King of the Zulus The Relation Between Literature and Art in Comparative Literature

Comparative literature has always had a close relation with history and fine arts. In addition, studies show that literature and arts, especially painting, in a wide range, had influenced each other throughout the history, and we can significantly see it in postcolonial studies. Postcolonial studies are the most important new fields of studies concerning the culture of developing countries. This field focuses on the relation between culture and imperialism in these countries after the end of the domination of West’s colonization. In this article we talk about the presence of postcolonial school in literature and fine arts in 1960-1970. In this period, the colonized intellectuals, all around the world, demanded justice for human beings by profiting from literature and arts in order to change the biased viewpoints of the West toward them. This means that they tried to rewrite the history for discovering why and how they have been omitted unfairly from it or why the reality of their existence was altered and where their place in the modern world is. This article tries to analyze the Basquiat’s painting, King of the Zulus, by benefiting from the history and also the analytical theories of Homi Bhabha for answering the aforementioned questions.