title: Time and the (Post)colonial Self: Oppressive Uses of Time and the Construction of Postcolonial Identities
title: Zeit und das (post)koloniale Selbst: Zeit als Werkzeug der Unterdrückung und die Konstruktion postkolonialer Identitäten
Creators: name: Gruber, Anna
Publisher: name: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: postcolonial
subject: time
subject: identity
subject: self
subject: denial of coevalness
subject: DDC Classification::8 Literatur::80 Literatur, Rhetorik und Literaturwissenschaft

description: The dehumanisation of the colonial other serves as a justification for the establishment of the power structures which allow the colonisers to exploit and dominate the colonised. There are different tools which help to confine the oppressed to an inferior position and which control them. My investigations depart from the observation that time is one of those tools of (post)colonial oppression. The following examinations explore the effects of oppressive uses of time on the construction of (post)colonial identities. After a few introductory thoughts I start to outline the development of different time concepts in western societies, describe the relation of time and literature, and finally examine the importance of time in postcolonial literature in particular. This second chapter shows that time, independent of the prevailing concept, is an integral part of the human experience and therefore is reflected in literature as well. The way human beings understand time depends on their cultural background and contributes significantly to the way people see the world. In the context of colonisation this observation is especially important as the linear time of the western world is usually juxtaposed with indigenous temporalities. In the intent to suppress the time of the oppressed, the colonisers not only try to replace existing structures but also strive to prevent the cultivation of traditions and collective memory. Therefore, memory becomes a central issue in postcolonial critique as well. In chapter three I take a close look at the way time can be turned into a tool of oppression. Following Johannes Fabian’s arguments developed in Time and the Other, I investigate how the denial of coevalness is represented in postcolonial novels. The texts frequently show how the colonial other is placed in the past of the colonisers. In addition to Fabian’s concept, which mainly affects a discursive level, I then show how the oppressive uses of time Michel Foucault describes in Discipline and Punish are represented in the novels. The texts criticise both, the superimposed restructuring of indigenous time (such as making time measurable and dividing it with the clock/timetables, or the acceleration of life in general) as well as the way history is written. In short, I identify different ways in which time can be (and is) used as a tool of oppression and present literary examples for those practices. In chapter four I then proceed to investigate the implications of this form of oppression on the self of its victims. Ricoeur’s theory of the split self is the point of departure for my development of a tripartite concept of selfhood. The resulting approach accounts for the importance of environment in (post)colonial identity constitution: whether it shows through strong communal bounds and a close connection to the indigenous chronotope or through the heavy exterior influence and inference of colonialism, the native self is usually closely connected to its umbra. Referring to the surroundings of a person, including for example chronotopoi, time concepts, or communal relations as an integral part of the self, this newly developed model helps to explain how external factors can influence identity creation. While Ricoeur’s ipse and idem identity seem to be detached from social and political context, the addition of umbra places the self within concrete spatiotemporality and therefore accounts for the strong connection of those identities to the native chronotope. As in many indigenous communities the spatiotemporal environment plays a central role in cultural practices and the connection of the people to a particular chronotope constitutes a pillar of their identity, any alteration of this delicate area has a strong impact on the individual. In other words, indigenous identity cannot be thought without umbra and it therefore can be used to destabilise the self. Being a multifaceted construct, there are different ways to do so. This is why the colonisers did not only invade the land but also tried to gain control over the time of the people. By superimposing their own time and simultaneously removing their other from it, the western invaders impede the successful continuation of precolonial indigenous identities. The examined novels show the close, intertwined connection between the three constitutes of the self (ipse, idem, and umbra) and how each of them can be affected by changes related to time. Alterations affecting any of the three usually lead to a crisis of the self where the characters are confronted with a destabilisation of the pillars of their identity. The analysed corpus features a variety of characters who responded in different ways to those attacks on their self. To account for the different reactions to oppressive uses of time, I establish the categories of the breaking and the transgressing characters. These heterogenous groups serve as a distinction between the two possible outcomes for the individual experiencing colonisation: annihilation or survival. As the wide variety of personal circumstances and experiences leads to very individual effects on each character, these categories have to be treated as a spectrum and can even overlap. The breaking characters share an inability to adapt to change; they can no longer actively participate in life. Whether they commit suicide, are killed, or withdraw into bitterness, they do not find ways to integrate the new reality into their life. On the contrary, the transgressing characters are the ones who are able to adapt. These characters find ways to use the third space in order to reconstruct their identity and establish a new equilibrium between the three constituents of their selves. In the process they transgress borders set by colonial oppression. This can happen in many ways, ranging from adaption to appropriation to rebellion. In the end, in a system which dehumanises the individual, any form of survival that does not come at the expense of self-abandonment turns into a form of transgression. The texts I have chosen denounce the dehumanising practices of colonialism and at the same time provide examples of survival and resistance. In the conclusion Í finally take a closer look at how literature helps to fight the oppressive uses of time and which role it can play in the (re)construction of (post)colonial identities. By creating quasi-witnesses which representatively restore the humanity of the former objects of western colonial oppression, postcolonial literature serves to reinscribe the (formerly) colonised in the time they had been removed from and to allow them to reclaim their agency. The novels dismantle oppressive uses of time, offer solutions of how to counter the allochronic attacks on the self of the oppressed, and help to envision a cosmopolitan convivium of different, coeval, and equal people.