RECLAIMING TERRITORY AND SPATIAL NARRATIVE: A POSTCOLONIAL AND GEOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF JUNIOR’S CROOKED PLOW

Abstract

This study expands the literary paradigm by analysing the journey of reclamation of territory through postcolonial narrative of a marginalized ethnic group, Afrobrazilian natives represented in Itamar Vieira Junior’s novel, Crooked Plow. The novel portrays the colonial history, exploitation and oppression of natives of an indigenous region, Água Negra, who are denied all rights especially the right to own land. The research analyses their journey of reclaiming land through three main characters of the novel, Bibiana, Severo and Belonísia. This research also invigorates the paradigm of postcolonial studies by employing an innovatively integrated theoretical framework. The research combines Bertrand Westphal and Edward Said’s theoretical perspectives. Said’s concept of imaginative geography, hegemonic and constructed ideologies, divisions of East and West and Westphal’s theory of Geocriticism, his ideas of geographical dimensions and spatial representation in real and fictional world enriched the exploration of the novel. The research aims to empower natives of indigenous regions to resist against the colonial oppression and to reclaim their true indigenous identity by exercising their own culture, values, traditions and language by deeply analyzing the ways in which the Afrobrazilian natives resolutely gained freedom and challenged the dominant narratives that prevailed for centuries.