The Beginning; Chapter I

My name is Felicity. I am 19 years old ... not that I always act like I am. I am studying English literature currently. Its weird to say or rather type that without receiving a shocking groan ... what is it about English that people find so tedious and tiring? I LOVE it ! English is Literature and Literature is history.. and without history where would we be? How can you know where you are going without knowing your past? I could say I have always felt english has a direct tie to my ancestors and my own personal history but that would be a lie. For a long time I thought only white english people truly had a connection with literature. In school you are taught about Shakespeare,Chaucer and Milton ... who are all white men, unlikely to be my ancestors . Now if you were looking for a paradox .. heres one a young black woman reading about white men and being asked to relate? Although it sounds unrealistic and unreasonable ... I did it. I read colour blind I fell in love with Shakespeare's Desdemona whose unconditional love could not see past her lover's faults ... in her I saw myself ... I too as young as I was felt the same or well at least realised that my past crushes weren't that hot after all. So my point is regardless of that feeling of innate connection to literature I still fell in love with literature.

The first time I heard about post-colonial literary theory, I was in year 13 studying for my A-Levels, I was studying for a gothic module and it was introduced to me in the context of Dracula. I took no notice of this theory, it wasn't something applicable to my life. Looking back, maybe if I had actually taken the time out to read about post-colonialism- I would have realised it was indeed very germane to my being. I think the reason why I didn't dive further into post-colonialism was because I was immersed already in my first love ... my LT (literary theory) first love; Feminism. Feminism to me was something  that generally applied to all women, no matter what race or religion. Knowing that I could relate to this theory organically made me passionate about feminist literary theory. I know it sounds narcissistic but is it not always easier to understand something if you can relate it to yourself? 

In my first year of university we did two lectures on post-colonialism, the novel we looked at was Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid (who by the way is an AMAAAAAZING writer!). Although I am not from Antigua or have ancestors from that nation. I found the idea of european culture clashing with african culture something that I could relate too. The application of post-colonialism to this clash of culture was what ignited my love for postcolonialism. From those two lectures I knew that postcolonialism would be my new literary obsession. I chose a module called Black Writing in Britain for second year  which I have got to say has been the BEST module I have ever taken in my university life, I loved it. It was so exciting to read and learn about new authors who aren't usually promoted in the western canon. The dissolution of my ignorance to the latter gave me an idea. This summer I will go on a journey of discovery ... I will consider the role of post-colonialism and feminism in not only literature but the world itself, through interviews with writers from both genres (categorized by both choice and force),events and reviews of books. 

So hold on to your books folks... its going to be a bumpy ride !

Felicity 

12/06