Quest for Place through the Reconstruction of History, Cultural and Ethnic Belonging in Sally Morgan ‘s MY PLACE : A Postcolonial Study

Abstract

The spelling of the term ‘post colonialism’ has become polemical for their arise a lot of controversies among critics regarding the spelling of this particular term. If this term is spelt with the hyphen, it denotes a particular historical period, like those suggested by phrases like ‘after colonialism’, ‘after independence’, or ‘after the end of Empire’. This term will be spelt as post colonialism’ to denote the various cultural effects of colonization from the beginning of colonial contact (McLeod 5). It will be suitable to explore the successive ways in which the colonial masters have denied subjectivity of the colonized people and dislocated/displaced the colonized people and annihilated historical, cultural and ethnic belonging both literally metaphorically through the imposition of the culture of the colonial masters and linguistic colonization.       In the colonial discourse the colonized people have been denied their subjectivity: ‘’... the Orient was not (and is not) a free subject of thought or action.’’ (Ashcroft, Post-colonial, 25).  The colonized people have been projected objectively. They have not been given language to express themselves.