POSTCOLONIAL IDENTITY IN BUCHI EMECHETA’S IN THE DITCH AND IN SECOND CLASS CITIZEN IN THE LIGHT OF EDWARD SAID’S POSTCOLONIAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the cultural problems of the African immigrants in the post-war Britain in the autobiographical immigrant novels written by Buchi Emecheta: In the Ditch (1972) and Second Class Citizen (1974) in the light of the ‘Orientalist’ philosophy introduced by Edward Said, one of the most leading authors and philosophers in the postcolonial era. Buchi Emecheta, one of the most significant African novelists in the field of postcolonial literature, questions the panorama of the African and the Western postcolonial societies in these two novels. Discussing the conflict between the African and the Western nations in terms of cultural values, she also reflects the problems of the African in the post-war Britain in terms of cultural integration. Consistent with the hypothesis that the African experienced difficulties in the postcolonial Britain while trying to adapt to the cultural and social norms in English society; the identity problems, the racial and the cultural shock of the African in England will be questioned in this thesis. The novelist, in the works mentioned, highlights the cultural depression experienced by the African in the postcolonial England. In the introduction part, the historical and the social issues dominating the colonial African society and the post-war Britain will be studied in order to problematize the status of the immigrants. Thus, in the introduction part, Said’s postcolonial theory, ‘Orientalism,’ will also be examined revealing the huge gap between the Westerners and the non-Western countries in terms of the social and cultural notions in the colonial and postcolonial periods. In the first and second chapters, Emecheta’s In the Ditch will be analyzed in terms of the social, racial, cultural and identity problems of the African in England. The second and the third chapters contain the author’s novel Second Class Citizen in which the difficulties experienced by the African women in their homeland and their problems of adaptation into the culture of the English in the post-war era will be explored. Within the analysis of the postcolonial identity of the characters in these novels, the African origin of Emecheta and Said’s Palestinian background together with their experiences in the West, will also be underlined. In the conclusion part, it will be proved that the African characters in Emecheta’s In the Ditch and Second Class Citizen represent the African people in the postcolonial Britain, who experienced identity crisis and difficulties of cultural integration due to the duality of their identities. In the light of Said’s ‘Orientalism,’ the reflections of the Western and the non-Western societies towards one another will be adapted to the mentioned novels of Emecheta, which demonstrate the cultural conflicts between these two sides, so the undeniable impact of cultural values upon the construction of identity will be confirmed.