The essay analyses the function of titles in a selection of colonial and postcolonial novels in English. By availing itself of the theoretical premises of Jerrold Levinson, John Fisher and S.J. Wilsmore, it argues that the hermeneutical purpose of titling has in postcolonial literature both an aesthetic impact and a political connotation. Some significant titles, belonging to different geographical contexts and historical periods (Heart of Darkness, A Passage to India, Things Fall Apart, My Place, Where We Once Belonged, Foe, The Lonely Londoners, The Emigrants, Brick Lane, N-W) are examined as representative of a typically postcolonial coincidence of poetic value/political message and they are considered in the light of different levinsonian categories like “undermining titles”, “reinforcing titles”, “focusing titles”, “allusive titles”.
The Function of Titles in Some Postcolonial Literary Texts in English
PES, Annalisa
2015-01-01
Abstract
The essay analyses the function of titles in a selection of colonial and postcolonial novels in English. By availing itself of the theoretical premises of Jerrold Levinson, John Fisher and S.J. Wilsmore, it argues that the hermeneutical purpose of titling has in postcolonial literature both an aesthetic impact and a political connotation. Some significant titles, belonging to different geographical contexts and historical periods (Heart of Darkness, A Passage to India, Things Fall Apart, My Place, Where We Once Belonged, Foe, The Lonely Londoners, The Emigrants, Brick Lane, N-W) are examined as representative of a typically postcolonial coincidence of poetic value/political message and they are considered in the light of different levinsonian categories like “undermining titles”, “reinforcing titles”, “focusing titles”, “allusive titles”.
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