The'other'worldliness of postcolonial discourse: a critique

Journal of Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Routledge., 2016

Critical Inquiry, 1985

JanMohamed argues that much criticism on colonialist literature "restricts itself by bracketting the political context of culture and history" (78). What he calls "humanist closure" (78) requires the critic to "avoid an analysis of the domination, manipulation, exploitation, and disenfranchisement that are inevitably involved in the construction of any cultural artifact or relationship" (78). This is true of critics of colonialist literature as varied as Molly Mahood and Homi Bhabha. Such theorists / critics ignore "Fanon's definition of the conqueror / native relation as a 'Manichean' struggle-a definition that is not a fanciful metaphoric caricature but an accurate representation of a profound conflict" (79). The "manichean allegory" (80) is the "central trope" (80) of an entire colonialist "economy" (80) of representation that is based on a transformation of racial difference into moral and even metaphysical difference. Though the phenomenological origins of this metonymic transformation may lie in the 'neutral' perception of physical difference (skin colour, physical features, and such), its allegorical extensions come to dominate every facet of imperialist mentality. (80) Some of the works of even the "most enlightened and critical colonial writers eventually succumb to a narrative organisation based on racial / metaphysical oppositions" (80) that are flexible to accommodate "any situation" (80). JanMohamed begins by offering a "brief appraisal of the social, political, and economic ambience of colonial society" (80) in which such "duplicitous tropes" (80) are generated and of the "function of colonialist fiction" (80) within this ambience. Sounding a Marxist note, he argues that the "perception of racial difference is. .. influenced by economic motives" (80), even though ultimately not reducible to these: prior to colonialism, Africans were "perceived in a more or less neutral and benign light" (80) whereas afterwards, they came to be characterised "as the epitome of evil and barbarity" (80). Colonial societies are, he contends, deeply "pathological societies" (80) because of this. JanMohamed distinguishes between the "dominant" (80) phase of colonialism (stretching from the earliest European conquest to independence) and the "hegemonic phase of colonialism (or neocolonialism)" (80), that is, the period since independence. The "moment of 'independence'-with the natives' obligatory, ritualised acceptance of Western forms of parliamentary government-marks the formal transition to hegemonic colonialism" (81). JanMohamed also distinguishes between the "material practices" (81) of colonialism and its "discursive ideological practices" (80). During the dominant period, "European colonisers exercise direct and continuous bureaucratic control and military coercion of the natives" (80). At this stage, the "indigenous peoples are subjugated by colonialist material practices" (81), such as "policies of population transfers, gerrymandering of borders, and forced production" (80). However, "colonialist discursive practices, particularly its literature, are not very useful in controlling the conquered group at this early stage" (81) because the "native is not subjugated, nor does his culture disintegrate, simply because a European characterises both as savage" (81). By contrast, during the hegemonic phase, the natives accept a version of the colonisers' entire system of values, attitudes, morality, institutions, and, more important, mode of production. This stage of imperialism does rely on the active and direct 'consent' of the dominated, though, of course, the threat of military coercion is always in the background. (81) The process of "internalisation of Western cultures begins before the end of the dominant

Kunapipi, 1987

As George Lamming once remarked, over three quarters of the contemporary world has been directly and profoundly affected by imperialism and colonialism. Although it is clear just how profound an effect this has had on the social and political structures of the twentieth century and on the relations which exist between nations in our age, it has until recently been less clear how profoundly this has influenced the perceptive frameworks of the majority of people alive now. The day to day realities of colonized peoples were in large part generated for them by the impact of European discourses. But the contemporary art, philosophies and literature produced by post-colonial societies are not simply continuations or adaptations of European models. The processes of artistic and literary colonization have involved a radical dis/mantling of European codes and a post-colonial subversion and appropriation of the dominant European discourses. This has frequently been accompanied by the demand for an entirely new or wholly recovered 'reality', free of all colonial taint. Given the nature of the relationship between colonizer and colonized, with its pandemic brutalities and its cultural denigration, such a demand is desirable and inevitable. But as the contradictions inherent in a project such as Chinweizu, Jemie and Madubuike's The Decolonization of African Literature demonstrate,' such pre-colonial cultural purity can never be fully recovered.

To what effect is the textual formulation of communal identity established in postcolonial writing? '[Différance] is the play which makes possible nominal effects' 1 (Derrida, 1982).

GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 2021

A postcolonial reading of literary works remains relevant since the characters, stories and various issues related to the colonial domination discussed in literary texts may serve as a means for its readers to learn more about life under colonialism. This article examines how Doris Lessing, a British-Rhodesian author, and Seno Gumira Ajidarma, an Indonesian author, reveal the issue of discrimination of African native community and Indonesian-Chinese community because of the act of othering, respectively, from a postcolonial lens. This study used the critical content analysis technique on two literary works, namely Lessing’s short story entitled “No Witchcraft for Sale” and Ajidarma’s short story entitled “Clara”, which is based on Spivak’s theory of othering. Specific dialogues and utterances related to instances of discrimination were analyzed to uncover the othering of individuals, in this case, the main characters of the stories Lessing’s short story captures the struggles encoun...

International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 2021

Founded on Edward Said"s Orientalism published in 1978, the postcolonial theory has spread like a wild fire, entering into fields such as literature, culture, anthropology, theatre and performance, gender, race, ethnicity, nationalism, feminism, sociology, economics, politics, history, education, language, postmodernism, among others. . Said in his Orientalism criticised the "Occident"-Europe and the Western world of their intentionally orchestrated and subjective representation of the "Orient" -Other (East/Asia) as uncivilised or uncouth so as to better their position for hegemonic and neo-colonial imperialistic opportunities. To Said, the occidental misrepresentations of the Orient are constructed through "contrasting image, idea, personality, experience" of the Orient with "very large mass of writers, among whom are poets, novelists, philosophers, political theorists, economists, and imperial administrators" championing the course (Said, 1978, p.2). As a spring that would propel intensive theoretical discourse and performativity among scholars and artists, the term postcolonial which first appeared in the writings of Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffinin the1980s and has become a major theory that deals with the body of literature that originate from formerly colonised, colonised and third world nations that try to unveil, correct and push back the occidental misrepresentations of the identities of such nations . This characteristic of the postcolonial theory is shared by Barry (2006) which reveals that the postcolonial theory attempts to reverse occidental constructions of the other by attempting to replace such demeaning constructs with the authentic versions of the marginalised non-European and Western people. This is firmly agreed by Homi Bhabha who has established himself as one of the staunch scholars of postcolonial theory. Bhabha (1994, p. 171) argues: Postcolonial perspectives emerge from the colonial testimony of Third World countries and the discourses of "minorities" within the geopolitical divisions of East and West, North and South. They intervene in those ideological discourses of modernity that attempt to give a hegemonic "normality" to the uneven development and the differential, often disadvantaged, histories of nations, race, communities, peoples.

1995