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"Re-colonization and Re-canonization of Resistance through the Creation of Oppositional Perspectives" Colonization creates two oppositional perspectives: the colonizer and the colonized. From Prospero's perspective, Caliban is evil and violent. He has to be controlled by an organized system of oppression be it slavery, indenture-servantship, or colonialism. From Caliban's perspective, Prospero is oppressive and inhumane; the only way to emancipate himself is to rebel. According to Mannoni, "it is not that Caliban has savage and uneducable instincts or that he is such poor so that even good seed would bring forth bad plants, as Prospero believes" (76), but the real reason for Caliban's resistance is a betrayal into inferiority and oppression: When thou camest first,Similarly, the traditional literary canon creates opposing perspectives, and in this opposition the minority's perspective encounters rejection or silence. Barbara T. Christian sees this perspective issue as the central one, for it depends on which side of the fence you are. One set of values becomes positive and the other negative. She points out that many of us resist reading that confronts us with knowledge about ourselves, social groups, or categories; knowledge we wish to escape from (35). Christian further expands white males' attitude to the canon and the reason for their response. She argues that because white men have been the holders of power, they are the major group of writers, and they are at the center of their writing. But counter-canonization means to read texts by others--white women, black men, black women--which means de-centering white patriarchy and changing the guards of power (35). |
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