 Friends, I am Arpata Karwa and in this video lecture I am going to talk about some important post-colonial novels which you should not skip if you are a net aspirant. There are a lot of students who are continuously questioning me than ma'am, what is post-colonialism? Let me tell you guys, it is very simple. Britain had colonised many countries and all those countries writing and producing their own literature during the colonial rule. And even after they got independence. So all those writers who have written about colonial oppression, colonialism, imperialism, they all are classified as post-colonial writers. Britain had colonised many countries and if you look at the countries you will see that almost the entire world except the European nations were colonised by Britain. So you can go to my website, arpatakarwa.com. Under the tab called online course content you will find a module which is called post-colonial literature. And in that module you will get a list of all the important post-colonial writers which you must read if you are preparing for a net exam. In this video I shall be looking at few important post-colonial works so that you can get an experience and you can get an exposure to the post-colonial writings and then you can start your preparation for UGC net English. The first novel that we are going to talk about in this video lecture is In the Castle of My Skin. It is a fabulous work written by George Lamming who is a Caribbean writer. He has written this autobiographical story and the story is set in 1930s Caribbean island which is oppressed by Britains and the theme of rationalism, social class, then gender inequality and imperialism can be seen throughout the novel. It is a beautiful novel which talks about the story, coming of age story of a character called G. This reminds me of Alice Walker's colour purple in which the characters were named after alphabets. So what is important about this particular novel is that the title has been taken from Derek Walcott's poem in which the lines are, you in the castle of your skin, I in the swine herds. So this was a line from Derek Walcott's poem from where the title has been inspired. Other than that a classic thing about this novel is that the novel is written from three perspective. The first person narration by G, the third person narration by Ma and Pa. So we have got the second perspective which is third person narration by Ma and Pa. If you have seen Saif Ali Khan in Rani Mukherjee's movie Tara Rampam, you can see that this resembles the title track, Ma and Pa. And the third perspective is shared from an omniscient narrator's point of view. So we have got three perspectives from which we see the same story. This is what makes the novel special. The next book that we are going to talk about is Was written by Patrick White who is an Australian writer. He received Nobel Prize in the year 1973. So you can really well imagine that this work is important because it is written by a Nobel Laureate. Moving further if you look at the story of Was, you will see that this story is based on a real life story of a Prussian explorer, a German explorer whose name was Was. Okay, Ludwig was the name but in the book you will see the name was Was. So the real name was Ludwig and he was a Prussian come German explorer who went on a journey to Australia. And when he returned he described the incidents. In the story Was you will see that the main character name is Was. There are a lot of religious references throughout the book. You will see that, you know, Was is constantly compared to Christ to God to Devil. And he is a kind of man who, you know, goes to help needy people, people who are suffering from plague and in spite of his own, you know, illness, he goes there and he helps those needy people. And that is why he is compared constantly with Jesus Christ because of his nature, his nature to help others. Moreover, he was in love with a girl called Laura. So when Laura and Was meet, that place is compared to Garden of Eden, the place where Adam and Eve meet. So Garden of Eden is compared to that place. Apart from that, you should also remember that there was a question in January 2017 recently, wherein they gave a line from the novel and they asked that from which novel is this line from. And the line was, map, I will first make it. Map, I will first make it. This was a line and this line is from Patrick White's celebrated novel Was. Other than Was, he has also written a lot of other works. Solid Mandala is very important. So I cover all these works and all these writers in detail in my audio online course. So if you are interested, you can call or WhatsApp on the number displayed above and you can join my online course in which I will give detailed audio lectures on all the post-colonial writers and all other topics will be covered, which are important for UGC Net English. The next work that we are going to discuss is Things Fall Apart, which is one of the most important works of post-colonial literature written by Chinua Achive, who is a Nigerian writer. Now the title Things Fall Apart might sound familiar because it has been taken from WBE's