Essay on Two Short Stories

COMPARISON BETWEEN OFF-SHORE WITH HIAWATHA AND ZOLA


Off-shore with Hiawatha is a story written by Elizabeth Colbert and Zola is a short story written by Luke Dunne. Both are centered on the theme of post-colonialism and modern technology and fit within the genre of surrealism. In this essay I will be using journal articles, including Hybridity in Caribbean Writing, internet sites and books including The Empire Writes Back to support my argument. My argument is that the two stories are surrealist and largely influenced by modernism and postcolonial writings.

The short story: Zola, begins in the past before the aliens invaded and talks about cryogenics, which is used as a preface to the rest of the story. The introduction is only one page long and gets the basic information out about the story. The introduction leads into the first programming fragment of story, which leads to a break, another battle and then finally a conclusion. The conclusion offers an ending, but is ambiguous as the humans are still in a war with the Arcturians. There is tension in the middle with the characters discussing what is going to happen when they fight in the underworld. There is a sense of shock in the middle part of the story, which sets up the end of the story, which is full of happiness and glory. There is a lot of sexual tension between Zola and Alice and they both bond through their position as postcolonial outcasts. Both Hiawatha and Zola are written in the third person and in the present tense. Hiawatha is less linear and more of a slowly plotted piece of writing. There is more use of unusual adjectives and surrealist language in Hiawatha, while Zola is more of a action story. Both stories bring up the basic theme of science versus nature. The postmodernist technique of pastiche is used in the word salad speech of Alice Bowie. An example of bizarre use of language in Zola is the phrase: ‘morosely in reality, a real Earth.’ (Dunne, 2010) Thus both stories are similar and use similar writing techniques to illustrate the main theme of postcolonialism.

It is said that the words of a writer emerge out of their cultural context (Ayling, 2010). Certain phrases carry a weight, which only exists inside the culture from which they come from. Without that culture the symbols and their arrangement which make up language would be non-existent (Ayling, 2010). The short story Hiawatha thus uses the point of view of an American watching a movie in order to deconstruct and critique the master narrative of western white discourse. A native language has a special resonance with those which belong to that particular culture. The cadences of the language are learned from the tomb of mortality (Ayling, 2010). I disagree with the argument made by essentialism, which states that a certain culture has an unchanging essence. The reason I disagree is because you chose who you are, rather than that existence being defined as having a essence, which is solely determined by your culture. Although some behaviours and thought are undoubtedly determined by culture, this is an over-simplistic view of the individual. Hiawatha makes a mistake in putting forth a stereotypical view of American Indians, which is informed by essentialism.

A new critical view of both of these stories ignores their cultural context and focus on literary techniques which define meaning (Siegal, 2010). New criticism posits that literature should be seen as autonomous and devoid of cultural considerations (Siegal, 2010). Both Hiawatha and Zola consist of a series of referential statements about the real world, rather than an organisation of complex experiences presented as literature. The author’s intention of both stories cannot be equated with a universal meaning and neither can the way the text makes the reader feel (Siegal, 2010).

The narrative of postmodernist writing is presented as a alternative discourse to science. This is the way American Indians and the people in Zola are presented in these stories as more authentic or real. Cultural imperialism is aligned with science and presents short stories as fiction and subjective (Ashcroft, 2002). The voice of the native peoples is presented as being local and authentic, which is the essence of a postcolonial discourse (Ashcroft, 2002). Even to criticise colonialism, there must be a bed or foundation which is called a grand narrative (Ashcroft, 2002). The English in their invasion of America is imperialistic, which is defined as a state exercising power over a territory (Ashcroft, 2002). This authority is grounded in pageantry, which is a elaborate display of ceremony (Ashcroft, 2002). In this way the television and movies that the main character of Hiawatha is watching are a way of marginalising the discourse of native American peoples, through pageantry.

Both Zola and Hiawatha fill a key criteria for a good short story, in that both are heavily influenced by emotion and are strange. For example: ‘ ... pinpoints the ambiguity and strangeness of life ... expresses the ultimate meaning of all artistic creation as mood.’ (Bedford, 2010) Hiawatha is minimalist, while Zola is fast paced and driven mainly by plot. The Hiawatha story both exists in the present moment, but also in the history of American Indians. On the other hand my story jumps forward a millennium and assumes the existence of an alien race. ‘evanescent and subtle ... the way they leave a mysterious aftertaste so that the reader is inclined to be asking questions rather than be fulfilled ... ‘ (Bedford, 2010) The story Hiawatha has a certain evanescent subtle sentimentality. An example of this is the line: ‘Once buffalo roamed the prairies.’ (Colbert, 2010) Hiawatha presents the American Indians as very spiritual and connected to their ancestral background and the land. Thus both stories have important features of a typical short story, in being strange and evanescent.

Both short stories fit into the movement of Surrealism. Surrealism began in 1924 and has as its predecessor the art movement of Dada (Gullette, 2004). Surrealism, however, has a more positive message of life being a fantasy. Surrealism in general uses unusual juxtapositions and tries to achieve mystical art, which hints at underlying meanings in reality (Gullette, 2004). Surrealist writers tried to achieve absolute meaning (Gullette, 2004). An example of Surrealist writing in Off-shore with Hiawatha is: ‘the passengers are purveyors of the lost journey.’ This is an example of writing which tries to lift the reader to the very limits of reality. An example of dramatic and surreal writing in Zola is: ‘The mists of hell wafted and engulfed his thoughts. All he could feel was terror and doom.’ The content of these lines, suggests great and engulfing emotions in the characters in the novel. Both lines have a tone of finality and expectation of danger, which is a important surrealist technique.

Both Off-shore with Hiawatha and Zola fit into the literary genre of surrealism. They both use techniques from this genre, including pastiche, surreal writing, postcolonial themes, irony, comedy, and stream of consciousness writing. There are differences between the stories, with Zola being more plot driven and Off-shore with Hiawatha being slower in pace and more surrealistic. Both stories do well to deconstruct the master narrative of western discourse and present indigenous cultures in a positive, but stereotypical way.





























REFERENCES


Ayling, D. 2010, ‘Hybridity in Caribbean Writing’, LLRO.

Ashcroft, B. Griffiths, G. Tiffin, H. 2002, ‘The Empire Writes Back’, Routledge, New York.

Bedford, J. 2010, ‘Introduction to Creative Writing Study Guide’, Southern Cross University, Lismore.

Colbert, E. 2010, ‘Off-short with Hiawatha’, Southern Cross University, Lismore.

Dunne, L. 2010, ‘Zola’, Gold Coast.

Gullette, A. 2004, ‘Surrealist Writers.’ alangullette.com (online), http://alangullette.com/lit/surreal/ [Accessed 10 Sept, 2010].

Siegal, K. 2010, ‘Introduction to Modern Literary Theory.’ kristensiegal.com (online), http://www.kristisiegel.com/theory.htm, [Accessed Sept 13, 2010].