1

Full Names : Ibtisam El Adnany El Bakri Mariam

INTRODUCTION

The research project topic is Postcolonial Counter-representation in

Robinson Crusoe and Things Fall Apart. It deals with Postcolonialism as

the outlook and the study of theory and literature as it relates to the

colonizer-colonized experience, and it responds to the European and Western

colonial discourse .The theory of Postcolonialism is shown in the

representation of the Self-Other in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe .This

latter is the first fiction adventure novel that tells the tale of Robinson

Crusoe, as a typical colonial character, who built his own empire In a

deserted island. The book has multiple underpinnings, themes and aspects of

Colonialism, Slavery, and Exploitation. While as Things Fall Apart is a

Postcolonial novel that acts as representative of its respective nation and

how it serves as a symbol of resistance against its colonizer as a response or

a counter-representation of the native in Robinson Crusoe. In response to

Robinson Crusoe ,Things Fall Apart tells the story of Okonokow from

Umuofia. It focuses on his life in Umuofia with his three wives and children,

his exile from his village, and finally his struggle with the British Colonialism

and Christian missionaries.

Seeing the Western countries presenting themselves as the Civilized and

the Benevolent and the African, Asian…, is represented as the Uncivilized,

the Servant is truly exasperating to us as individuals who live in a Post

Colonial Country. Hence, we see that shedding light on how the colonizers

disrespected our culture and subjugated us is of ultimate necessity to

understand the identity politics and the economic and power relations that

still relates us to the former colonizer.

Moreover, writing something related to the colonial and Postcolonial

fields is a privilege to the academic student, it enriches challenges and

extends its knowledge. The theoretical part of our work we will discuss

Postcolonialism as it deals to the representation of race, ethnicity, culture

and human identity in the modern era by referring to the theorists of the

discipline. Furthermore, in the practical part we will analyze Chinua Achebe’s

Thing Fall Apart and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and we will identify

postcolonial counter representation within these novels.

The names that shaped postcolonial theory: Frantz Fanon, Edward

Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Chakearovorty Spivak, produced immense

works of postcolonial literature. In our research we will be referring to some

of their works such as “Black Skin, White Mask” 1958 and “The Wretched of

the Earth” 1961 by Frantz Fanon, who was interested about the emotional

effects of colonization and racism on blacks. We will be referring as well to

Edward Said’s “Orientalism” 1978, in which Said critics the Western

construction of the ways they govern and own knowledge excluding or

dismissing natives’ knowledge.

The definition of Post colonialism with its main key figures

Post colonialism is an interesting discipline focusing on the

study of the cultural heritage of imperialism and colonialism, and

especially the human beings effects of the slavery ,the

Exploitation and the extreme control of the Western or the

colonized countries.

Post colonialism is the Outlook and the study of theory and

literature as it relates to the Colonizer-Colonized experience , the

Slave-Master relationship .This academic field is not meant the

study of theory and literature only ,but also the critical analysis

of history ,culture, and discourse Western imperial power .

Furthermore, it is an ideological response to colonialist thought

,rather than simply describing a system that emerges after

colonialism . Moreover, it has a multiple approaches which makes

the theoreticians holds a different thoughts and may not always

agree on the same definition whereas the anthropological study

is considered to be the perfect choice to build a better

understanding of colonial Life ,simply because it relies on the

point of view of the colonizer individuals.

Edward Said ,Frantz Fanon ,Homi Bhabha and Gayatri

Chakearovorty Spivak are the key figures of this field who

produced immense works of Post Colonial literature and theory .

1- Orientalism By Edward Said

Orientalism(1978) is a book written by the Americano-

Palestinian literary critique and intellectual Edward Said , the

contributor and the founder of Postcolonial studies . From the

early stages of the book Edward said endeavors to gave a general

definitions to “Orientalism” and which are as following:

“A western style for dominating, restructuring, and having

authority over the orient”.(said,1978 ,p.1)

“A style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological

distinction made between “the Orient “ and (most of the

time)“the Occident”.(said,1978 ,p.2)

“A way of coming to terms with the orient that is based on the

orient 's special place in European western experience”.

