Anup Joshi
Negative
Consequences of Postmodernism and Poststructuralism upon Non-Western Societies
This
research paper explores the negative consequences of West based theories Postmodernism
and Post-structuralism upon non-Western societies. Emerged during the 1980s as
a response to modernity which adhered to beliefs of enlightenment, ideas and
reasons, Postmodernism claims to defy the grand narratives and advocates for
the local narratives. The domination of tradition, culture and pre-established
philosophies is not acceptable to postmodernism. As Lyotard puts it, “I define Postmodern
as incredulity towards metanarratives. This incredulity is undoubtly a product
of progress in science: but the progress in turn presupposes it” (xvill).
Similarly, Poststructuralism which became popular after 1960s also rejects the
center and suggests that neither the world nor the ‘self’ possess any progress,
unity and meaning. “…the poststructuralists deny the distinctions between the
traditional order of discourse(criticism, literature, philosophy, politics)
leaving an amorphous universe- a ‘general text’ ”(Selden 73). I do not claim that
these two philosophical movements are negative in totality as they have several
significances in Western context. But its unhealthy influence in non-Western
societies has proven to be problematic. Culture and tradition are the marker of
one’s identity. But in the name of progress, liberty and eradicating binary
oppositions, postmodernists and poststructuralists have attacked over the very ‘heart’
of culture, religion, family values, and promoted individualism in non-West.
An
influential movement of the twentieth century West, the notions of
Postmodernism and Poststructuralism spread over non-Western countries too like
virus and several writers, critics and philosophers consumed this West
formulated idea without considering its effect on their local traditions and
cultures. But this influence is proving to be lethal for the non-Western
cultural sovereignty. As Sardar claims, Postmodernism “dismembers other
cultures by attacking their immune system: eradicating identity, erasing
history and tradition, reducing everything that makes sense of life for
non-secular cultures into meaninglessness.” (228). Sardar further differentiates
between “traditionalism” and “tradition” (225). Postmodernism has established a
notion that adhering to tradition and ancient culture is to be regressive. Postmodernists label non-Western ways as
traditionalist and fundamentalist one. But unlike traditionalism which has
become pathological factor of Postmodern times and cannot build anew, Tradition
is dynamic and changes over time. Sardar suggests non-West should adopt their
traditions because it “can actually transform non-Western societies into cultures
of resistance” (Sardar 224). Sardar further sees the need of defining non-Western
modernity on their own cultural frameworks and based on their own values rather
than importing deadly Postmodernism from West. He suggests non-West to go for
alternative modernity or trans-modernity.
From
the very colonial period, West has been trying to impose its hegemony over
orient in the name of civilization by branding non-Western cultures as barbaric
and uncivilized. “From at least the end of the eighteenth century until our own
day, modern Occidental reactions to Islam have been dominated by a radically
simplified type of thinking that may still be called Orientalist…Islam was
believed to be a demonic religion of apostasy, blasphemy and obscurity” (Said
188). Through mercenaries and colonial agents, West had wiped out many
aboriginal cultures and imposed their own. But by mid twentieth century, colonies
have fallen and their hymn of colonialism is crushed by oriental rebellion. As
the discourse of colonialism is totally dismissed, monstrous West is now
colonizing orients with their brand-new invention, Postmodernism. In influence
of postmodernism, we are ourselves attacking our own tradition and eradicating
our age old cultural wisdom. For all its vices, Sardar acknowledges
Postmodernism as “anti-human” (Sardar 228). For non-West, Poststructuralism and
Postmodernism only have negative effect. Non-Western cultures like Nepali and
Indian culture have tradition of living in a communal society. Younger ones
respect the wisdom of the older people and older ones give the direction to the
young. They welcome guests and treat them with hospitality. Similarly, they
live in a joint family and accept the authority of the senior members in
family. Even if a father is old over eighty years and his son though is a prosperous
man than him, accepts the decision of father. Due to such values, there is
integration in family, society and nation. Decision are made with careful and
sustainable considerations. But Postmodernism is promoting individualism.
Children leave parent’s home once they can work for feeding themselves, get
married on their own will and do not care about parents. Due to influence of
such cultures, non-Western society is also transforming into barren land for
wisdom. Extramarital relationships, alienation, prostitution, individualism and
other dangerous trends are being imported.
