Post Modern Literature

Post modernism was first coined in 1940 to identify a reaction

against the modern architecture.it was considered as a new way

of viewing literature.

Post modern writers through their works asked for the

cooperation of the reader to create a meaning for the work, to

be active and give his or her own interpretation about the text

.which means that post modern works do not depict life but it is

about literature itself ,about art, a separation between

literature and life. Many techniques were used by post modern 

writers like : irony, playfulness, black humor, intertextuality ,

metafiction , historiographical metafiction ,magical realism ...

Contemporary Literature

Contemporary literature began in 1940 . Some scholars see it

as a continuation of post modern literature whereas others 

claimed that contemporary literature began from 1960 till

today. Contemporary literature reflects contemporary life

and culture which is changing and full of contradictions.

Contemporary literature writers used irony in their works

even in dealing with serious and sad events like the war ,they

talked about the war ,how it destroy everything in a humorous

way .an other thing is that in contemporary literature works 

there is a use of high ,complex language which ordinary people

can not understand as Jane Osten works as well as works with

low , simple language which anyone can understand.

Contemporary literature writers depict their uncertainty and 

questioned things of absolute truth even their own existence

.also ,through their works they focused on the creation of the 

character , a focus on the psychological dimension of the person.

Hispanic American Literature

Hispanic American Literature also called : Ibero Americans

and Latino Americans. It refers to Hispanic American people

of colonies who were colonized by Spain and Portugal. It

appeared in the second half of the twentieth century . so in this

kind of literature we have different groups which means

multiculturalism.

 Most of the Hispanic American writers talked in their works

about the Hispanic experience in America as well as their own

traditions and culture to show their diversity and confusion of

identity .most well known work of this period is the work of the

Dominican writer Julia Alvarez  of 1991 "how the garcia girls

lost their accent" which deals with immigration of a family

from the Dominican Republic to America with their suffer to

assimilate and displacement.

African American Literature

African American Literature refers to the literature of a

combination between two nations which is the literature of

Africa and America . It is about works written by blacks in

America which flourished during the eighteenth and nineteenth

century .most of this period writers wrote about social issues

mainly because they have suffered from as segregation . The

most famous writers of this literature are: Alice Walker

,Frederic Doglass , Toni Morison...

Since the writer is the voice of his society so the African

American writers depicted through their writings their own

tradition as the way literature was transmitted through oral

stories  and celebrating their tradition as well as the problems

the slaves faced.

Slaves life and memories received much attention from writers

as well as their hope for equality and better life along with the

Americans.African American literature is rich with oral 

poetry which is considered as a famous form of literature

during this period which helped for the transmission of this

kind of literature easily .slave narrative was also important

with the famous work of Frederic Doglas "narrative of the life

of frederic doglas" which is a narration about his life as a slave. 

Invisible Man by Ralph Elison

Invisible Man by Ralph Elison is an epic novel of 1952.it

addresses the issues and problems which the Afro American

faced as the case of the protagonist of the novel who is unnamed

 and invisible character and went through handicaps and

dilemma to reach recognition and visibility .the unnamed

character is the narrator of the story .

The invisible man suffered from the separation between blacks

and whites since he is black man, so he moved from south to

north looking for no separation , recognition and visibility.the

invisible man explains his invisibility which not because he has

biological or accidental problems but because people refuse to

see him ,because of the stereotypes of people.

There were many events which show that people do not

recognize him to the point that the invisible man recognized

that invisibility leads to irresponsibility as when he steel an

electric power from a neighbour who did not asked him to pay

for it because he do not consider him a human .people used to

talk with him only when they need something from him

however all the dramatic events which happened to the

invisible man led him to became responsible and finally reach

recognition which means his own identity.

The invisible man moved from self efficiency student to a naive

worker then a radical activist and finally in the underground

then he emerged from the underground. At the end ,the

invisible man accepted his complexity and diversity and

decided to move on from the underground.

Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka

Death and the king's horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka

based on real events happened in Nigeria during the British 

colonization .it was published in 1975 .the story focus on the 

protagonist Elesin who is the king's horseman , he is as a 

bodyguard .his job is to protect the king . Traditions in Yoruba 

obliges the king's horseman to commit suicide after the death 

of the king in order to help the king's spirit to reach heaven 

otherwise the king spirit will bring disorder and harm the 

people of Yoruba. 

