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    Commonwealth literature refers to the literary output of former British colonies where English is an official or common language. It is a complex category that is influenced by British colonialism, the use of English, and the British literary tradition. However, it also acknowledges that writers from these countries write within their own historical and national contexts. Commonwealth literature examines themes of displacement, migration, and the after-effects of colonialism. It also explores the relationship between settler colonies and Britain as the former "mother country".

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    Commonwealth literature refers to the literary output of former British colonies where English is an official or common language. It is a complex category that is influenced by British colonialism, the use of English, and the British literary tradition. However, it also acknowledges that writers from these countries write within their own historical and national contexts. Commonwealth literature examines themes of displacement, migration, and the after-effects of colonialism. It also explores the relationship between settler colonies and Britain as the former "mother country".

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    Commonwealth literature refers to the literary output of former British colonies where English is an official or common language. It is a complex category that is influenced by British colonialism, the use of English, and the British literary tradition. However, it also acknowledges that writers from these countries write within their own historical and national contexts. Commonwealth literature examines themes of displacement, migration, and the after-effects of colonialism. It also explores the relationship between settler colonies and Britain as the former "mother country".

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    22 views2 pages

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    Adeleke Bukky
    Commonwealth literature refers to the literary output of former British colonies where English is an official or common language. It is a complex category that is influenced by British colonialism, the use of English, and the British literary tradition. However, it also acknowledges that writers from these countries write within their own historical and national contexts. Commonwealth literature examines themes of displacement, migration, and the after-effects of colonialism. It also explores the relationship between settler colonies and Britain as the former "mother country".

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    The term “Commonwealth literature” has historical, geographic, political and

    linguistic connotations that simultaneously affirm and revise its status as a


    distinct body of literary work. The historical fact of colonization by the United
    Kingdom and the linguistic reality of English as mother tongue or official language
    do not automatically imply membership of either the Commonwealth as a political
    organisation or of the body of literary works known as Commonwealth literature. The
    United States is perhaps the most prominent example in this regard. The Republic of
    Ireland is another. There is also the ironic fact that the literature of the United
    Kingdom is not regarded as Commonwealth literature, even though its imperial past
    and language form the basis of the concept of Commonwealth literature.
    In spite of all this, however, the designation “Commonwealth literature” has, over
    time, become a convenient appellation for the literary output of most of the
    countries that

    were former colonies of the United Kingdom, and are thus to a large extent, linked
    by (i) a common experience of British colonialism, (ii) the use of English in
    contemporary life, and (iii) the influence of the British literary tradition.
    Unlike other literary categories, it is not completely defined by political
    ideology (such as the historical period (Marxist literature, (Elizabethan
    literature), geographical region (African literature) or prevailing literary trends
    (Symbolist literature). Commonwealth literature is, in many ways, a complex
    combination of all of these other categories, and this enables it to bridge the
    inevitable distinctions between writers from very different socio-cultural
    backgrounds. As William Walsh claims, “it is at least, a useful category of
    denotation grounded in history and making a point of substance about those it is
    applied to,”1 yet, one which does not ignore the fact that “an African or an Indian
    or a Nigerian writer writes against a particular historical tradition and in a
    particular national context.”
    ”2 In essence, Commonwealth literature demonstrates the inherent connections
    between geography and history, and between theme and subject matter in a
    particularly resonant way.
    These similarities have in turn brought about the development of broad resemblances
    of theme and subject matter, as well as of technical approaches and patterns of
    growth. For example, many works of Commonwealth literature are distinguished by the
    examination of physical and psychological displacement brought about as a result of
    slavery, voluntary or forced migration and colonialism. In India, Malaysia and
    Singapore, the process and after- effects of colonialism have occupied literary
    artists, while settler colonies like Canada, Australia and New Zealand have tended
    to examine issues dealing with the problematic nature of their relationship to
    Britain as the “mother country.

    The development of the writing was keeping pace with and reflecting relationships
    between the countries, now independent, and their former ‘Mother Countries’ in
    Europe. Additionally, as a result of large-scale migration following such phenomena
    as the Windrush and other similar factors around in the 1950s, Europe began to
    become somewhat multi-cultural with growing ‘minority’ populations. There developed
    such social and cultural acts as ‘othering’ of minorities – minority groups
    becoming the ‘Other’.

    The writers were responding to the social, political and cultural factors in many
    ways, including their uses of form and style. Since much of the work was published
    in the UK it had its effect on what was happening there and English literature
    itself saw transformation. Commonwealth Literature were compiled, RK Narayan was
    the leading Indian writer of fiction. Since then there has been the powerful
    emergence of leading post-colonial Indian writers such as Vickram Seth and, most
    prominently, Salman Rushdie.

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