A Postcolonial Perspective (Work in progress by Terry DeHay)

Postcolonialism, like other post-isms, does not signal a closing off of that which it contains (colonialism), or even a rejection (which would not be possible in any case), but rather an opening of a field of inquiry and understanding following a period of relative closure. olonialism is an event which can be identified, given an historical definition, through its effects and characteristics as they reveal themselves in a given nation, among different cultural and social groupings. Partha haterjee, in !he "ation and its #ragments, characteri$es the colonial project as %...the normali$ing rule of colonial difference, namely, the preservation of the alienness of the ruling group% (&'). (ater in the te)t, he clarifies this difference* %representing the %other% as inferior and radically different, and hence incorrigibly inferior% (++). olonialism can further be defined as %a way of maintaining an unequal international relation of economic and political power% (,illiams -), employing social, cultural, and religious means of control, as well as economic and political ones, or following .lthusser/s categories, both institutional and repressive state apparatus. 0ndeed it is possible to see colonialism as a totali$ing event which desires closure, to see the world as always already defined in terms of the relationship of the coloni$ed to the coloni$er, the margin to the center, etc. .s 1dward 2aid pointed out in 3rientalism, the 0mperialist powers needed to create an 3ther, an 3rient, in order to define themselves as center. .nd the policies of colonialism, although they varied from one %center% to the ne)t, systematically programmed coloni$ed people to understand themselves as other, as marginali$ed, in relationship to this center. "gugi wa !hiong/o in his theory and fiction has demonstrated effectively that coloni$ation was not just a political and economic subjugation of continents, but rather required a on-going program of cultural coloni$ation to support and maintain the hegemony of the coloni$ers. 0n %!he ultural #actor in the "eo-colonial 1ra,% he states* ...economic and political control inevitably leads to cultural dominance and this in turn deepens that control. !he maintenance, management, manipulation, and mobili$ation of the entire system of education, language and language use, literature, religion, the media, have always ensured for the oppressor nation power over the transmission of a certain ideology, set of values, outlook, attitudes, feelings, etc, and hence power over the whole area of consciousness. !his in turn leads to the control of the individual and collective self-image of the dominated nation and classes as well as their image of the dominated nations and classes. 444

5y thus controlling the cultural and psychological domain, the oppressor nation and classes try to ensure the situation of a slave who takes it that to be a slave is the normal human condition. (6oving, 7&) !his program of cultural coloni$ation clearly continues in terms of on-going neo-colonial relationships, establishing and maintaining the comprador class which in turn maintains the economic interests of the former colonists. !he intervention of the colonial educational system and language on cultural production becomes a necessary and inevitable element in any discussion of postcolonial literature. 0n the article %,hat is Post(-)colonialism8% 6ishra and 9odges suggest accepting that postcolonial literature is based on the equation of %a 1uropean epic narrative mediated through the 1uropean bourgeois novel% plus %those very precise, historically and culturally specific distinctions that mark off post-colonial difference without constructing, in turn, a post-colonial homogeneity that cancels out its own opposition and fractures% ( :P! ;<'-;<&). 0n his study of the novels of .yi =wei .rmah, >esistance in Postcolonial (iterature, "eil (a$arus argues for a type of %periodi$ation% of .frican postcolonial literature, which moves from the disillusionment of independence in the &?@'s, when writers saw that independence had failed to bring about any real change in the structures of government or the situation of the masses, to the call for change and collective resistance in literature since &?A's. !hese later te)ts very often boldly posits the possibility, the inevitability of change and of a movement forward, always with a ga$e backward to pre-colonial .frica. >eferring to ,ole 2oyinka/s identification of the %projective capacity% in .frican fiction, (a$arus describes the dialectic of a dual focus in the te)t* %the narrative focus falls unremittingly upon the e)isting social order, the inner ga$e of the te)t seems...to be directed beneath and beyond the surface% (-A). !his %inner ga$e% then potentially %subverts the bleak surface% of the te)t. !his description effectively references the %affirmative deconstruction% identified by 2pivak. !he often dark, realistic surface, presenting things %as they are,% contrasts with another level of the te)t, which suggests alternative or suggestive readings. !hese readings often are opened up through the use of te)tual devices such as irony and shifting narrative voices, which challenge one mode of perception and allow the postcolonial te)t to deconstruct the colonial discourse from within. !he definition of postcolonialism that 0 am most comfortable with is as follows* the social, political, economic, and cultural practices which arise in response and resistance to colonialism. !his corresponds to 6ishra and 9odges/ definition of postcolonial literature as, %an always present tendency in any literature of subjugation marked by a systematic process of cultural domination through the imposition of imperial structures of power,% which as they point out implies that postcolonialism is %already implicit in the discourses of colonialism% (;<-). .s 0 think will become clear, these categories will reverse, with colonialism being subsumed into postcolonialism. .lways important, as well, is the incorporation of an understanding of material condition in any analysis of postcolonial cultural production. Postcolonial te)ts will incorporate culturally specific details, often not offering translations or e)planations of non-1uropean practices, decentering the 1uropean-based reading. 0n addition, the te)ts very often decenter the

