Annalise Carter

Julie Mulleny

Postcolonial literature and theory assessment – Question 2

‘Postcolonial narrative, structured by a tension between the oppressive memory of the past and the libratory promise of the future is necessarily involved in the work of mourning.” (Sam Durrant)

In what ways and to what effects are colonial pasts remembered and thus rewritten in any one or more of the texts o this unit?

Throughout Merle Hodge’s postcolonial novel ‘Crick Crack, Monkey’ we are lead thought the childhood of the main protagonist, Tee. A main and paramount theme that runs throughout this narrative is that of education. It is due to this theme that Tee’s colonial past is changed and distorted. At the outset of the narrative that we are introduced to a young girl living a simple, but happy life in Trinidad with her Aunt Tantie. This urban life becomes misshapen when Tee attends secondary school and is sent to live with her Aunt Beatrice. It is through Aunt Beatrice’s European ideal and Tee’s European socialisation at secondary school that her colonial past is transformed and rewritten.

From the outset of the novel we see Tee as a young confused girl. Her mother died in childbirth, which caused her father to emigrate overseas, “ Then papa went to sea. I concluded that what he had gone to see was wether he could find Mammy and the baby”. This confusion subsides momentarily although does not disappear as the novel progresses. We observe Tee in her new life with her Aunt Tantie. It is here that Tee experiences the traditional part of her culture in an urban, lower class home. Although her life is not full of riches and expensive education she learns many other life skills that make her streetwise and that will be an integral part of her personality for years to come. It is here that Tee learns urban skills, to be independent like her aunt Tantie and to stand up for herself. The protagonist talks of her time with Aunt Tantie with fondness and respect, this can be seen within the novel, “ Tantie’s company was loud and hilarious.” “The children scurried about giddily, sometimes we were coaxed inside to dance, sometimes to our delight the company spread over a whole weekend”. Tee is allowed to be herself and this is shown through her expression in dance. The life she leads with Tantie is not regimental in any sense, Tee is allowed to grow and develop in this urban environment. However it becomes clear that Tantie wants better for Tee than the life that she herself lives. We learn that Tantie is uneducated, this is revealed in her colloquial language, “…yu t’ink blasted saga-clothes an’ t’eater does grow on tree?”.  We ascertain that Tantie wants Tee to be educated to give her an expanded worldview further than the realms of Trinidad. It is at this point that Tee is sent away to live with her other relative, Aunt Beatrice. Tantie imparts her advice upon Tee before she leaves, reminding her that she is going to school “ to learn book” and warns her against allowing her teachers to decant nonsense into her mind.

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It is through the colonial education that Tee receives, that her colonial past, and her urban, simple life with Aunt Tantie is changed and rewritten forever. This begins with the next stage of her life with aunt Beatrice. Beatrice is part of the middle class of society. This can be seen I the way she embraces European ideals and turns away from her roots and her culture. The European colonizer is much to blame for Aunt Beatrice’s change of opinion. Life in this new middle class household was at first hard for Tee. This is apparent in the novel ...

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