The Quest for Identity Conciliation and Racial Harmony: Postcolonial Critique of Mohsin Hamid’s the Last White Man and Derek Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain

Abstract

Identity and race as social constructs have been the major concerns in many postcolonial writings in different contexts. The characters with elusive identities striving for self-identification and gaining voice have been the intents of many writers of the postcolonial descent. The current study focuses on ‘The Last White Man’ by Mohsin Hamid and Dereck Walcoot’s play ‘Dream on Monkey Mountain’ from the postcolonial perspectives of identity as a social construct and racial prejudice. Parallels have been drawn between the approaches of both authors towards these issues and how the characters strive for racial harmony and identity conciliation. The theoretical framework is adopted from postcolonial theorists like Frantz Fanon who posits that race is a European construct and advocates for the elimination of race consciousness, primarily stated in his Black Skin, White Masks. Edward Said's theory on using discursive means to construct race, as stated in Orientalism, and also Achille Mbembe’s ideas of reuniting the particular African experience with the question of universal humanity through an emphasis on relating to and sharing a world in-common. The main objective of this study is to highlight the common concerns of both the authors regarding racial prejudice, and identity crisis. Moreover, the symbolic message for harmonious coexistence, disparity eradication, and racial conciliation has been introspectively analyzed. The study is significant in a sense that it highlights the common concerns of identity and race in a world still dominated by racial discrimination and identity crisis and how the authors hailing from countries with colonial history cope with these issues in their literary writings. The main findings of this research are that both authors have conveyed their message symbolically for a harmonic coexistence in a world still dominated by racial prejudice. Moreover, the study found thematic parallels in the works of both authors as far as the subject of race and identity are concerned.