white characters, who become faceless, nameless representatives of a dominating power, shifting the power relationships within the te)t. #inally, it is perhaps most important to stress the ever changing nature of postcolonialism as a defining term, as it responds to the material conditions under which people live in colonial and neo-colonial situations. .lthough postcolonialism comes out of colonialism, in opposition to colonialism, in its development, it has literally become a critical perspective through which to view colonialism. 5y problemati$ing the ,estern humanistic metanarratives on the basis of which colonialism was justified, coloni$ation itself becomes a motivated political, historical effect. 0n effect, %colonialism% no longer e)ists outside some critical frameworkB hence it always e)ist from within the postcolonial conte)t. !he closest and perhaps most relevant comparison to postcolonialism is postmodernism in that postmodernism has somewhat the same relationship to modernism as postcolonialism does to colonialism. !he connection or even complicity between modernism and colonialism makes this comparison especially interesting and relevant* both are challenges to the 1nlightenment narratives. %6odernism% was a period of unprecedented searching and yearning for what (yotard has called %metanarratives% to replace the dethroned god of ,estern humanist thought. 0n some analyses, with the rise of capitalism and the increasing imperialism of the 1uropean powers, this yearning translated into the %modernist totali$ing ideal of progress% (9utcheon, PP ;7). !his ideal of progress comes as well out of the 1nlightenment project, which privileged reason and rationality* mind and reason conquer superstition, control nature. !here is an increasing rift between res cogitans and res e)tensa, leading to %gulf between inside and outside, between logical form and substantive content, inner e)istence and outer reality.% 0n :ialectic of 1nlightenment, 9orkheimer and .dorno state, %!he creative god and the systematic spirit are alike as rulers of nature. 6an/s & likeness to Cod consists in the sovereignty over the world, in the countenance of the lord and master, and in command.% !his defines man/s relationship to that over which he e)ercises power as one of alienation, of distance between subject and object* %9e knows them in so far as he can manipulate them%(?). !his then leads to a master and slave relationship and a system of domination which %lends increased consistency and force to the social whole in which it establishes itself% (;&). ,hat 9orkheimer and .dorno refer to as the %culture industry% is put into the service of the self-preservation of the center, producing accessible cultural products that represent imperialist domination as universal, natural. .lthough 9orkheimer and .dorno do not apply their analysis to e)ternal coloniali$ation in this work, it is useful in understanding the relationship of the 1nlightenment to imperialism as a justification for the ,est/s domination of entire populations of native people in the name of progress. 6any colonial narratives ( onrad, =ipling, :inesen) associate native populations with images of nature. !hese narratives in turn reflect the creation of a more e)tensive political, even anthropological characteri$ation of the %native% as natural, ie uncivili$ed. !his opens up the whole system of binary opposition coming out of the separation of man and nature* cultureD nature, civili$edD primitive, rationalD irrational, lightD dark, goodD evil, providing further rationali$ation for coloniali$ation (at times effacing political and economic motivations). ,estern rationalism would actually %liberate% the dark, chaotic %natural% worlds. 0n this sense, as a

