Vol. 5 No. 3 (2021)
Articles

In Margaret Laurence's a Jest of God, Decolonising the Mind: Unlearning as an Existential Strategy

Published 2022-03-26

Keywords

  • Unlearning, relearning, self- esteem, authority, independence

Abstract

The existential strategy of unlearning involves the practice of relinquishing outmoded conceptsor beliefs which tend to hamper one’s personal growth or success. It is the deliberate discarding of obsolete knowledgeor habits that would act as barriers to new learning. An individual level as well as an organizational level tactics, unlearning identifies the existing knowledge or behavioural patterns as detrimental to progress, thereby attempting to discard them and replace them with progressive patterns. The paper attempts to explicate the complex process of individual level unlearning that the central character Rachel in the Canadian novelist Margaret Laurence’s novel A Jest of God undertakes and how it redeems her existence from one of angst and confusion to one of self- assertion, dignity and centrality.

Rachel is a spinster school teacher at the age of 34. Rachel’s warring self which tears her to pieces is presented through her voice, her thoughts and her beliefs all of which are contradictory. An attempt is made in this paper to elucidate how the individual level unlearning and relearning process saves Rachel from a life of marginality and indecision to one of authority and independence