This doctoral thesis investigates ‘Otherness’ through works which have thoroughly examined and questioned the creation of a “stable self” by putting it in dialogue with its others and to society as a whole, namely William Butler Yeats’s selected poems, James Joyce’s Dubliners, (1914) Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, (1899) Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958), and Assia Djebar’s L’Amour, La Fantasia (1985).
By representing the results of English, Belgian and French oppression in tangible material terms as well as its spiritual bankruptcies, these writers mark their works as clearly critical of the colonial regime and opposed to colonial exploitation, positioning themselves as postcolonial through their representations. In this sense, their texts raise issues debated in current postcolonial discussions. Speaking in the voice of the oppressed, in the language of the oppressor, as a weapon to make cultural difference visible, these writers analyse the problem of identity crisis, displacement, disintegration and the effects of colonialism on the culture and psyche of the colonised subject.
Despite their differing conceptions of Irishness, both William Butler Yeats and James Joyce repudiated things English and helped to defend their history as well as regain pride in their race. The Other in these writers is presented not in terms of colour but conceived in relation to city/countryside, past/present, and Protestant/Catholic.
The theoretical questions that haunted Chinua Achebe’s career as a writer were also prompted by the desire to re-orientate cultural discourse and initiate a discourse of resistance. In his commitment to questions relating to identity and the relationship of the individual and history, Achebe like the above-mentioned Irish writers contributed to the analysis of colonisation and the natives’ resistance to oppression both at the level of the individual and that of the nation.
As another marginalised writer, Joseph Conrad anticipated Yeats’s prophecy in his 1921 poem, ‘The Second Coming,’ several years earlier with the publication of Heart of Darkness. Whereas Yeats saw the spiral shapes of history, Conrad saw the emptiness at the centre of civilisation and the atrocities at the margins. He showed the hollow morality at the centre of the imperialist enterprise, one that could not hold. He too wrote about the paralysis of modern society, the disruption of traditional society under the impact of intruding forces.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- PART I: Colonialism and its Legacies of Darkness
- Chapter I: The Irish Colonial Experience
- 1.1. Religious Tensions
- 1.2. The Cromwellian Re-Conquest of Ireland
- 1.3. The Penal Laws
- 1.4. The Act of Union
- 1.5. Catholic Emancipation
- 1.6. The Great Famine
- 1.7. Home Rule, Rome Rule
- Chapter II: Nigeria's Falling Apart
- 2.1. Indirect Rule
- 2.2. Divide and Rule
- 2.3. The Unification of Nigeria
- Chapter III: Algeria's Long Road to Peace
- 3.1. Opposition to Occupation
- 3.1.1. The Sétif Massacres
- 3.1.2. “La chasse à l'Arabe”
- 3.1.3. The Algerian War of Independence
- 3.1.4. The Massacres of October 1961
- Chapter IV: Leopold II's Congo: a Negation of Humanity
- 4.1. The Humanitarian Disaster
- 4.1.1. Rubber Boom, Congo Doom
- 4.2. The Outcry
- 4.3. Post-Leopoldian Era
- PART II: At the Crossroads of Cultures
- Chapter V: 'Barbaric' Others: Why are They not so Blest?
- 5.1. Stereotyping/Othering as a Culture Disease
- 5.2. Scientific Approach to Otherness
- 5.3. The Ideology of English, Belgian and French Colonisations
- 5.3.1. “The White Negroes”
- 5.3.2. Victorian Ethnology
- 5.3.3. The African Mind
- Colonialism and its legacies
- The construction of the Other
- Cross-cultural perspectives
- Ideological frameworks
- The impact of colonialism on identity
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This thesis investigates the cross-cultural and ideological perceptions of the Other in the works of W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe and Assia Djebar. The work explores the colonial experience and its impact on the construction of identity, examining the interplay between dominant and marginalized perspectives.Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
Part I of the thesis examines the colonial experience in Ireland, Nigeria, Algeria, and the Congo, focusing on the legacies of darkness left by colonial rule. Chapter I explores the Irish colonial experience, highlighting the impact of religious tensions, the Cromwellian re-conquest, the penal laws, the Act of Union, Catholic emancipation, the Great Famine, and the Home Rule movement. Chapter II examines the fragmentation of Nigeria under colonial rule, focusing on the policies of indirect rule, divide and rule, and the eventual unification of the country. Chapter III analyzes the Algerian struggle for independence, focusing on the opposition to occupation, the Sétif massacres, “La chasse à l'Arabe,” the Algerian War of Independence, and the Massacres of October 1961. Finally, Chapter IV delves into the atrocities committed by Leopold II in the Congo, exploring the humanitarian disaster, the rubber boom, the international outcry, and the post-Leopoldian era.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The thesis explores key concepts including colonialism, postcolonialism, identity, otherness, cross-cultural perspectives, ideological frameworks, stereotyping, and the impact of colonialism on literature and culture. The work examines various historical events and figures related to these themes, including the Irish colonial experience, the Nigerian divide and rule policy, the Algerian war of independence, and the atrocities committed in the Congo under Leopold II.- Quote paper
- Doctor Malika Rebai Maamri (Author), 2009, Cross-Cultural and Ideological Perceptions of the Other in: W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Chinua Achebe and Assia Djebar, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/276186
