This ppt is an introduction to postcolonial theories as baseline for analysing Dev Virahsawmy's Toufann

1. The Postcolonial
theory
Dev Virahsawmy’s Toufann
Week 4
PPT Postcolonial Theory: Dev Virahsawmy's Toufaan © 2024 by Anisha Badal-Caussy is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0

2. Learning outcomes
� By the end of this session, students should be able to:
� Identify important aspects of the postcolonial theory
� Relate the postcolonial theory to Toufann.
� Examine extracts from Toufann from dramatic stylistic devices with a focus
on postcolonial theory.

3. What is Postcolonial theory?
� Postcolonial theory emerges out of literary studies, disclosing its arguments
based primarily (although not exclusively) on literary sources. Edward Said's
work (1995-originally published 1978, 1993) builds on an analysis of Western
novels (eg Austen, Conrad, Chateaubriand, de Nerval, Flaubert), travel
and anthropological writing (Burton, de Sacy, Renan), opera (Verdi) and
media (mainly in the USA) to link Western imperialism with Western culture.
This linkage produces what Said calls 'orientalism’.
� Orientalism is the systematic 'body of theory and practice' that constructs
or represents the Orient (1995: p. 6; see also 1993: xxiii; 1985: p. 248). By
'theory' Said means the Western imperial episteme-the West's intellectual
and cultural production, including research, writing, ideas, arguments,
images; and by 'practice' he denotes the accompanying sociocultural
institutions and structures-the colonial administration, universities, museums,
media, etc (1995: pp. 3,5,332)

4. Postcolonial theory
� While accepting the general idea of orientalism, which Spivak indicates as the
"'worlding" of what is today called "the Third World"' (1985a: p. 247), both
theorists show it to be ruptured and hybrid.
� Bhabha suggests that Said himself hints at, but leaves undeveloped, this idea in
Orientalism (1994: p. 73; Young,1990: pp. l4l-142). In fact, Bhabha makes
'hybridity' the keystone of his subsequent elaborations. Hybridity describes the
way in which colonial and imperial discourse is inherently unstable, 'split in its
enunciation', so that in the very practice of domination the language of the
master becomes hybrid' (Bhabha, 1994: p. 33). Bhabha illustrates this instability
through an analysis of the 'colonial stereotype', which he considers an instance
of the deployment of imperial authority. Applying a post-structuralist (in
particular, a Lacanian psychoanalytic) lens to various colonial texts, Bhabha
shows how these stereotypes-the 'noble savage', the 'wily oriental'-are meant to
be accepted as 'fixed' and 'natural'; yet they are endlessly and anxiously
repeated and reconfirmed by the coloniser.

5. Postcolonial theory
� Postcolonial theory, as argued earlier by Bhabha, resists 'holistic social
explanations' and focuses instead on heterogeneity and ambivalence. In
the place of chronological or dialectical history, for example, it offers
discontinuous historical narratives. In particular, Bhabha and Spivak (but not
Said) concentrate on isolated historical incidents and agents, refraining
from providing any 'meta'- historiography. This is a problem from where
dependency sits, for history then becomes merely a collection of
fragmentary narratives.
� In this connection, Ahmad writes that the 'work of Bhabha is particularly
telling of the way this kind of hermeneutic tends to appropriate the whole
world as its raw material and yet effaces the issue of historically sedimented
differences. Indeed the very structure of historical time is effaced in the
empty play of infinite heterogeneities'(1997: p. 370; see also Parry, 1996:
p.11).

6. Overview of Toufann
� Virahsawmy published Toufann: Enn fantezi antrwa ak (1991), a very loosely adapted
Shakespearean Tempest, thus joining the "club" of postcolonial writers, such as
George Lamming, Aime Cesaire or Edward Kamau Brathwaite, who have engaged with
the bard's influential evocation of colonialism and resistance.
� Virahsawmy’s plays are creative riffs on literary history. They disguised critiques of well-
known public figures and effective of satirizing authority. Staunchly opposed to all forms
of communalism or divisive identity politics, he creates multiethnic characters and
deploys themes from literary history as well day life. He represents contemporary
conditions on the humor, affection, and an unerring talent for conveying the lar sounds,
inflections, and specificities of diverse Creole voices.
� Toufann has received much critical praise for its innovative recombinations of several
Shakespearean characters from both The Tempest and King Lear, and for its
denunciation of the new technologies of knowledge as aggressive forms of social
control and surveillance.