In the context of Nepal too, some critics are claiming postmodern
domination in Nepali literature. Highly influenced by the Western discourses,
group of writers are writing about subaltern’s issues and branding their
writings as postmodernist with the preliminary evidences that in their texts
they are attacking over the grand narratives of mainstream Hill Brahmin elites
and dissimilating age old cultures. Poet Samardarshi Kainla, who advocates for
Postmodernist Multicolorism in Nepali Literature writes: “My ‘I’ resents to be
confined in Dash Gaja Land/ It revolves outside of the earth/ By
destroying pre-trodden narrow roads/ By destroying traditional values/ stirring
its signs/ formulating new signs/… I, Amazon flow upward” (49). Kainla, in the
pretention of cleansing regressive old values and establishing a co-existential
neo-progressive society attacks traditional values, religions and norms. He
mostly imports the Western metaphors and philosophies of Amazon river, Jacques
Derrida, John Keats, Immanuel Kant and Ferdinand De Saussure in his poem.
Similarly, Postmodernist critic Govinda Raj Bhattrai claims, “Postmodernism visited with me in the form of literary
principles and writing, of thinking and teaching, and many more…everybody
started to realize that the time has changed, our values and beliefs have
changed, and the very foundation of existing philosophy is shedding its old
leaves.” (par 34) As a result of postmodern fuss, the native cultures of Nepali
people are highly jeopardized. All of our wisdom are branded as fundamentalist.
They demand for the total removal of our old age religion and tradition. In the
name of being modern, critics are attacking the very foundation of our existing
values, beliefs and philosophy. Due to such, our good aspects of traditions are
also branded regressive and all values are judged by putting in the same
basket. Our communal life is verge of being replaced by individualism. The
mutual tolerance among different ethnic-religious groups is falling. As Mahesh
Paudyal alludes, postmodernism is a theoretical mismatch in Nepali Literature:
In case of Nepali literature—be it in poetry, novel, story or
any other genre—the claim is repulsive. . .in the first place, much of such
ideas are inspired by the Marxist dialectic of have-verses-have-nots, and are
bent on giving the have-nots a voice. There’s nothing new and strictly
postmodernists in that. . .postmodernism did not influence Nepali literature in
any apparent fashion, and therefore, it will be the best idea to explain it
away as something that came in the Western metropolis, and died out there
itself. (par 4,10,15)
So,
there is no point in glorifying postmodernist attributes in Nepali Literature. Kenzaburō Ōe shows the negative consequences of
postmodern influence in Japanese culture through his novel A Personal Matter. The protagonist of the novel, Bird
finds his new-born son who is suffering from brain-hernia, an obstacle for his
ambition of exploring Africa and being free. He refers the baby by ‘vegetable
baby’ and does everything in his power to ‘murder’ him. He deviates from his
responsibility, has extramarital sex with his former friend Humiko and vomits
in front of his students in a class as a result of alcoholic hangover. He
neither has any regard for his prestige nor he cares about his teaching career.
Though his son was very alive and hospitalized, he mischievously tells Humiko,
“We had a child but it died right away” (71) and approves doctor to feed him ‘sugar-water’
instead of rich-milk so that the baby will weaken and die naturally leaving his
hand ‘clean’ in murder. Aspiring to be a postmodern icon, free from burden of
parenting and other responsibilities, he becomes an unhuman and anti-social
person. He thinks that by raising the deficient baby, who will grow to be
abnormal, his whole life, happiness and personal freedom will be jeopardized.
Only after realizing postmodernist approach as “nothing! Zero!” (260), he
retrieves into his responsibility of parenting and contemplates, “I kept trying
to run away. And I almost did. But it seems that reality compels you to live
properly when you live in the real in the real world” (265). His rejection of
the postmodernism is a triumph for the native Japanese family culture.
Similarly, Indian writer Balachandra Rajan also portrays the
monstrosity of postmodernism upon Indian culture in his novel The Dark
Dancer. The protagonist Krishnan alienates his wife Kamala to live with
English woman Cynthia. He is attracted by Cynthia’s western vigor and kicks his
traditional cultural values. Due to his irresponsible sway for postmodern
attributes, he leads into disintegration and destruction of his wife’s life and
makes his parents ashamed. Only when the priest of a temple disapproves him and
Cynthia to provide blessing, he realizes his mistake and comes back for Kamala.
“He came to the priest with the gifts in his hands…he was going to ask for the
blessing when he saw the question in the grave eyes and the benevolent yet
impassive face, he knew what the question was” (Rajan 166). Later on, Krishnan
becomes devotee of Kamala and her non-violent humanistic movement, who is the
symbol of Indian wisdom in the novel. The novel clearly reflects how postmodern
influence is bringing social problems in non-Western societies.
