Post(-)kolonyalizm, günümüz toplumunun ve özellikle edebi hayatının en popüler, ilgi çekici ve farklı disiplinlerle ilişkisi bulunan bir geleneği olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Sömürgeleştirilmiş ve sömürgeci toplumların hayatlarındaki ikilikleri yansıtan bu gelenek, içeriğini bileşik isminde de yansıtmaktadır. Postkolonyal, sömürgeleştirilmiş topraklarda yaşayan insanların kültürünü ima etmektedir ama post-kolonyal, sömürge sonrasındaki zaman dilimini kasdetmektedir. İki anlam da koloni sonrası dönemin iki farklı yönünü ve aşamasını bildirmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Derek Walcott tarafından post(-)kolonyal gelenek içerisinde kaleme alınmış Pantomime (Pandomim) adlı oyun; iki sahneden oluşması, iki karakter bulundurması, bu karakterlerin iki kültür arasında kalan ve sürekli değişen özellikleri ve kolonyal ve post(-)kolonyal olmak üzere iki metni içermesi gibi özellikleri post(-)kolonyal teriminin içerdiği ikilikle ilişkisi açısından incelenecektir. Ayrıca sömürülen ve sömürgeci arasındaki ikiliklerin yıkımı, Robinson Crusoe gibi kolonyal metinlerin sömürgeci özelliğinin post(-)kolonyal olarak değiştirilmesi, post(-)kolonyal toplumlarda görülen melez kimlik ve kırma dil gibi ifadeler post(-)kolonyalizmdeki ikili anlam ve Pantomime (Pandomim) oyunundaki teknik özellikler yardımıyla analiz edilecektir.

Post(-)colonialism is regarded as the most exciting and famous tradition of today’s society. It is about the dualities in the lives of the colonised and the coloniser after the colonial period and it also embodies this idea in the structure of its compound body. While ‘postcolonial’ refers to the tradition in the once colonised regions still under the effect of colonisation, ‘post-colonial’ refers to the time period that comes following the colonial times. These two definitions indicate both the two aspects and the two phases of the post(-)colonial era as well as the hybrid character of the post(-)colonial communities. In this study, first of all, post(-)colonialism will be introduced as a term both in general and in world literature. The dualistic characteristics in this term will be shown as reflected in the lives of the post(-) colonial societies as well as the representations of these societies on stage. For this aim, a stage play, Pantomime, by Derek Walcott will be employed as it embodies the two types of representation, colonial and post(-)colonial and clearly reflects the dual character not only in the representations but also in characters, the accents they use, the props on the stage, and the construction of the two acts. Lastly, it will attempt to show that the technical features and the structure of the play directly reflect post(-)colonial hybridity rather than simple duality. The play, Pantomime, is set in Trinidad, one of the places in West Indies, once colonised by the British and it takes place throughout a whole day. While the characters live a monotonous life in the morning as represented in Act I, they face many conflicts with each other in the afternoon, that is, in Act II. It is a strategy of most post(-)colonial writers to ‘write back to the empire’ through a construction in which first the colonial period is represented and then this representation is deconstructed. Walcott brings two characters to the stage, one is servant black and the other is master white. Although the roles are not very different from the ‘general’ acceptances and representations of the European society, what the playwright attributes to them is remarkable for postcolonial concerns. Jackson, the black servant, speaks in creole or in English while Harry, the white master of the hotel, he is on the way of ‘going native’ and at the same time after the ideal of recapturing the colonial days through such signifiers of European civility as taperecorder and Robinson Crusoe’s tools. Harry wants to re-play Robinson’s story with Jackson but they will play the reverse roles, the black will be Robinson while the white Friday. Hence, the power owner Robinson is put in the place of the inferior Friday and so forced to reflect upon the black experience from this inferior state. Robinson Harry cannot stand playing the colonised, he gets disturbed, and he stops playing. However, the attempt to give Friday Jackson the role of the master gives him a certain kind of realisation and Act II does not continue in the way Harry wants. He writes the script of the play, which has two aspects; one is that he is a European and what he writes is again from this perspective and the second aspect is that he attempts to transform the performance to a written text which is more sustainable and reliable and then he tries to make Friday read it, read the narration given by the coloniser. The same notion is illustrated by Bhabha (2004: 140) who indicates the narratorial voice in any narration as the voice of the colonialist and narcissistic demand, authorising the Self and addressing the Other who is ready to take whatever the colonialist Self gives. As a reaction to this, Jackson tries to mend the deck and the sounds of his hammer are put against resting Harry’s writing and it is indicated that the white is passive while the black is active. The tools of Robinson are given to the service of Friday Jackson one by one throughout Act II like the hammer, the hat, the tape recorder, the toilet, in short, anything that makes him a ‘white civilised man’. The roles are changing, the colonised is writing back to the coloniser’s fiction, he is mispronouncing the coloniser’s language, he is claiming back his possessions, and he is again taking his part for the first time in a play his people is represented. Through his role, he attempts to decolonise not only a colonial text but also the colonial performances in which Friday is played by an actress. In the play, Harry’s wife is such an actress who has played the role of Friday for years. Jackson takes her photograph, keeps it on his face, and in this way he manages to take back his role from the European performers. Further, he causes Harry to lose himself in the depression of the memories with the representation of those old days with his wife. Pantomime is an attempt of a post(-)colonial playwright’s reversing the binaries, decolonising the colonial texts, and problematising the accepted ‘truths’ by making use of the technical properties of drama and the techniques of post(-)colonial literature. It is the post(-)colonial pantomime of Robinson Crusoe and the embodiment of the coloniser’s ‘panto’ and the colonised’s ‘mime’. Act I is the representation of a postcolonial atmosphere in which there are still colonial impacts while Act II stages a postcolonial time dreaming and aiming to be free of the colonial times. The construction of these two acts in this way represents the two definitions of the term post(-)colonial, the two phases of post-independence period, and the explanation of the two constituents of panto-mime, panto and mime. While the former is associated with Christianity and Europe thanks to a number of compound words or phrases with ‘panto’ like ‘Christmas panto’ or ‘Pantocrator’ while the latter is associated with the “mime”tic character attributed to the colonised. In this study, the first phase of the post-independence period, the first meaning of post(-)colonial, Act I in Pantomime, and the first part of the title will be given in relation to the secondary ones indicating the hybrid character of the play and experience in post(-)colonial era.