of a young man growing up in Brisbane
during the Second World War, a period in Malouf’s life that he later wrote about
in his memoir 12 Edmondstone Street published in 1985. His second novel, An
Imaginary Life that was published in 1978, is a fictional life of the poet Ovid,
who was exiled from Rome by the Emperor Augustus in 8 A.D. and sent to live
in exile among the Scythians on the Black Sea. Child’s Play with Eustace & The
Prowler published in 1982 consists of a novel about terrorism and two short
narratives, while Fly Away Peter that was published in the year 1982 displays a
contrastwith the idyllic setting of a bird sanctuary on the Queensland coast with
the horrors of the First World War. Hence his writings reflect a variety of subject
matter. This truly coincides with the background which Malouf belongs and the
outlook he projects in his writings is truly commendable.
His later novels include Harland’s Half Acre published in 1985.This is the story
of an artist living in a remote area and his attempt to recover his family’s past
through the land. The novel, The Great World that was published in 1990, won
the Commonwealth Writers Prize (Overall Winner, Best Book) and the Prix
Fémina Etranger (France). This is the story of two Australians imprisoned by the
Japanese during the Second World War is a very touching story line indeed. The
wellknown novel, Remembering Babylon which was published in 1993, was
shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction and won the first International
IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, as well as the Commonwealth Writers
Prize (South East Asia and South Pacific Region, Best Book). The story is set in
northern Australia during the 1850s which was about a community of Scottish
immigrant farmers whose existence is threatened by the arrival of a stranger. The
novelThe Conversations at Curlow Creek published in 1996, was set in New
South Wales in 1827, is based on the relationship between an illiterate Irish convict
and the police officer sent to hang him. This is another heart rendering plot which
acquired him lot of appreciation.
David Malouf was also a great story teller and also earned a reputation as a lucid
short story writer. His collections of short stories include Antipodes that was
168 published in 1985; Dream Stuff published in 2000; and Every Move You
Make published in 2006. His short stories were collected and published in one David Malouf: ‘Revolving
Days’, ‘Wild Lemons’
volume, The Complete Stories, in 2007. This book was shortlisted for the inaugural
Australian Prime Minister’s Literary Award in 2008.He wrote the libretti for Voss,
an adaptation of the novel by Patrick White and first produced in Sydney in
1986, and Baa Baa Black Sheep, an opera with music by Michael Berkeley, and
delivered the Boyer lectures in 1998 for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.
Apart from this he is also the author of a play, Blood Relations that was published
in 1988.
David Malouf was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize in 2011.
Since we are discussing more about his poems here, therefore it will be imperative
to have a critical appreciation of his poetic talent and the poems he composed.
Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems, the collection of poems published in 1974,for

the first earned him a reputation as a new Australian talent with tremendous
potential. He won various prizes, including the Australian Literature Society
Gold Medal. The interesting aspect is, this book throws maximum light on
Malouf’s own past. Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems comprises intimate memories
of suburban childhood, of domestic interiors, of mother, sister and the War, of
travel in Europe. One of the most impressive aspects of these early poems is
their subtle shift between affectionate recollection, and the past as something
more haunting and horrific. In later collections of poetry such as First Things
Last that got published in 1980, Malouf returns to these childhood experiences.
Reading his poems is a fascinating experience as he combines poetry with prose,
youthful innocence with wisdom of the matured lot and henceforth the allusions
attached to it.
You will be glad to know that in the recent past some of Malouf’s best poems
have been collected and is made an anthology entitled Revolving Days that was
published in the year 2008. The book opens with the author’s childhood times
spent in Brisbane during the same time of the Second World War, the following
section again shifts to 1960s Europe, section three of the anthology reflects
Malouf’s shifting to Sydney and the final poems, his journeys undertaken between
Europe and Australia. A recurring theme across most of this work is the
relationship between innocence and experience, a theme he has also explored in
an On Experience (2008).Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems was followed
by Johnno (1975), Malouf’s first novel. Johnno covers a landscape that will be
familiar to readers of the earlier work, notably wartime Australia and metropolitan
Europe. Often described as one of his most autobiographical works, the story is
told from the perspective of Dante who has returned to England following the
death of his father. This novel is more concerned with the life of Johnno. Johnno
who is Dante’s friend, who are complete opposites in nature to each other. Johnno’s
was wild in many ways as he was also indulged in such ill activities like
shoplifting, visiting the brothel et al. Dante on the other hand had maintained his
middleclass conservatism in the novel. Like Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems,
and many of his later novels, the book takes a critical look at the emphasis on
possessions and lifestyle in ‘well to do’ Australia.His next novel, An Imaginary
Life (1978), represents something of a departure from the everyday worlds of
Malouf’s earlier work. A poetic account of the Roman poet Ovid during his final
years, it develops many of the mythical elements and emblems scattered
through Neighbours in a Thicket: Poems, into a more sustained narrative about
exile and transition and change.
169
Poetry Australia has witnessed transition in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were
large scale social, cultural and political changes in Australia due to the war in
Vietnam and Domino Theory. David Malouf has elaborately written about it in
his fictions. There is a variety of theme in his poems ranging from Australian
landscape, transformative identity, migration besides nature, culture, multiplicity
et al.
4.2 AUSTRALIAN POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE

Before getting into a detail understanding of postcolonial literature in Australia
it is important to know the Aboriginal Australia. So, in this segment we are going
to throw some light on the same. The Aborigines did not have a written literature
per se but had an oral tradition of myths, songs, chants, stories and legends. The
stories consist of two major ideas – (i) Dreaming – the space where the spiritual,
moral, supernatural and natural relate to each other and (ii) Journeys and travel
across lands forms.
The Aboriginal population is reported to be approx. 60,000 years in Australia

before the Europeans set foot and settled here permanently. They were the original
inhabitants of this Land. The Aboriginal Australian’s primary occupation was
hunting, fishing or gathering. They lived in groups and were nomadic people
moving from one place to another in search of food and water. They used wood,
bone and shells to make tools and weapons. The earliest human migration to
Australia is recorded to be from Africa although it is still not clear as to who the
indigenous people of Australia are. Some are also known to be migrated to
Australia through Southeast Asia.
There was a radical change in the Australian Aboriginal history after the 18th-
and 19th-century when the British came to settle here. Unlike other colonialized
places the British had the intention to settle here. As regards other colonies they
went for trade and commerce. It is a known fact to all that in 1770, one Englishman
Lieutenant James Cook charted the Australian east coast in his ship HM
Barque Endeavour. James Cook discovered the east coast under instruction from
King George III of England on 22 August 1770 at Possession Island, and coined
the name as Eastern Australia ‘New South Wales’. Hence, James Cook is
considered to be the founder of Australia.
The Post-colonialism era describes the persisting cultural legacy within a nation
that has experienced the onslaught of colonialism and imperialism. The post
colonialist critic like Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin suggest that the term is used
generally to define all cultures affected by the imperial process until the present
time (1989, p. 2). Carrying forward this notion, however, many political scientist
and theorists claim that, it more accurately describes a nation that experienced
colonialism, however the people themselves have been officially decolonised
(Bunyan 2013). Meaning thereby, that there is no longer a concept or sense of
the ‘coloniser’ and the ‘colonised’. It’s a complete withdrawal of power by the
colonisers.
The primary focus on Australian postcolonial literature centred round

marginalization, exile, racism, identity, land rights, settler guilt and denial,
resistance, indigeneity, language and so on. The kinds of writings that emerged
in Australia may be pointed out as- Challenging the Eurocentric voice and fighting
170 for one’s own identity, imitation of the European tradition, culture and literature
and forming a new literature out of it and last but not the least synthesis and David Malouf: ‘Revolving
inclusion as in the case of Malouf and an acceptance of this.
Thus, Australian literature witness’s diaspora and post colonialism and the
resultant issues arise out of it are race, history, identity, culture and so on to the
shift to multiculturalism, resistance to eurocentrism, celebration of the difference
and so on and so forth.
After many deliberation and discussion by experts it has been formulated that
Australian literature can be both postcolonial and non-postcolonial and that
insisting that Australian literature as a whole is solely postcolonial or not is
reducing its status quo and would brand it as essentialist. To be precise, many
works of Australian literature are postcolonial in terms of subject matter and
technique, and Australian society is postcolonial in many ways. However, many
Australian texts do not engage with postcolonial issues at all, and Australian
society can legitimately be viewed as other than postcolonial; for example, many
Indigenous Australians understand Australia as a colonial or neocolonial society.
Essentially a distinction should be made between Australian society and Australian
literature for a wider understanding of the whole gamut of post colonial literature
in terms of Australia.Just because Australian society is postcolonial, it does not
necessarily make us believe that Australian literature is postcolonial or not. It
would be wrong to declare that Australian literature as a whole is not postcolonial.
It will be reasonably right to claim that most Australian literature is postcolonial
and most Australian literature can be better understood through the application
of postcolonial reading strategies, regardless of whether or not one believes that
Australian society is postcolonial.
As has already mentioned earlier that the Aborigines had oral tradition. There
were no written documents available. The first written literature that was available
to the World was by the white settler communities in the form of reports of the
colony that was supposed to be written back to England. The major themes were
exploration of the “new” continent and the nostalgia of homeland left behind.
Barron Fields’ First Fruits of Australian Poetry is the first collection published
in Australia. The Indigenous people write about resistance, opposition, identity,
culture and so on. Third category of writers like Malouf celebrate the inclusiveness
of cultures and claim it to be a synthesis rather than a curse. He, like Neruda,
celebrates difference, multiculturalism, and the remaking of a new found identity.
In the words of David Malouf, Australia is an “experiment in social engineering”

founded on “an enlightenment belief that if you took people, even criminals, out
of their terrible poverty, and set them down in a place where they could own
their own land and work, then they would, in a kind of way, remade.” Since
Australia developed from penal colonies to urban states, the diaspora results in
formation of new hybrid communities. Malouf celebrates the synthesis and
integration in his works.
4.3 THE TEXT: REVOLVING DAYS

That year I had nowhere to go, I fell in love — a mistake
of course, but it lasted and has lasted.
The old tug at the heart, the grace unasked for, urgencies
that boom under the pocket of a shirt. What I remember
171
Poetry is the colour of the shirts. I’d bought them
as an experiment in ways of seeing myself, hoping to catch
in a window as I passed what I was to be
in my new life as lover: one mint green, one
pink, the third, called Ivy League, tan
with darker stripes, my first button-down collar.
We never write. But sometimes, knotting my tie

at a mirror, one of those selves I had expected
steps into the room. In the next room you
are waiting (we have not yet taken back
the life we promised to pour into each other’s mouths
forever and forever) while I choose between
changes to surprise you.
Revolving days. My heart

in my mouth again, I’m writing this for you, wherever
you are, whoever is staring into your blue eyes. It is me,
I’m still here. No, don’t worry, I won’t appear out of
that old time to discomfort you. And no, at this
distance, I’m not holding my breath for a reply.
The poem ‘Revolving Days’ is about the poet’s firsthand experience when he
was in love with someone special. Years later he tried to reminisce the same
feeling he had for his love interest. He had a feeling that after years of separation
his love interest must be in the next room where he was putting up. However, he
did hesitate to confront her to avoid any kind of discomfort or displeasure. There
is a hint in the poem that David Malouf had strongly vouched for homoeroticism.
At a time when talking about sex, gay rights and similar other things was a taboo
Malouf had expressed in his own subtle way. However, there is no denying the
fact that Malouf had a different sexual preference and when much later in his life
he crosses path with one of his old lovers he was awestruck and feared any kind
of unpleasant encounter.
Here the speaker while pondering about his love interest in the past calls it a
mistake. However, the feelings of his first love remained with him always. He
even recalls the feelings of the past when he purchased the shirts with different
colours. Both the speaker and his beloved didn’t stay in touch with each other.
Whenever he buys a new shirt and puts in the self he feels that it was only yesterday
when he was in the relationship with his first beloved. Time passes and as days
goes by the speaker feels that his feelings have been the same. Nothing could
deter his feelings and the speaker even went ahead in assuming that his beloved
might have moved on gracefully with someone else. He even assures her that he
will never appear before him no matter what so that both do not feel embarrassed.
In this poem the poet makes extensive use of apostrophe and symbols to denote
that it is very difficult and almost impossible to forget the lost love and move
ahead in life.
172
“Revolving Days” is a suitable poem where the title absolutelyfits in as, not only David Malouf: ‘Revolving
for the strength of its address to a former love, but for its reference of the different
selves in one’s life. An individual undeniably goes through various stages in
one’s life and in the process lives several lives knowingly or unknowingly. Hence,
the attitude and behavioural pattern changes under different circumstances or
situations.
Malouf is of the opinion that poems appear according to the places or events that
“touched off’ the writing and also it emphasizes the various nuances of life pattern.
The book’s four parts, then, reflect four broad stages of the poet’s life, regardless
of when particular poems were penned. “Like our First Paintbox,” in which
Malouf’s child self-thumbs through the “Disney-gaudy” world of color,
subsequently appears early in Part I, dealing with the author’s Brisbane childhood
and youth. That said, the period explored and the time of publication frequently
coincide so that, for example, the poems in Part IV, dealing with the latter decades
of the poet’s life. The most notable aspect of Malouf’s writings is his consistency
in form and approach to subject matter across five decades. Not one to explore
the outer reaches of free verse. Malouf’s great art is in delicate variations on
traditional forms - the couplet, tercet, quatrain. Parts II and IV deal directly with
his years in Europe and specifically with village life in Tuscany, but throughout
we see him informed by a northern hemi- sphere sensibility, drawing from classical
antiquity, the Renaissance, the Bible and, more generally, Christian symbolism,
the latter deployed as historical signpost and metaphor rather than as a belief
system. In “Revolving Days” Malouf’s composition speaks highly about how
connected he was with Europe.
Structure of Revolving Days

Technically speakingthe poem ‘Revolving Days’ byDavid Malouf is devoid of a
proper rhyme scheme. This is a poem which has three stanza and is divided into
uneven sets of lines. The first stanza contains ten lines, the second stanza has
seven lines and the third stanza has six lines. Malouf did not give this poem a
specific rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. Rather, the lines vary in the number
of syllables and the number of words.
Although there is not a structured rhyme scheme there are moments of rhyme
within the poem. These are seen through repetition such as with “lasted” and
“lasted” in line two of the first stanza, as well as through half-rhyme. Also known
as slant or partial rhyme, half-rhyme is seen through the repetition
of assonance or consonance. This means that either a vowel or consonant sound
is reused within one line or multiple lines of verse. For example, “green” and
“League” in lines eight and nine of the first stanza.
Literary Devices in Revolving Days

David Malouf makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Revolving Days’. The
use of alliteration, anaphora, enjambment, and caesura can be seen abundantly
in the poem.Caesura, occurs when a line is split in half, sometimes with
punctuation, sometimes not. The use of punctuation in these moments creates a
very intentional pause in the text.
The use of Alliteration is seen when words are in succession, or at least appear
close together, and begin with the same letter. For example, “life as lover” in line
eight of the first stanza and “writing” and “wherever” in line two of stanza three.
173
Poetry Malouf also makes use of anaphora, or the repetition of a word or phrase at the
beginning of multiple lines, usually in succession. This technique is often used
to create emphasis.
Stanza one
In the first stanza of ‘Revolving Days,’ the speaker looks back on his life and
remembers the year that he “fell in love”. He explains it simply, it happened
because he had nowhere to go. This frivolous start dissolves as he adds that it
“lasted and has lasted”.
In the next lines imagery is used as a way of painting a picture of the past, as
well as evoking in the reader an emotional response to the speaker’s personal
life. He recalls what it felt like to be falling in love. Especially, the “boom under
the pocket of a shirt” urging him on and the “old tug at the heart”.
In an original depiction of a lover’s mind, he describes buying shirts and using

them as a way to understand himself as “lover”. These ranged in colour and one
was his “first button-down collar”.
Stanza Two
As the poem progresses it becomes clear that the love the speaker experienced is
a little more complicated than it seemed. It “lasted” but not in the way one might
immediately expect. He looks to the past, while also considering the future, in
this stanza.
The past comes back to greet him while he’s in the bathroom looking in the
mirror and he recalls the time they spent together and the promises they made.
These have fallen to the wayside as has the relationship.
This is truly reflective of the post colonial aspect where one is trying to come to
terms with the new age after the old regime hands over the power.
Stanza Three
In the final stanza of ‘Revolving Days,’ the speaker makes use of the phrase
“Revolving days” to depict the nature of his heart and memory. He is writing this
for his ex-lover. They are no longer together. In fact, he doesn’t know where they
are. They could be with someone new. Despite the changes that have happened
he’s the same. Before the intended listener/the speaker’s ex-lover starts to worry,
he says he’s not going to pop up form the past “to discomfort” them. They are at
a distance and he knows there is very little chance he’ll be getting a reply to this
letter in poem form.
4.5 THE TEXT WILD LEMONS

