Frantz Fanon

July 25^th, 1925 – December 6^th, 1961

Frantz Fanon was a writer and political activist who invoked a revolutionary philosophy that had made him become an iconic figure since the 1960s to the 20th century. Growing up on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Fanon experienced difficulties as he possessed the darkest skin tone of his family in a very colour conscious society (Kuby, 2015). Maturing with this sensitivity, Fanon became aware of the discrimination present in his community and the colonialism that accompanied it. As a result, when Martinique had become occupied due to the Vichy Regime, Fanon left the island to fight for France in World War Two but realized that the discrimination present within the Free French movement was no different from the inequity he faced growing up (Zaller, 2017).

Fanon’s experiences pushed him to question the nature of racial identity, causing him to contribute to the critique of the self-identification ethnic movement. He published his first piece of literature named, “Black Skin, White Masks” in which he disclosed how acknowledging one’s racial identity perpetuates colonialism and racism, as well as utilizes existentialism to question the nature of one’s drives and identity (Zaller, 2017). Fanon states that those who indulge in the identification of race are driven by egoism, as they recognize their ethnicity in order to feed their drive to feel superior to one another. Fanon pursues this existentialist focus to explain that these values of superiority regarding racial identities are fueled by interactions, shaping cultures all over the world. He conveys the danger of this phenomenon, as the world will be led into desensitized discrimination from the integration of cultures incorporating this mindset. For example, Fanon argues that white men self-identify as powerful, therefore correlating this ideality with other white men. This perception of whiteness is maintained in order to achieve social control within society, creating a negative connotation projected on to the alternate race. Consequently, the idea of what it means to be black is a perception that is different from reality and races begin to compare themselves and build an aspiration to become like another or begin to form resentment for each another. This mindset creates division among races and begins to cause what Fanon feared: colonization aggravated by racism. As a result, in order to avoid such inequality among different racial categories, Fanon believed that populations should forbid from indulging in their own racial identity and seeing one another as equal regardless of appearance (Welcome, 2017). Even if one does not self-identify to put other racial categories down, the indulgence will cause division, as Fanon stated, “To us, the one who adores race is as sick as one who abominates” (Fanon, 1952).

Due to Frantz Fanon’s philosophy, an iconic standpoint has been etched in history regarding the critique of the self-identification movement. With his literature, Fanon was able to supply rich material used to decipher the struggle of independence racial groups have fought for overtime, as well as how to overcome such hardships perpetuated by colonialism and racism (Kuby, 2015). Whilst the world has not adapted to a complete lack of recognition of ethnicity, Fanon’s theory provides an outlook on humanity and their drives which aggravated the social divisions experienced today. As a result, society has grown to be more accepting towards others regardless of racial differences, which supports Frantz Fanon’s pursuits of a world that is less conscious of colour.

Rola Tuffaha

Works Cited

Kuby, Emma. “‘Our actions never cease to haunt us’: Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and the

violence of the Algerian War.” Historical Reflections 41, no. 3 (2015): 60+. Academic OneFile (accessed November 12, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ocul_mcmaster&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA439109595&asid=31da12e566486045534e119dc74b559d.

Welcome H. Alexander. 2017. “Snow-blind in a Blizzard of Their Own Making: Bodies of

Structural Harmony and White Male Negrophobes in the Work of Frantz Fanon.” Critical Philosophy Of Raceno. 1: 91. JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2017).

Zaller, Robert. 2017. “Frantz Fanon.” Salem Press Biographical EncyclopediaResearch Starters,

EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2017).

Other Relevant Reading

Fanon, Frantz. Black skin white masks. Translated by Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press,

1952.

V. S. Naipaul

August 17, 1932 in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago

Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul is a writer best known for his pessimistic novels written in developing countries. He was born to an Indian couple who had immigrated to Trinidad. As a child, he faced constant arguments and shifting alliances of his huge family which developed anxiety that stayed with him in his adult life and influenced his writings. Before becoming a su ccessful writer, he studied at Queen’s Royal College in Trinidad. He wrote his first novel at age eighteen, but was rejected by the publisher. However, on the positive side he won a scholarship to study English at Oxford in London. While studying in Oxford , he got married to a teacher named Patricia Hale. After graduating he earned a living by working as a writer and editor for the British Broadcasting Company. (Johnson, Sheila Golbourgh).

