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Showing papers in "The Journal of Commonwealth Literature in 1990"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Procne and her younger sister, Philomela as mentioned in this paper proposed a tapestry which reconstructed the story of her rape, and then plotted her revenge, treating Tereus to a succulent meal consisting of his own son.
Abstract: to secure a vital alliance with the Thracian King, Tereus, by offering his eldest daughter, Procne, in marriage. Lonely in Thrace, Procne pleaded with Tereus for her younger sister, Philomela, to come out and join her. Tereus agreed and went to fetch Philomela. He brought her back to Thrace, but not before he had forced his affections on her, raped her and, to prevent her from complaining, cut out her tongue. Philomela still found a way of making herself understood, however, by embroidering a tapestry which reconstructed the story of her rape. Realizing what had happened, Procne plotted her revenge, treating Tereus to a succulent meal consisting of his own son. Bursting with rage (and indigestion?) Tereus went after the two sisters with an axe.

11 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The mesolect, i.e. that form of Pakistani English which deviates from standard English because of interference from the indigenous languages without aiming at a literary effect, is discussed in this paper.
Abstract: The idea of literary language, especially poetic language, being somehow deviant from the language of discursive prose forms the basis of some recent contemporary stylistic theories. This deviant language is said to make the work, or parts of it, stand out foregrounds it and this in itself is artistically significant since, according to Shklovsky, the quality of literariness is related to being different, being strange as it were, and capable of evoking other than stereotyped or simplistic responses.’ Leech has given a taxonomy of the stylistic devices used by poets to create deviance and some of them can be usefully applied to the study of literature, especially twentiethcentury literature which privileges the deviant rather than the norm more than most other literary eras.’ The aim of this article is to throw some light on the way Pakistani creative writers use deviant English as a stylistic device in their fiction. For this purpose I shall first touch upon the mesolect, i.e. that form of Pakistani English which deviates from standard English because of interference from the indigenous languages without aiming at a literary effect. Then I shall go on to consider the works of those who

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, Coetzee describes the feeling of being a savage, of taking the cold road back to the capital, of groping my way out to the ruins in the desert, of returning to the confinement of my cell, of seeking out the barbarians and offering myself to them to use as they wish.
Abstract: ing savage, of taking the cold road back to the capital, of groping my way out to the ruins in the desert, of returning to the confinement of my cell, of seeking out the barbarians and offering myself to them to use as they wish. Without exception they are dreams of ends: dreams not of how to live but of how to die. And everyone, I know, in that walled town sinking now into darkness ... is similarly preoccupied. Everyone but the children!&dquo; J. M. Coetzee, Waitingfor the Barbarians.

10 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a list of 433 titles of Nigerian novels, which they believe is as close to complete a tally of the entire population of Nigeria novels as possible.
Abstract: Following these introductory comments is a list of Nigerian novels, a list that we believe to be the most complete in existence. This bibliography has been compiled for a sociological study of the Nigerian novel being written by the first author.1 We have identified 433 titles of novels, which we believe is as close to complete a tally of the entire population of Nigerian novels as possible. We are making our list of Nigerian novels available to scholars interested in African and more generally Commonwealth literature for

9 citations


Journal ArticleDOI

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The British settlers in Canada saw themselves as gardeners in a wilderness, as untouched as God’s newly created world as mentioned in this paper, and their gardens often answered a pressing need and provided food, but they also satisfied
Abstract: Opening his essay on the subject of gardens, Sir Francis Bacon said: &dquo;God Almighty first planted a garden.&dquo; Ever since their expulsion from that garden, the descendants of Adam and Eve have striven to recreate it. The British settlers in Canada saw themselves as gardeners in a wilderness, as untouched as God’s newly created world. Their gardens often answered a pressing need and provided food, but they also satisfied

