Hanif Kureishi and Postcolonial Literature

Modernism

• strong consciousness of historic evolution and common cultural tradition
•  strong sense of alienation from those values:  Forster, Conrad, Lawrence
• appeal to a tradition of western humanist values
• Passage to India: Mr. Fielding in the tradition of the very good British guy, as we would like him to be - kind, gentle, aiming for an ideal of human relationships, but in the modernist works, this approach does not work - all those ideals he tries to bring to help people connect no longer work - other things get in the way - human nature, colonialism, sense that the old ideals are still valuable but no longer work - they are  absent
• modernist writer  judges the characters in terms of some higher moral standard which may be missing  but the text reveals a world that suffers without it

Postmodern/Postcolonial literature

• Less judgement about the characters behavior. 
• Raise questions which are not answered in the literature about how one should live
• more realistic, often focusing on anti-heroes, certainly not extraordinary or heroic situations
• dark, but not depressing - tone is more often ironic, satiric, reflects disconnectedness in the characters and in the style - often humor in odd places
•  more open stylistically - may mix high and low language
• doesn't have a closed form, with a strong resolution 

Postcolonialism

• A type of postmodern literature rooted in the idea of identity  and otherness - how to separate from the judgement of the colonizing culture
• Written by people who were part of the colonized culture -  relevant to American  readers  because of the struggle with identity -
• Writing about identity, hybridity - older generation strongly attached to the culture from which they came - younger generation see themselves as hybrids - combination of more than one culture - struggle to self-define in terms of their new culture, not in terms of the old culture
• Postcolonialism causes us to question all notions of identity and nationalism - questions the exclusiveness of identity- especially that based on national identity - other ties are often stronger - shared values, experiences based on gender, economics, tribal affiliation that predates nationalism
• Postcolonial interest in border crossing: questions whether you can cross a border and leave the other identity behind - you might think you have, but people around you do not (racism) too many memories, often power related, that drive wedges between people

often main characters, who are young, want to escape from their past, but can't
See my English 285 link  "Some Aspects of Postcolonial Theory"

My Beautiful Laundrette as an example of postcolonial literature

• Tania in the film says, "I hate family" because for her family represents the pressures to conform to the standards of the old culture - conflict in the characters knowing that they have been partially defined by where they come from but not wanting to be limited by this definition
• How can you connect when you are different - racially, religiously, ethnically from the majority of the culture which you consider home? But you can't go home to the culture from which your parents originat
• the gay relationship - cross-cultural, interracial relationship between two characters who defy the stereotypical assumptions of their own cultural groups represented as liberating, border crossing in terms of culture and sexual preference
• the mass of other characters shaped and controlled by political and social pressures that prevent them from breaking free
• Hardly a scene goes by without political social commentary - Kureishi sets this screenplay and many of his novels in the period of Margaret Thatcher as P.M. - encouraged business, making a new England - the new enterprise
• Thatcher's England based less on tradition, more on competition, individualism, making money - gave people lots of opportunity to cross social and cultural boundaires-
• Huge gap between people who made money (new entrepreneurs) and those who did not (working class, unskilled workers).  In My Beautiful Laundrette, the entrepreneurs are the Pakistanis not the Caucasian Brits.
• lots of people homeless, guys hanging out on the streets, on the dole - squatters - homeless people moved into an empty house made it home - squatters' rights - disenfranchised young people, no future, nothing to do, will not be able to take advantage of the new financial opportunities - these opportunities offer new
• levelling process across ethnicities - doesn't matter where you come from, just how much money you make - the young Pakistani hero believes in this, his father, represents the old values - education, philosophy
• the young character sort of amoral - very nice, kind, no particular values - just wants to be happy and make a lot of money
• postmodern approach - the writer doesn't judge- just portrays the challenges the characters face.