 

When Naipaul started writing again, his first three novels all had s imilar themes such as the brutality and corruption against many hopeless, impoverished people. (Johnson, Sheila Golbourgh). The influence of these novels could’ve been from the civil rights movement that was going on during this period in the world. There were a lot of protests on the nation’s attention to injustice and brutality and many groups continued to fight for expanded social and political rights. (Lawson, Steven F.) A House for Mr. Biswas was Naipaul’s first major novel. Mr. Biswas was modeled afte r his father and he was an individual rebelling against the pressure to conform to a West Indian Society. (Johnson, Sheila Golbourgh). This man held a passion for establishing a secure abode for family, not just a house, but a home, separate from his oppre ssive in laws. Mr. Biswas and his family required liberty; the freedom to exercise their mind and to pursue a dream. Naipaul expresses the goodness in life and continuity that life may continue in the same ways as it has in the past. (Folks, Jeffrey).

 

After living in London, Naipaul started travelling to more developing countries around the world such as African countries, Islamic countries and India. His most controversial visits were the ones to Islamic countries. In the early 1980s he started publishing books of journalism based on his trip to Islamic countries, such as Iraq. (Johnson, Sheila Golbourgh). Some of these books include Between the Believers and Beyond the Faith . (Kayinty, Ahmet and Ozlem, Aysin). He had an immense influence on the formation o f the negative image of Islam in the west and this led to the questioning of the Nobel Prize he received in 2001 in Literature. (Johnson, Sheila Golbourgh). This occurred because he projects negative thoughts and prejudices against Islam and Muslims and discusses how those who belong to such religions, such as Muslims, are separated from their own worlds and cultures. (Kayintu, Ahmet and Ozlem, Aydin). “Political Islam is rage, anarchy,” states Naipaul. (Mishra, Pankaj).

 

He differentiates the obsession wit h ideological purity that Islamic people have with the pursuit of individual happiness that the universal civilization of the West has. “I find it marvelous to contemplate, after two centuries and after the terrible history of the first part of the century , that the idea — a mere phrase in the preamble to the American constitution — has come to a universal fruition. The American passion for happiness ‘cannot generate fanaticism’ and other more rigid systems, even when religious, in the end blow away’. (Mishra, Pankaj).

 

Naipaul’s wife dies and in 1998 he decides to marry again to a journalist in Pakistan, Nadira Alvi. A few years following, in 2004, Naipaul retired after spending all his life writing both nonfiction and fiction novels. He was such a popular autho r because his work had attracted controversy because it displays ambiguity toward his major subject which are history and effect of empire and colonialism. (Cartwright, Justin). There have been a lot of different critics behind Naipaul’s work and a lot of people who have written about the review of his work. For example, Siddhartha Deb’s opinion on Naipaul’s work was, “Naipaul’s novels have often succeeded against the grain of his conservatism the old prejudices have expanded to devour almost everything app ealing about his writing.” Another author who wrote about Naipaul was Jefferey Folks who referred to Naipaul’s career as heroic, “What else is Naipaul’s heroic career of undeviating devotion to the truth, even in the face of unrelenting attack on the part of the left wing literary establishment, if not a testament to love and courage.” (Folks, Jeffrey). Naipaul has been in many controversies, but there are a lot of critics and readers in the world that admire his sense of writing.

 

V.S. Naipaul has stirred up a lot of different opinions between different readers. However, he is one of the most popular authors of his time period and has accomplished many great works. His passion for his writing has taken him on many different adventures to capture the feeling of what it is like to live in a developing country to achieve the experience firsthand before writing about it. V.S. Naipaul has been a great author with many writings that influence today’s world and has been very informative, through his writing, the tr agedies occurring in the nations further away from the West.