The preparations in Yoruba started for the party of the 

horseman suicide With the coming of Elesin son :Olunde who 

come to celebrate with his country people this event , Olunde 

was studying in England medicine .the British chief Pilkings 

think that this tradition is so barbarian and he went to help 

Elesin  from committing suicide in the last minute. The truth is 

that even Elesin do not want to die because he is so involved in 

life . 

When Elesin did not commit suicide , his son Olunde saw that 

his father did not follow the tradition which is an obligation and 

an honor to his family . So Olunde though he is so educated and 

cultivated person but he saw that the tradition of his country 

must be obeyed, he committed suicide instead of his father to 

restore the honor of his family and bring order and peace to 

Yoruba consequently ,Elesin killed himself following his son 

 death.

Minor Literature

The concept Minor Literature originated in a book of  French

philosophers : Delouze and Gattari which is called : " Kafka:

toward a theory of minor literature" . The two writers wrote

about a writer named Kafka who was criticized for his writings

so Delouze and Gattari talked about Kafka strange style and

considered him as genius . Kafka style is strange because it is

linked to his minority because Kafka is a journalist who lived in

Germany , his origins is Czech and his religion is Jewish .simply

Minor literature is about the literature of minorities , the

writings of minority groups which defer from the others

literature.

Third World Literature

The term Third World Literature dates from 1950 . It was used 

for the first time in France in 1950.it refers to the independent 

and soon to be independent nations of Africa , Asia and Latin 

America which standed in the face of the colonizer showing 

their hate , antagonism and challenge towards the colonizer. it

is the literature which comes from Africa, Asia and Latin 

America nations .

Algerian Literature part two

Algerian literature during the french colonization was

divided between writers who were educated in french schools

and thanking France for colonizing them and those who were

educated in french schools but called for the independence of

Algeria.

Algerian writers who learned in french schools ,in their

writings called for integrating Algeria to France as well as

thanking France for colonizing them because they think that

France bring civilization , development and light to the 

Algerians . Works during this period are : Hadj Hamou "zohra 

women miner" of 1925 . Ibrahim Suleiman "the dancer of 

nael boys " of 1926 as well as Ould Cheick work "Myriam in 

the palm" which deals with a marriage between an Algerian

women and a french man who latter on differ in how to educate

two children : Mary and Jean .However what the Algerian 

writers noticed is that they were not accepted by the french

people as being like them but they still considering the Algerians

as inferior even if they wrotein french language.

- the appearance of movements in many countries calling for

independence influenced the Algerians and resulted in the

events of 8 /05/1945 which influenced the Algerian writers who

graduated from french schools as Mohamed Dib , Katib Yacine

and Mouloud Pharaoh . These writers tried to express the

national cause using the colonizer language .literature of this

period is characterized by writings about the Algerian aim of

independence. Critics did not pay attention to the Algerian

literature however  they considered the work of Katib Yacine

"Nejma " of 1956 as the best work written in the French

Language from a non European person . After the independence

the Algerian writers started to write about the situation of

Algeria after the independence and the Algerians hope for

better future .

Algerian Literature part one

The French occupation of Algeria which started from 1830 till 

1962 Was characterized by the french aim to destroy the

Algerian identity using different ways. One of their methods is

replacing the Arabic language with the french language . This

resulted at the beginning with schools attended only by french

people and rich Algerians however later on the most of the

Algerian families send their children . By this the french

language begun to be used even by  the Algerian writers who

used it as a weapon to send messages through their writings to

the french colonizer . This issue of writing using the colonizer

language was used also by many writers all over the world like:

Edward Said and Jubran Khalil Jubran .

-In Algeria , works written in French were considered a high 

symbol of national struggle of the Algerians against the 

french occupation. This act confirms the Algerian writers 

patriotism  and denies their belonging to France . Those writers

had no choice but to use the colonizer language in asking for

their rights because this was the only way to be heard by the 

french people and the world. This literature being written in 

the french language which is the colonizer language get much 

attention and became subjected to criticism from scholars .some 

see the Algerian literature written in french during the  

occupation as part of the french literature and others consider

it as an Algerian literature because those writers were calling

for the independence of Algeria through their works . by this 

the Algerian literature during the occupation was rich with 

different writers and methods. All this will be discussed in the 

coming lesson.

A man of the people by Chinua Achebe

 Writers are known with their commitment to their home 

country especially those who their countries were under 

occupation since writing is a pure art , a clear message hold to

deliver to people. So through their writings ,they depict the life

in their countries during colonization and after the

independence. 

