Liberation Politics And Post-colonial Literature

This dissertation is composed of theory study and literature interpretation. Firstly, the traditional postcolonial theory is reconstructed in the perspective of liberation politics. Then this dissertation researches the different attitudes of V.S.Naipaul, J.M.Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer on decolonization by the reconstructed theory.In the theory study, the research of the contemporary western postcolonial theory and literature aims at the problems of the western society. In nature it's a kind of self-reflection and self-criticism in the western academy. Its strategy is to interpret and deconstruct the hegemony of imperial culture. Differently, the postcolonial study in the perspective of liberation politics focus on the liberation of the colonized instead of the imperial self-reflection and self-criticism. According to the historical process of the colonized to be independent and to be themselves, this dissertation tries to develop a kind of theory discourse to interpret the liberation practices of the colonized. This theory work contains three parts: First, this dissertation transforms the philosophy base of postcolonial theory, from Foucault's "knowledge-Power" to the power analysis including discourse study and political economics. For the discourse study has been discussed more frequently, this dissertation pays more attention on the reconstruction of the political economics of postcolonial theory. Secondly, this dissertation brings the history into the postcolonial theory in order to change the unhistorization trend of the traditional study. It's necessary to divide the postcolonial era and after- postcolonial era according to the colonial liberation in 1960's. Last, the concepts like class, capital, world-system, revolution, violence, gender are added to the postcolonial theory in order to make it more available for the interpretation of the historical and modern problems, writers and their works.By the reconstructed postcolonial theory, the different attitudes of three writers --V.S.Naipaul, J.M.Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer--on decolonization are compared. They stand for three typical positions: V.S.Naipaul's conservatism, J.M.Coetzee's liberalism and Nadine Gordimer's radicalism. V.S.Naipaul believes in the universal civilization, in opposition to the liberation movement in the colonies. He proposes to transform the colonies by the European civilization. J.M.Coetzee insists on the individual liberalism, and trusts neither western centerism nor revolution in the colonies. Nadine Gordimer supports the black revolution, and she believes the white should participate in the revolution to help the black. All the different positions are embodied in their literature and influence their writing style. After the national independent movement in 1960's, they continue to write some novels to reflect the predicament of the former colonized nations and try to give the new decolonization strategies.