Hanif Kureishi
Hanif Kureishi
"From the start I tried to deny my Pakistani self ... it was a curse and I wanted to be rid of it. I wanted to be like everyone else." (Kureishi, "The Rainbow Sign")
Biography
Born December 5, 1954 in Bromley, England, Hanif Kureishi grew up experiencing first-hand the racial and cultural clashes that he addresses in most of his work. The product of an interracial marriage between a Pakistani immigrant and an English woman, the inspiration for his work has been drawn from his own life's trials and tribulations as a hybrid of two different races and cultures. Kureishi decided that he wanted to be a writer from a young age, and began writing novels that were considered for publication while he was still a teenager.
He studied philosophy at the University of London, and then supported himself by writing pornography under the pseudonym Antonia French. After a humble beginning as an usher for the Royal Theater, Kureishi later became the theater's writer in residence. His first play, Soaking Up the Heat, was produced in 1976 at London's Theater Upstairs. His second play, The Mother Country, won the Thames Television Playwright Award in 1980. His breakthrough came with his first play for the Royal Court Theater, Borderline, about immigrants living in London. This led him to have his work, Outskirts, performed by London's Royal Shakespeare Company.
Kureishi's first efforts with film were successful and gained him a larger audience, especially in America. His screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette was written in 1985, and tells the story of a young Pakistani immigrant who opens a laundromat with his gay, white lover. Critics from both sides of the Atlantic praised Kureishi; one reviewer, Ian Jack, said, "here at last is a story about immigrants which shows them neither as victims nor tradition-bound aliens. They're comprehensible, modern people with an eye to the main chance, no better or worse than the rest of us." Despite the rave reviews, some Pakistani organizations felt that they were being portrayed in a negative manner as homosexuals and drug dealers. To them, a character of Pakistani origin represented the entire Pakistani community, and should display a positive stereotype to American and British audiences. Kureishi rejects the politics of representation; hedoes not take this role of an ambassador representing his minority, preferring to depict the harsher realities of racism and class divisions.
After My Beautiful Laundrette won several awards, including the Best Screenplay award from the New York Film Critics Circle, Kureishi scripted his next film with the controversial title Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Exploring the world of a racially mixed couple living in London during the race riots, it received less critical acclaim than his previous film. Kureishi made a rebound in 1990 with his first semi-autobiographical novel, The Buddha of Suburbia. It is about the life of a young bisexual man, who is half-Indian and half-English, growing up in London. It won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for the first novel category of the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland.
In 1991, Kureishi made his directorial debut with London Kills Me, which he also wrote. In this film, he expanded on his interest of street life by focusing on the world of drugs and gangs. He also returns to one of his recurring themes by addressing homelessness. As an immigrant, Kureishi has written a great deal on the concept of home, describing the complexities involved in finding a place to belong. In his most recent novel, The Black Album, he delves into the painful, lonely, and confused world of a young man of Pakistani origin, who finds himself having to choose between his white lover and his Muslim friends. The novel is heavily influenced by pop culture, especially music and drugs, which Kureishi often incorporates into his work.
An in-depth overview of Kureishi's life and work is available for subscribers at: http://galenet.gale.com/m/mcp/netacgi/np...&u=/m/mcp/db/ca/name-search.html&r=1&f:

Selected Works by Hanif Kureishi
Plays
-The King and Me(1980) Produced in London at the Soho Poly Theater.
-Cinders(1981) Adapted from a play by Janusz Glowacki and produced in London. -Tomorrow-Today!(1981) Produced in London.
-Birds of Passage(1983) Produced at the Royal Court Theater in London.
-Mother Courage(1984) Adapted from the play by Bertolt Brecht. Produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London.
Screenplays -My Beautiful Laundrette(1985) Film script published with autobiographical essay "The Rainbow Sign" in My Beautiful Laundrette and The Rainbow Sign, Faber, 1986.
-Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) Published as Sammy and Rosie Get Laid : The Script and the Diary, Penguin, 1988.
-London Kills Me: Three Screenplays and Four Essays (1991) Published by Faber.
Radio Plays
-You Can't Go Home (1980).
-The Trial (1982) Adapted from the novel by Franz Kafka.
Fiction
-The Buddha of Suburbia . London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1990.
-The Black Album.. New York: Simon and Schuster Inc., 1995.
Essays
"Bradford" (1986) Granta 20.


Selected Criticism on Hanif Kureishi
-Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 64, Gale, 1991, pp.245-255.
-Chicago Tribune Book World, April 6, 1986, p.26.
-Economist, July 21, 1990, p.92.
-Interview, July, 1987, p.94.
-Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 3, 1990, p.10.
-New Yorker, November 16, 1987, pp.140-141.
-New York Times Book Review, May 6, 1990, p.6.
-Time, March 17, 1986, p.78.
-Times Literary Supplement, January 22, 1988, p.87.
-Times Literary Supplement, May 2, 1986, p.470
-Washington Post Book Review, May 27, 1990, p.7.


Related Sites
Kureishi Message Board
 

Author: Surbhi Sharma, Fall 1997