(said,1978, p.3)

Edward said starts in his Orientalism's introduction with the

way the Western people were looking to the East at the past and

how they do consider it nowadays “the orient was almost an

European invention ,and had been since antiquity a place of

Romance, exotic beings , haunting memories and landscapes,

remarkable experiences. Now it was disappearing(p.1)”. Simply,

this shows that European are they who were familiar with the

term of “orient” .They use it among them in an offending way and

revealed on how racists and disrespecting they are , instead of

respecting and thanking the lands that provided them with

resources and also helped them to be the greatest countries of all

time ,they disfavored them .“ The orient is not adjacent to Europe

; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest

colonies ,the sources of it’s civilizations and languages, it’s

cultural contestant, and one of it’s deepest and most recurring

images of the other”(said.p.1). Edward said emerges the

importance of orient to western countries . Simply, their

existence is concerned with the existence of Orient “the orient

has helped to define Europe (or the west)”,and gave them an

identity . Although the relationship between them still a

relationship of domination and power ,but the strength of this

relation is based on the presence of Orient .

Edward Said's biggest intentions from writing Orientalism is

merely to highlight the Western misconceptions about the

Orientals, which represent the west as the land of superiority and

orient of inferiority. In more details, in orientalism's first chapter

the scope of Orientalism ,Said refers to Arthur James Balfour who

deals with the problems in Egypt and questions the British role in

it in front of the house commons' members . Balfour mentions the

necessity of knowledge that leads to domination. For instance, he

argued the importance of it by answering a member of the

Parliament Robertson .This latter who knows Egypt and who is

aware of what he has and Somehow ,Balfour displays on the

domination of his country above Egypt .He discussed the

knowledge of England about Egypt “we know the civilization of

Egypt better than we know the civilization of any other country

.We know it further back; we know it more intimately; we know

more about it . It goes far beyond the petty span of the history of

our race” ( Balfour,p.32). Ultimately,Balfour “justifies the

necessity for British occupation of Egypt ,. Supremacy in his mind

is associated with “our” knowledge of Egypt and not principally

with military or economic power” (said.p.32) . Simply, “to have

such knowledge of such a thing is to dominate it “

( Said,p.32).That is to say England knows every thing about Egypt

because once it was under it's control .In general Balfour's idea is

as following: knowing the orient historically, culturally,

traditionally…, automatically leads to dominate it . Knowledge is a

power and easily if you want to role a country do it by

knowledge , do it by knowing its natives . Furthermore, Said

mentions Cromer as a western man ,who experienced the life in

India and Egypt . utterly, he knows everything about the orient “ I

content myself with noting the fact that somehow on other the

Oriental generally acts, speaks and thinks in a manner exactly

opposite to the European ”. Said refers to these two western men

who discussed their knowledge about the orient , for the purpose

of unveiling on the way they succeeded in dividing the world to

two parts but indirectly ,the west and the orient . The orient helps
 8

them identifies their own countries and emerges their domination

and power . For Said “In Cromer's and Balfour's language the

Oriental is depicted as some- thing one judges (as in a court of

law), something one studies and depicts (as in a curriculum),

something one disciplines (as in a school or prison), something

one illustrates (as in a zoological

manual). The point is that in each of these cases the Oriental is

contained and represented by dominating frameworks”(said

.p.40) and this helped them to represent to the orient as the

Uncivilized , the strange, the irrational, and present the west as

the Civilized, the known , the developed .

To sum up, Orientalism is a canonical text of culture studies and

an interesting book for understanding the field of Post colonialism

and within it Edward Said clearly succeeded in differentiate

between the East and West “ for Orientalism was ultimately a

political vision of reality whose structure promoted the difference

between the familiar (Europe , the west ,”us”) and the strange

(the orient ,the East, “them”) ” (said ,p) ,and revealed on the

misconceptions of European toward East or as they call it The

orient .This latter that helped them define themselves as the

superior and the greatest .

ROBINSON CRUSOE AS A COLONIAL NOVEL

Robinson Crusoe is a well-known adventurous novel written by

Daniel Defoe and published for the first time in 1719 ,at the time

when the European countries were conquering new lands around

the world and making their wealth through trade of merchandise

and slavery . The novel tells the story of a young man who is

fascinated with the sea's adventures and infatuated with the

dream of becoming a sailor . He rejects his parents ‘wishes and

takes to the seas seeking for the purpose of adventuring and

making wealth. Robinson Crusoe is believed to be written and

based on a true incidents of a story of a Scottish sailor , Alexander

Selkirk, who spent four years on an isolated island .