FYI: Symbolism of Parrot in Postcolonial Burmese Literature

[Graehstone]

I ran across this and thought it interesting enough to share.

Symbolism of Parrot in Postcolonial Burmese Literature

Burma was officially renamed Myanmar in 1989, but the change of name has not yet been universally adopted. The country is perhaps best known today as the home of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent 1989-1995 and 2000-2002 under house arrest...
Burma is bordered by India and Bangladesh on the west and by China, Laos and Thailand on the east. Until 1885 it was ruled by kings who lived in great style and splendor, fervently supporting Buddhism and the arts, and from time to time pursuing wars against their neighbors. The monarchy was followed by a period as a British colony, then, in 1948, by independence and a period of parliamentary democracy. In 1962 the army took over the government and discouraged visits by foreigners, giving Burma a reputation for inaccessibility. The present administration, though still military, is holding talks designed to pave the way for multiparty democracy and is actively encouraging foreign business and tourism.
Postcolonial studies as a distinct area of interest has become more prominent since the late 1970s, in part triggered by Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), which called attention to the way that Western literary discourse about “the East” tended to define non-European peoples and cultures as an alien “other,” not part of the universalist culture of the West. “Postcolonial literature” has been defined by Ashcroft as any literature
Issues in postcolonial studies include
1. how Western style education and the imposition of Western culture affects the indigenous cultures of colonized states;
2. the significance of linguistic choices in literary creation;
3. the psychological expression of a speaker who has been culturally indoctrinated to see himself as inferior, or to be alienated from his (sociocultural) self;
4. race, class, and gender relations as influenced by the colonial situation.
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Albert Memmi: “The colonial relationship . . . chained the colonizer and the colonized into an implacable dependence, molded their respective characters, and dictated their conduct.” . Memmi describes a “pyramid of petty tyrants”, each of whom responds to social oppression from above by turning around and participating in the oppression of those below. This kind of psychology was reflected in the literary works during the time another important marker of postcolonial writing is a concern with history and historical perspectives. (For example, Walter Rodney’s statement “To be colonized is to be removed from history,” or Derek Walcott’s “I met History once, but he ain’t recognize me” from “The Schooner Flight.”) Postcolonial writing seeks to create a new connection to history, one that inverts the Eurocentric value system and looks at history and society from the perspective of those voices that have been silenced or ignored by the mainstream
"Postcolonial literature" is essentially a political category, a shorthand term for an attempt to find similarities among various Third World national literatures. Postcolonial literature has been defined by Ashcroft as any literature affected by the colonial experience, including that of the colonial period itself. Most typically, "postcolonial" refers to countries that exist at the margin of "mainstream" political and cultural activity, and these are usually the non-settler countries. Issues in postcolonial studies include how Western style education and the imposition of Western culture affects the indigenous cultures of colonized states; the significance of linguistic choices in literary creation; the psychological expression of a speaker who has been culturally indoctrinated to see himself as inferior, or to be alienated from his (sociocultural) self. Issues include race, class, and gender relations as influenced by the colonial situation.
The Anglicized colonial is forever caught between two cultures, not allowed to be his real self. The responses towards this colonization experience could be either assimilation or revolution. Postcolonial literature of a country, considers the ways in which creative expression negotiates and surpasses such influences.
Under the light of the above facts, it should be noted that the word “parrot” is often used in Burmese literature. Why this fascination for the parrot in Burma? The shape of the country has been likened to a parrot facing west, with the beak touching Sittwe, the claws gripping Yangon, the tail extending down the Tanintharyi peninsula, and the outstretched wings forms the three northernmost states . Burma is the land that is home to a number of bird’s chief among them, being the parrot. A man in Burma who desires good luck will tattoo a parrot on his shoulder.
The word “parrot” conjures the image of a beautiful bird that is imprisoned in a cage. Under this meaning, it can be seen that Burma is a beautiful nation that has been under the clutches of colonial rule for a period in time. Even after it has been decolonized, the imprisonment continues due to the military rule.
Parrots are beautiful and they are birds known to repeat what they hear. Thus, use of parrot in Burmese literature could underline the fact that the literature of today is a reflection of the English literature that has been taught to them earlier.
Parrots do not fly high. So also the Burmese Spirit that has been caged for so long seems to have lost the power to break free and fly high. It is limited by the acceptance of subservience due to colonial rule.
Flaubert's Parrot has drawn considerable attention because it also includes a bit of a mystery. The narrator of the novel, Geoffrey Braithwaite, is in search of a parrot. Not just any parrot, of course, but the stuffed parrot that sat on Gustave Flaubert's desk while he wrote Un Coeur Simple. In Flaubert's novel the main character Felicite ascribes god-like powers to her pet parrot; somehow Flaubert is able to pull of this piece of literature without generating a hint of smirk from its readers this in itself a testament to his powers as a writer. In this book, the parrot is much more than just a bird.
Parrots for admiration, parrots for allegory, caging, talking, singing, repeating, etc…….but can there be parrots for eating?? In Burma, there must have been the habit of eating parrots also as is seen in this reference, “A Burmese River- Part I – Aleister Crowley” – “That evening we tried to eat roast parrots, but it was a total failure. I am told, however, that parrot pie is quite a good dish. Well, I don't like parrot, so there will be all the more for those who do.”
In "Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird," Mr. Boehrer, a scholar of Renaissance literature and (in his words) "a life-long parrot fancier," retraces the long and unusual odyssey (flight?) of this colorful bird through Western history. Western, because this is a book about how the peoples of Europe and the European New World have interacted with various species of parrot, all of which are native to non-European places ( India, Africa, the Americas, and Australia). Of course, exoticism has always been a key ingredient in the parrot's appeal — and, as Mr. Boehrer shows, in its denigration by humans.
The parrot was a rare avis indeed in the late 300s B.C., when Alexander the Great brought several home as souvenirs from India. Nearchus, the general of Alexander's fleet, considered the hook-billed birds to be "miraculous," but by the time Rome had established an empire in Alexander's wake, parrots were familiar enough for the historian Arrian to claim that "everyone knows" what they looked and sounded like.
And what they tasted like: Alone among Western peoples, the ancient Romans prized parrot-flesh as a delicacy. Beginning in ancient Greece and Rome, the birds were often seen to represent the supposedly inferior status of conquered or non-Western peoples.
At his accession to the throne of Egypt in the early 200s B.C., Pharaoh Ptolemy II gave a lavish pageant that featured servants bearing parrots in cages. Presented this way — i.e., in the manner of foreign spoils — they "exemplify both nature's subservience to culture and the subservience of certain social groups . . . to others."

