Post Colonialism in Skin of a Lion

Eng Seminar Post-colonialism is an academic discipline that comprises methods of intellectual discourse that present analyses of, and responses to, the heathenish legacies of colonialism and of imperialism, which draw from different post-modern schools of thought. Post-colonial Literature addresses the problems and consequences of the de-colonization of a country and of a nation. The char forgeers of his novels are mainly among the immigrants, the colonized, and the oppressed that are suffering from the loss of true self and identity.Therefore, it is demonstrated that colonialism will continue its banal effectuate on individuals lives and identities by entangling them in an unhealthy state of mind like double consciousness. In the novel, In the Skin of a Lion, Patrick who is the main character finds himself an outsider in the society and tries to measure himself through the others look - Top of Form Bottom of Form Postcolonial criticism, like postmodernist criticism, rejects the universal and large scale in preference for the local and specific.InIn the Skin of a LionOndaatje challenges the dominant narratives and gives a voice to the untold stories of the colonized. Ashcroft et al inKey Concepts in Post-Colonial Studiesdefine post colonialism as dealing with the effects of colonization on cultures and societies (p. 186) and post colonial reading as a way of reading and rereading texts to draw deliberate attention to the profound and inescapable effects of colonization on literary production anthropological accounts historical records administrative and scientific writing (p. 92). A postcolonial reading also rejects the universalism inherent in the liberal humanist readings of traditional criticism in favour of an acceptance of issues of cultural difference in literary texts. Culture itself is seen as a web of conflicting discourses. Thus it champions a celebration of hybridity and encourages a writing back from the mete or periphery to the centre. Canada has a history of resistance to colonialism.If you are applying a postcolonial reading then you should examine the novel for what it says about the dominant political and scotch structures and how these serve the interests of the dominant class. Of course this leads us into aMarxist readingof the novel which would focus on the conflict of class interest and the oppression of the running(a) classes. Marxist critics would say that all texts must be read in relation to the society in which they were composed and because writing is a political act criticism should be political as well. Patrick sat on a bench and watched the tides of movement, felt the reverberations of trade. He spoke out his name and it struggled up in a hollow echo and was lost in the high air of Union Station. No one turned. They were in the belly of the whale (54) The form of a city changes faster than the human heart (109) The southeastern section of the city where he now lived was made up mostly of immigrants an d he walked everywhere non hearing any language he knew, deliriously anonymous. The people of the street, the Macedonians and Bulgarians, were his only mirror.He worked in the tunnels with them (112) Temelcoff is a navy a man is an extension of hammer, drill, flame (Ondaatje 26) Nicholas Temelcoff is storied on the bridge, a daredevil. He is given all the difficult jobs and he takes them. He descends into the air with no fear. He is a solitary. He assembles ropes, brushes the tackle and occlusion at his waist, and falls off the bridge like a diver over the edge of a boat. The rope roars alongside him, slowing with the pressure of his half-gloved hands.He is gruff on the ground and then falls with terrific speed, grace, using the wind to push himself into corners of abutments so he can check driven rivets, sheering valves, the drying of the concrete nether bearing plates and pad stones. (34) I will tell you about the rich, Alice would say, the rich are always laughing. They prol ong on saying the same things on their boats and lawns Isnt this grand Were having a good time And whenever the rich get drunk and maudlin about humanity you have to listen for hours. But they keep you in the tunnels and stockyards. They do not toil or spin. Remember that. (132)