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ERIC Number: EJ1079925
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1916-4742
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Postcolonial Reading of a Colonial Text
Aladaylah, Majed hamed
English Language Teaching, v5 n9 p122-126 2012
The discussion and analysis focuses on the ways colonialist discourse, in this case Maugham's short story "Footprint in the Jungle," positioned the colonized natives into European colonialist socio-cultural hierarchy. This study examines Maugham's depictions of non-white communities--Malay, Chinese and Indian. Hence, we look at how this colonialist writer reinforced and spread the idea of physical and social differences between the Europeans and the non-European races, rendering the latter an inferior position to the former. In this section we see that the distinction made was not only rooted in physical grounds but culturally and socially as well, which go hand in hand with Edward Said's notion of Orientalism. The analysis shows that Maugham's narrative represents the Eastern social and cultural practices in an unpalatable manner. For example, the geography and landscape of the colonized territory is sketched as evil, savage, dark, etc. We see the forest in Maugham's "The Footprint in the Jungle" as a place where everything becomes dangerous: people lose their sanity; loves takes on the face of violence and hatred.
Canadian Center of Science and Education. 1120 Finch Avenue West Suite 701-309, Toronto, OH M3J 3H7, Canada. Tel: 416-642-2606; Fax: 416-642-2608; e-mail: elt@ccsenet.org; Web site: http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/elt
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A