Visiting Speaker - Dr Salam Mir

Without lumping all modes of colonialism together, the study compares and contrasts the history and literature of two countries from the Global South, including the convergencies and divergencies, contests the provinciality of the Eurocentric focus of comparative literature, posits the protean nature of Empire, and exposes the underpinnings of various modes and practices of colonialism and settler colonialism. Not only did the colonial powers uproot and oppress the Indigenous and exploit the lands’ natural resources for their capitalist profits, colonial officials and historians racialized and brutalized the colonized, demeaned their language, erased their heritage, and wrote their histories, from the victor’s perspective. Literature of resistance voices the silenced, reclaims indigenous identity—individual and collective, and rehabilitates the erased history, from the people’s perspective. Discerning the correlation between the legacy of slavery and classical colonialism with modern imperial policies and practices, including the Zionist project, demonstrates the continuity of Empire in the present, notwithstanding their specificities. Cultural resistance is part and parcel of resistance to oppression, and the call for liberation and self-determination, hence the interdisciplinarity of the study. By employing postcolonial practice, selected literary productions, and declassified documents brings to the fore the viability of resistance literature as a worthy field of study. Finally, literature of resistance underscores the intellectual and emotional bonds among the people in the periphery. Empire’s continued aggression against minorities in the Global South demonstrates the impact of and connections between the past, present, and future. I call on the academe to integrate creative writing and resistance literature into the wider academic disciplines of the Core Programs and Social Sciences, to educate present and future global citizens in the hope of creating a more equitable, peaceful, and collaborative future for humanity.