Week 2 Thomas King "Godzilla vs. the Postcolonial"

King's article "Godzilla vs. the Postcolonial" points out problematic issues surronding the term "post-colonial". The term generalizes numerous races and cultures together instead of creating a distinction and forms a binary between europeans and those who have been colonized. My blog will focus on Kings point that the term post-colonial is problematic because it continually connects the colonialized to the colonizers as well when referring to literature produced by the colonised it asserts their literature as a reaction to colonialism.Such a generalization about literature produced by those cultures recovering from colonialization would be wrong, and definitly incorrect. For example, one of my favorite novels is Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road which contains information about Native culture focusing on storytelling. The focus on storytelling as a structure and a theme illuminates the importance of stories with Native culture. King in The Truth About Stories states "The truth about stories is that's all that we are" (2). King states stories are important to culture, and create individual identtity as well as cultural identity. Kings statement illustrates literature produced by cultures who have experience colonialism does not always focus on that experience, but rather they produce literature which contains culturally information. Many writers like Boyden use their native language and by definining themselves and their culture they take back the power to define themselves. King in his article states a major point which is by using the term postcolonial to refer to literature written by indigenous people it focus on their contemporary literature as a reaction to colonialism, and to view their literature as such is incorrect. Joseph Boyden's novel is contemporary literature which focuses on the Cree culture, and is an example of aesthetic work which is not speaking about colonialism. To view literature produced by the colonised as a reaction to colonialism is limiting, and it prevents individuals from exploring the structure, and content and intrisique literary value they offer as well as it may hinder the amount of cultural knowledge that can be found, and learn in may literary works. When examing this issue King raises surronding Native literature , immediatly I thought of Boyden who offers so much cultural insight as well as presents the beauty found in these cultures.

Works Cited
King Thomas. The Truth About Stories. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2004.