Helli Patel

Works Cited:

Cartwright, Justin. “Back to earth; VS Naipaul explores African religions. By Justin Cartwright.” Financial Times , 4 Sept. 2010, p. 18. (Accessed 7 Nov. 2017).

Folks, Jeffrey. “A House for Mr. Biswas: fifty years later.” Modern Age 53, no. 2 (2011). (Accessed November 07, 2017).

Johnson, Sheila Golburgh. “V. S. Naipaul.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia (January 2016): Research Starters , EBSCO host (accessed November 5, 2017).

Kayintu, Ahmet, and Ozlem Aydin. “Vs Naipaul and Islam.” Adiyaman University Journal of Social Sciences Institute , 2014. (Accessed November 06, 2017).

Lawson, Steven F. “Peace and Freedom: The Civil Rights and Antiwar Movements in the 1960s.” The Alabama Review no. 4 (2007): 294. Literature Resource Center , EBSCO host (accessed November 9, 2017).

Maharaj, Vijay. 2015. “The Plenitude of VS Naipaul.” UWI Tod ay 15. Supplemental Index , EBSCO host (accessed November 7, 2017).

Mishra, Pankaj. Age of Anger . Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2017.

Paicu, Adina. 2014. “V.S. NAIPAUL: AN AREA OF DARKNESS: SHIVA HAS CEASED TO DANCE.” Annals Of The Constantin Bran cusi University Of Targu Jiu – Letters & Social Sciences Series no. 1: 125 – 136. Academic Search Index , EBSCO host (accessed November 7, 2017).

Tewarie, Bhoendradatt, and VS Naipaul. “Interview with VS Naipaul: Writer.” Journal of West Indian Literature 16, no . 2 (April 2008): 62 – 74. (Accessed November 07, 2017).

Other Relevant Reading:

Naipaul, V.S. A Bend in the River . Trinidad and Tobago: Alfred A Knopf, 1979.

Naipaul, V.S. A House for Mr. Biswas . U.K.: Andre Deutsch, 1961.

Naipaul, V.S. An Area of Darkness . U.K.: Andre Deutsch, 1964.

Naipaul, V.S. Beyond Belief: Islamic Excursions Among the Converted People . U.K.: Random House, 1998.

Naipaul, V.S. Half a Life . U.K.: Knopf, 2001.

Naipaul, V.S. In a Free State . U.K.: Andre Deutsch, 1971.

Naipaul, V.S. The Mim ic Men . U.K.: Andre Deutsch, 1967.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar born in Bhagur, British India, was an Indian poet, lawyer, politician, writer and pro-independence activist. Savarkar is considered to be the intellectual founder of Hindu Nationalism. He is the author of “Hindutva” (1923), a book which explains what it means to be a Hindu. “Hindutva” is considered to be one of the most influential works that shaped Hindu Nationalism, it has influenced many nationalists and revolutionaries in India. He was described as an extremist, revolutionary, anarchist, terrorist and a militant nationalist and has greatly influenced these groups in India and other places. His early writings had a wide audience of anarchists, nationalists, anti-imperialists, revolutionaries, socialists, Nazis and Fascists alike. He was also an atheist, but none the less identified as an Hindu and was a known spiritual and a believer in mysticism.

Savarkar was a revolutionary figure who played a major role in framing Indian national identity as a Hindu national identity. He was involved in liberation movements since the age of sixteen. He was involved in Mitra Mela, a Hindu movement in Pune and Nasik. He founded the secret anti-colonial society Abhinav Bharat. His focus on writing the history of revolutionaries has inspired many young Indian men to become revolutionaries themselves. His work, “The Indian War of Independence of 1857” (1909), glorified the revolutionaries, even Muslims, in an attempt to recruit more people to his cause. This book was later banned by the British Government, but it was still published secretly.

Savarkar was involved in the assassinations of two British Colonial Officials and he was also responsible for circulating bomb-making instructions among his colleagues, which he learned from a revolutionary that was involved in the Russian revolution of 1905. From these events, it is evident that Savarkar was central for promoting political violence against colonial oppressors and in popularizing the concept of an Indian national identity based on a Hindu platform.

His concept of national identity was to create a nation of India that included Hindu’s, Jain’s, Buddhist’s and Sikh’s, while excluding the Christians (British and converts) and Muslims. Later on he became the president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, A Hindu chauvinist party, which was highly anti-Muslim. Many sources claim that he transformed from a revolutionary that was willing to work with Muslims to a Hindu Nationalist who was an anti-Muslim, during his imprisonment by the British.

He is alleged to have played a central role of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, for the person that assassinated Gandhi was Nathuram Godse, a member of Hindu Mahasabha and an editor of a daily newspaper, which Savarkar had invested in. Due to this, he was under suspicion and after the assassination of Gandhi, he was put on a trial, but he was not found guilty. After this, he was forced to agree to not get involved with politics, and he was mostly forgotten until 1980s, where his ideology started to have a greater impact on politics. Now, he is being remembered by many Hindu nationalists as an important figure and he was even paid tribute by the Indian Prime minister.

Savarkar died in 26 February 1966 at the age of 82, he stopped eating for he believed that his mission in life was over and decided to die. Savarkar is seen as a key figure in the anti-colonial movement in India and has greatly influenced anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sentiments among the Indian population. Even though he was in jail for 10 years, he did not give up on his dream of an independent India and consistently worked towards his goal. He was at odds with Gandhi, for he believed that India can only be independent through a violent revolution and actively encouraged and created political violence. His idea of Hindutva has influenced many Indians and is still used in Indian politics today. In conclusion Savarkar was known for his idea of Hindutva, Hindu nationalism and the Indian independence movement.

Jaan Parekh

 

Works Cited

1. Pincince, John. “On the verge of Hindutva: V.D. Savarkar, revolutionary, convict, ideologue, c. 1905–1924.” Dissertations Publishing, 2007. ProQuest

2. Chaturvedi, Vinayak. “ A Revolutionary’s Biography: The Case of V. D. Savarkar.” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 124–139. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2013.823257.

3. Nandy, Ashis. “ A disowned father of the nation in India: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the demonic and the seductive in Indian nationalism.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2014, pp. 91–112. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2014.882087.

Other Relevant Reading

1. Hindutva
2. The Indian War of Independence of 1857

Driss Chraïbi

Driss Chraibi was a Moroccan writer who saw himself as an anarchist. He was born in Morocco on July 15th, 1926 and died April 1^st, 2007 in France. Chraibi is best known for his works on the subjects of immigration, patriarchy, and religious and cultural conflicts, along with civilization. Chraibi viewed civilization as a means of “othering” (When one is excluded as a result of not fitting the same societal normalcies of a group) cultures (Bahri, 2014). His works are known for having an overall very anti-colonialist tone, however critics have called his works rather stubborn in their opposition. The works depict a relationship between the colonizing French and the colonized Moroccans in which opposition is the only way the two groups exist, not acknowledging that other relationships could have existed. An example of a highly controversial Chraibi text would be Le Passé Simple. Moroccans were shocked and appalled by this work that discusses the origins of Moroccan culture. The French on the other hand saw Le Passé Simple as a rationale for maintaining a presence in Morocco. The novel was banned in Morocco for many years, and remains a controversial novel to this day. This is because it is seen as pro-colonialist (Marx-Scouras, 1992).

Chraibi believed that the Western countries had a “monopoly on civilization” (Bahri, 2014), and that it is exclusive of other nation’s and their contributions. Chraibi often aimed to highlight contributions to humanity from the Arab-Muslim world. This was not done as to highlight any sort of racial superiority, but rather to show exchanges of culture between the Western and Arab-Muslim worlds (Bahri, 2014). Chraibi has also written extensively about the Arab world. For example, his book Mother Spring goes back several centuries to discuss the beginnings of Islam and the Arab conquest of the Berber region of Africa (Harter, 1991). Chraibi believed that the Arab conquest of the Berbers was truly one of the mind and soul, as opposed to other peoples who had conquered the Berbers before. Chraibi depicts the conquered people as simple, constantly in a state of flux as their ways of life are changed by conquerors. While he depicts his own people as simple, he also shows their deep caring for their nation, one particular character bowing down and kissing the Moroccan soil, stating that no one will defeat this and will always be there (Harter, 1991).