famous poem, Second Coming. So it has been inspired from Second Coming. Moreover, you should remember that this particular novel, Things Fall Apart, is a part of trilogy written by Chinua Achive and the trilogy consisted of two more novels, namely No Longer at East and Arrow of God. So these were the three novels which were published as a part of a trilogy. The novel is set in Nigeria as you can understand Chinua Achive is from Nigeria. It talks about the story of a man called Okonkwo. Okonkwo is a man who is a group leader of Igbo community which is there in Nigeria and Nigeria is suffering from colonialism. So there is a clash of culture between the Igbo society and the colonial society. So there is a clash of culture which is depicted throughout the novel. Now this man Okonkwo commits a sin. What is that sin? He participates in the sacrifice of a very little child whom he raised as his own son, Ikemi Funa. So the entire story talks about the guilt-ridden emotion of the main protagonist and we see that somewhere down the line, he also accidentally commits a murder and he is exiled. When he returns back after the period of exiled, he sees that the entire community has changed and he is so touched and he is so guilt-stricken that he finally decides to commit suicide because he cannot face what he sees in front of him. The next novel that we are going to talk about is House of Mr. Biswas written by V.S. Naipal who is a Trinidad writer belonging to Trinidad and the story of House of Mr. Biswas is very simple. The main protagonist is Mohan Biswas who is an Indian born in Trinidad and the entire story revolves around his struggle for independence. We find that he is married to a lady called Shana Tulsi. Shana Tulsi is the name of his wife and she belongs to a very wealthy family and throughout the novel we see that how these Tulsi family is trying to dominate and overpower the Biswas family. So that is the major theme of the novel. There was a question in December 2006 wherein they asked that Tulsi family lives in which house and the correct answer was that they lived in Hanuman house. The name of their house was Hanuman house. So you should remember this small fact in your mind. There are a lot of other novels written by V.S. Naipal like Bend and River and these are like really really amazing works. Post-colonial literature is very interesting if you get to understand the lens from which you need to see these works. Just like feminist literature you might not like if you are not a feminist because you are trying to pick out faults in such works. Similarly post-colonial literature will be loved by students who love reading literature, who are aspiring to become professors. So it is very interesting. The only thing is that you need to create a spark in yourself so that you start loving such kind of writing. My discussion on post-colonial novels cannot end before I talk about Margaret Atwood's novel surfacing. Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer. She is a very very influential writer. I recently met her. She came in Jaipur Literature Festival. It's a big literature festival which is said to be Asia's number one literature festival and writers from all over the world come there to attend this festival. It happens in Jaipur every year in January. So if you are a literature enthusiast then that's a place which you should not miss visiting. Coming back to the story of surfacing. The story talks about an unnamed woman. She is in search of her father and while she is searching for her father she keeps on thinking about her past and the memories of her past, her father, her mother brings instability in her. Later another incident happens. One day she is driving. She sees vision of her aborted child and that is the moment when you know her life turns and she decides that now she is no longer going to stay with everybody. She leaves everyone and towards the end of the novel you will see that she transforms, her character transforms into animal because of the psychological trauma that she is going through. So a very, very complex story talking about a woman and her life and the challenges she face. So it's a beautiful work. You should not miss reading this work surfacing by Margaret Actwood. So with that note I end my discussion on post-colonial novels. We have looked at some of the amazing post-colonial writers and I am pretty sure that once you start reading the post-colonial writers you will eventually fall in love with all these writers and their works. So with that note I end my video. Before you leave do subscribe to this channel because I post videos every Saturday and every Sunday specifically for the UGC Net aspirants. You should also go and check my social media pages because we are running a very, very interesting Go Net quiz and some amazing contests for UGC Net English aspirants. So you should go and check these pages and participate in the questions, quizzes, puzzles so that you can boost your confidence and prepare in a more fun-filled way. We will meet in the next video lecture till the time we meet next. Happy learning, keep loving literature and stay tuned to ArpitaKarwa.com