<b>Colonialism and female representation in post-colonial literature in English</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascihumansoc.v28i1.178

Abstract

Feminine characters in recent post -colonial novels Crossing the River (1993) by Caryl Phillips; Fruit of the Lemon (1999) and Small Island (2004) by Andrea Levy; Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee; The Pickup (2001) by Nadine Gordimer; and Purple Hibiscus (2003) by Chimamanda Adichie are analyzed. Research verifies whether w ithin contemporary feminism common clues and significant differences exist in the representation of females by authors writing in English from several post -colonial societies. Methodology is based on theoretical texts on power, voice, agency, alterity and resistance, which have been developed by Ashcroft, Bhabha, Said, Spivak, Todorov and others. Results show that the above - mentioned novels still maintain a patriarchal framework to describe women’s condition even though a constant struggle exists so that sh e may be or become an agent in the society in which she lives. All novelists reveal that a broad -notion resistance is already achieved, even though it may be paradoxically characterized as positive and ambiguous. In spite of great advances in female agency, residues of colonial inheritance, endemic patriarchy in African and Caribbean societies, contemporary diasporas and conditions originating from globalization and attempts at suppressing multiculturalism still exist and must be resisted. Female power is t hus represented in new disruptions and interventions through which women assault patriarchy and conquer an autonomous place in the contemporary world.