[Graehstone]

According to Aristotle and Pliny the elder, parrots are fond of wine and prone to outrageous drunkenness , their mimicry of human speech is not a sign of intelligence but a trick that can be taught only through physical violence. Likewise, writers of the Renaissance frequently used parrots as emblems of "mindless inferiority," claims the author. In Ben Jonson's comic masterpiece "Volpone," the two most idiotic characters among Jonson's cast of knaves and dupes are nicknamed Sir and Lady Pol, on account of their constant, empty chatter.
Prior to this, however, parrots enjoyed a long period of cultural eminence, when Europeans looked to them as quasi-divine marvels. Once, they say, the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara manifested in the form of a cuckoo to teach the Buddha's dharma to the birds of the Himalayas. Birds play an important role because they can travel in three of the five traditional elements: air, earth and water. In mythology, the Celestial Bird adds the element of space to that repertoire; the Phoenix fire. Their remarkably expressive voices, variety of form and sometimes spectacular coloration contributes to their prestige and mythological importance
In olden times called the popinjay, the parrot was early bird in English and French heraldry. It was an Egyptian symbol of wisdom and of good counsel and in wealthy Roman households; it was the function of one slave to care for the family bird, which was often a parrot. In Medieval and renaissance Europe, it was only royalty or the very wealthy who kept parrots the colors of its feathers are linked with life’s elements, sun, water, fire.
The animal is taken here as an embodiment of sense without understanding or will (and yet with the capacity for articulation). ‘A parrot, that’s what they’re up against, a parrot,’ declares the speaker in the unnamable. Because they share a language with human beings, in a sense, parrots are often presented anthropomorphically.
Thus we find that the parrot as the symbol of beauty, wisdom and spiritual knowledge that is tragically imprisoned, in the pages of postcolonial Burmese literature.