Since anarchy is the denial and non-acceptance of authority, it would make sense that Chraibi saw himself as an anarchist. Chraibi was especially critical of the French people, as they were the colonizers of his native land, Morocco, which his some of his works show in a subtle way. While many of Chraibi’s works do not outright show that he was an anarchist, he believed that in countering Western ideals and cultures, one must be careful (Bahri, 2014). Chraibi believed that to effectively counter Western culture, one must see what was successful when building the foundation of a society based around freedom (Bahri, 2014). In one particular novel, The Butts, one of his characters, Simone,  discusses how European civilizations have caused despair for Northern Africa, yet the same character also shows contempt for their homeland. Simone feels as though North Africans have let themselves fall victim to a history of colonialism throughout history, whether it be the Greeks, the Arabs or the French (Bahri, 2014).

Later in his life, Chraibi reconsidered his views of Islam. While earlier in his writing career he appeared to be indifferent to Islam and its traditions, he eventually came to find them agreeable (Bahri, 2014). He also remained deeply critical of the legacy of colonialism in Morocco and North Africa as a whole. He was always proud of his heritage and deeply nationalistic. When he passed away in 2007 despite having died in France, he was laid to rest in Casablanca as per his request (Bahri, 2014).

Adam Katz

Works Cited

Marx-Scouras, Danielle. “International Journal of Middle East Studies.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 23, no. 3, 1991, pp. 465–467. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/164521.

Marx-Scouras, Danielle. “A Literature of Departure: The Cross-Cultural Writing of Driss Chraïbi.” Research in African Literatures, vol. 23, no. 2, 1992, pp. 131–144. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3820400.

Bahri, Hamid. “Civilization and Otherness: The Case of Driss Chraibi.” Theartsjournal.org, Jan. 2014, www.theartsjournal.org/index.php/site/article/viewFile/282/212.

Other Relevant Readings

The Simple Past by Driss Chraibi

The Butts by Driss Chraibi

Orientalism by Edward Said

Joseph Conrad

(Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) 1857-1924

Conrad was born in Russian occupied Poland.  His parents, exiled for resisting Tsarist rule of their country, met untimely deaths leaving Conrad an orphan at eleven.  Six years later, in Marseilles, his first employ as a mariner took him to the West Indies.  From 1878 to 1894 he sailed under the English flag, thus beginning twenty years of service on the seas.  His childhood passion for maps and his yearning to explore the “many dark spaces” was realized (Sherry 54).  Conrad touched the shores of Constantinople (Istanbul), Sydney, Bombay (Mumbai), Bangkok, and Singapore, among others.

During this time the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was held.  European nations in need of natural resources to feed burgeoning industrialization looked south.  In this ‘Scramble for Africa’ regimes seeking to procure and protect their mercantile interests sent envoys to secure trade agreements with the Indigenous peoples.  The slicing up, claiming, distributing, and mapping of the continent was done by competing European powers with total disregard to the interests or input of the African peoples.  The Berlin Conference achieved legitimatization and formalization of European colonization of Africa.

This was timely for Conrad.  He was able to fulfill his boyhood fantasy of exploring “one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled” (Sperry 54).  That river was the Congo, up which he captained a steamer in 1890.  It was to be a “journey of disillusionment” as the idealist glories of adventure imagined by a youthful Conrad were dashed in the realization of the frenzied greed for natural resources and the contemptuous oppression subjected upon the Indigenous peoples as colonization hurtled onward (Sperry 56).  In 1894 Conrad began to write.  Cedric Watts notes Conrad’s readers can expect “eloquent warnings against eloquence; linguistic virtuosity and a sense of the inadequacy of language” (1).  Conrad’s main fictional works numbered around twenty with many beginning in the serialized format, a genre that had brought acclaim to his childhood favourite Charles Dickens.  He also published four non-fiction works.  In The Personal Record (1912) Conrad reveals connections between his time at sea and the launching of his writing career.

