Postcolonial Allegory

Abstract

This chapter argues that in the context of postcolonial writing, certain literary texts draw on allegorical figuration in order to ‘read’ and contest the social ‘text’ of colonialism. Secondly, the chapter examines allegory as a representational strategy for reclaiming history because its structure offers a literary typology for piecing together fragments of history out of ruins. The chapter hopes to show that postcolonial allegorical writing not only constitutes a challenge to prevailing theoretical assumptions about what kind of cultural grounding is required for allegorical communication to take place but also to change our received ideas of history. Finally, this chapter seeks to argue that postcolonial allegory, especially in Africa, even when drawing on our traditional conceptions of allegory, based, for instance, on templates of Bunyan—have sought to redraft it by showing that allegorical spirit can be profoundly discontinuous and complex, defying any linearity of discourse.