way of reading, differance becomes important for the postcolonial reader in deconstructing the opposition* as :errida states in %:ifferance%* one could reconsider all the pairs of opposites on which philosophy is constructed and on which our discourse live, not in order to see opposition erase itself but to see what indicates that each of the terms must appear as the differance of the other, as the other different and deferred in the economy of the same, going on to cite the e)ample of %culture as nature different and deferred% (&A). !he opposition between nature and culture can then be reinscribed as a function of language and history rather that as a universal condition, undoing the domination of one term over another. .s !apalde 6ohanty states %0n other words, it is only in so far as /,omanD,omen/ and /the 1ast% are defined as 3thers, or as peripheral that (western) 6anD 9umanism can represent himDitself as the centre. 0t is not the centre that determines the periphery, but the periphery that, in its boundedness, determines the centre% ( :P! ;&7). Postmodernism does not reject modernism per se, but rather, as 9utcheon points out, through a %rhetoric of rupture,% reads the past as %te)tuali$ed remains% (PP ;'), and %teaches that social reality is structured by discourses%(PP A). 2he also identifies postmodernism/s relationship to the metanarratives of modernism in terms of %a critical revisiting, an ironic dialogue with the past of both art and society,% and %the site of struggle of the emergence of something new% (PP -). 2imilarly, postcolonialism cannot eliminate or undo the historical stuff of colonialism. 9owever, as an essential part of the process of decoloni$ation, postcolonialism uses many of the tropes and tools identified with postmodernism to interrogate the social theory and practices coming out of the 1nlightenment as a way of re-reading colonialisms/ narratives of domination. .s hatterjee asserts, the development of nationalism during the periods of initial decoloni$ation was complicated because the project of %cultural /normali$ation/% had %to choose its site of autonomy from a position of subordination to a colonial regime that had on its side the most universalist justificatory resources produced by post-enlightenment social thought% (&&). !his was then a critical moment in the development of postcolonial theory, forcing the recognition that independence was not simply a matter of renaming political and economic dependency. 0t also became clear that colonial policies and discourses could be perpetuated by the formally coloni$ed as well. #or this reason, the suspicion of %liberal-humanist rhetoric of progress and of universali$ing master narratives% clearly links postcolonial and postmodern projects. !here is of course a danger of assimilating postcolonialism under postmodernism--of turning postcolonialism into another imperialist project. >eading postcolonialism in terms of postmodernism, as perhaps a form of postmodernism, makes it seem safe, %reassuringly strange% ( :P! -&;), and effaces the political and historical dimensions central to a postcolonial perspective. 9owever, 0 take very seriously 6ishra and 9odges distinction between the two which would inscribe &) race, ;) a second language, and +) political struggle into any theory of postcolonialism. #or e)ample, if the aim of

postcolonial theory and practice is to dismantle the 1nlightenment project that provided the rational for colonialism and created the %colonial subject,% the %situating of the subject% and the question of the formation of the subject become essential parts of the postcolonial %project% of decoloni$ation. 6any postcolonial writers attempt to show andDor deconstruct the colonialDneocolonial structures of power that %interpellate% the colonial subject, leading to a free %free acceptance% of subjugation. !here are immediate, material aims to these deconstructive acts* to reveal the complicity between ecomonic and cultural imperialism and at the same time, to provide models for resistance. 9utcheon has argued that postmodernism is %fundamentally contradictory, resolutely historical, and inescapably political% (PP -). !eresa 1bert has also argued convincingly for a %resistance postmodernism,% that would view %the relation between word and world, language and social reality or, in short, /difference,/ not as the result of te)tuality but as the effect of social struggles. (anguage acquires its meaning not from its formal system, but from its place in the social struggle over meanings% (<<A). learly, the concept of %resistance postmodern delineates a rapprochement between these two %postisms,% locating a site of struggle against oppression within the material practices of language itself. ,hat follows is a very schematic outline of characteristics that postcolonialism shares with postmodernism*

1. Decentering and historicizing of the s b!ect"

situating of subject-recogni$es race, class, se)ual orientation, genderB emphasis on the constructed nature of the subject* for postmodernism* as defined by humanismB for postcolonialism* as defined by imperialism. contesting of the unified and coherent subject as a general questioning of any totali$ing or homogeni$ing system. !he centre no longer completely holds. .nd from the decentered perspective, the %marginal and ...the /e)-centric/ take on new significance in light of the implied recognition that our culture is not really the homogeneous monolith...we might have assumed% (9utcheon, PP &;).

#. $%ploy%ent of te&t al strategies to s bvert the do%inant disco rse"

irony* as (inda 9utcheon points out in her essay % ircling the :ownspout of 1mpire,% as %a double talking, forktougued mode of address, irony becomes a popular rhetorical strategy for working within e)isting discourse and contesting them at the same time% (&7-)B play within te)t* &) incorporating models of precolonial te)ts, both oral and written (storyteller as narratorB use of myth)B ;) magic realism (challenging established modes of perception, rationalism)B +) highlighting difference in the system of language itselfB open-ended narrativesB

parody* %repetition with critical distance that allows ironic signalling of difference at the very heart of similarity% (9utcheon PP ;@)B implies both change and cultural continuityB destabli$ing of narrative perspective.

'. Deconstr ctive %oves (ithin the te&t"

part of political agenda, used to open and deconstruct master narrativesB according to 2pivak, we need to look for what is edited out of %characteri$ations of human e)perience% by western philosophy, to engage in %affirmative deconstruction% (P ;')B challenge toDdismantling of %logical% categories of thought and oppositionB :errida, according to 2pivak, defines deconstruction as %the deconstitution of the founding concepts of ,estern historical narrative% (P +&)B dismantling of master narratives from colonial centerB to persuade us %to think through logical categories which may be quite alien to our own% (6ishra and 9odges, ;<;).