Through all those years keeping the present
open to the light of just this moment:
that was the path we found, you might call it
a promise, that starting out among blazed trunks
the track would not lead nowhere, that being set
down here among wild lemons, our bodies were
174 expected at an occasion up ahead
that would not take place without us. One David Malouf: ‘Revolving
proof was the tough-skinned fruit among
their thorns; someone had been there before us
and planted these, their sunlight to be sliced
for drinks (they had adapted
in their own way and to other ends): another
was the warmth of our island, sitting still
in its bay, at midnight humming
and rising to its own concerns, but back,
heat-struck, lapped by clean ocean waters
at dawn. The present is always
with us, always open. Though to what, out there
in the dark we are making for as seven o’clock
strikes, the gin goes down and starlings
gather, who can tell? Compacts made
of silence, as a flute tempts out a few
reluctant stars to walk over the water. I lie down
in different weather now though the same body,
which is where that rough track led. Our sleep
is continuous with the dark, or that portion of it
that is this day’s night; the body
tags along as promised to see what goes.
What goes is time, and clouds melting into
tomorrow of our breath, a scent of lemons
run wild in another country, but smelling always of themselves.
4.6 ANALYSIS
When he was going to Australia with friends the memory that he had in the track
took them nowhere as there were wild lemons on the way. There was one road
which would take them to the main road. The skin of the lemon is very thick as
it was wild lemons. If there is wild lemons here then there must have been someone
who visited this place earlier and must have planted these lemons plants. The
poet talks at length about nature in this poem. Nature has lot of significance in
this poem. There was an islandin the location where they were stranded. The
water of the island was hot and in the middle of the night they were thinking how
to go out of this place. The waves of the island were heating back and forth and
they could feel the warmth of it. They were able to see the reflection of the
island. The night was drawing close. The fragrance of the wild lemons is still
strong after many years.
The Wild Lemons infact goes on to describe a path on an island, which seemed
to show many indications of previous habitation and other vague but promising
indications that it was worth taking. The poet does not specify what was at the
end of the path, but it has led him to where he is now. In a final image, his dreams
include the scent of the wild lemons on the island even after many years of his
life.
175
Poetry As we can observe that the poem begins with a path on which the poet recalls
treading on along with a friend among “blazed trunks” of trees, marked in such
a way as to promise that the path must lead to some destination which is unknown
to them. The poet and his friend took the path where the wild lemon trees were
grown as they assumed that ahead of the lemon trees some event or some unknown
destination is awaiting them.
The poet even observed that the lemon trees is evident of the fact that someone
had been there before them and planted the trees to provide slices of lemon to
quench the thirst or perhaps just for drinks. In addition to this the island promised
something which is remotely distinct. The warmth of the island gave some positive
vibes too. They were only under assumption as nothing laid bared as to what was
stored for them ahead in their journey. There was no clarity of anything. There
was a possibility deep down within that their life’s turn would be definitely for
something better.
The track has led him to a place with a different climate. However, the person is
same with the same body. When it is dark, he sleeps, saying that his body tags
along with his dreams “to see what goes.” The irony is that the distinctive scent
of lemons persists even after many days.
As we are aware of the fact that Postcolonial Poets used metaphors to explain
even the slightest of situation. David Malouf extensively used metaphorical
language in his compositions. The Poem, “Wild Lemons” is dedicated to the
then Australian premier (which is known as Prime Minister now) Don Dunstan.
This poem actually celebrates the grit and resilience of Dunstan. He thought for
the welfare of the people especially of South Australia. The poem has an extensive
use of Australian landscape, the climatic condition and the metaphor of wild
lemons to explain the transition from one moment to another. He was a social
reformer in the true sense of the term as he was very vocal and also action oriented
when it comes to the Education sector, Health and Hygiene, Gender Equality,
Homosexuality and most importantly Aboriginal rights. His tenure was so famous
that its known as Dunstan Decade in Australian Political History.
4.7 GLOSSARY
Ivy League: A group of long-established universities in the eastern US having
high academic and social prestige. It includes Harvard, Yale, Columbia
Homoeroticism: is a sexual attraction between members of the same sex
Metaphor: A figure of speech which a word or phrase is applied to an object or
action to which it is not literally applicable
Aboriginal: Inhabiting or existing in a land from the earliest times or from before
the arrival of colonists
4.8 LET US SUM UP

From the above discussion am sure you are quite familiar with David Malouf
and his life and times he lived. You also must have got a clear understanding of
Australia and post colonial constructs. His two poems “The Revolving Days”
and “Wild Lemons” are delved deep in this unit.
176
David Malouf: ‘Revolving
4.9 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE Days’, ‘Wild Lemons’
QUESTIONS
1. What is the major concern of David’s Malouf’s writings?
2. What is your idea about Aborigines of Australia?
3. Write a brief over view of post colonial Australia.
4. What is the gist of the poem The Revolving Days?
5. What does the poet actually mean by referring to lemons in the poem “Wild
Lemons”?

Sati, Someshwar. A warble of postcolonial voices An Anthology of short stories
and poems Vol.II. New Delhi: World view publications, 2018 pp302, 303
https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/david-malouf
Chakraborty, Madhumita. Post Colonial Literatures: Voices from the other. New
Delhi: Book Age Publications,2015. Pp.21.4
David Malouf: A Celebration. National Library of Australia,2001
http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/nesais.v2i1.1474
Natalie Seger, “Imagining Transcendence: The Poetry of David Malouf,”
Australian Literary Studies, 2005.
Reviewed Work(s): Revolving Days by David Malouf, Review by: Anthony Lynch
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41957872
https://poemanalysis.com/david-malouf/revolving-days/#:~:text =’Revolving%
20Days’%20by%20David%20Malouf%20is%20a%20three%2Dstanza,%
2C%20and%20the%20third% 3A%20six.&text=These%20are%20seen%20
through %20repetition, well%20as%20through%20half%2Drhyme.
177
Poetry
178
BEGC -114
Postcolonial
Indira Gandhi
Literatures
Block
4
DRAMA: VIJAY TENDULKAR’S GHASHIRAM KOTWAL
UNIT 1
Theatre in India 181
UNIT 2
Reading Ghashiram Kotwal 193
UNIT 3
Plot and Technique 205
UNIT 4
Themes and Characterization 217
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s
Ghashiram Kotwal BLOCK INTRODUCTION
In the previous blocks you have read Postcolonial literatures from different parts
of the world, primarily from South Africa. Block 4 of the Postcolonial Literatures
focuses on the modern drama from India. This block titled Drama: Vijay
Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal is structured as below:
Unit 1 Theatre in India presents a background reading of the modern indian

theatre. By tracing the evolution of Indian theatre the unit brings out the shifts in
the paradigms. A brief discussion on the life and works of Vijay Tendulkar has
been done.
Unit 2, Dramatic Techniques, analyses the interactions between music and dance,
various folk forms, etc. Translating a text demand a lot of care and seriousness
from the translator since it more than a text that is in translation, keeping this in
view a discussion of the the play’s translation has been presented.
Unit 3 discusses the plot and technique of the the play Ghashiram Kotwal
Unit 4 titled Themes and Characterisation analyses the important themes

discussed in the play. Art of characterisation and the role assigned to women in
the play as also society have been described. Gender concerns of the text is one
of the primary concerns in this unit.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Major portions of Block 4 have been borrowed from EEG-07, as the University
policy, purely for educational purposes. We acknowledge the academic
contributions of the course writers of EEG-07.
180
Theatre in India
UNIT 1 THEATRE IN INDIA
Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Indian Drama
1.3 Marathi Theatre
1.4 Modern Indian Theatre
1.5 Vijay Tendulkar: Life and Works
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.0 OBJECTIVES
In this Unit, we shall briefly discuss the growth and development of Indian theatre,
especially Marathi theatre so that we can understand Ghashiram Kotwal in its
proper context. In addition to this, we shall also take up the intellectual, social
and political reasons that influenced Indian theatre in the fifties and sixties and
gave a certain direction to its subsequent development.
have a view of the main trends in Indian drama;
describe the development of Marathi theatre;
discuss the historical background of the play; and
outline the life and works of Vijay Tendulkar.
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This is the last Block in your course. In all the previous blocks, we have discussed
Western drama which comes from a different culture, a different tradition. In the
previous blocks you read fiction, poetry and short stories from different
Postcolonial spaces in the west. Here we turn to Ghashiram Kotwal which is
quite different from all the plays you have read so far. Modern Indian theatre has
emerged from a different tradition. It is for this reason that we shall discuss
Indian and Marathi theatre to give you the introductory background which you
will find useful.
Vijay Tendulkar, the well-known playwright wrote Ghashiram Kotwal in Marathi

(first published, 1973). It has been translated into different languages –the Hindi
translation was done by Vasant Dev (Delhi, 1974). Jayant Karve and an American
professor Eleanor Zelliot jointly translated Ghashiram Kotwal from the Marathi
into English (Calcutta, 1984)
Even though this is a play from our own country, yet we know that India is very
large with diverse cultures and language. It is this diversity that we must keep in
mind while approaching the play. Some of us, who belong to different regions,
181
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s may not be aware of the specific features of Maharashtrian culture. However, we
Ghashiram Kotwal
shall try to highlight these course of discussion over the next few Units. You will
find Ghashiram Kotwal an interesting play, but before we begin to read it we
need to know something about Indian theatre, something about Marathi theatre.
We also need to find out who Vijay Tendulkar is and what is the historical
background of the period in which the play is set. All these aspects will us in
understanding the play better.
Drama, as we know, is quite different from a novel or a poem. We usually read a

novel or a poem when we are alone. But drama is something more than simply
words on the page –it is meant to be performed or enacted. The audience is an
active participant in the theatrical presentation. So we respond to a play not
alone but along with other members of the audience. It is quite another matter
that other people will respond in their own specific ways. But then there are
some plays which we do not see performed but read them as literature. How will
we approach such plays? We must remember that playwrights usually expect
their plays to be performed. It is for this reason that they present their themes
through dialogue, action, music, song and dance so that the play is visually
captivating. When reading a play we have to make full use of our imaginative
powers. We must try to see the action and scenes as well as hear the voices of the
characters. It is only then that we will be able to experience the play in its multiple
dimensions: as ‘literature’as well as ‘theatre’.
You may face a slight problem trying to relate the English dialogues to traditional
Marathi characters of the eighteenth century. As you know, the play was originally
written in Marathi and comes to you in translation. We shall discuss this aspect
in a later section.
Do go through all the sections and answer the questions given in ‘Check Your
Progress’. This will help you to remember what you have read and also give you
some practice in expressing yourself in your own words. We do hope you enjoy
working through this Unit.
1.2 INDIAN DRAMA

You may have heard that the tradition of Indian drama is very old. It goes back to
the Sanskrit drama of ancient India and encompasses contemporary Indian theatre
in Hindi, English and the regional languages. Modern Indian drama is influenced
not only by classical Sanskrit drama or local folk forms but also by Western
theatre, following the establishment of British rule in India.
Sanskrit Drama
Sanskrit drama flourished in ancient India and produced Bharata’s Natyashastra,
the great treatise on all aspects of drama. Bharat’s book comparable in range and
scope to Aristotle’s Poetics. In the Poetics, Aristotle prioritizes tragedy as a higher
art form as opposed to comedy. But in classical Sanskrit drama there cannot be a
tragic end. This is because of the Hindu worldview which considers the world a
‘maya’or an ‘illusion’and death not a final end, but a release of the soul into
higher forms of being –an event to be celebrated rather than lamented. So you
will find no tragedies in Sanskrit drama.
People in the West first heard of Kalidasa’s Shakuntala (circa 5th century) when
182 Sir William Jones translated it into English in 1789. His excellent translation
brought Sanskrit drama to the attention of the Western world. Goethe (1749- Theatre in India
1832), the German writer was so impressed that he borrowed the convention of
the Prologue from Shakuntala and used it in his own play 'Faust'. Kalidas, however,
was not the only playwright that ancient India produced. In the Hindu period of
the first nine centuries, we have three kings Shudraka, Harsha and Visakhadatta
who wrote plays that now form part of our great cultural heritage. Shudraka
(circa 4 A.D.) wrote the famous Mrichkattakam or The Little Clay Cart which
features regularly in contemporary drama festivals as Mitti Ki Gadi.
The Little Clay Cart is a social play. Vasantsena the beautiful courtesan loves
Charudatta a noble Brahmin who is already married. Sansthanaka, the brother-
in-law of the king tries to make overtures to the courtesan who repulses him. His
wicked schemes to implicate Charudatta in Vasantsena’s alleged murder come
to nought as Aryaka, a shepherd rebel overthrows the king and sets both Charudatta
and Vasantsena free to marry and live a happy life.
Visakhadatta wrote the powerful play Mudraraksasa (Raksasa captured through

the Signet Ring). The play deals with two rival ministers –Chanakya and Raksasa.
Chanakya represents intelligence and intrigue whereas Raksasa is a man of noble
ideals and integrity. The play gives us an insight into the minds of power-hungry
politicians.
Bhasa wrote 134 plays comprising monologues, one-act plays, and six-act dramas.
His masterpiece is Swapana-Vasavadatta (Vasavadatta Seen in a Dream). The
story is about King Udayana who is torn between his love for his wife Vasavadatta
and the political necessity of marrying Padmavati, the daughter of a neighbouring
king. Harsha’s (7th century) best-known play is Ratnavai. Ratnavai is somewhat
similar in plot to Swapana-Vasavadatta.
Sanskrit drama was eclipsed with the advent of the Mohammedans in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. Sanskrit drama, with its ornate language, was addressed
to sophisticated courtiers. Moreover, it has many rules and regulations. For
instance, according to the conventions adopted by it, there could be no tragic
end, no violent or repulsive act that could be depicted on stage, the hero and
heroine had both to be charming and noble and that the jester had to be greedy
and fat. As opposed to this, folk theatre with its flexible and free from has changed,
developed and adjusted itself to the changing social conditions reflecting the
lives of the people. But before we examine some of the different types of folk
theatre, let us briefly consider some of the basic principles of drama as laid out in
the Natyashastra.
Natyashastra
In the West, Aristotle’s (4th century B.C.) Poetics is taken as a basic classic that
states the principles of poetry in general, and gives a more detailed account of
the epic and tragedy. In India Bharata Muni’s Natyashastra (circa 200 BC to AD
200) is regarded as a comprehensive book that discusses all aspects of dramaturgy.
Not only does it touch upon production and direction, but it also deals with
make-up, costumes, jewellery, movements of the eyes, neck, as well as body
postures.
This exhaustive study is directed at the playwright, director and actor because
these three were considered inseparable in drama. Sanskrit plays began with a
ritual of music and dance performed on stage. The Sutradhara or stage manager 183
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s dressed in white came in with two assistants and offered homage to the presiding
Ghashiram Kotwal
deity at the centre of the stage by scattering flowers and sprinkling water. This
was not only an appeal to the deity for the success of the performance but also
helped to create an atmosphere of austerity. Then the Sutradhara called the leading
actress and opened the play with a prologue that announced the time and place
of the action. For example, Balwant Gargi in his book Theatre in India (1962)
tells us how Shakuntala begins:
Sutradhara: Our audience is very discriminating, and we are to offer them a new
play, called Shakuntala, written by the famous kalidasa. Every member of the
cast must be on his mettle. Actress: Your arrangements are perfect. Nothing will
go wrong.
The Sutradhar not only introduced the play but took one of the chief roles as
well. In fact, we shall see the Sutadhar assuming different roles in Ghashiram
Kotwal. The Sutradhar provides a link between the different episodes in the play.
Another stock character in Sanskrit drama is the clown or Vidushaka. Both the
Sutradhar and the Vidushaka are found in Folk theatre.
Four Kinds of Representations
In Sanskrit drama, an actor expresses himself through four kinds of abhinaya.
Angika: Representation of action physically by moving hands, fingers, lips, neck
and feet.
Vacika: Expression through speech, song, intonation to evoke various sentiments
in the audience.
Aharya: Use of specific costumes and make-up
Sattvika: This is the most important of the four representations. The actor must
feel the role and the emotion that he is to convey. This emotion is the bhava
which has to be expressed to convey the rasa (taste or flavour) to the spectator.
Rasa literally means ‘taste’or ‘flavour’and is an important concept in Hindu
drama.
What are the character types in Hindu drama?

Some characters are sublime like the epic heroes Rama and Krishna. Others are
impetuous like demons and fierce characters. Soldiers and kings usually fall
under the category of gay and cheerful characters while subdued characters are
the ministers and merchants. The sutradhar not only introduced the play but took
one of the chief roles as well. The clown, a stock character, was called the
Vidushaka. This comic figure spoke in Prakrit (the local dialect) while the other
characters spoke in Sanskrit. Did women act in plays? The Sutradhar’s wife, the
Nati, helped her husband in looking after the production and also acted. Actresses
were not regarded highly in society.
Types of Drama
There are 10 types of drama categorized but the two important ones are nataka
and prakarana. The themes of nataka or heroic drama are taken from history or
mythology and feature gods, kings or heroes. Prakarana or social drama deals
with the common man. The Little Clay Cart that deals with a courtesan and a
Brahmin belongs to this category. But whatever the types of play, there are no
tragedies in ancient drama. The hero cannot die or be defeated. This is quite
184
different from the Western view where great tragedies were considered a more Theatre in India
elevated genre than comedy.
Time of the Performance

The time of the performance was determined by the theme of the play. If virtue
was the theme, the play was performed in the morning, while a story of strength
and energy was usually enacted in the afternoon. Plays of erotic sentiments were
performed in the first part of the night whereas one of pathos in the fourth part of
the night. Performances usually lasted four or five hours.
Many great dramas have been produced in ancient India covering a wide range
of subjects. According to Kalidasa ‘Drama provides satisfaction in one place to
a group of people whose taste may differ a great deal.’
Folk Theatre
Folk theatre is usually based on mythological tales –of Rama, Sita, Krishna and
other popular episodes from the great Hindu epics –Ramayana and Mahabharata.
The performances usually take place in the open air and the specific feature of
folk drama is improvisation. Improvised stage, improvised dialogues often refer
to something of topical interest. There is extensive use of song, dance and music
including a great deal of slapstick humour. The emphasis is on audience
participation and interaction with the performers and the performance is conducted
in an informal manner.
Let us look at some of the popular regional forms of folk theatre.

