ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVE: A POSTCOLONIAL READING

Postcolonialism is a theory of literary analysis that was developed in the 1980s to focus on literature written in English by writers from cultures once colonized by Great Britain or the United States. Such literature has been written for some time, although the term and analytical approach are recent. The major focus of postcolonial analysis is what happens when “one culture is dominated by another. As postcolonial critics …point out, to be colonized is to be removed from history. In its interaction with the conquering culture, the colonized or indigenous culture is forced to go underground or to be obliterated” (Bressler 266).

While postcolonial analysis tends to focus on the literatures of formerly colonized cultures, a growing number of scholarly works apply postcolonial methods to science fiction to explore the extent to which cultural struggles between different human cultures are represented in the symbolic guise of “aliens” and “humans.”

TMC shows a struggle between two cultures with specific historical parallels. The chicken pox that destroys the Martians recalls the diseases that destroyed many of the indigenous cultures of the Americas. Current research suggests that in the first four centuries after European contact, perhaps 90 percent of the indigenous peoples in the Americas died, with diseases and warfare being the two primary causes (Hirschfelder 36–38). Bradbury’s descriptions of the “waves” of settlers and frontier imagery indicate he wished to evoke the settlement of North America. “The Wilderness” (not in the 1950 edition) makes an overt parallel between the 1849 California gold rush and the Martian colonization.

Bradbury’s novel does not celebrate the glories of the colonization of Mars. His sympathetic portrayal of Martian characters (one of whom tells the expedition that the real name of the planet is Tyrr), along with the few human characters who are dedicated to the peaceful study of Martian civilization are two ways the novel questions the process of colonization. Characters who are scholars or intellectuals (Spender, who quotes poetry and studies the language and art; Hathaway, who is an archeologist) or who are from cultures other than Anglo or European American (Tómas, who encounters a Martian) are presented in more detail and with more sympathy than characters who brag about the colonizing of Mars.

“Way in the Middle of the Air,” which appeared only in the 1950 edition, also presents the point of view of a culture rarely represented in science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s. This story describes the emigration of African Americans from the southern United States to Mars. The narrative point of view is that of white Southern males, who view this exodus with repressed fear and hatred. Their feelings are expressed by one of them who attempts to stop a young man from leaving because of a debt. The white man’s attempt fails when other African-American characters combine their resources to collect the amount still owed.

Bradbury’s novel cannot be considered as expressing a completely postcolonial point of view, a thoroughly critical view of a colonizing power, but a postcolonial reading can focus on several key elements that undercut the simplistic glorification of American power in the 1950s. Some of this critical stance may well come from Bradbury’s experiences as an artist in a masculinized culture in which art, scholarship, study, and imagination are perceived as effeminate. Postcolonial scholars argue that the men in a colonized culture are socially constructed as less than masculine/less powerful, thus occupying the same symbolic space as women do. Such men are figured as effeminate — as artists/intellectuals were during Bradbury’s youth. He portrays male characters who wish to study the Martian culture and language as a minority within the colonization project, which is dominated by blustering men with little regard for culture.

The Illustrated Man (1951):

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