EDITORIAL

Abstract

The nomenclature 'Postcolonial Literature' automatically suggesting Colonial Literature, historically pointing out to the writing which 'came after colonial’, is virtually a misnomer. Postcolonial Literature is remarkable because it, one way or the other resists colonial perspectives : the theories concerning the superiority of Europeon/colonial culture and the rightness of empire with the help of machinery of systems and language choices. In a significant way, it aims to be a defense mechanism to scrutinize, reinterpret and deconstruct all the myths of power, the images of subordination and subtle symbolisms that the colonial proliferated and strengthened for perpetuating dominance over the colonized. Hence, postcolonial writers/ thinkers, by and large, engage themselves in "symbolic overhaul, a reshaping of dominant meanings" (Boehmer). The works of Indian postcolonial thinkers such as Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Ashish Nandy, Ranjit Guha, Aijaz Ahmad, Leela Gandhi, Gauri Viswanathan and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan etc. form a significant part of this 'symbolic overhaul'. They have not only deconstructed the discourse of the colonialism but also emphasized the fluidity of meaning, the fictionality of history, the ambiguity of language and the lopsidedness of so called ‘truths’ so brilliantly that a host of writers in India have felt quite enthused to interpret concepts like 'Home', 'Nation', 'Border', 'Diaspora' etc. in their creative works in such a non-essentialist manner that these terms have acquired new meanings and have given new insights in the present global context.