Resisting The Politics of Cultural Pluralism in Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup and Narrudin Farah’s A Naked Needle

Raphael Seka

Vol. 11 Jan-Jun 2021

Abstract:

Most Postcolonial writers in their narratives present characters who are interested in seeing a racially unified society and not a fragmented one, thereby creating space for cultural pluralism in these societies. However, despite the zeal and motivation by the postcolonial man to be involved in cross-cultural interaction, those concerned are most often than not, confronted with difficulties of trying to get used to, and understand another person’s culture as well as struggling to satisfy or get used to ones in-laws as the case may be. This paper aims at projecting the link between postcolonial narrative discourses to explain the fact that for one to be involved in a fruitful intercultural dialogue, one must be ready to face challenges that might slightly or totally act as barrier to its progress. From the prism of postcolonial theory, this paper, therefore, hinges on the premise that Farah and Gordimer in their narrative fictions believe that even though cultural and racial negotiations and arbitrations are the panaceas for harmony in the postcolonial socio-political space, there are definitely a lot of challenges to grapple with in order to construct a society void of cultural variations.

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