| My dissertation explores civil violence in the postcolony and its representation in contemporary literature. Whether in the form of civil war in Algeria, genocide in Rwanda or religious riots in India, these events are a direct result of the political, legal and intellectual foundation of colonialism. Representation of this internecine violence is widespread in novels, poetry and drama, but it remains an under-explored topic in postcolonial studies. Firstly, my dissertation offers a historical and theoretical approach to locate the origins of this phenomenon through a re-reading of the writings of thinkers and leaders of decolonization, especially Frantz Fanon, Mahatma Gandhi and Amilcar Cabral. A scrutiny of the climate and theories of this period allows for an understanding of why most former colonies failed to make successful transition into independent nation-states and have instead become settings of gruesome civil conflicts. This section becomes the theoretical context within which my chosen corpus of literature can be placed. Secondly, drawing from approximately thirty postcolonial novels about civil violence, I examine their representations of the nation, the figure of the "other," space and architecture, violence, gender and children. Lastly, I formulate a critique of the field of postcolonial studies and simultaneously expand its scope by including this hitherto under-examined literature. |
