Interracial/intergender versus Intra-racial/intragender Antagonism in Postcolonial Literature

Abstract

Though postcolonial literature affirms what the oppressed have endured, not much scholarship, past or present, has addressed the infighting that people of the same kind have historically and continuously engaged in. Kind, in this context, refers to people who share a homogenous religion, race, gender, class, education, and so forth. This thesis will be a dual examination of the conflict theory with a primary focus on intra-racial and intragender hostility. This thesis will suggest that though the passionate outcry and resistance regarding interracial and intergender oppression is necessary and warranted, intra-racial and intragender antagonism should also be protested with the highest tenacity. The unconventionality of this thesis includes an observation and analysis of postcolonial literature and postcolonial authors who have failed in emphasizing the detriments that occur with infighting. Spike Lee's films, which have preceded the Black Lives Matter Movement, address the plight African Americans or marginalized people experience from the dominant culture. The works of author Chinua Achebe and Gael Faye seem to suggest that colonialism is responsible for the impairments of the oppressed, even in the postcolonial era. Feminist authors, such as Mariama Ba, also credit patriarchy to women's disadvantages. Nevertheless, Spike Lee and the aforementioned postcolonial novelists should include internal strife in their discourse as well. This thesis will argue that although postcolonial works are competent with their motifs regarding external oppression, there should also be an examination of intra-racial and intragender conflicts in films and other postcolonial literary selections.