Rethinking Postcolonial Identity: Caught in the Spiral of Violence

Abstract

Postcolonial literature deals with the enduring effects of colonization on formerly colonized countries. In the twenty-first century a new literary era, sometimes called post-postcolonial, has begun. Post-postcolonial literature focuses not on the influence of former colonizing countries but with the internal contradictions of the nations created by decolonization. A major theme in this literature is violence. Post-postcolonial violence is at the center of Siddhartha Deb’s The Point of Return and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. In both novels the protagonists find themselves at odds with members of a majority community, who claim cultural priority and political superiority. Such claims are almost always based on myths. To escape from the spiral of violence, all concerned groups must accept responsibility for social problems and address them.