Steaming up the Congo, Conrad writes, was like “traveling back to the beginnings of the world, when vegetation rioted on the earth and the big trees were kings, […] the reaches opened before us and closed behind” as “we penetrated deeper and deeper in the heart of darkness” (Sperry 59).  These last three words would become the title of a distinguished work in which he explores themes of race, primitivism, barbarism, the outsider, imperialism, and romanticism, among others.  Conrad looked through the tangled vines and beyond the mud rich waters, with empathy, to see Indigenous peoples being ravaged by resource hungry Europeans.  Writing at a time when England was at her pinnacle of imperial power Conrad expressed his thoughts on “the glamour, the moral assumptions, the Titanism and the romantic hubris […] even while his shrewd scepticism and his patriotic distaste for commercialism alerted him to its hypocrisies and myopia” through the words of Marlow, in Heart of Darkness saying “the conquest of the earth, which mostly means taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much” (Watts 2-3).  Mishra elaborates on Conrad’s observations of unchecked imperialistic ambition listing him among those “who recoiled from the ‘promised land of steel, of chemical dyes, of method, of efficiency; the race planted in the middle of Europe assuming in grotesque vanity the attitude of Europeans among effete Asians and barbarous niggers’” (172).  If he had gazed at the Crystal Palace, Conrad would stand in solidarity with Dostoyevsky, not only through a shared language and literary prowess, but in his thoughts on the “unnerving appeal of the materialistic civilization” and the ominous fear that the Palace was a “prophecy from the apocalypse” (Mishra 68-70).  Dostoyevsky saw London as a “wilderness of damaged proletarians, ‘half-naked, savage, and hungry’, frantically drowning their despair in debauchery and alcohol” (Mishra 70).  Conrad fictionally mirrors Dostoyevsky’s foreboding in Kurtz’s ultimate realization that “in his steady moral disintegration he had finally become more savage than any of the savages he had initially wanted to civilize” (Phillips 129).

Joseph Conrad is one of the greatest novelists in the English language.  His work gives profound insight into twentieth century British culture and as Daniel Schwartz writes, in Rereading Conrad, Conrad “brought a new psychological and moral intensity to the English novel,” he “understood the potential of the novel for political and historical insights,” and he “dramatized the dilemma of seeking meaning in an amoral universe” (16).  Mishra extols Conrad’s spectacular literary achievement in exploring and exemplifying the “eclectic experience and individual singularity” that is sought with an “unquenchable thirst” through Kurtz in Heart of Darkness (298).  ‘The horror! The horror!’

Claire Kirkby

Works Cited

Phillips, Gene D.  Conrad and Cinema: the Art of Adaption.  New York: P. Lang.  1995.  Print.

Mishra, Pankaj.  The Age of Anger: A History of the Present.  New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.  2017.  Print.

Schwarz, Daniel R.  Rereading Conrad.  Columbia: University of Missouri Press.  2001. Print.

Sherry, Norman.  Conrad and His World.  London: Thames and Hudson.  1972.  Print.

Watts, Cedric.  Joseph Conrad.  Plymouth, UK: Northcote House in association with The British Council.  1994.  Print.

Other Relevant Reading

The Conradian.  Conrad Between the Lines : Documents in a Life.  Edited by Gene M. Moore, Allan H. Simmons, and J.H. Stape.  Amsterdam, Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi.  2000.  Print.

The Wordsworth Companion to Literature in English.  Edited by Ian Ousby.   Hertfordshire: Cambridge University Press.  1992.  Print.

Parenti, Christian.  Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.  New York: Nation Books.  2012.  Chapters 6 and 8. Print.