Nautanki is an operatic drama popular in Rajasthan and even Gujarat and
Maharashtra. The hero is usually a character from history, a lover or warrior, and
the story is based on old ballads. The language used is the local dialect –music is
folk melodies. The stock character is the buffoon and there is usually a stage
manager, the Ranga. This is a very informal kind of performance and there is a
free intermingling of the actors with the audience.
Jatra is peculiar to Bengal and this again is operatic in form. Initially, Jatra dealt
with incidents in the life of Krishna but gradually, as improvisations began to
take place, it became more secular and offered comment on contemporary life.
The action is stylized and vivid and the chorus which is an integral part of it
interrupts the action and sings.
Bhavai is popular throughout Gujarat and parts of Western India. It is a series of

playlets which deal with medieval tales of chivalry. Bhavai actors must be experts
in dance, music and mime. The make-up is exaggerated making use of soot and
red and white pigments in oil. Bhavai usually starts late in the evening and lasts
all night.
Tamasha is similar to bhavai in many ways. It is popular in Maharashtra and you

will see elements of it in Ghashiram Kotwal. These plays are based on love
stories and tales of chivalry presented through dance and music. These are
basically musical plays but prose dialogues are also used to make social and
political comment. These are performed by roving troupes –men and women –
and the sound of their drum attracts large crowds to the venue of the performance.
It is interesting to note that while women do act in a ‘tamasha’, they are not
usually allowed to witness it because of the abusive language that is used freely.
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Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s Terukoothu is a street drama popular in Tamil Nadu. Peasants and their women
Ghashiram Kotwal
perform it in the fields and village streets after the harvest is over. Usually
mythological plays are performed. Song, dance and prose are all mixed together.
The costumes are splendid and the make-up is of sandal and rice paste with
colours extracted from herbs and leaves.
Yakshagana from Karnataka is also performed in the open air. These performances
with songs and prose-dialogues are by man only. The Bhagavathar or the singer
introduces the characters as they come dancing on to the stage. These are usually
based on mythological tales.
Kuchipudi is a dance drama from Andhra. These dance dramas are usually based
on episodes from the life of Krishna. The performances usually take place at
night in an open-air stage. Speech, dances, songs, mime and music all form part
of this performance.
Ramlila, popular in Uttar Pradesh and all over India, is a pageant play based on
the life of Rama, and take 14 days to stage. The songs linking the various events
in the plot are rich in narration and description. The actors wear splendid costumes
and lavish make-up. The stage is arranged for multiple settings. The Kathakar
sings of coming events helping the movement of the plot and heightening the
emotional impact. Masks, effigies and fireworks are often incorporated in the
play.
Krishnalila: The stories of Radha and Krishna are popular all over India and
perrormed across the length and breadth of the country, even though the real
home of Krishnalila is Vrindaban and Mathura in U.P. The role of Krishna is
played by a young boy before his voice bleaks. The boy is raised in a religious
atmosphere and made to believe that he is Krishna himself. This creates the
necessary conditions for the boy to act out his role with sincerity and conviction,
moving the audience to tears and ecstasy. The audience begin to chant the hymns
with the chorus and this audience participation is a specific feature of these
religious dramas.
Folk theatre still has a base in religious mythology but has moved towards a
more secular orientation. It represents the cultural life of the community –its
songs, dances, beliefs, customs and dresses. The bare stage makes for innovation
and improvisation and contributes to the vitality of the form. It also leads to
directness of action and therefore a close actor-audience participation.
Let us now look more specifically at Marathi theatre. But before we do that, let
us first answer the following questions.
1) Outline the functions of a Sutradhara in a Sanskrit play in your own words.
(50-60 words).
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186
2) Name and define the four kinds of Abhinaya as described in the Natyashastra. Theatre in India
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3) What are the popular folk theatres in Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra?
Give brief description (50-60 words each)
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1.3 MARATHI THEATRE

Marathi theatre is now about 150 years old if we take as its starting point Vishnudas
Bhave’s play Sitaswayamvar (1843). He used grotesque masks made from wood
and papier mache to make his gods look superhuman. Bhave worked in the theatre
for 60 years and when he died in 1901, he left behind 50 plays, among them
Ramayana and Mahabharatha. In 1885, the Indian National Congress began its
struggle for independence. The nationalist sentiment was expressed in plays based
on historical and mythological themes. Keechakavadha (1906) by Khadilkar is
one such play. This incident from Mahabharata tells of how Keechaka, the
borhter-in-law of king Virata, steals into Draupadi’s room in the dead of night
only to find Bhima, one of the Pandavas waiting for him. Bhima kills Keechaka
and when the faces are revealed it is Lokamanya Tilak, the national leader, as
Bhima, who kills Keechaka who is recognizable as Lord Curzon. Another
favourite by the same author is Bhau Bandaki that describes palace intrigues
when Anandibai, very much in the manner of Lady Macbeth, causes the Peshwa
to be murdered. Anandibai often features in several folk tales in Maharashtra.
Gadhari’s (1885-1919) Akach Pyala (Only One Glass) is the best know among
his six plays. It is the story of the life of a drunkard and sermonizes on abstinence
from wine and women. This play leans heavily on melodrama. Under the influence
of Ibsen and Shaw, a touch of realism was added to Marathi theatre with the
plays by Mama Varerkar. Satte Che Gulam (Slaves of Power) has a political
message of social reform and Gandhi’s philosophy. In Sonya Cha Kalas. (the
Pinnacie of Gold) we have the son of a mill-owner taking up the cause of the
workers. Warerkar’s Bhoomi Kanya Sita (Sita, Daughter of the Earth), highlights
the cause of Indian women by projecting Sita’revolt against some of Rama’s
values –she cannot condone some of his battles or denial of the privileges of
reading the Vedas to lower-caste people. Another play with feminist overtones is
P.L. Deshpande’s 3 Act Sunder Mee Honar (I Shall Be The Beautiful) which
depicts the struggle of a crippled woman-poet who regains her strength, beauty
and love life.
According to Balwant Gargi, ‘It is in the boisterous comedies that the true Marathi
acting and theatre are reflected. These comedies, which also deal with social
187
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s problems, have mass appeal (Theatre in India p. 129). Tendulkar, tends to agree
Ghashiram Kotwal
with Gargi that ‘Marathi theatre-goers don’t have the concept of ‘identification’.
They don’t want to identity with characters in plays, or see a representation of
their own lives. They prefer to see a romanticized version of life, to escape into
fantasy. They don’t see the things they are looking for in my plays.’(Interview
with Priya Adarkar, Enact 49-50, Jan-Feb 1971).
In the last two decades Marathi playwrights such as Sai Paranjpe, Mahesh
Elkunchawar, C.T. Khandekar and Vijay Tendulkar have made significant
contributions to the development of Indian theatre by experimenting with new
forms. Let us now briefly look at some of the trends in modern Indian theatre.
1.4 MODERN INDIAN THEATRE

The production of Mohan Rakesh’s “Aashad Ka Ek Din”by the Anamika Mandali
gave a new direction to Hindi drama. Even though Dharamvir Bharati’s “Andha
Yug”, an important landmark in Hindi theatre, was published in 1955, yet it was
produced much later. And the establishment of the National School of Drama in
New Delhi gave an added impetus to the development of theatre in India. The
Shri Ram Cultural Centre, New Delhi, organizes National Drama Festivals which
feature plays in Urdu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Marathi and Bangla. National and
state level awards for drama also provide the necessary encouragement and
patronage for the art. Rajendra Paul’s Enact and Nemichandra Jain’s Natrang
are journals that have provided the forum for the most recent and up-to-date
information on theatre. Enact however, is no longer printed.
Translation of plays from English, German, Sanskrit, French, Russian and regional
Languages into Hindi have also enriched the field of Indian theatre. The theatre
goer can see the plays of Moliere, Brecht, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Kalidasa, to name
a few, in the language that they understand. Similarly Indian plays have been
translated into various foreign languages. For example, Peter Brooks presented
the Mahabharata in French in the South of France with an international cast.
The importance of translation in drama is clear from the fact that you will read
Ghashiram Kotwal in English. If it was not for the translation, you would have
to read it in the original Marathi. How many of us can claim to know the language?
There are various trends in modern Indian theatre. There is the theatre in English
which caters to a select audience and produces adaptations of the Western masters
Brecht, Becket, Shaw, Ibsen, to name a few. The theatre in English also takes up
light comedies or musicals that have been successfully produced in the West.
Another trend is to revive classical Sanskrit plays, not as adaptations but by
reconstructing medieval stage sets and approximating to the spirit of the original.
The use of folk forms for providing a commentary on the current social and
political situation is also popular. You will be able to appreciate this when you
read Ghashiram Kotwal because you will see how Tendulkar has used the
‘Tamasha’form to expose the socio-political ills in contemporary society. Yet
another trend in modern theatre is the engagement with problems of inequity
and the anguish and disillusionment of modern life. Rather than providing escapist
fare by projecting a romantic or comic attitude to life, most contemporary
playwrights display concern and commitment. This means that they wish to
highlight the place of the individual in a society that is becoming increasingly
hostile to individual aspirations. The sham and humbug of political institutions
188
is also exposed. Some of these concerns you will find reflected in Tendulkar’s Theatre in India
Ghashiram Kotwal.
1.5 VIJAY TENDULAKAR: LIFE AND WORKS

Born in Bombay on 7th Jan., 1928, Vijay Tendulkar started as an apprentice in a
bookshop, read proofs and managed a printing press and later took up journalism
as a profession. He was assistant editor of Marathi dailies such as Navbharat,
Maratha and Loksatta. At 11, when Tendulkar was still at school he wrote his
first play. As he says in an interview with Priya Adarkar (Enact 49, 50, Jan 1971),
Ít had a mythological theme, and some of us at school performed it....My childhood
writing was unimportant in itself. But because of it, when i eventually started
writing seriously, I wrote with great ease. I had acquired a certain colloquial
sense.’His first full-length play Grihasta only came in 1955. A versatile writer,
Tendulkar has written plays, short stories, features, translations of drama and
novels as well as television serials in Hindi and screenplays for films in Marathi
and Hindi. He has received many awards for his plays. In 1969 he received the
Kamladevi Chattophdhyaya Play of the Year Award for Shantata! Court Chalu
Ahe! Which Girish Karnad, another distinguished playwright has described as
‘the best play written in the last thousand years’. He was also given the Sangeet
Natak Akademi Award for playwriting in 1970. He received the Kalidas Samman
for 1991 instituted by the Bharat Bhavan Trust, Bhopal. On this occasion he
called for cultural freedom saying: ‘Culture needs to be nourished by patronage.
It must not be overwhelmed or stifled by the state. In case this happens the sole
motive of the patronage to culture will be self-defeating and suspect.’
Shantata! Court Chale Ahe is a satire against male-dominated society in which a

woman can neither get a sympathetic response nor win over a man to give
legitimacy to her child. Translated into English by Priya Adarkar, this version
was first put up by the Muslim Theatre, Madras, in March 1971. The play was
also broadcast in English by the BBC.
Sakharam Binder has also been translated into Gujarati, Hindi and English and
is one of Tendulkar’s popular plays. It is about Sakharam, a womanizer who uses
women and then discards them. He drinks heavily, abuses them and inflicts all
kinds of violence on them until he meets his match in the bold and rebellious
Champa.
His most controversial play is perhaps Kanyadan. The daughter of a socialist

politician marries a young dalit poet with the approval and encouragement of
her father. But what seems a politically sound match turns into a nightmare as
the dalit beats his wife mercilessly even when she is pregnant. The play has been
seen by many as anti-dalit just as Ghashiram Kotwal is considered anti-Brahman.
We shall discuss this aspect in later Units.
Tendulkar’s plays alongwith Girish Karnad’s have changed the face of Indian
theatre by demolishing the 3-act play and crating exciting new moulds. For
developing this flexible as well as carefully crafted form, he took up folk forms,
modes of recitation and story-telling specific to his region. He has managed to
bridge the gulf between traditional and modern theatre by creating a vibrant new
theatrical form, an example of which is the play in your course Ghashiram Kotwal.
189
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s Selected Works
Ghashiram Kotwal
DRAMAS
ASHI PAKHARE YETI. Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1970.
GHASHIRAM KOTWAL. Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1973
GIDHADE. Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1971
KAMALA. Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1982
KANYADAN. Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1983
SAKHARAM BINDER.Pune: Nilkanth Prakashan, 1972
SHANTATA1 COURT CHALU AHE, Bombay: Mauj Prakashan Griha, 1968
SHRIMANT. Bombay: Anand Pai ‘Meghaduti’, 1955.
ONE-ACT PLAYS
AJAGAR ANI GANDHARVA. Bombay: Mauj Prakashan Griha, 1966
CHITRAGUPTA AHO CHITRAGUPT. Bombay: Ramkrishna Book Deport,
1958.
THIEF POLICE. Bombay: Ramakrishna Book Depot, 1970.
SHORT STORIES
DWANDWA. Bombay: B.L. Pathak Prakashan, 1961.
KACHPATRE. Bombay: Nav-Lekhan, 1958.
PHULAPAKHARU. Pune: Nav Maharashtra Prakashan, 1970.
SCREENPLAY/DIALOGUES
MARATHI
GHASHIRAM KOTWAL (1976); SHANTATA! COURT CHALU AHE (1972);
UMBARTHA (1981).
TRANSLATIONS (DRAMA)
ADHE ADHURE. (translation of Mohan Rakesh’s Adhe Adhure). Bombay:
Popular Prakashan, 1971.
VASANACHAKRA (Translation of Tennessee William’s A Streecar Named
Desire). Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1966.
NOVELS
KATHA EKA VYATHECHI (Translation of Henry James’s Daisy Miller).
Bombay: Nav-Lekhan.
PREMPATRE (Translation of Henry James’s The Aspern Papers). Bombay: Nav-
Lekhan.
TELEVISION SERIAL
SWAYAM SIDDHA (HINDI), 1987.
190
1) Name five Marathi playwrights mentioning at least one play by each. Theatre in India
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2) Has Tendulkar only written plays? If not what other forms of writing is
Tendulkar also famous for?
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3) Name five plays written by Tendulkar.
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1.6 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit we have discussed certain topics that will be helpful in approaching
the text of the play. We have given you:
a brief introduction to Indian theatre which includes both ancient Sanskrit
plays as well as folk theatre.
an idea of the concepts of theatre in Bharata Muni’s Natyashastra, an ancient
Sanskrit text that takes into account all aspects of drama from costume to
make-up to performance.
an outline of the developments in Marathi theatre since its inception about
150 years ago.
an introduction to the life and works of Vijay Tendulkar.
In the next Unit we shall read the text. After we have given you brief guidelines
on how to read a play, we shall discuss the text.

If you would like to read more about Indian theatre you may consult:
Mulk Raj Anand, The Indian Theatre (London: Dennis Dobson)
Balwant Gargi, Theatre in India (NY: Theatre Arts Books, 1962)
Prabhakar Machwe, Four Decades of Indian Literature (New Delhi, Chetana

Publications, 1976)
191
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s These are only suggested as additional reading and are in no way compulsory. If
Ghashiram Kotwal
you would like to buy your own copy of Ghashiram Kotwal and if it is not
available in bookshops, you could write to Seagull Books, 36 Circus Avenue,
Calcutta-700017.