The
values of the non-Western cultures are less similar and more different to that
of West. And there is variation within the non-Western cultures too. The
culture of middle east is different to that of south Asia and India. There are
numerous ethnic and religious groups within a country and they all have their
own culture, values and custom. The traditions of such groups are not negative
as falsified by Postmodernists. Without ancient wisdom, orient will be
directionless. So, it is groundless to always doubt over metanarratives. What
will happen to non-Western civilization and achievement if we start destroying
everything that is documented from ages? Sardar in his essay “Surviving
postmodernism” talks about the Japanese novelist and film director Shintaro
Ishihara who suggests his people to ‘Leave the West, turn to Asia’ (Sardar 233)
in The Japan That Can Say No. Due to such awakening spirit among
Japanese people for the love of their own tradition and culture during end of
the twentieth century, they have been able to achieve progress and prosperity.
But those who are infected by Postmodernist’s “The Acquired Inhuman Domination
Syndrome(AIDS)” (Sardar 228) will lose their source of identity and pride.
Donald Keefer furthermore identifies Postmodernism as a disease in his essay
“Postmodern Syndrome”. As he defines, Postmodern
Syndrome is “a malady of the spirit that knows no political, sexual, gender,
racial, intellectual, cultural boundaries. . . individuals, who have fallen
prey to the syndrome will be typified by any number of the following: delusions
about the future, apocalyptic fantasies, anxiety about the past, cultural
paranoia…” (Keefer par 2). Postmodernism, dismantling the boundaries of race,
culture, religion and traditions, in turn fuels for Western globalization which
is the new face of imperialism. As non-West is deviating from tradition by
inclining to the fashion of poststructuralism and post modernism, the people
are discarding their festivals, rituals and traditional way of life and in
turn, nurturing West based festivals like Christmas and Valentine’s Day. On
such occasions, multinational companies are making profits by selling cards and
products to the orients. We are paying West for nothing when we have our own
tradition and festivals. There is no freedom in being blind devotee of Western
propaganda like postmodernism, which in reality is prisoning us to the authority
of Western chains. We are being sucked by these neo-imperial theories out of
our religion, values, rituals and traditional wisdom.
To conclude,
Postmodernism and Poststructuralism are bringing catastrophes to the non-Western
societies. Oriental knowledges and wisdoms are being unauthorized and
dismantled. Theories and philosophies should be rooted in own context of
religion, culture, landscape and geo-political situations. Postmodernism and
Poststructuralism are the theories evolved from Western cultural roots and are
intended to colonize non-West with its vigor. It is just the continuation of Western
imperialism and cultural encroachment. West had a history of pre-modernity,
modernity and now they are in Postmodernism era. But the history of non-Western
countries is totally different. The true spirit of non-Western culture cannot
be addressed by Western theoretical approaches. In case of Nepal, we have just
stepped to the era of modernity and mind it, this is Nepalese model of
modernity indifferent to that of Western modernism. We should change as per
time and the tradition of non-West should be updated as Sardar suggests, but
the change should be culturally driven. Not dictated by any West bound imperial
principles. Following the West postulated Postmodernism blindly, only brings chaos
to our society and civilization. So, we should develop our own model of
alternative modernity and be saved from the Postmodern Syndrome which is very
lethal.
Works
Cited
Adhikari, Bal Ram. "Postmodern Conditions in Nepalese
ELT: An Interview with Dr.
Govinda Raj Bhattarai". Nelta
Choutari. 3 Mar. 2017. Web. <https://neltachoutari.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/postmodern-conditions-in-nepalese-elt-an-interview-with-dr-govinda-raj-bhattarai/>
Kainla, Samadarshi. Ma
Amazon Ukalo Bagchhu. Kathmandu: Oriental Publication, 2011.
Print.
Keefer, Donald. “The
Postmodern Syndrome”. Rhode Island School of Design. 3 Mar. 2017.
Web.
<https://faculty.risd.edu/dkeefer/pms.htm#_edn2>
Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The
Postmodern condition- theory and history of literature.
Manchester:
Manchester United Press,1984. Pdf.
Ōe,
Kenzaburō. A Personal Matter. New York: Grove Press, 1969. Epub.
Paudyal, Mahesh. "Postmodernism In Nepali
Literature: A Theoretical Mismatch". Creative
Literary Forum. 3 Mar. 2017. Web.
Rajan, Balachandra. The
Dark Dancer. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958. Print.
Said, Edward. “Islam As
News. Global Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed.
Lane,
Richard J. London: Routledge, 2013. 186-194.
Sardar, Ziauddin. “Surviving
Postmodernism”. Global Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed.
Lane,
Richard J. London: Routledge, 2013. 223-236.
Selden, Raman. A
Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. New York:
Harvester
Wheatsheaf, 1993. Print.
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