Binary Opposition and Colonial Hegemony: Structural and Post-structural Study of Tariq Rahman’s “The Zoo”

Abstract

Post-coloniality is exceptionally major phenomena in the contemporary world literature and culture. It is more relevant to the cultural and literary paradigms of the people who experienced colonisation and decolonisation. The centuries-old practice of dominance left inerasable marks on the colonised people, their minds, thoughts, culture, language and literature. In this direction, same effects can be found on the identity of colonisers as well. Thus, postcolonial structure is hovering over in the decolonised regions and their cultures as in mimicry, ambivalence, hyberdity, and stereotype identity. This paper attempts to unfold the internal structures of tension between Centre and peripheral privileges and binaries depicted by Tariq Rehman in his fictional piece ‗The Zoo‘. Paper incorporates structural and post structural approaches to identify concepts and language where priorities and privileges are fictionalised. The analysis comes up with the findings that colonial hegemony is prioritised and privileged on the cost of marginalised ones. As after decolonisation phenomena, things are not given due rights and significance on merit rather on the basis of Masters and Metropolitan origins and affiliations.