Notable Fictional Works by Joseph Conrad

Almayer’s Folly (1985

The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ (1897)

Lord Jim (1900)

Heart of Darkness (1902)

Nastromo (1904)

Chance (1913)

Victory (1915)

The Rover (1923)

Main Non-fictional Works

The Mirror of the Sea (1906)

A Person Record (1912)

Notes on Life and Letters (1921)

Last Essays (1926)

Film Adaptation

Apocalypse Now (1979)  Directed, produced, and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola.  Starring Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishbone, and Dennis Hopper.

Imperialism

Imperialism is the action of extending a nations power through the conquest or acquisition of new territories. Throughout history the idea of imperialism is usually associated with the colonisation of the Americas by European powers, but it was carried out across the globe by countries such as Germany, Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Japan. Imperialism was usually conducted usually by invading or occupying a territory overseas and folding it into one’s current empire. These colonies were then used to forward the goals and ambitions of the empire by essentially sucking them dry of any valuable resources.

Historical Significance

Imperialism has affected the modern world immensely by affecting, and in many cases damaging, the growth of many nation states across the globe and all the while oppressed many other once great civilisations and peoples, essentially throwing them into slavery. It also caused a great many feuds between different peoples of the world. The clearest example of this, and possibly the best example of how Imperialism reverberates through our modern world, is the Belgian Congo. The Belgians who controlled the Congo caused a great feud between the two different peoples living in the Congo resulting in the Rwandan Genocide. Imperialism can clearly highlight the many things wrong with nationalism, colonialism, racism, and simply the idea that one nation is better than the other. For example, imperialism, and by extension colonialism, was a major factor for the outbreak of WW1, and the killing of vast populations of Native Americans was the direct result of European Colonialism. Additionally, one could see the Rwandan genocide as a direct result of Imperialism, which brought on the colonisation of the Congo by Belgium. Imperialism highlights and brings to the for front these terribly flawed ideas which greatly effect our modern world.

Key historical proponents 

In the United States during the age of Imperialism there were a great many opponents to the imperialistic ways of America at the time, particularly its annexation of the Philippines. In 1898 a group of academics, writers and lawyers formed a league whose purpose it was to speak out against imperialism wherever it could. The founder of this league was the writer, economist and inventor, Edward Atkinson. He was an incredibly bright man who became a wealthy business man and successful inventor, but far more importantly he went on to support movements against slavery and much later the imperialistic ways of the United States. He was staunchly against, and appalled by the actions of both the governments of Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley primarily in the context of the Spanish-American war. He was very much inspired by the ideas of the enlightenment as he was a massive proponent of free trade and was inspired by the ideas of Adam Smith, John Bright and Richard Cobden and likely studied a great deal of their writings on such ideas. In a world where the great powers vied for control of those they had no right, Edward Atkinson was the one to speak out and take action, forming a league of inspired academics to fight imperialism wherever and whenever they could.

Matthew Barone

 

Sources Used

Byrne, Alex. 2016. “Empire’s Twin: U.S. Anti-imperialism from the Founding Era to the Age of Terrorism.” History 101, no. 344: 163-165. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed October 16, 2017).

Narayan, John, and Leon Sealey-Huggins. 2017. “Whatever happened to the idea of imperialism?” Third World Quarterly 38, no. 11: 2387-2395. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed October 16, 2017).

NEWMAN, ANDREW. “The Dido Story in Accounts of Early Modern European Imperialism–An Anthology.” Itinerario 41, no. 1 (April 2017): 129-150. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed October 16, 2017).

Postcolonialism

The term postcolonialism refers to the impact due to the spread of Western and European culture in their respective colonies from approximately the 20th century onward. It commonly relates to how the natives experienced a loss in traditional culture and way of life. This pertains to colonies in Africa, the Middle East, the subcontinent of India, as well as Central and South America. In Africa, there was little regard to the different cultures when France, Great Britain, Germany, Portugal, and Spain claimed their colonies and cut out their territories (Openibo). In the Americas, Spain brought Christianity over to their colonies, with high hopes that they could convert the indigenous population. This was done by using violence and coercion; Temples were destroyed, religious ceremonies and native languages were prohibited, and there was little regard for the socio-economic systems of the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. Postcolonialism also refers to revolutions and uprisings against globalization and the spread of Western and European culture in countries that are drastically different to them.