5 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In Tonga, short stories rather than novels have been the dominant form of prose fiction as discussed by the authors and only one writer, Albert Wendt, has produced a substantial body of work.
Abstract: It hardly began before the 1970s and it is still embryonic. Only one writer, Albert Wendt, has produced a substantial body of work. Short stories rather than novels have been the dominant form of prose fiction. As far as I know, there has not as yet been a novel published by a woman writer. Poetry by women is more common but only one writer, the Tongan Konai Thaman, is well-known within the region and known at all outside it. Drama seems more or less confined to the work of Vilsoni

4 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Shukla as discussed by the authors was a middle-ranking government official who became the Director of Cultural Affairs in the Uttar Pradesh government in the late 1970s, where he is now retired.
Abstract: overshadowed by hard work and anxieties, then a middle-ranking government appointment there is little point in recounting these experiences, because such stories are stale and have been repeated time and time again&dquo;.’ Shukla began writing in 1953-54 when in a government post in Bundelkhand; a succession of administrative posts led to his becoming Director of Cultural Affairs in the Uttar Pradesh government in the late 1970s; he is now retired. Like so many Hindi authors, he was unable to base his livelihood entirely on his literary career, which he describes in the following terms:

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Soyinka's plays have received considerable if not adequate critical attention in India and abroad, the focus has been mostly on his political plays as mentioned in this paper, which has not been recognized at all.
Abstract: Although Wole Soyinka’s plays have received considerable if not adequate critical attention in India and abroad, the focus has been mostly on his political plays. For instance Michael Etherton discusses Soyinka as a satirist and political thinker in The Development of African Drama, and analyses only Madmen and Specialists, A Dance of the Forests, and Opera Wonyosi.’ Simon O. Umukoro comments on &dquo;the political vision&dquo; in Soyinka’s plays with particular reference to A Dance of the Forests and Kongi’s Harvest.2 Lewis Nkosi is interested primarily in tracing Soyinka’s political ideology in A Dance of the Forests and The Road.’ Consequent upon such undue emphasis placed on the political plays, Soyinka’s sheer comic genius and the implicit community values have not been recognized at all. In fact Adrian Roscoe

3 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For instance, the authors describes a country where the writers have willingly taken up the call to nationhood, and where those who have not have been vilified, and it is a country that is not unique among new nations in its search for national identity, but its abundance of writers, and what Stuart Hall has called its over-determined and over-confident social structure, make it a heavily imagined, and imaged, commmnity.
Abstract: whatever language history has made his or her mother-tongue is to the patriot. Through that language, encountered at mother’s knee and parted with only at the grave, pasts are restored, fellowships are imagined, and futures dreamed. &dquo;2 It is in language of the novel that Trinidad has been imagined, but it is in the language of identity that it has resisted imagination. Trinidad, of course, is not unique among new nations in its search for national identity, but its abundance of writers, and what Stuart Hall has called its &dquo;over-determined&dquo; social structure, make it a heavily imagined, and imaged, commmnity. And it is a country where the writers have willingly taken up the call to nationhood, and where those who have not have been vilified. The novelist Earl Lovelace has said

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In his non-fiction, Naipaul repeatedly affirms his faith in what he sees as the attributes of a Western intellectual tradition rationalism, historical analysis, social inquiry whilst condemning what he calls "the instinctive life" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In his non-fiction, Naipaul repeatedly affirms his faith in what he sees as the attributes of a Western intellectual tradition rationalism, historical analysis, social inquiry whilst condemning what he calls &dquo;the instinctive life&dquo; .2 This is Naipaul’s inclusive term for all ritualistic and myth-oriented belief systems and modes of life. Having begun his career by distancing himself from, and energetically satirizing, the Hindu life of Trinidad, Naipaul goes on to develop a worldview in which the contradictions and inconsistencies of his own

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors look at some of the discontinuities between Afrikaner literature and the nationalist movement, and consider the process of the writers' disillusionment with Afrikaller nationalism and the nature of their dissidence.
Abstract: can potentially offer? The relationship of Afrikaner literature to the nationalist movement which initially set out to foster it, is complex and intriguing. In this article I shall look at some of the discontinuities between Afrikaner literature and the nationalist movement. It will become apparent that many prominent writers have become a dissident faction within Afrikanerdom. I shall consider the process of the writers’ disillusionment with Afrikaner nationalism and the nature of the writers’ dissidence. I have chosen to illustrate patterns and developments in Afrikaner writing by referring to the short story, a form which typifies very well significant trends over the past few decades.



