(Columbia University Press)
by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
These sections from Globalectics may be my favourite readings this term. Ngugi wa Thiong'o raises many issues and ideas that have interested me for a long time. I especially enjoyed his discussion about language and the difficulty of defining the postcolonial. I've had this discussion with several people in the last little while. The idea of the postcolonial is very slippery before boundaries are set.
"Introduction"
Ngugi introduces his notion of "poor theory." This seems like a very strong and important stance to take because, as Ngugi says, "without the luxury of excess, the poor do the most with the least" (2). It also plays to love of simplicity: "Poor theory may... provide an antidote to the tendency of theory... to substitute density of words for that of thought, a kind of modern scholasticism" (2)
I like that Ngugi defines poor as "being extremely creative and experimental in order to survive" (3). This has many implications for theoretical work but also for the concept of economical poverty. Through this definition, Ngugi gives more agency to the poor, instead of pure victimisation. I can't help but think of Jane in Wicomb's short stories and the necessity of being creative in order to stay out of the bad weather and also find a way to relieve the poverty of her marriage to Drew.
I also think back to Zoe Wicomb's "Shame and Identity" when Ngugi speaks about the body:
"Some of the poor actually carry theory on their bodies. We have pictures of kids in ghettos around the world wearing worn-out T-shirts or caps bearing the logos of various corporations... A logo in such a setting and context is no longer a commercial, advertising a product, but a pointer to a connection between the two extremes of ghetto poverty and corporate power" (4) "Inadvertently he was making a connection"
The body, in this sense, is very susceptible to ironic undermining. The poor in this context are inadvertently undermining the capitalist symbols; however, at the same time, the symbols impress certain ideas onto the people.
We have looked at this connection between land and body quite a bit at this point. What's more ambitious about Ngugi's work is his belief in "the liberation of literature from its straightjackets of nationalism" (8). His idea of globalectics "embraces wholeness, interconnectedness, equality of potentiality of parts, tension, and motion" (8). It's interesting to me how so many writers and critics think in these terms in the postcolonial context, compared to recent Western thought which shies away from interconnectedness and wholeness.
"Globalectical Imagination"
Ngugi's conception of "globalectics" makes sense as the world increasingly becomes a "global village" with the "intensified communication system" (46). He says that "reading globaletically is a way of approaching any text from whatever times and places to allow its content and themes form a free conversation with other texts of one's time and place, the better to make it yield its maximum to the human" (60)
My thoughts always seem to go back to the TRC, but the global exchange of ideas of oppression and reconciliation interest me a lot, because it is a sharing of ideas that raises so many broader issues. That the South African Apartheid was inspired in part by the Canadian reserve system and that the Canadian TRC was inspired by the South African TRC shows the extent of this globalised reality. Ngugi's focus here, however, is literature.
One idea that I find particularly salient is that "the cultural creations of individual nations become common property" (48). He claims, quite optimistically, that "national one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a wold literature" (48).
Although he seems quite optimistic, Ngugi asserts that world literature is a process (49) and that there needs to be a balance struck between the national and global (57). Like many others, he raises the question of how we should read: "do we want to welcome [the text] or do we want to put it back into prison - or even a new prison?" (58) Ways of reading interest me because of my modernist background, which concerns itself with how to read the aesthetics and literary devices. I think that Ngugi's discussion on reading really highlights the subjectivity of how we want to understand something and "what baggage we bring to it" (60).
In a lot of ways, I feel that "world literature" has less to do with the literature that is produced and more to do with how literature is read and applied. Of course, postcolonial literature is global in a more literal sense but, as Ngugi says, "translation is the language of languages" (61) and having the ability to discuss literature with the "other" is what will erase the designation of an "other."
Ngugi's conception of "globalectics" makes sense as the world increasingly becomes a "global village" with the "intensified communication system" (46). He says that "reading globaletically is a way of approaching any text from whatever times and places to allow its content and themes form a free conversation with other texts of one's time and place, the better to make it yield its maximum to the human" (60)
My thoughts always seem to go back to the TRC, but the global exchange of ideas of oppression and reconciliation interest me a lot, because it is a sharing of ideas that raises so many broader issues. That the South African Apartheid was inspired in part by the Canadian reserve system and that the Canadian TRC was inspired by the South African TRC shows the extent of this globalised reality. Ngugi's focus here, however, is literature.
One idea that I find particularly salient is that "the cultural creations of individual nations become common property" (48). He claims, quite optimistically, that "national one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a wold literature" (48).
Although he seems quite optimistic, Ngugi asserts that world literature is a process (49) and that there needs to be a balance struck between the national and global (57). Like many others, he raises the question of how we should read: "do we want to welcome [the text] or do we want to put it back into prison - or even a new prison?" (58) Ways of reading interest me because of my modernist background, which concerns itself with how to read the aesthetics and literary devices. I think that Ngugi's discussion on reading really highlights the subjectivity of how we want to understand something and "what baggage we bring to it" (60).
In a lot of ways, I feel that "world literature" has less to do with the literature that is produced and more to do with how literature is read and applied. Of course, postcolonial literature is global in a more literal sense but, as Ngugi says, "translation is the language of languages" (61) and having the ability to discuss literature with the "other" is what will erase the designation of an "other."