POSTCOLONIAL LITERATURE, BIS 3083

Postcolonial Culture: HYBRIDITY

LECTURER:DR. LAJIMAN JANOORY

Prepared by:

WAN NURFATIN SYARMEMY BT W.M. AZMUDDIN (D20091034408)

ANIS ZULAIKHA BT BASRAH (D20091034413)SHIKNESVARY A/P KARUPPAIAH (D20091034433)

Hybridity• Creation of transcultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization.

• Hybridisation takes place in many form : cultural, political & linguistic (Pidgin & Creole)

• Hybridity : bringing together two cultures offering the possibility of a third way/ “Third Space”

• Third Space of Enunciation by Homi Bhabha is a theory of identity or community realized through language or enunciation.

• It explains about uniqueness of identity as a hybrid.

• Concept of Third Space Theory can be found in :Music : (“Shang Shang Typhoon (a music

group) mixes Western rock, jazz and reggae with Japanese enka ballads, folk, Okinawan melodies,

Bollywood films : Novels : The Satanic Verses

Salman Rushdie

• Indo – Englishman novelist & essayist

• Likes to combine magical realism, historical,

satire, post colonialism & concerned with

connections, disruptions, migrations between

East and West.

• His writing reflects on national identity.

• Argues that hybrid writing is necessary – ‘English is no longer an English

language’

• Represented in many ways such as the use of South Asian words & location

The Satanic Verses

• Rushdie’s fourth & controversial novel.

• Hybridity is centered through the protagonist characters who fall out of a plane an land on a beach on the south coast of England.

• Their dramatic arrival symbolizes recent post colonial invasions of England and Englishness as a unitary identity.

• it explores effects of people being produced by more than 1 culture

• i.e people as the products of globalization, an ever integrating world system of politics, economics, culture & identity.

• texts are rich with ambivalences, contradictions, bizarre juxtapositions of modern life ( reference to western TV images & Indian literature)

• Explores the different consequences of the hybridising process of contemporary society.

Into The Satanic Verses• Pagan verses which were temporarily included in the

Qu’ran by Prophet Muhammad.

• 2 protagonist Indian Muslim characters : Gibreel Farishta & Saladin Chamcha.

• The characters transformed into Archangel Gibreel & Devil

• Farishta – real ‘authentic’ Indian

• Chamcha – celebrating hybridity, a real brown – Englishman.

• The novel suggests that neither alone are ‘true’, that both are equally real and equally fabrications. If The Satanic Verses is anything, it is the migrants’ view on the world. It is written from the very experience of uprooting, disjuncture

and metamorphosis..that is the migrant condition and from which I believe can be

derived a metaphor for all humanity. (Rushdie, quoted in Bhabha, 1990:16)

THE HYBRID GEOGRAPHY IN

SATANIC VERSES

1. The locations which are in England and South Asia

Stresses the similarities between these

distant places rather than the coherence and

unity of bounded space.

2. The mentioned cultures in the novel

British history; the Norman conquest & the contemporary

characteristics of British culture

The Indian history , mythology and movie stars- Creating a sense of hybridity for the reader: sometime you

become part of the community , sometimes you know you’ve been left

out – like the migrant both with and without.

the Norman conquest

Indian history & mythology

3. The languages used

Included Indian words, terms and names from Qur'an- The names of the characters which bring meanings in Arabic but simply appear as exotic signifiers to a reader who does not know the

language Examples : “ JAHILIA “

“ CHAMCHA “- A deeper sense of belonging is established

- A sense of otherness, exclusion and difference evoked

4. A geography for the readership of Rushdie’s work.

Different readers achieve different interpretations and readings of the

text depending on their cultural backgrounds.

Each reader being included in some references and excluded from the

meanings of others.

5. The non-linear narrative which moves forwards and backwards

through hundreds of years

The mentioned period when Quran was dictated to Mohamed is mixed in with the contemporary events

- Refusing to accept the secular

progressiveness of history

The combination of myth and reality between the

characters - The existence of two main characters in which they have

metamorphosed into chimerical beasts and wander around London with the people responding to them.

The Migrant Experience in the Satanic Verses

The transformation of the character , Saladin Chamcha - have sprung horns, awful and sulphurous bad-breath, powerful and incredibly

hairy legs, feet replaced by hooves

The meeting with the similarly magical beings in an institution - A man-tiger or manticore ; head of a ferocious tiger with three rows of teeth, The Moaner Lisa, a woman who mostly water-buffalo, businessman from Nigeria with grown sturdy tails and a group of holidaymakers from Senegal turned into slippery

snakes.

The emerged question on who is to be blamed upon the mutation that occurred

- “ Who can be blamed ....”- “ They describe us ...”

- “That’s all. They have the power of description, and we succumb to the pictures they construct..”

POSTCOLONIAL MUSICIANS (world music)

Why MUSIC?

Quick to respond to cultural meetings –

unlike literature

Represents the DIASPORAIC

Performed by all sorts of people

across the world

Expression of the voice of the

marginalised

HYBRID MUSIC – Raï (رأي )Raï =

opinion (Arabic)

Emerged in

Algeria

> to express

opinion

and disse

nt>

begun in

early 20th century as a

political

form of

expressio

n

North

African + European musical

traditions = raï sung

in local dialect of eclec

tic rhythms,

merging

Arabic,

African,

flamenco

, disco, hip hop and reggae

Early 20th century:

shikh (men) and shikh

a (wo

men)>

Later:

cheb or

chebba

> For French-

Algerians in

France, the

lyrics is on the

problems and

difficulties of being an immigrant

Rock- African slaves +

European-American

MUSIC represents DIASPORAIC and MIGRANT COMMUNITIES

EXAMPLES

Bangra- Punjabi

traditional wedding musical

traditions electronic techno

beats

Contemporary global lounge

- French musician, Claude Challe’s

Buddha Bar collections

AMBIVALENCE ABOUT THE NATURE OF HYBRIDITY

Sembène Ousmane- Senegalese author- Xala - a book which later directed as film - published in 1974 - examines the postcolonial condition of his country in the figure of one man, El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye

XALA – a summary

It is the dawn of Senegal's independence from France, but as the citizens celebrate in the streets we soon become aware

that only the faces have changed. White money still controls the government. One official, Aboucader Beye,

known by the title "El Hadji," takes advantage of some of that money to marry his third wife, to the sorrow and

chagrin of his first two wives and the resentment of his nationalist daughter. But he discovers on his wedding night that he has been struck with a "xala," a curse of impotence

El Hadji goes to comic lengths to find the cause and remove the xala, resulting in a scathing satirical ending

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073915/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl

The remainder of the story charts his attempts to reclaim

his manhood with trips to local healers and marabout

*marabout - Muslim dervish, esp. in N Africa, often credited with supernatural powers. (thefreedictionary.com)

HYBRIDITY in XALAEl Hadji’s attempts to be successful in both in his ‘westernised’

life and as a Muslim man

- Businessman -Wears European-

style suit- Speaks French- Drinks mineral

water

- A polygamous Muslim

- Status measured in ability to

support multiple wives