What makes postcolonialism so important to contemporary historical research is because it is a recent movement with impacts that will last for years to come. Jonathan Spencer, a British social anthropologist, explores the impact that colonialism had in South Africa, specifically when it comes to political structures.

What was left behind after the flags were lowered and the new leaders sworn in was not just a lingering nostalgia for the Royal family… What was also left behind was a set of institutions […] that include the legitimacy of the postcolonial nation-state as an ideal framework for political life, a legitimacy usually justified by some appeal to the virtues of representative democracy. (Spencer, 5)

What this means is that postcolonialism describes the disregard for the social, economic, and political systems that were present in the colonies before they were taken over by societies different from theirs. The idea that colonization was justified by saying that it provided an “ideal framework” for democracy undermines the way different cultures in Africa adapted to this drastic change, which was almost always negatively. It also makes the assumption that if colonies did not adopt the way of living found in Europe, they would be considered savage and uncivilized. This is a stereotype that has created a monoculture for the entire continent of Africa, one that is still believed to be accurate today.

Furthermore, if one looks at South America, understanding the impacts of colonialism helps historians understand the problems in Peru today. In a peer review by John Sheahan on the Peruvian economy in 1950, Alfonso Quiroz explains how there has been a “historical neglect” towards the rural communities of Peru in the Andean highlands (Quiroz, 158). It was in the Andes that the Spanish conquistadors took advantage of the Incas, made it compulsory to work hard labour, women’s role in society was reduced, and they claimed they were taking over the land in a Holy Quest. This, in return, left the population devastated. Looking onward, following the civil war and different governments, the Peruvian economy fared well during the mid 20th century. However, due to land insecurities, high rates of illiteracy, and poor infrastructure, many Peruvians living in the southern highlands fall under the poverty line (“Rural Poverty in Peru”). These problems are all attributed to the postcolonial era, which make it so prevalent to contemporary historical analysis.

 

Some of the biggest personalities and events associated with the theory behind postcolonialism include C.L.R James, a leading political activist during the Pan-African movement, Frantz Fanon, a West Indian psychoanalyst known for his writings on the liberation of the colonial peoples, and finally Edward Said, a Palestinian-American activist for the creation of a Palestinian state (Ivison). Many of the impacts of postcolonialism also include revolutions in the European colonies, such as the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring in December 2010 that followed. The Arab Spring was a reaction to postcolonial political order, which is “defined by its oppressive nature and its subjugation within the international system” (Ismael & Ismael, 227). These events were the unintended backlash that colonialism brought forth in the developing nations in the world, and while many view them as violent or aggressive, they were viewed as necessary to the people affected. For these reasons, postcolonialism is one of the most important -isms contemporary historians must be concerned with.

Zainab Hoor Khan

 

Bibliography

Graham, Carol and Stefano Pettinato. “Frustrated Achievers: Winners, Losers, and Subjective Well-Being in Peru’s Emerging Economy.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 606 (2006): 128-136

Ismael, Jacqueline S. and Shereen T. Ismael. “The Arab Spring and the Uncivil State.” Arab Studies Quarterly 35, no. 3 (2013): 229-240.

Ivison, Duncan. “Postcolonialism.” Encyclopedia Britannica . Published September 1, 2015. Accessed October 12, 2017, https://www.britannica.com/event/postcolonialism.

Openibo, Ayoola Ade. “African and American colonialism under Britain,” Sites at Penn State (blog), October 8, 2014,

https://sites.psu.edu/afr110/2014/10/08/african-and-american-colonialism-under-briti an/

Quiroz, Alfonso W. “The Americas.” 57, no. 1 (2000): 157-158.
“Rural Poverty in Peru,” International Fund for Agricultural Development , accessed October

12, 2017, https://operations.ifad.org/web/ifad/operations/country/home/tags/peru.

Spencer, Jonathan. “Post-Colonialism and the Political Imagination.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3, no. 1 (1997): 1-19.