JULIA ALVAREZ’S IN THE TIMES OF BUTTERFLIES: AN AGENCY OF INTERROGATING “THE POSTCOLONY†IN THE CARIBBEAN

MOSES AULE

Abstract

This paper offers a fresh perspective in reading postcolonial novels by Caribbean women writers by adopting Achille Mbembe’s “On the Postcolony†(2001) as a model of postcolonial discourse. By doing this, the paper argues that postcolonial novels, as tools of resisting hegemony, a process of reclaiming the humanity of the oppressed and a mode of regaining the voice of the colonized people should go beyond deploying history in literary works as a means of writing to the exploiting-centre. It should also work out theoretical prototype for interrogating the inhibiting proclivities of the “forces within†which have and are still perpetuating social, economic and political violence on their people. Using Mbembe’s model, the paper finds that the freed colonized people “...could continue to kill each other even without a colonial dictator to tell them to†(Alvrez 1997:336, our emphasis).       

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