POSTCOLONIAL THEORY : ERASING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN THE EAST AND THE WEST

Colonialism of the world by European powers was so long and widespread that it left a major impact on the postcolonial world. Assuming political, economic, and cultural superiority, the Western powers imposed their methods of governing system, economy, language and culture upon the colonized countries. Distinctions between European and non-European were prevalent in every area: history, linguistics, race theory, politics and social studies. Post colonial theory is the all-encompassing study of the part played by literature in the colonial and the postcolonial processes. In this dissertation, I have demonstrated how literature during the colonial days helped to create the superior attitude assumed by the West in relation to the East, and have also outlined the different stages of literary writing in the postcolonial era, highlighting recent attempts to bridge the cultural gap between the East and the West, thereby erasing the boundaries between the East and the West. In the first chapter, by throwing light on Edward Said's theories, I have showed how British colonialism advocated Western culture and language, and writers in the colonial era played a major role in promoting the sovereign supremacy of the British empire. In the second chapter, by paying special attention to the effort of nationalist writers, I have illuminated their role in the freedom struggle. In my final chapter, by focusing on new trends in writing, I have established that the so-called boundaries between the East and the West, have today been significantly reduced. All this has been possible with adaptation on either sides. For example, the West today acknowledges that there is a lot to learn from the East; and the East admits admiring the West, and even attempts to emulate it. What could be a better example, than Salman Rushdie, who says in Imaginary Homelands: We are. We are here. And we are not willing to be excluded from any part of our heritage; which heritage includes both a Bradford-born Indian kid's right to be treated as a full member of British society, and also the right of any member of this post-diaspora community to draw on its roots for its art, just as all the world's community of displaced writers has always done . . . Our identity is at once plural and partial.

Author dc:creator

• PARUL KOTHARY