Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g78kv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T22:19:37.846Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

8 - Conclusion: neocolonialism and the future of the discipline

Jane Hiddleston
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

This book has attempted to demonstrate that postcolonialism is a set of at times overlapping and at times distinct strategies aimed at undermining colonialism, as well as wider forms of imperialist subjugation. Postcolonial philosophy is a complex intermingling of political and ethical thinking, and theorists such as Spivak, Mudimbe and Mbembe show how an understanding of both empirical and discursive structures of oppression is necessary for the establishment of a critique. If Derrida points out that ethics and politics require the deployment of different sets of concepts (he argues that the former insists on absolute openness while the latter requires the creation of norms and rules), most of the thinkers assessed in this study engage at least to some extent with both levels. Nevertheless, the split among readers of postcolonial thought remains palpable. “Materialists” such as Parry and Lazarus turn away from the “textualism” of Bhabha or Spivak, while more “deconstructionist” thinkers such as Syrotinski or Philip Leonard imply that the ethical reading strategies recommended by Derrida and his followers must be embraced before political liberation can occur. Certainly, Glissants work indicates that there should be a distinct space for cultural and aesthetic postcolonial experimentation, and when the ethics of relationality is explored through literature and art it is clear that it should not have to submit to a clear political agenda. But I hope to have shown that, despite the hostility accompanying debates among postcolonial readers, postcolonial ethics and politics remain a more or less anxious coupling detectable from Fanon to Mbembe.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×