Challenging Stereotypes in Postcolonial Literature
In order to justify colonialism, colonizers had to make themselves believe that the people they were colonizing were somehow lesser than they were. Otherwise, how could they go off and enslave and kill and steal from so many people? One way they convinced themselves of their superiority was by developing all kinds of stereotypes about different colonized groups: they were dangerous; they were untrustworthy; they were lazy.
A big mission of postcolonial writers is to challenge these stereotypes and show that they are based on nothing but the biases of the colonizers.
Chew on This
Arundhati Roy challenges stereotypes about Dalit (untouchable) people in her novel The God of Small Things.
Andrea Levy's English and Jamaican characters have to get over all kinds of stereotypes about each other in the novel Small Island.