The document discusses Commonwealth literature, which encompasses writings from former British colonies but excludes British literature itself, focusing on authors like Chinua Achebe and Salman Rushdie. It highlights the complexity and criticism surrounding the term 'Commonwealth literature', including its Eurocentric bias and its lack of a coherent critical framework. The text contrasts Commonwealth literature with postcolonial literature, emphasizing that the latter connects non-Western literatures through shared colonial experiences.

1. Welcome
to
Commonwealth Literature I
You Tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P68CLao5WNg

2. Mohammad Jashim Uddin
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Northern University Bangladesh

4. Text & Author

5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

9.  Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
 A House for Mr Biswas by V S Naipaul
 Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai
 The Guide by R K Narayan

10. What is Commonwealth?
• Commonwealth means
British nation and i.e. is
political community
• The Commonwealth is an
Intergovernmental
organizational 54 which
were formally part of British
emperor

11. What is Commonwealth Literature ?
• The term has been generally used to refer to
the literatures of colonies , former colonies
and dependencies of Britain excluding the
literature of England
• The rise of the study national literature s
writing in English and begins with the study of
American literature
• But those literature that came to be
collectively study

12. English
Literature
Common
wealth
Literatur
eজীবনানন্দ
দাসের কববতা
বনস়ে

14. The famous name among
Commonwealth writers includes
• Chinua Achebe (November 16, 1930-March 21, 2013

15. Salman Rushdie (June 19, 1947-)

16. Arun Koladkar
(November 1, 1932-September 25, 2004)

17. R.K . Narayan
(October 10, 1906-May 13, 2001)

18. Kazuo Ishiguro (November 8, 1954-)

19. Nayantra Sahangal

20. The term has been generally used to refer to
the literatures of colonies , former colonies and
dependencies of Britain excluding the literature
of England
Commonwealth Literature

21. • The rise of the study national literature s
writing in English and begins with the study
of American literature
• But those literature that came to be
collectively study
Commonwealth Literature

22. • Commonwealth literature shows that
nationality
• Rushdie present of the Commonwealth
literature category as a created by ‘ghetto’ ,
those how practice English literature ‘proper
Commonwealth Literature Does Not
Exist

23. • What is life like inside the ghetto of
‘Commonalty literature’ ?
• Salman Rushdie's national identity Vs.
British Colonization and Indian Diaspora

24. • the dispersion or spread of any people from
their original homeland.
• the spreading of people from
one original country to other countries
a : people settled far from their ancestral
homelands members of the African diaspora
b : the place where these people live
c : the movement, migration, or scattering of a
people away from an established or ancestral
homeland the black diaspora to northern cities
diaspora

25. Commonwealth Literature, Post-Colonial
Literature in English, New Literature in
English, World Writing in English – these
are just some of the terms being used to
describe the writings of ‘members’ of the
former British Empire.
Commonwealth Literature

26. Commonwealth literatura highlights the
similarities that exist among different
literatures in English.
Commonwealth Literature

27.  Inclusion of national literatures of those
countries which do not belong to the
Commonwealth.
Problems Of The Term
Commonwealth Literature

28.  Inclusion of national literatures of those
countries which do not belong to the
Commonwealth.
 Exclusion of British literature  Reproduction
of a Eurocentric view of English studies, based
on the distinction between the centre and the
periphery.
Problems Of The Term
Commonwealth Literatu

29. It does not take into account the affinity
that exists among different non-Western
literatures, regardless of linguistic
differences.
Problems Of The Term
Commonwealth LiteratU

30.  It does not take into account the affinity
that exists among different non-
Western literatures, regardless of
linguistic differences.
 It lacks a specific critical apparatus.
Problems Of The Term
Commonwealth Literatu

31.  Third World Literature
 World Literature Written in English
 New Literatures in English
 Postcolonial literature
Different Term

32.  Postcolonial literature relates non-
Western literatures on the basis of a
common historical experience:
colonialism. It does nor privilege
language as the link that joins the
different literatures together.
Differences Between Commonwealth
Literature And Postcolonial Literature

33.  Postcolonial literature relates non-Western
literatures on the basis of a common
historical experience: colonialism. It does
nor privilege language as the link that joins
the different literatures together.
 Presence of a substantive body of criticism.
Differences Between Commonwealth
Literature And Postcolonial Literature

34.  Postcolonial literature relates non-Western
literatures on the basis of a common
historical experience: colonialism. It does nor
privilege language as the link that joins the
different literatures together.
 Presence of a substantive body of criticism.
 Postcolonial literature is concerned both with
Western and non-Western texts.

35.  Intersection of Commonwealth literature and critical
theory.
 The agenda for this course:
 We will study some basic notions of postcolonial
theory.
 We will analyse intertextual relationships between
British master texts and postcolonial texts, but not
British canonical works on their own.

36. • South Africa and Pakistan , for instance ,
are not members of the commonwealth ,
but their authors apparently belong to its
literature
• Salman Rushdie is one of the key
representative of contemporary
commonwealth literature.

37. • Commonwealth literature into conflict
literature and now modern literature

• ‘Commonwealth literature died 199-1996’
Conclusion

38.  Part I: https://youtu.be/P68CLao5WNg
Youtube Link: