Sarah Jilani. Subjectivity and Decolonisation in the Post-Independence Novel and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2024. $110.00. Hardback. ISBN: 9781399507288.
Year: 2025
Type: book-review
Abstract: Sarah Jilani's work presents an in-depth analysis of subjectivity and decolonization through literature and film from Africa and South Asia.The book explores the psychological and political shifts following colonial rule, emphasizing how colonialism reshaped material realities and the consciousness of the colonized.Jilani examines eight significant works: Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve (1954), Ritwik Ghatak's The Cloud-Capped Star (1960), Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's A Grain of Wheat (1967), Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1969), Ousmane Sembène's Xala (1975), Souleymane Cissé's Work (1978), Buchi Emecheta's Destination Biafra (1982), and Satyajit Ray's Home and the World (1984).She investigates how the conflicts between psychological emancipation, class conflict, and national identity have been expressed via literature and film.She frames decolonization as an ongoing process rather than a singular historical event, drawing on theorists such as Fanon, Cabral, and Ngũgĩ to argue that true liberation requires both structural transformation and a reconfiguration of subjectivity.Her interdisciplinary approach, incorporating psychoanalysis, Marxist critique, and postcolonial theory, enriches her exploration of how literature and film depict postindependence realities.She examines how characters navigate fractured identities, internalized colonial ideologies, and struggles for self-reclamation.The first chapter highlights how colonialism affects not just governance but society's fabric, pointing to Algerian resistance as a case of transforming colonial tools into instruments of liberation.Drawing from Fanon's analysis of Algeria's War of Independence, Jilani demonstrates how colonialism operates both materially and psychologically.She references The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and Destination Biafra to illustrate how postcolonial narratives tackle the unfinished business of decolonization, concluding that true liberation requires economic restructuring and a transformation of self-perception and agency.Chapter Two examines the role of women in nationalist movements, focusing on Home and the World and A Grain of Wheat.Jilani critiques how anti-colonial struggles, while seeking liberation, often marginalize women's fight for gender equality.In Home and the World, Bimala's journey reflects how nationalist ideologies confined women to symbolic roles rather than full political participation.Similarly, A Grain of Wheat portrays the tension between personal sacrifice and national aspirations, revealing the restricted agency of women in postindependence narratives.Chapter Three explores how postindependence societies fell into
Source: African Studies Review
DOI: 10.1017/asr.2025.44
Author: Diweng Mercy Dafong
Institution: University of Alabama
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4409646801