Is the title “postcolonial poetry” a useful and relevant one? Why/ why not? Refer to specific poems to substantiate your argument

Essay by Anashe1University, Bachelor'sB, November 2014

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Is the title "postcolonial poetry" a useful and relevant one? Why/ why not? Refer to specific poems to substantiate your argument.

Postcolonial poetry is any kind of poetry that reacts to oppression such as apartheid, genocides, slavery, racial discrimination, abuse and extinction of humanity such as the Aborigines of Australia. The definition by many scholars which hold that postcolonial poetry is poetry written after a period of colonisation and domination of European countries over African countries and other small and or weaker countries. This latter definition creates a problem in that some work of literature cannot therefore be classified as postcolonial because the area of which the poet will be referring to never experienced colonisation, therefore this definition becomes inadequate because its main emphasis is based on colonisation. Postcolonial poetry is characterised of the things embraced by the first definition above and therefore the title postcolonial poetry is relevant and useful in bringing the various reactions against oppression upon people (post colonialism, 2014).

The title postcolonial poetry is useful and relevant in that it shows the effects of oppression and the dilution of culture. For instance the poem Versions of Progress by Mafika Gwala is a postcolonial poem. It reacts against the colonial effects brought upon the Zulu land, that cultural identity is lost. Technology is all that is being rejoiced about according to the poem and yet the technology is increasing the rate of decadence of morality, at the same time reality is being replaced by fantasies which are fake, "thus welcoming the Age of the Plastic Man", (Gwala, 11-12). The 'Age of the Plastic Man' resembles that the new era is frail, fragile, flimsy, and fake, reality is completely replaced by the age of plastic man. This shows how the forces of oppression particularly in the Zulu area...