ESCUELA MUNCIPAL DE BELLAS ARTES

INT. ANGEL O. PEDRAZZOLI

PROFESORADO DE INGLS

ENGLISH LITERATURE III 4TH COURSE

COMPARATIVE ESSAY.

STUDENT: GISELA GATTI.

October, 2016.
 Chinua and Salman: two styles for one literary movement.

Post-colonial literature, which appears in the 1950s primarily in Africa, Asia,

South America and The Caribbean, is writing that reflects the effects of
colonization; it has arisen out of experiences which result from contact of a
dominated colony with a dominant Empire. Such writing it is a response to the
empire but not necessarily against it. Different struggles and power conflicts
have occurred in the independent colonies after colonization, so the literature
has served as an expression of these internal crises. Many authors are
recognized as post-colonial writers; Chinua Achebe and Salman Rushdie are
among them. Both of them, dealing with topics related to identity, moral values,
cultural integrity, and traditions have known how to express the complex reality
of the new independent colonies. Despite of being under the same literary
movement, each writer can be identified with a distinctive writing style. A brief
analysis of the short stories Death mens path from Chinua and The Midnight
s children from Salman will give us some insights into their particular way of
writing.

The Nigerian Chinua Achebe was born in 1930 in a traditional African village. As
a writer his aim is to demonstrate the richness, beauty, and sophistication of
native African traditions. In his story Death mens path we can see a clear
reflection of Chinuas style. The story narrates the conflict that arises in a
school when an important path of the village wants to be closed by the new
headmaster. In this literary work Chinua combines the narration with dialogues,
making also use of proverbs to keep alive the African storytelling tradition. We
can see an example of this in the story when one ancient priest says, What I
always say is: let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch (p. 55). Another
characteristic of Chinuas writing is the representation of antagonist cultures
through their characters. In Death mens path Obi, the young and energetic
headmaster, and his wife Nancy represent the modern world and progress while
the priest, an old man that walks with a slight stoop, symbolizes the African
tradition. Chinua is also an expert in playing with words. He uses language
creatively to create a particular meaning. In the story, for us to have an idea of
Nancys personality, he writes: In their two years of married life she had
become completely infected by his passion for modern methods (p.53). Clearly,
the word infection in the passage has a particular connotation that helps us to
understand how deeper the womans fascination with modern ideas is. The
symbols that the writer uses also show us the culture clash, the African tradition
is symbolized with the path while the hedges and flowers represent modernity.
Chinuas story ends up being a nice blend of balanced points of view and
imagination.

Another important author that belongs to the postcolonial literature movement

but with a style different from Chinuas is the Indian Salman Rushdie. He is
considered to be part of magic realism, a style of writing that combines realism
with fantastical elements within a single prose narrative. In his story The
midnights children, which is about The Amritsar Massacre in India, Salman
describes the sequence of events from a protagonist who has telepathic powers
to look into the minds and lives of others. Salman also uses creatively
humorous images and metaphors to describe painful issues. In one extra of the
story, when talking about how one of the characters avoids being killed he
writes, As Brigadier Dyer issues a command the sneeze hits my grandfather
full in the face. `Yaaaakh-thoooo! he sneezes and falls forward, losing his
balance, following his nose and thereby saving his life (p. 3). The
implementation of such techniques helps the author to underscore the horror of
the events. The same effect he accomplishes when using words with neutral
connotation as it is shown in this passage, There is a noise like teeth chattering
in winter and someone falls on him (). The chattering stops and is replaced by
the noises of people and birds (p.3). In this case, teeth chattering represent a
machine gun and noises of people refers to terrible screams; by choosing this
words the drama of the event is lessen, keeping the readers detached from the
horror described by the author. Salman includes sensory perception throughout
the story. He focuses on sounds, smells or visual images, so as to give readers
a complete understanding of the situation. For example he uses expressions
like: The air is filled with dust or There is still a smell of ordure in the air (p.3).
Definitely, Salman is a master in using allegory to describe historical and
political events.
All in all, Chinua and Salman have perfectly known how to represent the
complexity of post-colonial societies and events in a written form. Each one has
a unique and original style. Each one is different from the other. However, both
stories give us some insights on the effects of post colonialism in the new
independent colonies. Either following the oral tradition or the magical realism,
the authors could successfully challenge egocentric assumptions about
literature, dealing with topics of identity, culture, traditions, and race. Chinua,
Salman and others post-colonial writers were able to expand the traditional
cannon of western literature imposed by the dominated countries, using
narration as a means of bringing to light what was going on in the new
independent territories.
Sources:

Chinua, Achebe. (1953). Dead Mens Path. (From pages 52-55). Study
notes of the subject English Literature. Profesorado de Ingls. Escuela
Municipal de Bellas Artes. San Justo, Santa Fe.

Salman, Rushdie. (1980). The midnights children. (From pages 1 to 4).

Study notes of the subject English Literature. Profesorado de Ingls. Escuela
Municipal de Bellas Artes. San Justo, Santa Fe.

OReilly, Christopher. (2001). Contexts in Literature: Post-Colonial Literature.

Retrieved October 29, 2016 from http://education.cambridge.org/
media/651467/post_colonial_literature.pdf. Cambridge University Press.

English Literature III. 4th course. (2016). An insight into the English Literature of
the 20th century. Profesorado de Ingls. Escuela Municipal de Bellas Artes. San
Justo, Santa Fe.