A Postcolonial Reading of D.H Lawrence “Snake” and Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool”

Abstract

Postcolonialism is a term that has been exposed to thorough studies and has broader interpretations than is frequently thought of. It designates a period that came into being after colonialism from its prefix “post”, but it also deals with the period before and during the period of colonization. Postcolonial theory is one principal narrative that explains all forms of oppression. Colonialism was constructed on the hegemony of the Eurocentric where the Western culture is at the center of all civilizations and the non-European lands are at the periphery and considered to be the margins. All the cultures of the world are placed in such a manner that they are before or after other civilizations. This results in a building of series of binaries like the Self and the Other, Centre and Margin, Culture and Nature. The study has as findings that the colonial structure and education presented by the colonialist as superior in D. H. Lawrence “Snake” and Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” are being question and criticized by the same people they try to influence, hypnotize and brainwash.