One of the famous African writers is Chinua Achebe, he is a 

Nigerian writer,his works focused primarily on politics in 

Africa, depicting the Africans in the west in addition to post 

colonial period in Africa and the effects of colonization on the 

African societies. A well known work of Chinua Achebe which 

tackle the previous points is "A man of the people".

It is the forth novel of Chinua Achebe which was written in 

1966. it reveals the changes in Nigeria during the twentieth 

century against a social and political changes. The story is set in 

Nigeria during Nigeria first steps to form a post colonial nation 

which turned to be corrupted one with a set of bad values in

this society as : embezzlement,bribery, even in education it

became more corrupted.

The novel deals with two different groups of people from 

different political and social aspects . The groups are :the old 

and new generation with two characters representing each 

group: Odili represent the new generation , intellectual one 

while chief Nanga , Odili's former teacher represent the old 

generation and now he is a politician.

Odili is a man of the people ,he received an invitation from his 

former teacher:chief Nanga. During this occasion  Odili knew  

how the politicians in this society enrich themselves through 

Nanga is so powerful but corrupted minister of culture. He used

his position to increase his personal wealth ,he learned how to

win elections through the corrupted system of politics. Nanga is 

known as a man of the people because of his smooth talk and

way of speaking which convince any person so they trust him

because he tells them what they want to hear.

Odili respected Nanga as a teacher,he learned many things

from him and was happy for his teacher when he became

minister. But as Nanga grew more powerful in his office, Odili

became more aware about corruption in this society.Odili

realized all this when he had the chance to live with Nanga and

there he witnessed Nanga power in spending his money and

having his way with the women he desired. The result of this

situation is that Odili agreed to lead an opposition political

party in the face of the powerful man (Nanga).Odili is an

idealist who has experienced pain and suffer of his citizens

While Nanga has no concept of political morality.

Chinua Achebe through this novel tackled the issue of switching

roles which means the changing of power between old and

new generation ,between good and bad, between morality and

corruption . The end of the story was marked by a military coup

which forced Nanga to resin from his office.

Reader Response Criticism

Reader response criticism in literature , came as a reaction to 

approaches that focus only on the text .it emerged in 1960 and 

focused on the reader of the work, his reaction about the text 

and how he see it.it is also named reception theory.

Since the text contain gaps so it is the reader job to fill in the 

gaps and to decode the codes .the text doesn't exist until it is 

red by the reader.the text is just signs in a paper, meaningless 

and when the reader reads it he makes it meaningful.

Post Colonialism

In literature, Post colonialism is the approach that focus on 

the study of literary text works created in the countries which

were colonized, to examine the colonizer from the eyes of the 

colonized person and to determine the consequences of 

colonialism on both the colonizer and the colonized as well as

the analysis of texts written by writers from colonized 

countries about the colonizer.

There are many Famous works that tackled this issue as:Joseph 

Conrad heart of darkness, Achebe Chinua things fall apart 

,Edward Said orientalism in which he talked about how the 

western saw the orient and treated them as barbarian , needs

to be civilized through imperialism and colonialism , Homi 

Bhabha who said .that there is no single identity but

composition of two identities.

Narratology

In literature,  Narratology is an approach that came as a 

continuation to structuralism.its interest is narration , 

cultural phenomenon , novels, poems, short stories....in short 

it deals with every thing that tell us a story.This approach used 

to analyse, understand through structuralist methods and 

techniques to know how stories are told and how meaning is 

produced .

One of the famous figures of this approach is Roland Barthes 

.his famous book is Introduction to the structural analysis of 

narrative published in 1977.an important idea 

for narratologists is function, it refers to statements in 

narratives.every statement in a novel has at least one function 

which means one action. An action has two types :either it is 

cardinal or catalysers.cardinal refers to the important action or 

actions in the narration while catalysers refers to the less 

important action.

Feminist Literary Criticism

Feminist Literary Criticism  is a political approach .it came as 

a reaction to other approaches like Marxism which focused on 

mail workers and neglected women .this approach is concerned 

with women being marginalized and different from man. It 

questions the way man sees the woman .one of the major 

feminist  writers and the leader through her works is Virginia 

Woolf with her work "a room of one's own"which deals with 

women rights :right to vote, work...so this movement helped 

and led women to go and protest asking for their rights.this is 

due to literary works that women discovered themselves.

An important wave of feminism literature is third world 

literature. Black women and colored ones whom were 

neglected at the beginning of the movement .this wave started in 

1980.black and colored women were asking for their rights as 

the white women since both of them are living in the same 

situation , being oppressed by man as a result they deserve to 

have rights like white women.