A response to Ingrid Johnston’s “What are the benefits for teachers and students of reading postcolonial literature in contemporary secondary English Language Arts classes?”

I was surprised when I asked my fellow classmates about their high school experiences with postcolonial literature: in short, most of them had never read anything postcolonial. Multicultural, perhaps, but not quite postcolonial. They seem to be the same thing, at first, but Johnston points out the important difference between them: “multicultural literary texts often resist the need to address complex issues of power relations as well as marginalized knowledges and practices in the classroom. In contrast, postcolonial texts invite teachers and students to consider the intersections of the aesthetic and the political in the study of literary texts” (197). It seems strange to me that, in a land that was built upon colonialism, the study of postcolonialism (and its literature) is not taught in high school.

Some of the best works I have read are postcolonial. Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, and Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance are all texts I would love to bring into a high school classroom. Many indigenous literary works could also be considered postcolonial; especially the more contemporary works by authors who are still feeling the impact of residential schools, despite the fact that they are no longer in operation. Asking students to recognize some of the political imbalances in texts also works towards an agenda of social justice.

Studying colonization through a postcolonial lens helps, in a way, with a process called “decolonization.” This TED talk by Rutazibwa is an interesting way to think about colonization, and the process of decolonization (watch at 9:30).

Although decolonization may seem like a difficult-to-reach ideal at the moment, it is still important to strive for it.