Cereus Blooms At Night

Mootoo’s novel is a modern contribution to the body of postcolonial literature. Early postcolonial works often emerged from authors who were British imperial subjects in locations like India; one of the key postcolonial theorists was Edward Said, a Palestinian American literature professor who wrote Orientalism (1978). More recent postcolonial literature includes writers from the greater imperial diaspora, including nations in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Cereus Blooms at Night highlights the many overlapping layers of the colonial project, from its systems of labor to the importance of religious conversion to maintain imperial control.

The novel also demonstrates the lingering influence of the colonizing nation on the colonized, even after the official relationship has dissolved. For example, Lantanacamara still views the Shivering Northern Wetlands, which can be understood to represent the United Kingdom, as an aspirational destination, where fortunate Lantanacamarans emigrate to receive an education or find work. Lantanacamara also contains traces of colonial hierarchies, in which white individuals have the most power and privilege in comparison to Black and brown subjects.

Postcolonial literature is significant in that it is viewed as “writing back” to empire, or a literature of resistance. This aspect of the literary genre can be seen in Cereus Blooms at Night in the fact that beyond simply showcasing the damaging effects of imperial domination, Mootoo also eventually writes “whiteness” out of the story. She instead focuses on highlighting the trauma and the resilience of the Black and brown inhabitants that call the town of Paradise home.