For your answers refer to 23.3 and 23.4
192
Theatre in India
UNIT 2 READING GHASHIRAM KOTWAL
Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Language and Style
2.3 Dramatic Techniques
2.3.1 Music and Dance
2.3.2 The Human Wall
2.3.3 The Use of Folk Forms
2.4 Let Us Sum Up
2.0 OBJECTIVES
outline Tendulkar’s use of language and style;
discuss the different dramatic techniques used by Tendulkar;
outline the special theatrical effects projected by the human wall;
explain how song and dance taken from Indian folk forms create a special
blend of the old and new in this play.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
This is the last Unit in your Block and it also happens to be the last one of the
course. You have read one-act plays, three-act play as well as longer plays like
Shakespeare’s 5-act Julius Caesar. Ghashiram Kotwal is not divided into the
conventional demarcations of act and scene. Nor is it as long as Julius Caesar.
But it has two parts separated by an interval. The scenes change smoothly,
orchestrated and directed by the subtle commentary of the Sutradhar and the
configuration of the human wall that arranges and re-arranges itself on stage. As
such there is no need for a curtain that is usually required in a conventional
performance. While reading the play, you must have noticed the innovative
techniques used by Tendulkar. It would seem that the director’s task is easy for
the variations and dramatic effects seem to be inbuilt.
So far, we have given you a brief introduction to Indian theatre in general and
Marathi theatre in particular in the first unit. We also read about the life and
works of Tendulkar. Then we discussed the background of the play, i.e. the
historical situation and the people on whom it is based as well as the central
theme of power and how it is constructed in a society interested in maintaining
the status quo. By this we mean the hierarchies of class, caste and gender by
which some dominate and oppress others. In this Unit, we shall take up questions
relating to form –i.e. techniques by which the playwright effectively
communicates his vision. In short, how and by which methods the theme is
expressed. 193
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s First we shall discuss the use of language an style, and the other dramatic
Ghashiram Kotwal
techniques by which Tendulkar achieves his ends.
Please complete the exercises we have prepared for you. Remember that in
literature there can be more than one interpretation. As such you may come up
with a fresh response to the play which may be different from ours. Please read
the play as well the discussion carefully and critically so that you are able to
decide for yourself whether you agree/disagree with the points being made and
whether you have alternative readings to propose.
2.2 LANGUAGE AND STYLE

We are often told: ‘Style is the man himself’. And every literary piece carries the
particular stamp of the specific idiom of the writer. For example, we can say that
the style of one playwright is different from the style of another. For example,
the style of Shakespeare is different from that of Shaw. But in a play the writer is
speaking through the person of the different characters. And so the style has to
vary according to the personality of the character. In fact, an educated person
speaks differently from an uneducated one. In short, each person has his/her/
own style of speaking. And the success of a playwright lies in the extent to
which he/she can script the dialogues to suit the personality of the character.
In Ghashiram Kitwal we have a range of characters from the powerful Nana to a

member of the chorus. How far has Tendulkar succeeded in giving us a variety
of dialogues to suit his characters? But before we do that, let us consider the fact
that what we have before us is a play translation.
The Play in Translation

Translation does not simply mean rewriting the Marathi text into English. It also
means translating the cultural context of eighteenth century Poona into an English
version. There is no doubt that Jayant Karve and Eleanor Zelliot have succeeded
in rendering the translation as faithful to the spirit of the original as possible.
While translating drama, the translator often adapts the play according to the
demands and expectations of the audience in the target language. It is not possible
to translate literally and some degree of adaptation is required in literary texts.
As Eleanor Zelliot, the translator has said that Tendulkar’s play demands and
inspires a great deal of creativity, gives the example of a Marathi abuse which
translates literally as ‘O you worthless one’. As this sounded somewhat weak,
the translators felt that an original substitute with the necessary punch would be
‘you shape piece of shit!’.
Most serious theatre is enacted in Hindi itself and in Delhi theatre groups usually
perform the works of world famous dramatists like Brecht and Beckett in Hindi
translation. English theatre usually confines itself to Western plays written in
English or in translation. However, urban theatre groups are increasingly taking
up the production of English translations of various plays written in Hindi or the
regional languages. For example, the theatre groups of Bombay took up the
production of Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq. English translations ensure that the play
reaches out across different linguistic barriers to different parts of our own vast
country. In addition, a foreign readership can also have access to it. Do we
ourselves not read the plays by the great Greek dramatists in translation? The
play begins with a hymn to Ganapati and Saraswati and the translators have tried
194
to keep to the rhythm of the original: ‘Ganapati dances the Ganapati dance. We Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
the Poona Brahmans bow and prance’(p.2.). The rhyming adds to the musical
quality. Culture specific words as ‘Bhatji buwa’, ‘sindur’, ‘lavani’, ‘kirtan’are
retained as in the original. Instead of translating them, notes explaining tese are
given at the beginning of the text. The flavour of the idiom of the original is
retained as in the abuse ‘May you itch without cause’and ‘I would have you
riding backward on a donkey with sindur all over your head’. The arrogant Nana
refers to himself in the plural as ‘we’. For example, he tells the servant ‘We’ll
have you killed’. He promises Gauri ‘But our devotion is –only to this graceful
image...’This reference to oneself in the plural is a convention among the royalty
in India as well as in the West. For example, Victoria was often known to say
‘We are not amused’.
You will have noticed that the dialogues are short and crisp. No long speeches
but quick exchanges often laced with wit. The ‘tamasha’convention of using
abusive language is also used here. It is only the Sutradhar who has slightly
longer dialogues. The Nana in a moderately long soliloquy reveals his evil
intentions to use Ghashiram to serve his own infamous purpose. There is the use
of colloquial language and a feel for the spoken word. When asked by Priya
Adarkar about his craft of writing, Tendulkar said: ‘But this is a question of my
playing with various styles and levels rather than of conscious planning. I am in
fact at ease in many styles of language’(Enact 49, 50 Jan-Feb 1971 ed. Rajinder
Paul).
This irony and play with words is also evident in the following exchange:
Nana: Bastard. You’ve got me in a narrow pass.
Ghashiram: Yes, the narrow pass of my only daughter.
Wit and irony is also evident in the following:
There are several other examples of the use of pun in the play. Can you recognize
the pun in:
There’s only one Nana
The rest are na-na-na-na. (p.21)
The element of slapstick comedy is clear in one of the early exchange between
the Sutradhar and the Brahman:
Sutradhar : Ho Ho Ho Bhatji Buwa!
Wait now, wait now. Hold your horses! Must you go?
Brahman : Forces? Whose forces? Foreign? English?
Sutradhar : Not forces! Hold your horses!
Brahman : So I’m stopped. What do you have to say?
Sutradhar : Where is your honour going so late at night?
Brahman : Nowhere, nowhere. It’s all right.
Sutradhar : Where is nowhere?
Brahman : Just near somewhere.
Sutradhar : Somewhere is near where?
Brahman : Go away. Don’t wait. Its getting late (p.3)
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Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s This kind of exchange continues until the Brahman unwittingly reveals his
Ghashiram Kotwal
destination. Note the use of pun and irony in this passage. The rhyming dialogues
add a rhythmic quality and establish the light mood that this scene creates.
The Sutradhar’s dialogues are full of tongue-in-cheek irony.

‘The Brahmans have lost themselves in the cemetery, in kirtan; the Brahman
women are sentenced to solitary confinement’(p.8). We are shown a Brahman
woman embracing her lover while the husband is away in Bavannakhani. Also
consider his comment:
The thief is a simple thief.
The police are official thieves? (p.16)
Sutradhar: Yes, this is the brutish city.
Stranger (not understanding): What, the British city?
Notice the pun on the word ‘brutish’which is misunderstood as ‘British’. In the
eighteenth century, the British were a tangible presence in India and to use
‘brutish’and ‘British’exchangeably may offer a subtle comment on the nature of
Empire.
In fact, there is another reference to the British in the play. You will recall that
when Ghashiram is beaten up by Gulabi’s thugs and the necklace given to him
by Nana forcibly taken away from him we are told that a ‘palanquin of a white
man comes on the stage... In front, a Brahman with ash on his forehead shouts.
‘The Sahib is coming Get aside (p.2). Then the Brahman says –‘Get aside, you
dog. Can’t you see the Sahib is coming?... (Turns to the Sahib). The natives of
this country have lost all their manners nowadays, sir, i swear, no one has any
self-respect or pride. Come on sir. Now you’ll get to see the ceremony of the
giving of royal gifts to the Brahmans, from the inside. I’ll sneak you in. Only
three silver rupees, sir’.
What is the significance of this scene? Is it introduced purely for spectacle value?
It might seem so at first. But if we catch the underlying irony, we understand that
the real function of the scene is to:
a) prove the sycophantic character of the Brahman;
b) expose his lack of manners which he confirms by abusing the humiliated
Ghashiram and;
c) his hypocrisy: while he blames others for the lack of self-respect and pride,
he himself has none as he tries to wheedle and coax money out of the Sahib.
The presence of a white Sahib observing the execution of Ghashiram also urges
us to analyse the phenomenon of his rise and fall more objectively.
But in addition to the dialogue, gestures and silence can sometimes speak more
than a thousand words. Tendulkar makes effective use of mime –especially in
the ordeal scene: ‘Brahman yells. Mime of placing the ball forcibly in his hands.
Brahman yells. Mime of the ball falling off (p.35). This indicates the convention
of not showing violent action or stage. And even though this is a very violent
play, the audience would not be shocked whereas in the American production
where the violence was depicted realistically, the effect was one of deep shock.
196
As we said in the first Unit of this Block, reading plays is a challenge. Not only Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
does the reader have to visualize all the scenes but he/she has also to listen to the
voices with all the modulations of tone and inflexion to catch the nuance of what
is intended within a particular context. For example, if we say”How wonderful!’to
a person who tells us that she has stood first in a competitive exam our tone will
be full of delight, wonder and appreciation. But if we respond in the same way to
a person who has just failed an examination, it is clear that we mean to be sarcastic.
Thus, it is important to relate the speech to the context and understand the
significance of the meaning intended. For example, the sarcasm implicit in the
Sutradhar’s tone is evident in the following exchange:
Brahman: Oy. Oy. You son of the both. Don’t you have goes eyes and ears?
Sutradhar:I’m sorry, O priestly Brahman.
Brahman: Don’t you have any manners?
Sutradhar:I’m so sorry, O lordly Brahman.
Brahman: Don’t you have any brains.
Sutradhar:I’m very sorry. O honoured Brahman (p. 4)
The abusive language, as you know, is part of the Tamasha convention that
Tendulkar makes use of.
In this play we have poetic dialogues as well as prose exchanges alternating with
the narration of the Sutradhar. In addition there are songs and humming, silence
and mime. All these variations help to create a complex and rich dramatic piece.
2.3 DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES

The first question that we so often ask about a novel or play or poem is “What is
it about? This leads us to think about the theme of the play. We can also ask
ourselves ‘Does it have a message or function? Like all art, a play is usually not
meant to objectively enquire after truth. It may aim ‘to instruct by pleasing’.
(Studying Drama: An Intro. Malcolm Kelsall, London: Edward Arnold, 1988, p.
57). As such it makes the audience angry or moves them to tears or to laughter
and sometimes to think. Talking about the function of theatre the famous
playwright Mohan Rakesh has said:
‘To my mind the function of theatre today is not just to entertain, nor just to
reveal certain ironies and contradictions of man’s mind and behaviour nor just to
philosophise or sermonize over certain socio-political issues. For me the major
function of theatre today is to help man to know and discover himself in relation
to his environment’. (‘Changing Role of Words in Theatre’, in an interview with
M. Maharishi Enact 73-74 Jan-Feb. 1973). Thus a play has several dimensions
and effects. How does the playwright achieve his/her effects? This is done by
using the various techniques of his/her craft. Visual delight is contributed by the
scenery, lighting, colours, costumes as well as special effects. In addition to all
this, we have quick racy dialogues, often ironical and witty. Then there are songs,
music and dances that add another dimension to the play. All these are part of the
playwright’s craft. Let us examine some of these techniques.
197
Ghashiram Kotwal
2.3.1 Music and Dance
Folk theatre, as we have seen, makes use of song, dance and music. No other
major playwright before Tendulkar had made such extensive and innovative use
of folk theatre. In addition to the songs and music, Dr. Jabbar Patel also made
use of humming so that we have what Vasantrao Deshpande, a classical singer
and composer himself, calls ‘the first sangeet natak in the real sense of the term’.
(in Pushpa Bhave, ‘Contemporary Indian Theatre: Interviews with Playwrights
and Directors’(New Delhi: Sangeet Natak Akademi, 1989, p.47).)
Ghashiram Kotwal begins with a devotional song and Ganapati, Saraswati and
Lakshmi come in dancing. This immediately establishes a link with Dashavatar
(a form of folk theatre) which begins with these three deities. This opening ritual
also has links with classical Sanskrit drama and likewise has a certain function,
this is, to arouse the interest of the audience, instill a feeling of seriousness in
them and to arrest their attention. Here we do not have music for its own sake.
According to Pushpa Bhave, ‘The music and the dance numbers are not
embellishments to the narrative....The changing musical notes express the
changing mood’. (Contemporary Indian Theatre –p. 46). In a lecture, the music
director of the successful Marathi production Bhaskar Chandavarkar has said
that the music in the beginning of the play was used innocuously in the Shri
Ganaraya song. But after the Intermission, when Ghashiram has become the
Kotwal, the music for the same song becomes much more revolutionary. Let us
look at some of the functions performed by the use of music, song and dance. We
note that
the use of traditional songs and dances effectively sets the background of
the decadence of the Peshwas’Poona of the eighteenth century;
the strategic placement of songs and music help to provide dramatic relief
after an unusually tense situation;
music and dance sometimes serve to reinforce the tense atmosphere, as
Satish Alekar assistant director to Dr. Jabbar Patel said, ‘After the ordeal by
fire the tempo tended to slow down a little. But with the introduction of the
‘Malhari’song, the tense atmosphere created by the sequence was reinforced’.
(Ghashiram Kotwal: A Production Casebook, Ghashiram Kotwal, xiv, xv);
the lavani highlights the sensuous, passionate element but at the same time
provides a comment on the social corruption;
the juxtaposition of the lavani or love song with the abhanga or devotional
song serves to bring out the contradiction in social values and norms;
the musical form helps to ‘deglamourize’history –history has an element of
grandeur, distance, formality, which gets reduced by the introduction of
song and dance, visible in the great Nana who struck terror in the hearts of
many but is made to look ridiculous in the play.
We have also seen that at a deeper level, Ghashiram Kotwal is a serious play, a
satire on the hollowness of society. Do you think the music weakens the thrust of
the satire? Tendulkar himself admits: ‘The criticism has a point…the form had a
certain inevitability’. Are we to agree with Tendulkar? Trust the tale and not the
teller, we are often told. And as we know, the play has been considered extremely
198 disturbing. In this play we have seen that laughter can be as much an element of
subversion and change as anger. The grotesque figure of the Nana dancing Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
effeminately demystified the power he represents and thereby, shows the
hollowness of what he represents so that we are made aware of the fact that the
possibility of change exists. The form and content subvert logical and authoritarian
structures. We have seen in the play how folk forms with the abusiveness represent
irrepressible vitality and freedom, and as we can see in Ghashiram it very subtly
subverts the hierarchy of caste in the following exchange:
Brahman : Oy. Oy. You son of a bitch. Don’t you have eyes and ears?
Sutradhar : I’m sorry, O priestly Brahman.
Brahman : Don’t you have any manners?
Sutradha : I’m so sorry, O lordly Brahman.
Brahman : Don’t you have any brains?
Sutradha : I’m very sorry, O honoured Brahman.
Brahman : You bumped me, you son of a bastard.
Sutradhar : I touch your feet, O Brahman.
Brahman : ‘Oh you monkey! Is this the Peshvai or the Mughal Kingdom?
Bumps a holy Brahman’.
Sutradhar : But not a Brahman’s wife! (p. 4).
You can note the sarcasm and insult intended in this exchange. Thus, laughter
can be seen as a political mode.
As we have also seen, music and dance have not been used for its own sake. The
songs sung or hummed by the chorus establish the appropriate mood and comment
on the action. What we have here is a blend of folk forms with mainstream urban
drama which has created a unique landmark in the history of Indian theatre.
2.3.2 The Human Wall

We have already discussed the character of the Sutradhar in 25.3.1. Let us now
briefly look at the function of the Human wall which is seen as ‘the basic structure
of the play’. The play opens with the members of the human wall walking up to
the stage from the hall. The twelve men dressed as Brahmans form the human
wall which can be used in diverse ways.
Producer Rajinder Nath used this wall to form ‘kaleidoscopic patterns’.

Reviewing the play, Rajinder Paul tells us:
“From an aesthetically clothed backdrop, he (Rajinder Nath) rhythmically
removes one Brahman like a brick to make a cut-out window, from behind
which emerges a female figure on the look-out for a noble catch”.
The human wall is an innovation and takes the place of a curtain in a
conventional stage. Here the stage is stark and empty without any props
and when the members turn their backs, to the audience, the wall ceases to
exist. As there is no conventional demarcation of the play into acts and
scenes, the human wall helps in the transition from one scene to another.
The wall serves as a chorus in the play. As you know the chorus is a
convention found and used very effectively in ancient Greek drama also. It
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Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s was usually a group of village elders, dressed in masks, who gave an account
Ghashiram Kotwal
of the event that had happened either offstage or a long time ago. In Greek
drama, the chorus moved from left to right and back again. In Ghashiram
Kotwal the ‘Chorus’of twelve men comprising the human wall sway in
unison. Not only do they sing and dance establishing a link with folk theatre,
but they also comment on the action of the play.
The Brahmans make a curtain with backs towards the audience. The curtain
sings and sways:
Ram Shiva Hari ……
The Street of Bavannakhani, became for a
While
The garden of Krishna. (p.6).
The song exposes the debauchery of the Brahmans who in the name of God
Krishna, in this case, wish to justify their erotic dancing with the courtesan.
The human wall is also a binding factor that holds the different scenes
together. The plot has several episodes which make it different from
naturalistic plays in which one scene follows necessarily from another.
Instead of artificially engineered exits and entrances, the play then assumes
a semblance of continuity and motion. What cannot be represented
realistically is projected through mime and the stage is never empty.
The human wall also takes on individual roles. At times it is transformed

into a group sitting in Gulabi’s hall; at others, they sneak off stealthily as
individuals, in a hurry to get to Bavannakhani. At another the Brtahmans
form a human god house round Ganapati, and when the Nana chases a girl,
the human wall becomes a garden. Throughout the play you will notice the
human wall assuming new and visually stimulating configurations. And
finally at Ghashiram’s execution, the human wall becomes the fierce mob
of angry Brahmans shouting with sadistic glee.
2.3.3 The Use of Folk Forms

We have seen that Tendulkar has made extensive use of folk forms in Ghashiram
Kotwal. Because of this the play is visually exciting. What effect does the play
have? Folk theatre invites audience participation and in this play we have the
Sutradhar and Ghashiram addressing the audience directly. According to Jabbar
Patel, this is different from the effect that Brecht, the German playwright intended
to create. But before we examine whether this is true, let us understand what
Brecht had to say.
According to Brecht ‘Modern theatre is epic theatre’. (quoted in John Willett,

The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (Lond) Eyre Methuen, 1981, p.170). He further
lists nineteen points of difference between dramatic and epic form of theatre in
No. 2 of the new volumes in notes to Mahagonny, of which five are listed below:
Dramatic form of theatre Epic form of theatre
Implicates the spectator in a stage turns the spectator into an observer
Situation arouses
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Wears down his power of action Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
The human being is taken for granted the human being is an object of
enquiry
he is unalterable he is alterable and able to alter.
Eyes on the finish eyes on the course.
The aim of this Epic form of theatre for Brecht was ‘to develop the means of
entertainment into an object of instruction, and to change certain institutions
from places of amusement into organs of public communication’. (p.170). What
Brecht tried to achieve through his plays was a feeling of alienation in the audience
rather than identification or empathy with the characters. He achieved this by
stressing the artificial nature of the stage but also demanded of his audience a
critical appraisal of the social causes and results of their action. In order to achieve
this ‘alienation effect’Brecht punctuated the action with songs, montage, (the
juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images) captions (for example, a character
could well carry a placard saying ‘cousin’to indicate his/her status), verse,
projections etc. These are meant to jolt the audience out of empathy so that he/
she is distanced and begins to took at the situation in a new light. Brecht’s objective
is political –to make the audience unmask the contradictions of society and so
help open up the possibilities for change.
From your reading of Ghashiram Kotwal do you think Tendulkar had any intention
of creating Epic Theatre on Brechtian lines? According to Dr. Jabbar Patel, as
Ghashiram speaks directly to the audience, the effect achieved is the opposite of
that usually created by Brecht. (Preface –Hindi translation of Ghashiram Kotwal,
Vasant Dev).
In any case, this is a difficult question because the effect of a play is highly
variable and different audiences respond to it in different ways. In fact the same
production can have a new effect every time it is staged. Even Brecht’s own
productions sometimes failed to create the alienation effect.
However, the setting of the play in eighteenth century Poona helps to create a
sense of distance. Characters in period costume produce the effect that the people
portrayed are removed from us in time and space. Moreover, Nana depicted in
the play is quite different from the revered Nana of history. This grotesque dancing
character reinforces the fact that the spectator is watching a play rather than
witnessing reality. Tendulkar has used the folk form which is predominantly
interactive and ensures active audience participation. But here the folk form is
used in mainstream theatre and the use of songs and dances further crates a sense
of distance from the action.
In the first reading of the play, it seems that the personality clash between Nana
and Ghashiram is the main theme. Nana promotes Ghashiram and when his
protégé becomes a maniacal monster as is evident in the climactic ordeal-by-fire
scene, the Nana decides that the time is ripe for destroying the creation that is
now of no more use to him. But on a more careful reading, we realize it is the
social system that throws up such aberrations that is being probed. So while the
song, dance and visual configurations of the human wall provide for sheer
entertainment, the juxtaposition of dialogue, verse, hymn, love song, dance,
narration and mime make us probe beyond surface appearances to understand
the subtle and complex social processes the dehumanize individuals. And unless
201
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s the system is changed, such a situation will continue. The end of the play with its
Ghashiram Kotwal
revellery may project the false illusion that all is now well with the world on one
level but on another, it is clear that this is a mere facade and the real danger
continues to thrive. So, for such a complex play which operates on many different
levels, it may not be suitable to pin down the effect to either ‘empathy’or
‘alienation’. It seems that the play veers between the two. And you will agree
that the dominant impact is one of shock at the violence and cruelty depicted.
Can it also be related to Antonin Artaud’s ‘The Theatre of Cruelty’?
What do we mean by the Theatre of Cruelty? According to Artaud, ‘The Theatre

of Cruelty has been created in order to restore to the theatre a passionate and
convulsive conception of life, and it is in this sense of violent rigour and extreme
condensation of scenic elements that the cruelty on which it is based must be
understood’. (Second Manifesto’The Theory of the Modern Stage. Eric Beautley
ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin 1983, p. 66). Such a theatre must create a dynamic
language of expressions that will arouse general attention. This would include
the visual language of movements, attitudes, gestures, music, dance and mime.
This language of theatre must transgress the usual limits of art and speech so that
what results is ‘a kind of total creation in which man must reassume his place
between dream and events’. (p. 58). What are the themes of this Theatre of
Cruelty? According to Artaud, the subject and themes that will be chosen would
correspond to the ‘agitation and unrest characteristic of our epoch’. (p. 66). If
you look at the play in the light of such observations you will find that there are
certain similarities between what Artaud proposed and what Tendulkar achieved.
As we have seen, Ghashiram Kotwal admits of several interpretations. Literature,

as we know, contains a plurality of discourses, and it is this that allows us to read
a text in different ways. It is not simply a case of taking up a particular aspect of
what is in the text. Reading is an active process in which all aspects of our own
personality also come into play. For example, a person reading this play twenty
years from now will look at it differently from the way we do now. Also a person
from another culture will have a perspective that is not the same as ours. As
reading and interpreting is a highly variable and subjective phenomenon, we
should try to look at a text from different angles. For example, if there is a picture
on the wall, you will find that it looks different if you stand on a table/stool/floor.
Similarly there are different angles of looking at a literary text. This is something
that we would like to encourage and would request you to inculcate. Let us now
do the following exercise.

1) Outline the role of the human wall giving examples from the text.
......................................................................................................................
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......................................................................................................................
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2) Tendulkar has made use of song, dance, music, mime, dialogue and narration
in the play. Illustrate the extent to which these elements contribute to the
total effect of the play.
202 ......................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................... Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
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3) write a short note on the language and style of the play.
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2.4 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit we have discussed:
the language and style of the play, keeping in mind the fact that it has been
translated from Marathi into English. The play works more by visuals rather
than by words and it is here that we notice the effective use of folk forms by
Tendulkar;
song and dance are integral to the action of the play and not just super
added to provide entertainment alone. Rather than subverting the satirical
thrust of the play, song and dance serve to make it more effective by
overturning accepted norms in terms of theatrical forms;
the human wall is an innovative-device that not only dissolves into visuals
and exciting configurations but also serves to control the flow of the story;
the effect produced by the play can be seen as neither of ‘empathy’as in the
dramatic form of theatre nor one of ‘alienation’as in the Epic form of Theatre
but also akin to the Theatre of Cruelty so that the audience can understand
the social processes that lead to violence and cruelty, a malaise that Tendulkar
studied as a research project and effectively depicted in artistic form in this
plays.

For an introduction to modern theatre and drama, you could look at: Eric Bentley
(ed) –The Theory of the Modern Stage (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983)
Siegfriedn Melchinger, The Concise Encyclopedia of Modern Drama (New York:
Horizon Press, 1964)
Venna Noble Dass, Modern Indian Drama in English Translation (Hyderabad,
1988).

i) To answer this question, you will need to go back to 2.3.2. In addition, you
will have to go through the text and mark the examples. Then you will write
down the answer in your own words.
203
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s ii) This answer requires some thinking on your part. You will have to consult
Ghashiram Kotwal
the text as well as the discussion in 2.2, and 2.3.2, 2.3.3. Remember that
originality in interpretation will be appreciated.
iii) Look at the discussion in Section 2.2, select suitable examples from the
text and write down your answer in your own words.
204
Reading Ghashiram Kotwal
UNIT 3 PLOT AND TECHNIQUE
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Production of the Play
3.3 The Historical Background
3.4 How to Read the Play
3.5 Critical Summary
3.6 Let Us Sum Up
3.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this Unit carefully, you should be able to:
discuss the plot of Ghashiram Kotwal; and
outline the themes in the play.
3.1 INTRODUCTION
This is the second unit of this Block. So far you have read a brief introduction to
classical Sanskrit drama, folk theatre and Marathi theatre. You have also read
about the life and works of the playwright Vijay Tendulkar. Tendulkar’s plays, as
you know, have made a major contribution to the development of contemporary
Marathi theatre. Ghashiram Kotwal described as ‘a major event in the history of
modern Indian theatre’(Dnyaneshwar Nandkarni, ‘Ghashiram Kotwal’Enact 73-
74 Jan –Feb 1973) was originally written in Marathi and has been translated into
several Indian languages including Hindi. The English translation, which is
prescribed for you, is done by Jayant Karve and an American academic Eleanor
Zelliot, who also knows Marathi well.
In this Unit, we shall briefly discuss the production of the play and its historical
background. Then, we shall give you some guidelines regarding how to read a
play. After this we expect you to take up the text of Ghashiram Kotwal and read
it very carefully, making notes wherever necessary. After you have done that, we
shall discuss the play in some detail.
We have given you some exercises so that you can check your progress as you
go along as well as reinforced what you have already learnt.
3.2 THE PRODUCTION OF THE PLAY

The play was first performed on 16 December, 1972 at Bharat Natya Mandir,
Pune by the Progressive Dramatic Association. But after nineteen successful
performances, the play was banned on the grounds that:
the portrayal of Nana Phadnavis’s character was a distortion of historical
facts:
205
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s the play was anti-Brahman;
Ghashiram Kotwal
violent audience reaction was feared.
Balachandra, Kelkar founder president of the PDA, said when banning the play:
“The whole drama has been written with an animus for Brahmans, the patriotic
Maratha Chancellor Nana Phadnavis has been portrayed as a lecherous character
and a golden period of the Peshwa rule has been shown as a period of decadence”.
(Veena Nobledass, Modern Indian Drama in Translation Hyderabad, 1988, p.
121).
In reaction to Kelkar’s statement, most of the actors who resigned from the
Progressive Dramatic Association formed the Theatre Academy and the play
was revived on 11th Jan, 1974. It has been performed successfully more than
three hundred times not only all over India but in France, Germany, UK,
Netherlands and Italy. Dr. Jabbar Patel directed fifty-five actors in this musical
play.
The photographs of the play that you find in your units are taken from this
production of the play. The Hindi version of Ghashiram Kotwal was directed by
Rajinder Nath and put up by Abhiyan in New Delhi in October, 1973. The English
version of the play was enacted in America. Satish Alekar who helped R. Jabbar
Patel in directing the play, was invited to direct the English version in New York.
Tendulkar’s plays are often controversial –Kanyadan raised a great deal of protest
in Maharashtra for being anti-dalit as Ghashiram did for being anti-Brahman.
But as you will discover after reading the play, it is far too complex to be simply
dismissed as anti-Brahman or a distortion of history.
Tendulkar often bases his plays on real incidents. For example, Kanyadan is
supposed to be based on the life of the dalit poet, Namdav Dhasal. Grashatha,
his first full-length play was based on a friend’s experience. Similarly Shatata
Court Chalu Ahe was modeled on a mock-trial enacted by a group of players
close to Tendulkar’s house in Bombay. Kamala was based on a newspaper report.
As you have already seen, Tendulkar is accused of distorting history in his play
Ghashiram Kotwal. Let us first examine the historical background of the play
before we are able to conclude whether such a charge is justifiable or not.
3.3 THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Ghashiram Kotwal is set in eighteenth century Pune at the time of the Peshwa
rule. The play features the Peshwa’s chancellor Nana Phadnavis and when it was
first staged it met a lot of criticism for showing the revered Nana’s character in a
derogatory light. But according to Tendulkar:
This is not a historical play. It is a story, in prose, verse, music and dance set in a
historical ear. Ghashirams are creations of socio-political forces which know no
barriers of time and place. Although based on a historical legend, I have no
intention of commentary on the morals, or lack of them, of the Peshwa, Nana
Phadnavis or Ghashiram. The moral of this story, if there is any, may be looked
for elsewhere. (‘Introduction, Ghashiram Kotwal, Seagull Books, Calcutta, 1984,
p.iv).
206
However, it would be well to look very briefly at the history of the period. If we Plot and Technique
look at the New History of the Marathas Vol II Sun Over Marashtra by G.S.
Sardesai, we note that a North Indian Brahmin Ghashiram was appointed the
police prefect of Poona on 8 Feb 1777 and continued to hold office till his death
which took place on 31st August, 1791. He enjoyed the full confidence of Nana
Phadnavis and unleashed a reign of terror in Poona. His downfall came when he
ordered the arrest of 35 Brahmans who were locked up in a small cellar. Due to
lack of ventilation, 21 died of suffocation. A Marathi chief passing that way
discovered the dead and reported the matter to the Peshwa. In the meantime
Ghashiram told the Nana that they had died due to opium poisoning. Upon the
Peshwa’s orders, Nana ordered an enquiry but the news had already spread and
the Brahman community clamoured for the arrest of Ghashiram. Nana did not
shield the Kotwal who was handed over to the crowd who stoned him to death
on 31st August. (pp. 358-60).
We have a similar incident in the play where history has been transformed into a
lively situation full of theatrical potential. How does history rate Nana Phadnavis?
In the history books, he described as ‘secretive, exclusive and often vindictive,
his exacting and stern methods, his insistence more upon the form that the essence
in a thousand and one matters of administration, did in the long run harm to the
Maratha Sate’. (p. 66) Nana, we are told was born on 12th Feb, 1742 and lived to
be 58 years 1 month. He married several wives, of whom the names of nine are
available. His last wife named Juibai who became a widow by his death, was
then nine years of age’. (p. 358)
Just as Shakespeare has made use of history from North’s Plutarch’s Lives and
transformed historical facts creatively into great drama that has withstood the
test of time, so Tendulkar appropriates history to create a powerful play that
raises questions of the politics of power that have a great relevance to Indian
society today. At first glance it may seem a historical play, a period piece but its
success lies in the fact that it challenges contemporary values by exposing them
and therefore, becomes meaningful to us, who are reading it in the 1990s. This
becomes clearer when we read the play more than once. In the writer’s note to
Vasant Deo’s Hindi translation, Tendulkar said:
In my view, Ghashiram Kotwal indicates a particular social situation which is

neither old nor new. It is beyond time and space. Therefore ‘Ghashiram and
Nana Phadnavis are also beyond space and time’. (New Delhi: Radhakrishan,
1983, p. 8 My Translation)
The significance of the play does not lie in its depiction or distortion of historical
reality. As such, these questions become irrelevant. Tendulkar has created his
own artistic world and it is within this context that we should read the play.
3.4 HOW TO READ THE PLAY

Drama, poetry and the novel are different genres or kinds of literature. Of these,
drama can be said to be the most complex and multi-dimensional. Why? Drama
is a complex form because it is not simply meant to be read like poetry or a novel
but is written for production in the theatre. It is multi-dimensional because it
incorporates other literary genres such as poetry and other forms of fine art like
music and dance. But when we talk about the inclusion of these forms, we are
speaking of drama in its totality from its text to the theatre production. 207
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s A story, poem or novel is written for a readership and the poet or novelist is free
Ghashiram Kotwal
to give rein to his/her imagination, taking liberties with time and space. But a
playwright has to write for an audience which will provide an immediate response.
He also has to keep the basic principles of stagecraft in mind –the use of time
and space, the use of dialogue, action, tone of voice, facial expression, costumes,
setting and so on.
The basic thing that we must remember is that a play is to be read imaginatively
so that we are able to picture the whole action in our mind’s eye. In short, we
must be able to see and hear the plot unfolding itself in front of our eyes. It is
only then that we will be able to appreciate a play in all its dimensions.
What then are the aspects of a play that we are to keep in mind while reading it?
We first need to consider the title of the play. What does it signify? Our next
question is: What is the play about, that is, what is the theme? In what time is it
set? Where is it set? Who are the main characters? In what sequence has the
playwright arranged the events and to what effect? In short what is the plot of the
play? What about dialogue? Has the playwright made use of other fine arts like
song, music, dance etc? What use has he made of action costume, setting and
spectacle? What kind of play is it –is it a tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy or poetic
play? What is the influence of classical or folk theatre on the play? If we keep
these questions in mind, we will be able to read the play perceptively. Now let us
take up the text of Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal. It is a short play, that does
not have any formal divisions into acts or scenes.
It just has 2 parts –part 1 ends at the intermission and after a break, the second
part begins. You will find the text in your Study Centre Library –do go through it
once, and during your second reading make notes regarding themes, characters
and dramatic techniques. You will be reading a Marathi play in English in which
the characters are Poona Brahmans living in the eighteenth century and the cultural
context is specifically Maharashtrian. How then do the English dialogues sound?

