Triple Colonization: Female Characters and Postcolonial Feminist Fiction

Abstract

The present study introduces the phenomenon of triple colonization of women in the fiction of the ex-colonies of Britain, the African continent, and the Indian Subcontinent. The women of these postcolonial countries have been suffering from multiple layers of oppression since the beginning of the colonial phase. They faced the wrath of colonisers on their bodies and mind, and then, after the departure of the master, they had to endure the suffocating ferocity of their own patriarchy. But the various aspects of female agony did not stop at this point, as in the phase of Triple Colonization they are now receiving disgrace by their feminist cronies. My term Triple Colonization suggests the existence of the facet of a complex state of affairs for postcolonial women: the undercover and covert exploitation of women at the hands of their own overtly self-styled sympathisers, the feminist authors. This research, while opposing the popular view about the selected postcolonial feminist fiction writers and their so-called realistic cum reformist fiction, surveys how the female body becomes a victim of humiliation and visual feast due to the voyeuristic textual discourse of the very texts. While utilising Wolfgang Iser’s concepts on imagery analysis and current European theories on anti-pornography, the study sets its boundaries at the intersections between postcolonialism and feminism in the fiction of postcolonial countries. I scrutinize the feminist fiction of these regions to investigate the disparity between the rhetoric and representation of feminist stance in the postcolonial context. Also, the research argues that the selected African authors do not show such voyeuristic, anti-feminist trends in their fiction and no disparity between their rhetoric and representation can be seen. Hence, they can serve as models for postcolonial feminist activism in fiction writing.