Ambivalence in Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the Crown: A Postcolonial Interpretation
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Faculty of English
Abstract
Upon the close and thorough inspection of Paul Scott’s The Jewel in the
Crown(1966),it is revealed that the postcolonial scholarship does not merely include
the study of the colonized countries after its independence.It makes the sober
interpretation of the impact of the colonialism on the native life from the very
beginning of the colonial enterprise. The paper affirms the colonial relationship
between the colonized and the colonizer to be in continuous fluctuation as they are
never in complete opposition.This ambivalence has invoked various notions of the
critics. It, for some, de-centers the authority of the colonialist in the long run whereas
its impact is still debatable for many postcolonial thinkers.
Colonialism begets nationalism which promises the emancipation of the
majority of natives but ends in frustrating eliticism rooted in Western Universalism.
This campaign of the representation of the national consciousness in the native
literature is still incomplete. Therefore, to ensure the true independence of the
colonies of Europe, the postcolonial critics and writers must attempt to retrieve the
subaltern consciousness and identity in their work.As soon as this proletariats’
contribution gets prominence in the nationalist literature instead of native elites who
very strategically align with the colonialist, the recovery of the missing nationalist
spirit starts and hence the real nationalism.