7. Overview of Toufann
� The creative retitling of the play is an explicit gesture of the dramatist in favour of the
word "toufann" exists in both Farsi and Hindi for "tempest." It is not the local vernacular
word for "cyclone" or "hurricane," the tropical zone's destructive summer storms known
in Mauritian Creole as siklonn.
� Virahsawmy’s choice of the term "toufann" not meant to hark back to a source or an
identity located from the linguistic shores of Creole. It is rather his way of performing
the language's fluidity and its openness to new idioms, words, its ability to welcome,
absorb, and fold into its current terms that may not yet have passed into common
usage but a new direction to its adaptable stream.
� Virahsawmy’s Toufann, as stated by Lionnet (2003: p. 917) is a "transcolonial" form of
the subversive aspects of the "original," The Tempest, and the preoccupations of other
African writers and public intellectuals living in countries where politics, culture, and the
public contested sites of power between bourgeois elites and the people.

8. Overview of Toufann
� Virahsawmy combines characters from The Tempest (Prospero, Kalibann, Aryel, Ferdjinan) with
those of the tragedy King Lear, replacing Miranda with the much more assertive Kordelia, Lerwa
Lir, and adding to the mix a Poloniouss, an Edmon, and a Yago, self-conscious about his
stereotypical image as a villain, who bemoans the way authors and critics fix his sinister identity
into a cliché that he cannot shake: "Mo pa gagn droi sanze moi?" [Ain't I allowed to change too?
III.1]. Such an authorial strategy provides a comic commentary on the very notion of the "canon" as
something fixed and unchanging.
� The multiplication of references and the proliferation of allusions build up the baroque qualities of
the play. A magical universe is sustained by Prospero's technological know-how and the control he
thinks he has on his puppet-like subjects ("mo diriz zot kouma enn mazisien" [I.vii]; "bann
maryonet" [III.i] ["I direct them as a magician would"; "a bunch of marionettes”].
� independences. The surprises of history, and the disillusionment with new rulers who become
tyrants in the their former colonizers, have been constant themes in post-dence African literatures.
Here, as Prospero's reign comes conclusion, the Kordelia-Kalibann couple (instead of the Miranda-
Ferdinand of the Renaissance play) takes over as the new queen king of the island. But nothing is
resolved, only more questions surface: the ship's sailors start a mutiny, the virtual harbor miraz"
[I.ii]) in the middle of the virtual island disappears subjects suddenly risk being excluded from a
history based simulacra of democratic rule. The farcical Kaspalto-Dammarro a drunk and a druggie,
respectively, come to embody the potential a repetition of colonial scripts. (Lionnet, 2003: p. 921)

9. Discussion time: Postcolonial theory in
Toufann
� With close reference to Toufann, Ak 1, spot instances where the scenes can
be termed as postcolonial.
� You can choose to work in pairs or group.

10. Stylistic devices in drama
� Dialogue is a literary device. The term ‘literary device’ refers to the structures writers
use in their creative writing to communicate with their audiences. Presenting a story
about people to a reader or an audience, making the characters seem like real people
in real situations in real places, doing things that real people do – fighting, falling in
love, dying – is a trick because they are not real people doing real things. For example;
Kordelia’s dialogue with her father shows that she is against the plans of Prospero and
Kalibann’s dialogue with his master Prospero shows that Prospero thinks kalibann is
his slave but Kalibann says ‘mo lib’.
� Allusion is a reference to a person, place, event, usually without explicit identification.
Allusions can be references to mythology, the bible, historical events, geography,
legends, or other literary works. Authors often use allusion to establish a tone, create
an implied association, contrast two objects or people, make an unusual juxtaposition
of references, or bring the reader into a world of experience outside the limitations of
the story itself. For example, when Lerwa Lir says he is in ‘pirgatwar’ and reminisces
the injustice he did to Prospero and his then baby girl Kordelia.

11. Stylistic devices in drama
� Dramatic irony is a situation in which the reader knows something about present or
future circumstances that the character does not know. For example, in Toufann, when
Prospero, the self-proclaimed king of the island, despite having the remote control to
manipulate the toufann, faces betrayal when his daughter Kordelia goes against him.
That’s dramatic irony.
� A monologue is a long, uninterrupted speech that is spoken in the presence of other
characters. Unlike a soliloquy a monologue is heard by other characters. For example,
when Kaspalto and Dammaro act as Yago and Edmon.
� Use of symbolism is one of Virahsawmy’s strongest, most distinguishing characteristic.
It is the frequent use of words, places, characters, or objects that mean something
beyond what they are on a literal level. For example, when Prospero refer to the boat
he and baby Kordelia were placed as ‘lakok pistas’ this symbol recurs when lerwa Lir
and his subjects stranded ship’s state become similar to the boat of Prospero and baby
Kordelia.

12. Question time
� From your reading of Toufann’s Ak 1, examine the characters of Prospero,
Kordelia, Aryel, and Kalibann from a postcolonial perspective.
� While answering the question, you must pay attention to the dramatic
stylistic devices used in Ak 1.
� You should write around 500 words.

13. Thank You