Post-Colonial Themes in David Malouf's Remembering Babylon Essay

Initially, the concept of colonisation will be explained, including the forces that were driving the colonisation and the usual ways it was achieved. At a general level, the ideologies underpinning the colonisers’ interactions with indigenous peoples will also be described. A comparison will then be made between the experiences of colonisation for Aboriginal peoples

In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi’s essential argument is that the collapse of colonialism is inevitable. According to Memmi, there are only two answers for the colonized to disrupt the system of oppression. The two possible “solutions” are assimilation and revolt. In response to the marginalization of the colonized, both answers carry a high price. In Memmi’s eyes, neither will work in the end. The first of two answers on the road to collapsing colonization is assimilation. Imitation and compromise are not the answer to decolonizing, for neither the colonized nor the colonizer.

Chinua Achebe was educated in the West, though he hails from an African tribe. His exposure to both African and Western thinking gives him a unique perspective on the colonization of Africa, which is argued to be barbaric by some, but beneficial and necessary by others. In “Things Fall Apart,” Achebe perspective comes through as he masterfully describes a pre-colonization African tribe, and how colonization percolated through it. His authentic accounts of the positives and negatives of both tribal society and colonization leave the reader to answer the question of whether imperialism was morally justifiable or not.

When drastic times occur and sweep one of everything they own, do they have a plan of action? Will they be prepared for a life without power, resources, and stability? Many times when people are faced with this situation they find themselves unprepared and unable to live in such conditions. They lose the connections with the world, the water they drink is likely to get contaminated, and the scarcity of goods is a threat to themselves and anyone left alive. Everywhere around them there is death and destruction leaving them isolated in their own dystopia. Pat Frank’s Alas, Babylon illustrates a nuclear bomb simulation. In such a way, he gives the readers a taste of isolation and survival needs when facing such drastic times.

1. The main conflict in the novel is ‘man vs. society.’ Randy was constantly put against the highwaymen. Randy really wanted and was trying to create peace and order in Fort Repose post nuclear attacks while the highwaymen was using violence to get everything they needed.

Just as the oppression and degradation inflicted on African-Americans and other minority groups in America became the impetus for blistering expressions of artistic protest, from poets and playwrights alike, the Aboriginal population of Australia has also discovered its collective voice among its own creative community. As an actor, director, and playwright, John Harding has managed to capture the centuries of brutality and isolation forced upon his culture through his searing works of drama, and his 2002 production Enuff ranks as one of his most resonant works of art. Despite existing within a particularly isolated niche of Australian literature, Harding's intensely incisive Enuff has managed to captivate critical reviewers by virtue of the subtle approach to a searing contemporary issue: racial prejudice and institutionalized bigotry. By depicting a fictionalized scenario in which Australia's minority groups, predominately aboriginal and indigenous cultures along with people of African descent, make the revolutionary choice to take up arms against an oppressive government, Harding compels any audience member viewing Enuff to consider his or her own complicity in the continued societal subjugation of indigenous people. By examining the responses published by widely read literary critics, it is possible to gain a greater comprehension of the multilayered masterpiece that is John Harding's Enuff.

Firstly, the film’s lack of dialogue is a profound metaphor for Indigenous Australians’ “wasted voices”: since White settlement, Aboriginal Australians have been systematically abused, exploited, and silenced (Collins-Gearing 2010, para. 2).

Knowing the historical context of a work is crucial to understanding both its general meaning and its deeper essence. Often times, authors use their works as outlets to freely express their personal feelings toward a social trend or issue. As such, the time in which a story is written can have a strong influence on the message the author is trying to convey to his or her reader. Their personal reflections can be asserted in many ways; among the most common being through the characters themselves and their development throughout the work, the setting, and the implied themes.

The study of British colonialism is a rather new field with much to discuss and a lot more to debate. The recent recognition of new nation-states that were once under the control of Britain was a growing phenomenon and one that continues to play a large role in today’s global politics. Since the rather recent period of these new nations, new study’s have been done into the history of a) the peoples that inhabited the land before Britain, b) the way Britain occupied and control and land, and now c) post-Britain. This is a growing topic in the historical field because seventy-five years ago there was no thought that Britain would relieve control of India or Nigeria. That is why post-British colonialism is important to today, because it is a

Some topics that pertain to postcolonialism can oftentimes be somewhat difficult to grasp because of complexity that is required to describe them. Rudyard Kipling makes understanding a topic a whole lot easier because of his ability to write short stories and connect them to any postcolonial topics that he so chooses. For example, his short stories “Haunted Subalterns” and “The Mark of the Beast” have allowed me to better get a hold on the idea of the postcolonial topic of the subaltern. Along with them, I have found a few scholarly articles that have also contributed to improving my knowledge and understanding of what the subaltern really is. Ultimately, the question that I would like to grapple with is: Can the subaltern theme in Mark of the Beast be compared to that in Haunted Subalterns? The postcolonial definition of the subaltern from a postcolonial lens is the subordination of native people to the point where they are left powerless and without a voice. The subaltern in postcolonial studies is a very interesting topic because it can be intriguing how a native person can be stripped of the credibility that their words have and the power that every human being should be granted due to the way that colonizers can make them feel. Throughout the paper I will include an in depth description of what the subaltern means and other ways that it can be interpreted. Also, as I previously stated, I will analyze two of Rudyard Kipling’s short stories and connect

John Sutter's 2012 report on slavery in Mauritania is the piece of writing that I am going to discuss in this paper. Some of the power of this piece derives from factors unrelated to the writing. The report is multimedia, so there are visuals that accompany the writing. In addition, the concepts are powerful on their own slavery is powerful in particular, but the wild, desert setting is also quite evocative. The writing itself, however, also holds a lot of power.

Abdullahi Isse Colonial Literature Colonial literature in America is directly connected post enlightenment era political thought and nationalist fervor among the colonies. One of the various fathers of the American enlightenment movement, Henry Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” embodies the themes of colonial literature. I’m also well versed with Thoreau’s work, so this analysis is truly a joy to me. Henry David Thoreau argues and explains his notion of civil disobedience; in the mid nineteenth century as the United States expands and goes into furthering conflict; Thoreau criticizes government and the contradictions of the social contract; he values and advocates political involvement (also an enlightenment

The main theme in the short story “Babylon Revisited” is that you can’t repeat the past. Charlie has a lot of hope for the future, but his guilt from the past catches up with him. He tries to forget about the Paris he used to know, but memories from the past haunts him throughout the story. His past is inescapable and he has to pay great debts when the party comes to an end. “Babylon Revisited”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1931. The story is greatly affected by the time period it was written in, and by what was going on in Fitzgerald’s life.

The desire to conquer land that was previously unexplored has existed throughout history. This desire forced many indigenous societies, who were usually dominated technologically, to adapt to the teachings and overall system of the ‘superior’ conqueror nation with destruction as the only alternative. This causes a major impact on how a certain society functions, even after seeking independence from the foreigners. The rise and fall of indigenous societies can be analyzed through various media. Chinua Achebe is a novelist specializing in African literature, and this essay deals with the themes regarding colonialism in one of his many novels. In

To what Extent can Gemmy be regarded as Representing a Paradigm Shift in the Mind Set of the Settlers?