Coetzee along with many South African writers like Nadine Gordimer, Alan Paton played an instrumental role in bringing apartheid to global attention. Coetzee’s literary career has grown up in South Africa under the apartheid regime. As such it is obvious to have presence of references in his works to the system of racial segregation and its consequences on the victims. Racial structure of his country provided Coetzee much raw material for his writing. He has used his countries ‘apartheid system’ to project the harshness of human conditions.
The main and central objective of this dissertation is an effort to evaluate the post colonial thematic preoccupations in the African society and literature. It is an analysis of post colonial thematic preoccupations in the literary work ‘Arrow of God’ by Chinua Achebe and ‘Cry – The Beloved Country’ by Alan Paton. Both novelists have tried to depict the realistic condition of native African colonized people. Imperialism is a kind of aspect in which one country is trying to seek in expanding its power and authority by conquering other countries or by setting up economic and political dominance on the countries. Imperialism starts when one country or nation takes over smaller countries for their land and natural resources.
The Apartheid was developed for several reasons, the major influence was the ideology of racial dominance and fear. White people were the minorities in South Africa, and many of them were worried they would lose their profession, culture and language, thus leading to the establishment of the Apartheid. Several governmental policies were formed, including the Population Registration Act in 1950, which supported the act of racial separation by classifying races into four distinct racial categories; white, black, colored, or others. The colored group was divided into two main subgroups of Indians and Asians. The three categories were divided based on the individuals’ physical appearance and social acceptance.
Abstract: Chinua Achebe, the recipient of Man Booker International Prize,2007, has one interest which is to be responsible to the fate or destiny of his people and society. Achebe as an African writer, his writing especially novels portray the various colors and texture of the post-colonial African reality. Observations such as socio-psychological impacts influence the author and so the literature. Hence, the post-colonial literature is described in The Empire Writes Back, as "what each of these literatures has in common beyond their special and distinctive regional characteristics is that they emerged in their present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with the imperial power and by emphasizing their difference from the assumptions of the imperial center. It is this which makes them distinctively post-colonial".
Given the time, her work was of great importance to the Black and White communities as it highlighted how both races contributed to the hostile climate of the 1960s. The book is segmented into two (2) sections. The first is titled “Black Macho” and the second is “The Myth Of The Superwoman”. The leading themes are Black Masculinity/Gender Oppression and Black Womanhood. Also, Black Male/Female Relationships are another important facet Wallace explores in her novel.
A single story can be dangerous for the simple fact that we miss the whole story. The one-sided view on life can lead to stereotypes and judgement of others. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is an example of this single story. This Polish-British writer is claimed to be a great author, with Heart of Darkness being his most popular work. In this novel he speaks through his main character Marlow about white settlers colonizing Africa, harming, exploiting and, portraying the natives in many inhumane ways.
Sociologists note that cultural conflicts are among the most difficult conflicts to solve because of the differences in beliefs. They argue that the cultural conflicts tend to increase whenever the cultural differences manifest in politics. Because of the high prevalence of cultural conflicts in the society, scholars have written many books most of which centers on cultural conflicts as the main theme. Some of the novels that have centered on cultural conflicts as the main theme include the “Colonization of Africa" by Ehiedu E.G. Iweriebor, "Insecurity” by Neil Bissoondath, "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, and "Miguel Street" by V. S. Naipaul.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) in principle summarizes the fact that despite being widely criticized, racism is still a part of present day and modern society and may be important in the functioning of institutions and social practices. The CRT pursues to inspect, from a legal viewpoint, the conducts in which main origins of race (and to some extent, culture and identity) preserve relations of authority, oppression and injustice. In South Africa, the need of such a critical engagement with race and law is justified by a long history of institutionalised white supremacy and white racial privilege which today coexists with ongoing forms of anti-black racism and racial exclusion, because of our past of colonialism and apartheid. The CRT, however,
The reader should feel directly inspired by the novel and its messages because of the direct correlation to the modern world. Racial prejudice, religious issues/ unity, and the bauty of the community bringing groups and populations together are main concepts throughout the story which he expresses through syntax and multiple means of parallelism of modern day and 1948. With each act of injustice is another ember added to the fire of the passion of hatred towards inequality. Cry, the Beloved Country demonstrates the fundamentals of mistreatment towards a person because of their race throughout time by developing a common problem that is seen throughout history. Gertrude and Absalom are faced with injustice, first hand, while joining a large population in the emigration into Johannesburg.
The people are surprised by the fruitful traps between the human societies look peculiar to the modern people and still they have the scars of the age old tradition. The sufferings of the black people and the woes of their racial discrimination can be understood by the present generation. Nadine Gordimer (20 November 1923-13 July 2014) was a South African writer, political activist and a recipient of the 1974 The Booker prize and 1991 Nobel Prize in literature. She was recognized as a woman “who through her magnificent epic writing has in the words of Alfred Noble – been of very great benefit to humanity”. Gordimer’s writing deals with moral and racial issues, particularly about the apartheid in South Africa.