1) Do you think Ghashiram Kotwal is a historical play? Give reasons to justify
your answer.
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3.5 CRITICAL SUMMARY

We assume that you have read the play thoroughly. Let us examine it at some
length.
The Title
The title suggests that the play is about a man called Ghashiram who is also a
Kotwal. But is he the only important character in the play? You may have felt
that Nana Phadnavis is a more important character. The Sutradhar is there from
208
the beginning to the end. Why then is the play called Ghashiram Kotwal? The Plot and Technique
title is similar to another play by Tendulkar called Sakharam Binder. The play is
not simply about a man called Ghashiram but it is about the way in which power
operates to create and destroy people like Ghashiram. The play is not so much
about real historical characters like Ghashiram and Nana Phadnavis but about
the hypocrisy, shame and decadence of those in high places who are willing to
sacrifice anything for the sake of power and self. It is also about those who use
power to grab whatever they wish and destroy those who would oppose them.
For those who would play the power-game, people are pawns to be used when
the need arises and to be discarded when there is no longer any use for them.
How does power operate? Through social institutions like caste and religion. It
is for this reason that the play is so relevant to our own social situation today.
The Story
Briefly, the story is about Ghashiram, a Brahman from the North, who comes to
eighteenth century Poona. It was at that time that the Peshwa’s chief minister
Nana Phadnavis ruled supreme. Implicated in a false charge of theft, Ghashiram
is insulted and humiliated by the Poona Brahmans and he vows to take revenge.
His moment comes when the ageing lecherous Nana takes a fancy to his beautiful
young daughter Lalita Gauri. He sacrifices his daughter’s virtue to Nana’s lust
and manages to become the Kotwal of Poona. Now he unleashes a reign of terror
on the Brahmans. His cruelty crosses all limits and the death of 22 innocent
Brahmans results in his downfall and leads to his ignominious end when he is
stoned to death. The Nana who has used Ghashiram’s daughter and discarded
her when he moves on to fresh pastures goes scot free. After Ghashiram’s death
he announces public rejoicing for three days.
The play is a satire on a society which shields the powerful and the corrupt and
punishes people like Ghashiram. Justice is seen to be done, and the equilibrium
of society seems to be restored. But is it really justice? Is justice possible at all in
a corrupt social system?
Part 1
The Opening of the Play

The play opens with twelve men standing in a line, singing. At this point Ganapati
comes in dancing and is later joined by Saraswati. Prayers are offered to Ganesh
or Ganapati at the beginning of any undertaking in order to invoke his blessings
for good luck. This is a traditional ritual. Ganapati is an especially popular deity
in Maharashtra. Saraswati is the goddess of wisdom and music. Lakshmi the
goddess of wealth also comes dancing to the stage and is asked to shower her
blessings for the success of the play. This spectacular opening helps to arrest the
attention of the audience who will later be called upon to appreciate as well as
analyse the events as the occur. Let us further try and understand the significance
of this opening.
1) The line of 12 singing Brahmans forms a human curtain that will be

employed in many ways throughout the play to indicate changes in scene.
This play thus does not require a curtain like in a conventional stage.
Proscenium theatre requires stage poops and a certain degree of formality.
In this play, because of the human wall, the play can be staged with equal
success and facility on a city stage or a village green. 209
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s 2) The arrival of Ganapati, Saraswati and Lakshmi and the prayers offered to
Ghashiram Kotwal
them for the success of the play is similar to the ritual performed on stage
before the commencement of a classical Sanskrit play. That ritual was
performed by the Sutradhar and some others but in this play there is some
adaptation.
3) It is only after the three deities go dancing off stage that the Sutradhar
enters and stops the singing. A Sutradhar is important in folk theatre and
introduces all the character. In some plays he has a limited role and makes
only one or two appearance. But in Ghashiram Kotwal, the Sutradhar plays
several roles:
i) he introduces the characters and initiates the action of the play;
ii) he comments on the action throughout the play;
iii) he is not simply an objective observer but also takes active part in the
performance by assuming different roles;
iv) acts as a cohesive device stringing together the many and often
disparate scenes of he play.
After asking the Brahmans who they are the Sutradhar indulges in witty dialogue
with one of the Brahmans who try to sneak away from the human wall. In a
series of crisp and brief question, the Sutrdhar is able to extract the information
from him that he is going to Bavannakhani, infamous for its wine, women and
songs.
Another Brahman sidles out of the curtain apparently in a hurry to get to

Bavannakhani. Meanwhile the holy chant of ‘Shri Ganaraya’continues. On the
one hand the holy Brahmans, the custodians of social morality and religious
ritual sing hymns publicly and on the other they indulge their lust and illicit
passions in private. This exchange not only exposes the hypocrisy of the Brahmins,
their arrogance and use of abusive language in dealing with the Sutradhar but
also comments on the decadence of eighteenth century society in Poona. This
scene has another purpose. It has introduced us to the main characters, the societal
background and by mentioning Bavannakhani repeatedly, provided a smooth
transition to the next scene.
Nana Phadnavis
In Bavannakhani where we see the famous courtesan Gulabi dancing with
Ghashiram. At this point our main protagonist Nana Phadnavis comes in joins
the dance in the course of which he hurts his foot. It is Ghashiram who, true to
his sycophantic character, offers Nana his bent back to place his injured leg. In
gratitude Nana gives him a pearl necklace. But when Nana goes away, Gulabi
demands that the necklace be given to her. When Ghashiram resists, he is beaten
up and sent away. Outside, he is accused of picking a Brahmin’s pocket and
inspite of an English Sahib’s testimony to his innocence, he is beaten up and put
in jail. All his protestations regarding his innocence fall on deaf ears following
which Ghashiram vows to avenge his humiliation saying ‘I’ll make this Poona a
kingdom of pigs’. How do you think he will do this? What was the role of the
English Sahib who passes by in a palanquin? Don’t you think his presence further
exposes the subservience of the Brahmans to the white people and their greed as
they try to coax money out of him? The sahib also testifies to Ghashiram’s
210 innocence but in spite of that the unfortunate man is beaten up. The corruption of
the brutal police is also highlighted here. But in addition to all this, the presence Plot and Technique
of the English Sahib in the palanquin serves to underline the fact that we are in
colonial India.
Ghashiram’s opportunity for revenge comes when Nana is captivated by the

sight of his beautiful daughter Lalita Gauri. Ghashiram tantalizes him by
postponing the gratification of his lust and exultantly claims ‘Now he’s in my
hands…..’The innocent Lalita Gauri is bargained away so that her father can
become the Kotwal in order to gratify his vengeful desire to “make this Poona a
kingdom of pigs’. But Ghashiram does not realize that not only has he bartered
away his daughter but he has also ransomed his freedom to the wily Nana who
means to turn this concession to his advantage as he spells out in a soliloquy –
‘what’ll happen is that our misdeeds will be credited to your account. We do, our
Kotwal pays. The opportunity comes in the shape of Ghashiram.’Following
Nana’s statement, we find Ghashiram dressed ceremoniously as the Kotwal of
Poona and the scene draws to a close.
The Soliloquy
Up to this point, we have seen Nana as a hedonist indulging himself in the
pleasures of the senses. His penchant for girls young enough to be his daughters
is more than clear in his pursuit of Lalita Gauri. In this soliloquy we see another
aspect of his character.
A soliloquy as you know, is a speech in which a character shares one’s innermost

thoughts with the audience. The other characters do not know these and in the
action that follows this ignorance results in situations full of dramatic irony.
Ghashiram feels he has won a major concession from Nana. But Nana is a sinister
and wily politician. He has given him an inch to take away an ell. By making
Ghashiram the Kotwal, he will kill two birds with one stone. He will gratify his
desire to possess his beautiful daughter and unleash terror on Poona through his
Kotwal. In addition, by making an outsider like Ghashiram the Kotwal, he will
be able to check the conspirators. Moreover, Ghashiram cannot join the
conspirators because as an outsider they would not trust him and he would be
forced to turn to the Nana for support. Nana, astute politician that he is, can see
that Ghashiram will become more arrogant than the ‘Chitpavan Bhrahmans’- a
prophecy that is soon fulfilled as we see an arrogant Ghashiram appear on the
stage as soon as Nana’s monologue is over.
What purpose does this soliloquy serve?
Another dimension of Nana’s character is highlighted
His evil motives are revealed
Provides dramatic irony when we see the oblivious Ghashiram strutting in
his finery. His arrogance rings hollow to the audience who can see him as a
pathetic pawn in Nana’s game.
Thus ends the first movement of the play.
- Here we are introduced to the main characters by the Sutradhar who does
not simply appear at the beginning of the play but stays throughout, giving
the many scenes a certain coherence and continuity.
211
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s We have indications that Ghashiram is an opportunistic and sycophantic
Ghashiram Kotwal
character. Initially, he is just a newcomer, a Brahman from Kannauj who has
come to Poona with his wife and daughter. But due to a false charge of theft,
for which he is convicted, he vows to revenge himself upon the Brahmans.
This vindictive streak in Ghashiram will ultimately be the cause of his rise,
downfall and destruction, as we shall see. Nana Phadnavis is projected as a
weak effeminate character whose primary aim seems to be the pursuit of
women much younger than himself. Behind his dancing, pleasure-loving
exterior is a scheming powermonger who can manipulate circumstances to
suit his own selfish ends.
We have also seen that Tendulkar has made creative and multiple use of a
line of human beings –(i) they act as a human curtain on stage; (ii) this line
also functions as a wall; (iii) they sing as a chorus and (iv) provide interesting
and innovative visual effects.
- Tendulkar has also made extensive use of song and dance which seems to
bear the influence of the Tamasha form of folk theatre popular in Maharashtra.
Abusive language and slapstick humour are all used in the Tamasha form.
Lavani, the traditional love song is sung in alternation with religious hymns.
This highlights the fact that religion is used as a façade to hide the decadent
habits of the Brahmans. Dances add a spectacular touch to the performance,
provide dramatic relief after tense situation.
- Nana’s final soliloquy exposes his Machiavellian schemes. A soliloquy, as

we know, is a monologue in which the character speaks to him/herself. The
character’s innermost thought are revealed to the audience while the rest of
the people remain unaware of his thinking.
The context of the play is set by the period costumes and we are taken into
eighteenth century Poona during rule of the Peshwas.
Part 2
Now turn to the second part of the play which moves at a faster pace.
The play re-opens with the twelve people singing the Ganaraya song. The
Sutradhar walks in and a chorus of people confirm the fact that Ghashiram is
already performing his duties as Kotwal. We are told of how he has ‘whipped
people’, ‘arrested people’and how ‘Poona loses heart’. Innocent people are
punished and forced to accept crimes not committed by them. They are tortured
in jails. For instance, the Sutradhar who now plays the role of a Brahman is
caught wandering on the streets at night without a permit. For him, it is a crisis
situation as he has to fetch a midwife to help in the delivery of his child. His
truthful explanation is dismissed as lies by Ghashiram who has him thrown into
the prison.
In another instance, hearing some noise from a house, Ghashiram knocks as the
door and demands to know what is going on. A bewildered Brahman opens the
door to say that nothing was wrong at all. But Ghashiram refuses to believe him
and despite evidence proclaims that the woman was not his wife and the innocent
couple is arrested. These are only some of the examples of the injustice and
terror that are perpetrated by Ghashiram.
212
Nana, meanwhile is oblivious to all this. He is enjoying himself with Lalita Gauri Plot and Technique
and his support has driven the Kotwal to ruthless cruelty. A woman cannot cremate
her dead father-in-law because her genuine permit has been declared counterfeit
by the Kotwal. Her husband and brother-in-law have been arrested instead. The
unattended corpse has been in the cremation grounds and the distraught woman
comes to Nana for justice. Instead of a hearing, she is ordered out by Nana who
cannot bear to have his song and dance interrupted. This incident not only
underscores the cruelty and inhumanity of the Kotwal but also the utter self-
indulgence and decadence of Nana.
The woman is dismissed and dramatic relief is provided by a song and dance
sequence which also indicates the passage of time as confirmed by the Sutradhar.
Ghashiram’s cruelties only increase. Innocent Brahmans are tortured, the nails
of their hands pulled out and their fingers washed in lemon juice and soap. Hot
iron balls are placed on the hands of an innocent Brahman to make him admit of
a theft he had not committed. When under pressure he does admit of it, orders
are passed for his hands to be cut off. All this violence is depicted on stage
through mime. As the tormented man screams, the line of Brahmans begins to
sing hymns as if to drown his groans and the scene shifts. This is also symbolic
of the way that cruelty and oppression are swept under the carpet or religious
rituals.
From accounts of Ghashiram’s violent oppression, the focus shifts to the Kotwal’s
ambitions for his daughter’s marriage. Soon after, we see preparations being
made for Nana’s wedding. Needless to say the bride is a very young girl bought
in exchange for ‘three hundred gold coins’and ‘a great gift of land’. The depiction
of the wedding on stage produces a spectacular effect. But in addition, it offers a
contrast to the suffering of Ghashiram who is panic-stricken for no one had seen
his dearest child Gauri for the last ten days. And we see the oppressor becoming
the oppressed. When he confronts Nana about where his daughter is, he is told,
with some reluctance, that she had gone to Chandra, the midwife. Shocked,
Ghashiram hurries in the direction of Kasba Peth only to find that his child had
already been buried. Here, Tendulkar works by suggestion for even though no
details are given,yet the meaning of what could have happened to cause Gauri’s
death becomes clear. Ghashiram is ready to react murderously but loses his nerve
when face to face with Nana who insists that protocol must be maintained. He
farther insists that Ghashiram should stop relieving for his daughter for ‘Death is
without meaning……No one belongs to anyone’.
This incident leaves a mark on Ghashiram whose cruelties assume horrendous

proportions. The climax comes when a group of Brahmans, newcomers to Poona,
are caught stealing fruit from the Kotwal’s garden. They are arrested and all
herded into a prison cell too small to accommodate them. By daybreak twenty
two had died of suffocation and the rest were half dead. This is reported directly
to the Peshwa by Sardar Phakade, who happened to be passing by. The Brahmans
of Poona are furious and are up in arms against the Kotwal. Thousands of them
rush to the Nana’s house. The cowardly Nana is willing to promise them anything.
When he finds out that they want the Kotwal’s head, he is greatly relieved that it
is nothing more important than that. He happily signs the paper for Ghashiram’s
execution and sends the message to the mob ‘to humiliate him’and do all they
want.
213
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s The angry mob sets out in search of Ghashiram. What follows is a scene full of
Ghashiram Kotwal
dramatic irony. Ghashiram does not know of his fate and tries to disperse the
crowd but they surround him menacingly. Later, we are told that he was publicly
beaten up, his head shaven off and ‘sindured’and he was taken around on a camel
after which he was tied to the leg of an elephant. The disgraced, disfigured and
battered Ghashiram comes on stage. He is stoned by the Brahmans and this action
is again depicted by mime. At this moment, just before his death, realization
dawns upon him and he admits: ‘I should be punished for the death of my
daughter’. Sadistically, the crowd pounces upon him and beats him up.
The pleasure in violence is shocking and speaks of the degeneration in the society
of the time. Tendulkar has done a project on violence in society and the depiction
of violence in all his plays is a comment on the direction which our own society
has taken. From the non-violence and pacifism of the days of Gandhi during the
struggle against the British, Indian society has veered towards violence which
has now come to the surface. The society depicted may be eighteenth century
Poona but the phenomenon of violence is real and has relevance here and now.
In our daily lives we can see violence everywhere –in films, entertainment, on
the street, in the home, at work. Commenting on his liberal use of violence to
shock the audience, Tendulkar said:
Violence cannot be a spectacle. If it’s recurring factor, it is so because violence is

around us, it is within us, our times happened to be violent times. It is bound to
reflect in any creative work in some form or other even if it is ugly and unpleasant.
Once Ghashiram is dead, Nana makes an appearance. He condemns Ghashiram

and orders that his corpse be left to rot and all his relatives expelled from the
city. He then declares three days of festivities to mark the end of the ‘demon
Ghashya’. The crown cheers and Nana joins the dancing. The play ends with the
song with which it had begun. The wheel has turned full circle.
Ghashiram, the cruel Kotwal is dead. Evil has been punished but does good
triumph? What about Nana and the decadent Brahmans with their façade of
religiosity? Does the ending leave you feeling uneasy? What is Tendulkar trying
to say? Think about these questions and we shall discuss them in the next two
Units. Meanwhile, let us complete the following exercise.
Let us now answer the questions in the space given below. Make sure to write
the answers in your own words.
1) Define the role of the Sutradhar in the play. (About 200 words)
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214
2) Describe the fate of Ghashiram’s daughter and the role Ghashiram plays Plot and Technique
inher ruin and death.
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3) What was Ghashiram’s attitude to the Brahmans of Poona? Can we justify
his actions?
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4) Explain with reference to the context the following lines:
‘Use a thorn to take out a thorn. That’s great. The disease has been stopped.
Anyway, there was no use for him any more’.
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3.6 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we have gone through the play analytically. We have discussed:
- the production of the play;
- the historical background;
- the traditional opening of the play with a song and dance and the Sutradhar
who introduces the characters;
- some aspects of Tendulkar’s technique with regard to use of song, dance,
meme soliloquy and the use of contrast in alternating the violent scenes
with those of song and dance.
We shall discuss some of these topics in greater detail in the next two Units.

