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  DOI Prefix   10.20431


 

International Journal of History and Cultural Studies
Volume 4, Issue 2, 2018, Page No: 12-24

Alienation and Identity Outrage in Post-Colonial Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Aspivakian Reading of Bate Besong's the Banquet: A Historical Drama

Ekpebisong George Otu1, Comfort Beyang Oben Ojongnkpot2, Tabe Ekangaki3, Bisong Clara Mbuoben4, Che Loveline5

1.Lecturer in Peace and Communication, Paidwa, Buea, Cameroon.
2.Phd, Lecturer, Ub Cameroon.
3.Lecturer in Peace and Political Economy, Paidwa, Buea, Cameroon.
4.Phd, Lecturer, Paidwa, Buea, Cameroon 5Librarian and Lecturer, Paidwa, Buea, Cameroon.

Citation : Ekpebisong George Otu .et.al. "Alienation and Identity Outrage in Post-Colonial Anglophone Cameroon Literature. Aspivakian Reading of Bate Besong's the Banquet: A Historical Drama". International Journal of History and Cultural Studies 2018,4(2) : 12-24.

Abstract

Besong's the Banquet: A historical Drama, journeys us mentally into Spivak"s post-colonial antic "Can the Subaltern Speak? The playwright provides us with a deep insight of a subaltern people devastated by the ills of alienation and loss of identity, reducing them to nothing more than objects, depicting a life of suffering, misery and despondency. The play represents man's alienation from a hostile society, revealing the trauma of existence, as well as, the inevitability of death. The subaltern lacking identity and individuality of his own compromises his right to peaceful and lawful existence and remains subscribed to the educative dictum of "rats living amongst cats". The pivotal argument pursued in this paper is therefore, predicated on understanding alienation and identity issues in post-colonial Cameroon from the ideological standpoint of Spivak?s essay, "Can the Subaltern Speak ?". This is accomplished through a methodical foray of the play The Banquet, by Bate Besong, which aims to portray how Spivak?s great rhetoric is a reflection of the Cameroon society. The agony of the "Cameroonian subaltern?, nurtured by the dialectics of history is a compelling agenda for the writer whose writing must depict the conditions of his people, expressing their spontaneous feelings of betrayal, anger and protest and like the playwright argues, such writing must convey with remarkable force the moods of the Anglophone Cameroonian (subaltern) caught in the assimilating -nightmare of Sisyphean existence (Besong, 1993). The subaltern in Cameroon remains haunted by rootlessness, aloofness and a growing sense of isolation, which fires-up a feeling of not belonging and loss of identity. The experience of these feelings can be physical, mental, religious, psychological, political, social and economic. The paper's logical argument rests on history as the pillar of identity and whose erasure can become a source of anarchy in any society when it is warped.


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