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Ideology towards gender in the postcolonial Scenario
Yogarajah Atchuthan,
Assistant Lecturer in English,
Advanced Technological Institute, Vavuniya
atchuuoj2510@gmail.com
Sarmatha Santhirasegaram,
Lecturer in English,
Department of English Language Teaching,
Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna
sammysandra@ymail.com
Post colonialism involves the study of the experiences in terms of slavery, migration,
suppression and resistance, race, gender, culture and education of ex-colonial societies all over
the world. In order to rise the attention and understanding of these factors, colonized people
wrote literary works which remain as a documentary proof of imperialism. The main ideology
of discrimination in postcolonial is that the West looked down the East as the “Other”. The aim
of this study is to explore the gender issues in the post-colonial scenario and how males and
females are portrayed in the selected postcolonial literary texts: short stories such as “Post
master’ written by an Indian writer Tagore, and “Divorcee’, a Nigerian story, written by Ken
Saro Wiwa. This study is based on descriptive and analytical methodology incorporating
postcolonial gender based postcolonial and sociological theories. The findings reveal that the
female characters are dominated, discriminated and degraded by the male counterparts. Thus,
it can be possible to say that the ideology of post colonialism clearly defines the gender
marginalization in the male chauvinist society.
Keywords: post colonialism, gender marginalization, domination, male chauvinism
Background and Objectives
Postcolonial English literature which includes the literature genres that emerged from the
colonial experience of the people portrays the typical life style of the ex-colonial societies in
pre and post-colonial contexts. In them, the portrayal of gender in terms of their attitudes,
ideology, and perceptions are significant. Thus, the primary objective of the research is to
analyse how the males and females are portrayed in those texts.
Research design/material and methods
Selected lines from the short stories such as “Post master’ written by Indian writer Tagore, and
“Divorcee’, a Nigerian story, written by Ken Saro Wiwa were taken and the lines were analysed
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3840673

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using descriptive and analytical research methods in line with gender based, postcolonial and
sociological theories.
Results and discussion
“To be the only wife of a poor man. Or one of the many wives of a rich man” (Divorcee by
Ken Saro Wiwa)
The line above from the short story “Divorcee” indicates the monogamy and polygamy
marriage systems found in Post-colonial Nigerian society where the economy plays an
important role in a female’s life in deciding the nature of her husband with whom she is bound
to live. So the selecting a life partner was not given in the female’s hand.
“He expected that she would bear children. It was that primarily that he had married her”.
(Divorcee by Ken Saro Wiwa)
The above lines in the short story shows the attitudes of men forks towards their life counter
partner, females, in the social institution family through marriage. Further, it reveals how
women were seen in reproductive mechanism of the society by the male dominated ideology
in the community.
“Everyman was capable of being a father. If he did not become a father, there was something
wrong with his wife”. (Divorcee by Ken Saro Wiwa)
The above lines express the unreasonable blame committed upon a female member in the
society for her failure of bearing a child to answer her husband’s name. Even though, the
bearing of child has been the duty and responsibility of both parents, male and female, when
there is a problem, the tendency and the attitudes of the society to blame the female only is
seen which creates a patriarchal Nigerian society at the time.
“The departing post master sighed, picked up his carpet-bag, put his umbrella over his
shoulders….” (Postmaster by Tagore)
The above lines taken from the short story “Divorcee” shows the behavioural patterns of the
male character, a post master upon his leaving his native place Calcutta from the village Ulapur
by giving farewell for the little orphan girl Ratan. Here, the readers understand that the male
character could easily leave the little girl though she has become more dependent for the love
and companionship for the post master which shows the vulnerability of the women forks
portrayed in those literature texts. Further, no one is seen comforting her in the scene.
Conclusion
In summary, it could be understood that the two literature texts portray a male dominated
society often heavily with gender discriminating attitudes and ideology against the female
members in the society. The texts further reveal the vulnerability of the females than male
counterparts in all social institutions of the very patriarchal society.
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3840673

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References
Banerjee, S. (2018). Exploring Gender in the Selected Short Stories of Rabindranath
Tagore. St. Theresa Journal Of Humanities And Social Sciences, 4(2), 58-66. Retrieved
from https://journal.stic.ac.th/index.php/sjhs/article/view/57
Chakravorty, M. (2012). Picturing "The Postmaster": Tagore, Ray, and the Making of an
Uncanny Modernity. Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, 53(1), 117-146.
Retrieved February 17, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/41552303.
"Ken Saro-Wiwa, (1999). Introduction" Contemporary Literary Criticism Ed. Jeffrey W.
Hunter. Vol. 114. Gale Cengage available at http://www.enotes.com/topics/ken-saro-
wiwa/critical-essays#critical-essays-introduction.
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3840673