Response paper on Season of Migration to the North - Essay Example

Response paper on Season of Migration to the North The “Season of Migration to the North” was published by Tayeb Salih in the year 1966, a decade after Sudan got liberated from the British Empire. The novel portrays the turbulent politics that dominated during that period. In fact, careful assessment of the novel provides a unique perceptivity into the semantics and politics of vindictive sexuality in the context of postcolonial period.The novel appears to be more familiar with the Western sexual revolution as well as Third World’s decolonization during 1960s instead of the colonial era it aims to depict.

Through season, Salih has retrospectively attempted to exaggerate the colonial period via the main character, i.e. “Mustafa Said". However, the evident criticism of perverse attitude and conduct of Mustafa by Salih attests that he had conceptualized colonialism in the form of a sexual assault, while the straggle against this colonial regime was considered as a sexual revenge. The novel provides a supra-personal dimension of the association between the main character “Mustafa Said” and the four English women.

Instead of keeping an intimacy between two individuals, the fatal attraction of Mustafa towards those women turns into an titillating dialogue and contentious intercourse between the English colonial culture and his own Sudanese colonial culture. During these associations, Mustafa cannot circumvent getting conscious of the historic grudges that his own culture holds against the colonized European culture. The novel was famous, but due to the explicit sexuality involved it received huge criticism also.

However, through the depiction of Mustafa’s character, Salih was successful in producing a very multifaceted character that portrays himself as a prey of both his own psychotic beliefs as well as powers outside his control (Salih 14). Works CitedSalih, Tayeb. Season of Migration to the North. London: Heinemann Educational, 1969. Print.