Postcolonial Themes in Literature

This week New Historicism, Postcolonial and Queer Theory were introduced. Just like the movie The National Treasure, where they see the Declaration of Independence in different perspectives according to the type of lens. This week by reading Critical Theory Today by Louis Tyson and Literary Criticism by Charles E. Bressler, I got to understand the relations of history and race between the author and their work. This week I got to familiarize myself with lenses, which led me to a different perspective when re-reading Doyle’s and W.

W. Jacob’s work.

Traditional historians mainly focus on studying those events in the past. According to Tyson, traditional historians believe we are capable of uncovering the facts that lead us to historical events (Tyson 268). In contrast, to new historians “there is no such thing as a presentation of facts; there is only interpretation” (Tyson 269 ) it is a strict matter of how each individual interprets those facts and history itself. In this week's discussion, I got to see The Adventure of the Speckled Band under a New Historicism lens.

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The Speckled Band was written throughout the Victorian Era. The British Empire continued its colonial takeover across the world, particularly India. In Doyle's story, he introduced India as a foreigner, by including the gypsies that were looked down upon for their unconventional lifestyles and seen as colonized species. This can also be portrayed under a Postcolonial lens.

According to Tyson, Postcolonialism comes from past colonizers and the use of power, politics, religion, and culture.

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs gives us a brief example of a Postcolonial interpretation in literary texts. When looking at The Monkey’s Paw under a postcolonial lens, I see how the story focuses on the colonization of India. At the time it was one of the most important colonies that England ever had. In the story, returning from distant colonies to England's brought major discoveries as well as ancient cultures. The monkey in the story represents two things: the ideas and traditions brought to England and the colonization of England over India. Another critical theory brought up in this weeks discussion was Queer Theory.

According to Bressler, Queer Theory challenges the assumption that human nature is unchangeable and can be defined by a definite list of characteristics. I applied Queer Theory to the show The Office. It is a comedy show that uses some of the queer factors in comedy form. Such as combining some of the working roles that woman and man exchange while working in the office. In the show, some of the Queer Theory's ideas are used as comic relief to the audience. Analyzing and seeing it under a Queer Theory lens, gave me an absolute meaning to the understandings of the gender roles in each characters, especially those who aren’t define as an especific gender.

The writings of Tyson and Bressler helped me understand the meaning of each theory. Through the lenses of New Historicism, Postcolonial and Queer Theory, I could dig deep into the different types of ideologies that helped me see beyond the general idea of the text. Applying it to the short stories of W.W. Jacobs and Doyle’s and the show The Office. I was able to open my mind above the traditional ways of thinking about the interpretation of history portrayed by other writers, colonization and gender roles.