Dr. Armstrong,
Professor & Head, Dept of English, University of Madras, delivered a
thought-provoking lecture on Contemporary State of
Postcolonial Studies with reference to Indigenous Studies to our I & II MA
students, today at 11 am.
Overview of Professor’s Lecture:
 |
| Dr. Armstrong |
Dr. Armstrong began by outlining the domain of
Postcolonial Studies, which focuses on the
reading and writing of literature written in previously or currently colonized countries, and seeks to critically investigate what
happens when there is a clash between two cultures. This clash is where one of
them ideologically fashions itself as superior and assumes dominance and
control over the other, Hence, the field of
postcolonial studies has itself been hotly contested ever since its rise in the
1970s.
Although the term “postcolonial” avoided some
of the terminological problems of its predecessors, namely Commonwealth
literatures, World Literatures, New Literatures, etc, it sought to create problems
of its own especially when related to Indigenous studies. Moreover, Dr. Armstrong,
rhetorically asked, if the space for Indigenous studies in the broad field of
Postcolonial studies was much less when compared to other areas like diaspora,
comparative literature, hybridity, post
colonial gender studies etc?
While there are two types of Post colonialism –
Oppositional Colonialism and Complicit Colonialism, the latter cannot be
applied to indigenous texts. Only complicit
colonialism provides a minimal space for the indigenous peoples interest.
Quoting Linda Tuhiway Smith’s extensive work on
indigenous history, Dr. Armstrong said that, “Indigenous peoples want to tell our own stories, write our own versions,
in our own ways, for our own purposes. It
is not simply about giving an oral account or a genealogical naming of the land
and the events which raged over it, but a powerful need to give testimony to
and restore a spirit, to bring back into existence a world fragmented and
dying”.
Dr. Armstrong also alluded to G N Devy’s
perceptive analysis on Decolonisation, where the British introduced English
literature in schools and colleges neglecting a long and rich Indian literary
tradition, and supported Ganesh Devy’s thoughts on English, where he strongly recommends our
scholars to write in their own respective mother tongue and apply our own critical theories to analyze and interpret, avoiding
imported theories and thoughts, and also requested our scholars not to run
after worldwide popularity by writing in English.
Dr. Armstrong concluded by saying that, cultural
integrity of the indigenous peoples can be asserted by strategizing decolonizing
methodologies which have had a tremendous impact
in the minds of the young Indigenous peoples in asserting their cultural integrity, by teaching them to resist images and portrayals they see in the media, museums and other
sources of stereotypes, and by teaching them to identify ways in which Indigenous peoples
demonstrate agency, and also teach them to question myths and oversimplified
narratives about colonization. In this regard, Professor said that, the role of
the curriculum also has a great say in establishing their indigenous cultural
assertion.
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