GUNTUR: Post-colonial writings have freshness and diversity of ideas and that is the reason for their wide acceptance, said Centre for Comparative Literature head, Central University Hyderabad, Tutun Mukherjee.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, she said that the writings, which were devalued by the westerners during the colonial era, were the rage of present days. "In fact, the rage is now moving towards post-post colonialism," she said.

The post-colonial writings question as whether there is any real difference between the newly found freedom and the existing inequalities, she said. Ms. Mukherjee was on the Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) campus to participate in the national seminar on `The Praxis and the Pedagogics of Post-Colonial Literatures' conducted by the Department of English.

The two-day seminar, which attracted more than 20 scholars from across the country and many students, began on Monday. Former Vice-Chancellor of Kannur University P.K. Rajan talked on `The oriental discourse and the idea and Histriocity.' Edward Said's writings on Orientalism, despite their brilliance were an example of reducing the east and west into a single monolithic identity, he said.

Change in outlook

The Internet and communication revolution had changed the way we look at different cultures. The United States was representing eastern cultures as barbaric and primitive. "There is a need to revive Orientalism to counter the propaganda," he said.

The post-colonial studies encompassed all fields of studies as there was a need to read the historical, cultural, geographical and economical settings behind the post-colonial writings to understand them properly.

Another genre

While traditional writings pride on Independence, writings of Dalits and tribals say that there was no change in the societal framework. "Only some kinds of concessions are offered to the above categories from the existing traditional framework," Prof. Rajan said. Another peculiar genre of writing was that of Indians settled in other countries. These kinds of writings suffered from an identity crisis, he added.

The department put up a huge vinyl banner depicting 15 literary luminaries like Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Claude Levi Strauss, Roland Barthes, Michael Foucault, Gayatri Spivak, Derrida and Ambedkar among others who laid the foundation for post-colonial writings. Department head P. Rajasekhar and staff and students from various colleges participated.

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