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Bethell suggests that Othello can be interpreted on three levels, the personal, the social and the metaphysical, which cannot be completely dissociated from the personal and social.
Abstract: In Shakespeare’s Imagery: The Diabolic Images In Othello S. L. Bethell suggests that &dquo;Othello can be interpreted on three levels, the personal, the social and the metaphysical&dquo;.’ Since the thematic emphasis of the ’Complete Gentleman’ folklore concentrates largely on the gap between appearance and reality (&dquo;the ramification of deceitful appearance&dquo;2), and since it also deals with magic, transformation, rituals, the taming, correction or destruction of vice in society, with the conflict between good and evil and the subsequent destruction of evil, my interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello can be said to be largely on the level of the metaphysical, which cannot be completely dissociated from the personal and social. I use the themes in the ’Complete Gentleman’ folktale only as a tool of interpretation of Othello in relation to its content and form, and the analysis of the characters of Othello and Desdemona in particular. I

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The plays of Aborigine poet, actor, and playwright Jack Davis powerfully express the consequences for his people of the contrasting temporal periods he has defined as &dquo;history and neo-history as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The plays of Aborigine poet, actor, and playwright Jack Davis powerfully express the consequences for his people of the contrasting temporal periods he has defined as &dquo;history and neo-history. Before the coming of the white man and after the coming of the white man&dquo; (Shoemaker, p. 114). More specifically, Davis uses the term, neohistory to characterize the time of foreign exploration and settlement as well as the subsequent decades when attempts to valorize the Self in distinction to the Other sharpened among the British. Predictably, countering stereotypes developed among the Aborigines. As Franz Fanon has noted in reference to the comparable African situation, &dquo;To the theory of the ’absolute evil of the native’ the theory of the ‘absolute evil of the settler’ replies&dquo; (p. 93). Bolstered by a self-serving cultural myopia, the invaders dismissed the Aborigines as &dquo;destitute

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Omotoso as discussed by the authors used historical persons, some of whom are still living, as characters in a narrative that spans colonial and post-colonial Nigeria, and one of the persons who appears as a character in the novel, has been in no doubt as to its historical veracity.
Abstract: The Nigerian Marxist critic F. Odun Balogun is right in describing Kole Omotoso as &dquo;a unique phenomenon in contemporary African literature. &dquo;’ Omotoso has consistently challenged various forms of closure within the cultural debate in Africa. He recently published a work which contests the boundary between fiction and fact: Just Before Dawn uses historical persons, some of whom are still living, as characters in a narrative that spans colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. One of the personages, who appears as a character in the novel, has been in no doubt as to the novel’s historical veracity. General Obasanjo threatened to sue the author for libel. However, the matter has been settled out of court, costing the author a considerable fraction of his royalties. The novel has also broken a literary record in Nigeria by being the first work to be reprinted within six months of publication. Just Before Dawn has attracted a diverse readership as can be seen from a statement from

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Voices Under the Window as mentioned in this paper, a novel set in post adult-suffrage Jamaica (1944), examines the crises of Mark Lattimer, who is simultaneously black and white.
Abstract: John Hearne’s Voices Under the Window set in post adult-suffrage Jamaica (1944), examines the crises of Mark Lattimer. Like many West Indians of his generation, Mark saw whiteness of skin as being synonymous with superiority/greatness/nobility; to be black was to be inferior, weak, and depraved. Lattimer is the product of the colonial history of the West Indies. His crisis lies in his dual racial heritage: Mark is simultaneously black and white. Voices Under the Window, one of the first &dquo;retrospective&dquo; novels in West Indian literature, traces the