1) Refer to Section 3.3
1) The ‘Sutradhar’is a familiar figure in ancient Sanskrit plays as well as in

folk theatre. His role is generally to perform the opening ritual on stage and
215
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s to introduce the characters. In some plays the Sutradhar appears on stage in
Ghashiram Kotwal
the beginning and then at the very end of the play. In Ghashiram Kotwal,
the role of the Sutradhar is much more extended. Not only does he introduce
the characters but he remains throughout the play binding the different scenes
together with the necessary commentary.
2) Lalita Gauri, Ghashiram’s young daughter, is a marginal character in the

sense that she has no dialogues to deliver or any direct participation in the
action of the play. However, she is important because she is the catalyst
who sets the main events in motion. Her extreme youth and budding beauty
catches the attention of the lecherous old Nana, who in his passion, is willing
to give anything, to get her. And it is this lustful passion that Ghashiram
exploits by exchanging his daughter’s virtue for the position of Kotwal of
Poona city. The innocent girl is used as a pawn in this nefarious deal. It is
she who finally suffers an ignominious death at the midwife’s after being
discarded by the Nana whose roving eye has alighted on yet another young
beauty who is to be used and then cast away like Lalita Gauri. That a father
can compromise the honour of his innocent child is inconceivable but the
lust for power can make an individual inhuman, as it does in the case of
Ghashiram.
3) Ghashiram was a newcomer in Poona, a Brahman from Kannauj. He had

come in search of a respectable life for himself and his family. However, all
he got at the hands of the Poona Brahmans is insults and humiliation. The
necklace given to him by Nana is forcibly taken away from him. In another
incident he is charged with theft and beaten up mercilessly. It is then that he
vows to avenge himself upon the Poona Brahmans. Once he becomes the
Kotwal, he unleashes a reign of terror on the Brahmans beating, humiliating
and torturing them on the slightest pretext. Even if he had been maltreated
by the brahmans initially, his subsequent actions cannot be justified on moral
grounds.
4) These lines have been taken from the play Ghashiram Kotwal by Vijay
Tendulkar, the famous Marathi playwright. Written originally in Marathi,
his play was translated into English by Jayant Karve and Eleanor Zelliot.
Set in eighteenth century Poona, it deals with the Peshwa’s chief minister
Nana Phadnavis and the Kotwal of Poona Ghashiram. Even though it draws
upon history, the play is a fictional dramatization of real-life events the play
deals with the themes of violence in society and of the stranglehold of power
that continues unabated. Ghashiram may come and go but the real power
rests in people like Nana who despite their decadent, unjust, authoritarian
and inhuman behavior get away with all their sins.
216
Plot and Technique
UNIT 4 THEMES AND
CHARACTERISATION
Structure
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Themes of the Play
4.3 Characterisation
4.3.1 Sutradhar
4.3.2 Nana Phadnavis
4.3.3 Ghashiram
4.3.4 The Women in the Play
4.4 Let Us Sum Up
4.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this play you will be able to:
discuss the themes of Ghashiram Kotwal;
outline the relevance of the characters in the overall scheme of the play.
4.1 INRODUCTION
In the first two Units of this Block, you have read the general background to the
play as well as a fairly detailed summary. In this Unit, let us discuss some of the
main themes. We shall also discuss the characters in the play. By now you have
read both the complete text of the play and its summary. While reading the text,
you must have made some notes regarding themes, characters, style etc. Compare
these with our discussion and see how far we agree or disagree.
As we have told you, Ghashiram Kotwal is often referred to as ‘total theatre’which

indicates that the playwright has used all the techniques of his craft to create a
spectacular theatrical experience. All the directions are given in such detail that
the play has been envisaged in its totality by Tendulkar.
As you read the play, the story of the rise and fall of Ghashiram unfolds itself. It
is an interesting story set in a specific period in history. Even so, it is not a
historical play though it is based on specific people in a particular time and place
as well as certain incidents in history. It is contemporary in the sense that it
makes us reflect on the state of our society by highlighting violence, the intrigues
of power, the use of religion for the oppression of women and people of the
lower castes. The oppressor survives in spite of his tyranny, decadence and
authoritarianism. These are some of the themes that continue to perplex us
throughout the play.
217
Ghashiram Kotwal 4.2 THEMES OF THE PLAY
A theme is the subject of the play –the view and message that the playwright
communicates. A play may have more than one theme and it is quite possible to
have a main theme and several sub-themes that originate from it.
What then is the main theme in Ghashiram Kotwal? The personality clash between
the Nana and Ghashiram may appear to be the theme at the surface level but we
know that Tendulkar has examined the relationship between religion, caste,
sexuality and violence to expose the structures of power that maintain the status
quo. As you will have noticed, Tendulkar is concerned about the politics of power
and its various implications. According to Saimik Bandhopadhyay, ‘In Ghashiram,
power is defined ‘horizontally’in terms of individuals against individuals from
humiliation, to revenge in assertion, to eventual victimization…..’(Ghashiram
Kotwal, Seagull, Calcutta, 1984, p.v.) Do you agree with this? It might seem on
one level that an individual is pitted against another. However, at another level it
is clear that the forces of state and society remain supreme even after individuals
have perished. For example, Ghashiram, an innocent newcomer to Poona is
unjustly accused of stealing and is beaten up by the Poona Brahmans. This incident
makes Ghashiram vow to revenge himself on them.
It is interesting that Ghashiram, himself a Brahman, has turned against his other
brethren. The opportunity for getting even with the Brahmans presents itself
when the lecherous Chief Minister of the Peshwa, the ageing Nana Phadnavis
desires his beautiful daughter Lalita Gauri. Then begins the game of power in
which Gauri is made a pawn and sacrificed to Nana’s lust. In return, Ghashiram
is made the Kotwal of Poona. This serves two purposes: one, it gives Ghashiram
the opportunity to take his revenge and unleash terror on the people of Poona
and two, it allows Nana to have his cake and eat it too. He has Gauri on the one
hand and on the other his own tyranny is obscured by Ghashiram’s cruelty. It is
clear even at this stage that the deal is an unfair one as the benefit lies mainly on
the side of Nana. And finally, Nana sacrifices Ghashiram to the bloodthirsty
crowds without the slightest compunction or regret and at the end of the play, we
find that he himself continues to thrive.
Who is really powerful; Nana or Ghashiram? We notice that the power is only
deputed in Ghashiram who does not realize this and begins to mistake it for real
power. When he loses Lalita Gauri and his game is up, he realizes his error and
the reality of his position. It is Nana’s misdeeds that have been “credited to his
account”. It seems then that power conceals itself behind its agents and continues
to thrive unchallenged. Does the power rest with Nana? It would seem so but
even Nana can be summoned at any moment by the Peshwa. The Peshwa himself
is a symbol of power within the context of feudal society. Thus, the power vested
in him is underpinned by the social set-up which functions on the basis of
maintaining the status quo. The king or the Peshwa in this case has the power by
virtue of the Divine Right. His position is maintained by various state apparatuses
like the army, the police, religious and social institution, etc. Here the power is
delegated in the Nana who further deputed it to Ghashiram by making him the
Kotwal who then operates through a police force. Thus, there is a whole hierarchy
of power positions. It seems then that it is an individual against an individual.
For example, if a person is beaten up by the police, he can see the evil face of
that particular policeman alone. He does not realize that the policeman is backed
218
by the police force which again is maintained by a particular state. The state Themes and Characterization
itself functions according to a certain ideology. A society structured in such a
way ensures that power is maintained and supported by such hierarchies. The
attention is focused on individuals who are passed off as culprits. But the real
culprit, the social set-up continues unchallenged as individual is pitted against
individual. And even if Ghashirams are created and destroyed, society remains
unchanged. The attention is diverted from the real problem which still remains
untouched. And Tendulkar’s play very subtly makes us think about and analyse
this phenomenon.
We have seen how power operates more overtly through violence and oppression.
At a subtle level, it functions through such social attitudes that help in maintaining
hierarchies and hiding the real source of power which is delegated in agents such
as Ghashiram who are also victims of that same power. Religion and sexuality
are also used as the strategies of power.
Religion
While the army and police are used by the state to maintain control within
societies, there are other subtler strategies that are also used. For instance, religion.
Most religions tell us to turn the other cheek if we are hit. This prevents us from
reacting against tyranny and injustice. When we imbibe these values during
childhood, first in the family, then in the school and finally in society at large,
they become so deeply ingrained in us that they do not allow us to challenge or
change our social situation. Such values are imparted to us so subtly that we do
not question if they are right or wrong.
Take the case of Ghashiram Kotwal. The play begins with a religious hymn and
the popular gods dancing on stage. This sets the context against which the drama
unfolds itself. The Brahmans go to Bavannakhani to see the dancing girls and
say they are going ‘to the temple’to give a sermon on ‘Vishwamitra and Meneka’.
They justify their decadence by comparing Bavannakhani to holy Mathura. The
‘abhanga’or devotional song is often sung with the ‘Iavani’or love song in his
play. Scenes of violence and cruelty are alternated with devotional songs. When
Nana tries to seduce Gauri in front of the statue of the holy Ganapati, he simply
dismisses her fears saying: That all holy Ganapati? The maker of Good? Look,
he has two wives. One on this side, one on that side’. Further on in the play,
when Gauri is dead and the distraught Ghashiram confronts Nana and accuses
him of his daughter’s death, the latter reassures him: ‘He –the Omnipresent –He
makes everything happen……We are merely instruments…..’He then urges him
to ‘forget whats happened. All merges into the Ganga. Thou shalt not grieve over
what is gone. The Vedas have said that’(P 44). ‘Don’t you think here is a case of
the devil citing scriptures to suit his purpose? Religion then becomes a useful
alibi in covering people’s misdeeds. By invoking religion, all kinds of evils are
glossed and even sanctified. Rituals are encouraged to fill the pockets of the
greedy Brahmans. Moreover, their position as the ‘twiceborn’is reinforced by
the prevalence of the caste system.
Caste
Alongwith religion, caste is also a major factor in the play. Is it a comment on the
decadence of the Brahmans? When the play was first performed it was banned
for being anti-Brahman and for fear of there being a revolt in the audience. Is it
219
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s really meant to expose Brahmans, their corruption and moral degradation?
Ghashiram Kotwal
According to the playwright, he was more interested in ‘the emergence, the growth
and the inevitable end of the Ghashirams….. The decadence of the class in power
(the Brahmans, incidentally, during the period which I had to depict) also was
incidental though not accidental. Caste is used as an instrument of power. The
Sutradhar reports that according to Ghashiram ‘to eat with a lower caste person
is a crime’(p.26). To sleep with a ‘Mahar woman’(a lower caste among the
untouchables) is also considered a crime. On the other hand, the Brahmans, have
to hesitation in chasing and pestering a white Sahib for money. This shows that
race and colour constitute a higher position in the social hierarchy. And the white
Sahib ranks higher than the privileged Brahman who is feasted and showered
with gifts in the Peshwa’s Poona.
Tendulkar has depicted the hypocrisy of the Brahmans, their arrogance,

authoritarianism and their, debauched and adulterous behavior. Rather than being
identifiable by their good deeds and noble behavior, the Brahmans are known by
their ‘shaven head’, ‘holy thread’and ‘pious look’. It is this pious look that
conceals their petty deeds. Nana himself a Brahman is marrying for the seventh
time not to mention his lusting after numerous young girls, Lalita Gauri among
them. Though full of revenge and hatred for the Brahmans, Ghashiram is himself
a Brahman. And his conduct in bartering his daughter’s virtue for the dubious
distinction of becoming the Kotwal of Poona, can hardly be justified and speaks
of his inhuman opportunism as well as total lack of paternal sentiment and
sensitivity. The total picture of the Brahmans that emerges from this play is one
of hypocrisy, double standards, self-indulgence and moral degradation. It exposes
the rottenness of the caste-system that privileges a person on the basis of birth
rather than merit and maintains the rigid hierarchy to control and suppress persons.
Sexuality
Women too, as we have seen, have become a pawn in the power game. In fact
there is a close nexus between sexuality and power. Consider, for example, Nana’s
statement with reference to Lalita Gauri: ‘Our grandeur’s gone if she’s not
had’(p.20). A man’s self-image, identity and machismo is definable only, it seems,
in relation to the conquest and oppression of women. There is a close connection
between sexuality and religion as lavanis (love song) and abhangas (devotional
song) are sung at the revelries in Bavannakhani which is likened to Mathura and
the erotic dances to Krishan Lila. The garb of religion helps to justify and
whitewash the debaucheries of the Brahman men. Gulabi’s tantalizing dances,
the Nana’s lustful pursuit of Lalita Gauri, the clandestine meeting of the Brahman
wife with a Maratha lover, all serve to create an underlying strain of eroticism
throughout the play.
Violence
Tendulkar did research on violence in India because of which he has explored its
many dimensions. He is not only concerned about the violence of the State against
the people but against the violence of people against other people. This is clear
in Ghashiram’s torture of innocent Brahmans and the belligerence of Gulabi’s
men against Ghashiram when he is forcibly divested of the necklace that Nana
had given him. A stark example of this violence is the ordeal-by-fire episode. An
innocent Brahman, accused of theft, unsuccessfully tries to convince Ghashiram
of his innocence. Even though the evidence indicates that the Brahman has been
220
unjustly implicated, Ghashiram has an ordeal set up to test his innocence. The Themes and Characterization
nails of the Brahman’s right hand are pulled out and his fingers are washed with
lemon juice and soap and then hands are sealed in a bag. Seven Rangolis are
drawn on the floor and an iron ball is heated red hot. The ball is then placed
forcibly on the hands of the protesting Brahman. Naturally, his hands burn and
the cruel Ghashiram triumphantly proclaims that this would not have happened
had he told the truth for only liars get burnt. He then urges the agonized man to
‘confess’or else the ordeal would be repeated. Left with no choice, he falls into
the trap –‘I confess that I stole’. (p.36). Instead of letting him off Ghashiram
orders the soldiers to ‘cut off his hands and drive him out of Poona’. (p.36). Here
is an example of the extreme physical and mental violence that can be perpetrated
by one human beings on another. How does this square with the so-called religious
commitment of the Brahmans? In addition to this is also the more subtle violence
that human beings are capable of. This is the violence of mental cruelty-the kinds
we witness when Nana subdues Ghashiram’s agony and anger at the death of his
daughter by invoking protocol.
But what is Tendulkar’s aim in portraying this violence? According to Sudhir

Sonalkar ‘It (violence), has to somewhere grasp the tragic human condition, it
has to have a poetic dimension to it……The violence of greek tragedy, moves
and enriches. Tendulkar’s violence shocks and even when it disturbs, the ethical
question remains both untouched and unanswered’. (‘Vijay Tendulkar and the
Mataphor of violence’The Illustrated Weekly of India. Nov. 20, 1983, p.21). By
leaving the ethical question open, Tendulkar is perhaps inviting his audience to
think about the solutions for themselves.
Is Tendulkar trying to convey a ‘message’? As we know the function of art is not

to provide answers or solution but to raise questions. If indeed it begins to have
‘palpabale designs on us’as Keats would say, it becomes mere propaganda. In
this play, as we can see, Tendulkar provides us with a blueprint for an unforgettable
theatrical experience by satirizing the utter decadence of feudal society. By
exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of Brahmans, he forces us to think about
the situation of our own society. There are no easy answers. Underlying the
entertainment is a thread of seriousness and you may have felt slightly confused
after completing the play. The ‘end’in fact makes you think –How has Nana got
away scot free? How can the celebrating crowd be so oblivious to the fact that
the real evil remains? And the fact that such questions come to mind proves the
success of Tendulkar’s enterprise.
Before we move to the next section, let us do the following exercise.