). Proble%atizing the relationship (ith literary traditions and anterior te&ts"

always working within dominant discourseB %critical revisiting% of literary past.

*. + estioning of historical certainties"

emphasis on the constructed nature of historical narrative (ala 9. ,hite)B lost master-narrative called forth to help liberate them from colonial narrative (problemati$ed in women/s te)ts)B human history as collective but e)perienced individually, as opposed to humanist, universali$ingB alternative, revisionary, counterhegemonic histories.

,. -riti. e of realis%"

Euestioning of hegemonic representations of reality* %. representation does not re-present an /original/B rather, it re-presents that which is always already represented% ("iranjana &').

/. 0e!ection of niversals and essentialis%"

questioning of ,estern-centered discoursesB historici$ing of basic concepts of wester thoughtB focus on particularD locali$ed stuffB recognition of uncertainty and the necessity to change.

5ibliography F 2uggested >eadings

1ibliography of 0eadings on Postcolonialis%

0eco%%ended by Terry DeHay2 $nglish Dept.
.shcroft, 5ill, Careth Criffiths, and 9elen !iffen. !he 1mpire ,rites 5ack* !heory and Practice in Post olonial (iteratures. (ondon* >outledge, &?<?. ----------, eds. !he Post- olonial 2tudies >eader. (ondon* >outledge, &??7. 5everley, Gohn. .gainst (iterature. 6inneapolis* H of 6innesota Press, &??+. esaire, .ime. :iscourse on olonialism. !rans. Goan Pinkham. "ew Iork, 6onthly >eview Press, &?A;. hatterjee, Partha. !he "ation and its #ragments* olonial and Postcolonial 9istories. Princeton* Princeton HP, &??+. :allmayr, #red. (ife-,orld, 6odernity and ritique. ambridge* Polity Press, &??&. 1bert, !eresa. #anon, #rant$. !he ,retched of the 1arth. !rans. onstance #arrington. "ew Iork* Crove Press, &?@+. #reire, Paulo. !he Politics of 1ducation* ulture, Power, and (iberation. !rans. :onaldo 6acedo. 2outh 9adley, 6assachusetts* 5ergin and Carvey, Publishers, 0nc., &?<7. 9arlow, 5arbara. >esistance (iterature. "ew Iork* 6euthen, &?<A. 9orkheimer, 6a) and !heodor ,. .dorno. :ialectics of 1nlightenment. "ew Iork* ontinuum, &??+. 9utcheon, (inda. % ircling the :ownspout of 1mpire%* Post- olonialism and Postmodernism.% .riel ;', - (3ctober &?<?), &-?-&A7. ----------. Poetics of Postmodernism. (ondon* >outledge, &?<<. (a$arus, "eil. >esistance in Postcolonial .frican #iction. "ew 9aven* Iale Hniversity Press, &??'.

6emmi, .lbert. !he oloni$er and the oloni$ed. "ew Iork* !he 3rion Press, &?@7. 6ishra, Jihay, and 9odge, 5ob. %,hat is Post(-) olonialism8% !e)tual Practice 7, + (&??&)*+??--&-. 6ohanty, handra !alpade, .nn >usso, and (ourdes !orres, eds. !hird ,orld ,omen and the Politics of #eminism. 5loomington* 0ndiana Hniversity Press, &??&. "gugi ,a !hiong/o. :ecoloni$ing the 6ind. (ondon* Games urry, &?<?. ----------. 6oving the enter* the 2truggle for ultural #reedoms. (ondon* Games urry, &??+. "iranjana, !ejaswini. 2iting !ranslation* 9istory, Post-structuralism, and the olonial onte)t. 5erkeley* H of alifornia Press. 2aid, 1dward. 3rientalism. (ondon* >outledge, &?A<. 2oyinka, ,ole. 6yth, (iterature and the .frican ,orld. (ondon* ambridge HP, &?A@. 2pivak, Cayatri hakravorty. 0n 3ther ,orlds* 1ssays in ultural Politics. "ew Iork and (ondon* >outledge, &?<A. ----------. 3utside in the !eaching 6achine. "ew Iork and (ondon* >outledge, &??+. ----------. !he Post-colonial ritic* 0nterviews, 2trategies, :ialogues. "ew Iork and (ondon* >outledge, &??'. ,illiams, Patrick, and (aura hrisman, eds. olonial :iscourse and Post- olonial !heory* a >eader. &??-. http*DDwww.sou.eduD1nglishD0:! D0ssuesDpostcolD>esourcesD!erryDdehaybib.htm