Postcolonial Derision

The project on Postcolonial Derision seeks to investigate the ways in which the concept of derision may be seen as informing the very practices of writing and reading in a postcolonial context. Through the analysis of a corpus of texts by prominent francophone writers, the project argues that derision figures in many postcolonial texts, either directly (as a theme within the narrative) or indirectly (for example, as an aspect of narrative perspective, or in the ways it structures writer/reader relations). The working hypothesis is that although derision is inscribed in these texts in a variety of ways, it functions systematically as a marker of radical difference, and is therefore acutely relevant to postcoloniality in its diverse manifestations.

Derision may take many forms. It can be manifested as a form of mockery or self-mockery; it may be evidenced by a sense of the absurd; it occurs wherever there is an attempt to portray the disjuncture between the co-located yet contrasting world views (or orders of experience) that are embedded within the metropolitan space on the one hand and the postcolonial space on the other. Whenever these two spaces come into contact (as they inevitably do in all postcolonial literature) there is scope for instances of derision to manifest themselves.

The study will establish the existence of different types of derision and/or derisory effects and demonstrate how these are relevant to the postcolonial experience. In the writings of the Egyptian novelist Albert Cossery, for example, derision is linked to ideological and socio-political forms of difference. In the novels of Ananda Devi it is the derisory aspects of physical alterity that are paramount and difference is explored in contexts where gender, corporality and bestiality all figure prominently. In Labou Tansi, radical difference is linked to broadly ethical, humanist and even ecological concerns. The writings of the Ahmadou Kourouma foreground 'derision' in a variety of ways: 'self-mockery' frequently punctuates his narratives of Malinké life and are even institutionalised in various ritual forms of mockery. Within Raphaël Confiant's prolific output there exists a specific group of somewhat atypical but interlinked novels where 'derision' is deployed within a discourse of political anarchy.

The study will go on to investigate the reasons why derision is so frequently present in postcolonial texts. It argues that derision provides a way of representing extreme forms of difference in situations where these are brought into contact. It thereby leads readers to interrogate value systems, ethical positions and even to ask questions about what ultimately defines our common humanity. Derision can also serve to foreground the fundamental mismatch that sometimes characterises the relationship between the postcolonial writer and his/her reading public. It provides a bridge that enables some form of communication to be maintained in contexts which challenge the very possibility of communication.

The project offers some original and innovative insights into the texts selected and broadens our understanding of postcolonial writing.