Answer the following question in your own word: (About 200 words each)
1) Which is the mains theme in the play? What does Tendulkar try to depict
through the story of the rise and fall of Ghashiram?
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
221
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s 2) Describe the role of religion and sexuality in maintaining the structure of
Ghashiram Kotwal
power and dominance.
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
3) Comment on the end of the play. (100 words approx)
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................
4.3 CHARACTERISATION
After reading the play, you must have formed some impression about the different
characters. How do we ‘know’a character in a play? The playwright uses several
techniques to present a character:
i) the character appears directly on stage as opposed to a character in a novel
or story. In a novel or story the character can be described in detail but in a
play this cannot be done;
ii) other characters talk about him/her;
iii) the character is shown in dialogue with others;
iv) the character may soliloquize to speak his/her thoughts out aloud on stage;
v) the character’s actions may reveal his/her traits.
Any playwright has to be very careful with regard to the status, class, age, nature,
style of dress, gestures and habits of the character as he will be observed and his
voice and speech will be heard with attention.
Thus, when we draw a character sketch, we must remember not to simply describe
what the character has “done”but to say what he “is”. In short, we must pick out
the character’s traits. For example, if a particular character spends the better part
of the day preening in front of a mirror, we can conclude that such a person is
‘vain’. This is the trait that is manifested by one’s action.
There are many kinds of characters: tragic, comic, or those who have both traits.
Earlier the main character in a play was called the ‘hero’as characters in Greek
tragedy and other plays were persons of high rank and status. They were usually
kings, princes or people who controlled the destinies of other. In the twentieth
century when the characters became more ordinary and were people from common
life, the main characters came to be known as protagonist. Who is the protagonist
in Ghashiram Kotwal? Think for a moment before you answer this. If we were
to ask you the same question regarding Macbeth, the Doll’s House or Arms and
the Man, you may be able to answer it without any difficulty. But who is the
main character in this play? Is it the Sutradhar with whom the play begins and
222
ends? Or Ghashiram himself ? It seems that all are equally important and constitute Themes and Characterization
a totality that focuses on the aberrations of society.
In addition we have the women, who are there as catalysts rather than full-fledged
characters. According to Tendulkar, the aim was not to develop any one character
but ‘The urgency was of finding a form in which a class or a multitude could
become the central character. (The present title came only to suggest the incident
and not the character Ghashiram Kotwal’. (p viii)
4.3.1 Sutradhar
As we have already told you in the first Unit of this Block, the Sutradhar is an
essential part of Sanskrit drama and can be found in many folk plays such as
Tamasha. The traditional role of the Sutradhar is to introduce the characters and
initiate the events as well as comment on the action, wherever necessary. Let us
now discuss the role of the Sutradhar in Ghashiram Kotwal.
As in traditional theatre, the Sutradhar introduces the characters and sets the
context for the action. He remains on stage continuously, becoming a different
person at different times. In the beginning, he plays the role of interlocutor who
shops and questions the Brahmans as they sneak about slyly trying to get to
Bacannakhani. As the Brahmans crowd round Bavannakhani, a lonely Brahman
woman is shown embracing her lover and the Sutradhar comments ironically on
the scene: ‘Here a Brahaman woman in solitary confinement; there the crowds
waiting for a glimpse of Gulabi….’(p.8). This role of Sutradhar as commentator
continues throughout the play. When Ghashiram is thrown in jail, the Sutradhar
masquerades as a ‘fellow prisoner’and after commiserating with his lot, observes
wisely:
‘This thief is a simple thief.

The police are official thieves’. (p.16): a wisdom that will strike a sympathetic
chord in many in the audience.
At other times he leads the chorus.
Sutradhar: Nine court Nana only thought of Gauri.
All: Thought of nothing else; etc. (p.22).
Then again the Sutradhar becomes a passing Brahman who is caught roaming
the roads at night by Ghashiram. When the Kotwal apprehends him he explains
‘Sir, I was going to fetch the midwife’(p.28). it is through the Sutradhar’s persistent
probing that Nana’s wedding plans are revealed dramatically. An account of
Ghashiram’s final humiliation and punishment is provided by the Sutradhar’s
running commentary. And his final comment is loaded with meaning:
‘And in the end came the End’
The Sutradhar thus has a variety of roles. In addition to all these his function is to
act as a cohesive device between the different scenes and the different modes
such as song, dance and music which contribute to the total effect of the play.
4.3.2 Nana Phadnavis

This character of Nana is based on that of the historical character Balaji Janardhan
Bhanu (12 Feb. 1742 –13 March 1800) who inherited the post of Phadnavis or 223
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s administrator at the age of fourteen when his father died. Nana was the Peshwa’s
Ghashiram Kotwal
chief minister until his death on July 11, 1778. How does Tendulkar distance his
Nana from the Nana of history? By Making him dance on stage and behave in a
ludicrous manner. The Sutradhar introduces Nana’s arrival by focusing on his
status and wealth -
‘Nana of the nine courts, Nana of the wealth and power ………
to Gulabi’s place proceeds’(p.8)
We are given no physical description or Nana’s Personality except that he has a

‘silver handled walking stick’(p.9) and a ‘garland of flowers on his wrist’. We
can conclude that he is quite a dandy and when he hurts his foot while dancing
and makes a fuss, we also know that he is an effeminate character who can also
be generous as he is to Ghashiram who offers his back for him to rest his foot on
–the reward being his own necklace.
That Nana is old is nowhere stated but is implied through subtle hints. The walking
stick, for instance. At the time of his wedding to a ‘slender willowy bride. A shy
fair lily-white bride’(p.39). We are told that he is still young enough to marry!
His moustache’s turned gray. But not all his teeth are gone’(p.40).
We can see Nana as a lustful and lecherous old man from his presence at Gulabi’s
dance in Bavannakhani. He then tries to seduce the young and beautiful daughter
of Ghashiram. He is furious when he finds that the ‘prey fled’(p. 19) and comments
“Our grandeur’s gone if she’s not had’. Why does he say that? For him the girl is
not an individual but merely a ‘prey’. And if he is able to snare it, his self-image
as a macho man, a ‘Nine Court Nana’will be enhanced. If for some reason, he
cannot get her, this Bavannakhani. He then tries to seduce the young and beautiful
daughter of Ghashiram. He is furious when he finds that the ‘prey fled’(p. 19)
and comments ‘Our grandeur’s gone if she’s not had’. Why does he say that? For
him the girl is not an individual but merely a ‘prey. And if he is able to snare it,
his self-image as a macho man, a ‘Nine Court Nana’will be enhanced. If for
some reason, he cannot get her identity is called into question. The power that he
boasts of is not located in his character but in the people around him by belittling
whom he can define himself in positive terms. And when the girl is finally
delivered to him, Ghashiram cries out ‘Look! I’ve given my beloved daughter
into the jaws of that wolf!..... That old overripe bastard! Look at him, eating her
like a peach….. (p.22.)
The Nana in the play dances and sings. While this is in keeping with the rest of
the characters in this play it also distances the Nana from the imposing historical
character on whom he is based. Thus he is not simply an individual but also a
type –a type of the corrupt Brahman community as well as a symbol of those in
position of power. It is this power which makes him immune to the laws and
requirements of justice.
The Nana has all the cunning and connivance of his tribe. Even when he capitulates
to the demands of Ghashiram by making him Kotwal, he still has the upper
hand: ‘What’ll happen is that our misdeeds will be credited to your account. We
do, our Kotwal pays’. By giving Ghashiram the false illusion of being powerful
the Nana continues to use him and discares him when he feels, ‘there was no use
for him anymore’. (p.52) When Ghashiram accosts him with his daughter’s
224 disappearance, he very piously states: ‘Thou shalt not grieve over what is gone.
The Vedas have said that….’(p.44). The juxtaposition of what is being said with Themes and Characterization
what has already been done, is an effective device in un-masking Nana further.
What is your impression of Nana? Write it down in your own words in the space
given below.
4.3.3 Ghashiram
Ghashiram is the historical character of the same name as we have already stated
in our second unit. The whole play is a story of the rise and fall of Ghashiram,
who from the position of an unknown visitor to Poona rises to become the Kotwal
of the city striking terror in the hearts of the Brahmans. It is no account of his
indiscriminate cruelty that he is discredited and meets an ignominious end.
When does Ghashirma first appear in the play? We see him in Brahman dress as
he offers his back to Nana to rest his injured foot on. His sycophantic nature is
already in evidence as he vey deferentially holds Nana’s slippered foot and
comments ingratiatingly.
‘In my hand has fallen-grace!’

In return for his deference, the Nana gives him a necklace. But because he is a
mere foreigner, the necklace is forcibly taken away from him by Gulabi for whom
he has been performing all sorts of odd jobs to earn his keep, and he is thrown
out.
Ghashiram is next seen looking hungrily at the Brahmans being fed at a feast.
Even here his credentials are questioned and the soldiers arrest him as a thief.
Despite his protest, he is thrown into goal and he piteously tells a fellows-prisoner:
‘I’ve been here two weeks. I came here to find my fortune –and lost my
reputation’(p.16). When he is finally released after his humiliation and torment,
Ghashiram vows to “make this Poona a kingdom of pigs”(p.17)
Is he able to keep his vow? Yes, as we know the opportunity of becoming powerful
presents itself to him when his daughter’s youth and beauty catch the attention
of the lecherous but all-powerful Nana. He trades her virtue to become the
powerful Kotwal of Poona. But this power that he has achieved at the cost of his
daughter is only an illusion. His strings are in the hands of Nana who wishes to
kill two birds with one stone: We’ll fell your luscious daughter…. we will make
the city of Poona dance’. Not only will Nana be able to satisfy his lust but he will
also be able to unleash terror in Poona through the Kotwal who can never really
become powerful as he is an outsider. The opportunistic and short-sighted Kotwal
cannot see that he and his daughter are being exploited. Not only is the Nana
exploiting his daughter but he himself as a parent has bartered her away as an
object for his own selfish ends. This is a subtle comment on the status of women
in society as it existed then and society as it exists now.
As Kotwal, Ghashiram becomes unbearably arrogant and insufferable. His

misplaced sense of morality (“I’II straighten out this adulterous city”) makes
him absolutely blind to reason and he indicts innocent people on various charges.
Even without the least shred of evidence, people are imprisoned and put through
the worst kinds of torture such as forcibly putting a red hot iron ball on a brahman’s
hands to make him ‘confess’a wrong he has not committed.
225
Drama: Vijay Tendulkar’s When he hears that his daughter has been sent off to a midwife in Kasba Peth,
Ghashiram Kotwal
Ghashiram sheds his deference towards Nana and confronts him aggressively
only to be soon placated by Nana who reminds him that ‘protocol should not be
forgotten’(p.43). Though numb with grief, Ghashiram can no longer accuse Nana
for causing the death of his beloved child and finally we see him bowing humbly
before the ruffled Nana. Love for his child on the one hand and love for his
position on the other find expression in this paradoxical behaviour.
When Ghashiram catches some hungry Brahmans stealing mangoes from his
orchard, he has them all locked up in a small cell. Twenty two Brahmans suffocate
to death and all hell breaks loose. The incident comes to the notice of the Peshwa
and Ghashiram can no longer escape punishment. The Poona Brahmans would
be satisfied with nothing less than Ghashiram’s head and Nana cheerfully signs
the order for his death as there was no use for him any more (p. 52). It is here that
we find that Ghashiram the cruel administrator of law and order himself a victim
of a system in which people like him are created and destroyed when they outlast
their utility. Does the evil lie in the individual or the system?
Ghashiram, as we have seen, is a character who does not win our sympathy. The
first impression of subservience is maintained in his relationship with Nana. As
a father, he not only fails to protect his daughter but willingly hands her over to
Nana, into ‘the jaws of that wolf’(p. 22). In his role as Kotwal, he oversteps his
brief and instead of protecting the people of Poona creates terror and destruction.
In short, he fails as a father, a husband, a Kotwal but what’s more as a human
being, becoming a pawn of the system that crates and destroys him. Ghashiram
develops from a harmless newcomer into a ruthless and sadistic Kotwal and it is
only when he repents of his deeds before his violent death that he earns our
sympathy. His moment of revelation comes when he says, ‘I should be punished
for the death of my daughter’(p. 54) But you will notice that this sympathy is not
for Ghashiram the individual but for people like him who become victims of
circumstances.
4.3.4 The Women in the Play

You will have noticed that even though women are mentioned, they hardly exist
in the play. The Brahmans go to Bavannakhani to the house of Gulabi the
courtesan. Gulabi is seen dancing with Ghashiram and providing entertainment
both to the characters and the audience. She tantalizingly keeps he men who
want to touch her at bay. In addition to this seductive image, Gulabi is also a
determined woman who forcibly takes the necklace given to Ghashiram by Nana.
While the Poona Brahmans are lusting after Gulabi, their wives remain at home.
But are they alone? The Sutradhar informs us that they ‘are sentenced to solitary
confinement’(p.8) but this turns out to be an ironical comment in the light of the
fact that a Brahman woman waits with a saucy air for her lover, a Maratha
landowner. Would this imply that Brahman women had the freedom to take lovers
in feudal Poona? Certainly not. What is depicted is a transgression and within
the play serves to expose the contradictions that exist between the public and the
private.
We see women from time to time on stage but merely as mute characters, Lalitha
Gauri, Gulabi and Chandra the midwife have a few insignificant dialogues in the
play. What does this imply? Does the fact that women are totally marginalized in
226
the play in some way reflect social attitudes towards women? Even though women Themes and Characterization
are ‘hardly there’, the violence and oppression against them is clear throughout.
That they are treated as objects is also evident in the Nana’s various relationships
with different women –Gulabi, Lalita Gauri and the young bride that he marries.
He does not see them as individuals but as “playthings’’ to be trifled with and
then discarded.
In plays like Kamla, Kanyadaan, and Silence the Court is in Session, women
play a central role. But because Tendulkar seemingly shows them as losers and
always exploited and used, some critics have called him anti-women. But
Tendulkar presents his own point of view.
‘When I show the struggle of a woman, it is not one woman’s fight. The individual
must have name and identity and caste and background to be credible, but she is
not just a woman on stage, in a particular play. I am, in writing of her situation,
showing that the possibility of a struggle against it exists….By not giving a
solution, I leave possibilities open for whatever course the change may take.
When the members of my audience go home and chew on the situation, they
might be able to see their daughter or sister in the woman’s position and come up
with a way of changing the situation to her advantage’. (Femina: Interview with
Satya Saran and Vimla Patil –June 8-22, 1984, p. 37).
Do you think the women in Ghashiram Kotwal are important? Or are they
important only in so far as they are able to offset the characters of Nana and
Ghashiram? Or are they a useful structural device in exposing the hypocrisies of
society? How does Tendulkar make us think about their plight–by empathy or
identification with them or by alienation or distancing us from their situation’?
These are some of the questions for us to think about and discuss in the next unit.
Meanwhile, let us complete the following exercise.
1) Discuss the character of Ghashiram and comment on the title of the play.
......................................................................................................................
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......................................................................................................................
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4.4 LET US SUM UP

In this Unit, we have discussed how:
• Power operates through both overt and covert means;
• Religion, caste and sexuality interlock to maintain the status quo;
• The characters, though based on real historical persons do not develop or
come to life as they do in “Macbeth’’ or “The Doll’s House’’ but remain
unidimensional. Tendulkar’s aim seems to be not to provide us insight into
individuals but into social processes and as such the development of
character is not his main concern.
227
Ghashiram Kotwal 4.5 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES
Refer to Section 25.2
Refer to Section 25.2
Read the ending of the play once more before you write your comment.
i) Look at Section 4.3.3 and Section 4.6 in the previous Unit before you write
your answer.
228

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BEGC -114

BLOCK 1 NOVEL: NADINE GORDIMER’S JULY’S

BLOCK 2 SHORT STORY 63

BLOCK 3 POETRY 113

BLOCK 4 DRAMA: VIJAY TENDULKAR’S

COURSE PREPARATION TEAM

During colonialism, the unprecedented changes of intermixing of different races

In Block 3, Derek Walcott’s famous post-colonial poems ‘A Far Cry from

Accounts of personal and group struggles for decolonization, rewriting of national

Malouf’s poem “Wild Lemons” (1980) is a philosophical and deeply meditative

The English translation of the Marathi drama Ghashiram Kotwal is discussed in

With epistemological knowledge of varied kinds of multicultural texts, this course

Wish you all the best!

Block 1 of BEGC-114 is aimed at introducing you to the Writings from South

Unit 1 titled An Introduction to Writings from South Africa explains key

Unit 3 titled Social Configurations examines the power structures operating in

FROM SOUTH AFRICA

1.1.1 How to Make Sense of the Expression, South African

Each of these four communities, namely Anglo-Afrikaner, Indian, Nguni-Sotho

1.2 THEMES, ISSUES AND THE INFLUENCE OF

1.2.2 Xhosa Cattle Killing

1.2.3 Colenso Controversy

Centuries-long intercommunal struggles, power struggles and struggles of

1.2.4 The Great Trek

1.2.5 Anglo-Boer Wars

A subjective perception of these changes and the manner of their manifestation

Check Your Progress 2

This jarring process of inferiorisation, delegitimisation, dispossession and

“The purpose of the religious instruction which I received was to educate me

The seeming unchangeability of this discourse and correspondingly the condition

The biblically-scaffolded vilification of the South African blacks, the question

Furthermore, the complexion spectrum is illogically and subversively yoked with

1.4 BROAD PERIODS

1.6 SUGGESTED READINGS

1.7 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

2.2 NADINE GORDIMER: LIFE AND WORKS

Through her extensive reading and scholarly engagement, Nadine Gordimer

She became involved in the 1950s’Sophia town renaissance, placed in a

Nadine Gordimer was resolute in her opposition to the debilitating apartheid,

Although she lived through a period of intense political turmoil and

Short Story Collections

Loot and Other Stories. London: Jonathan Cape, 2003.

Non-fiction, Essays, Reporting

2.3 READING JULY’S PEOPLE

2.3.1 Analysing the Plot

Having to come to terms with the unconventional structure of July’s opening

“The knock on the door

Bamford and Maureen’s routine of religiously listening to the news bulletins on

Correspondingly, Bamford dissects July’s behavioural evolution especially his

A man in short trousers arrives in the village with a battery-powered amplifier.

Maureen’simpetuous attempt at enamouring July is to reattain her symbiotic state

2.3.2 Narrative framework

Gordimer’s fastidiousness is sublime in the way a number of leitmotifs37 have

Check Your Progress 2

2.4 LET US SUM UP

2.5 SUGGESTED READINGS

3.3 INTERREGNUM AND LOCATING POWER

3.3.1 Relationship of Smales and July

3.3.2 Rural Versus the City Binary