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Postcolonialism (postcolonial theory, postcolonian studies, or post-colonial theory) is a specifically postmodern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. Postcolonialism is defined in anthropology as the relations between nations and areas they colonized and once ruled. ^[1] Postcolonialism comprises a set of theories found amongst history, anthropology, philosophy, linguistics,^[2] film, political science, architecture, human geography, sociology, Marxist theory, feminism, religious and theological studies, and literature.

Definition[link]

A single, definitive definition of postcolonial theory is controversial; writers^[who?] have strongly criticized it as a concept embedded in identity politics. Postcolonial theory – as epistemology, ethics, and politics – addresses matters of identity, gender, race, racism and ethnicity with the challenges of developing a post-colonial national identity, of how a colonized people's knowledge was used against them in service of the colonizer's interests, and of how knowledge about the world is generated under specific relations between the powerful and the powerless, circulated repetitively and finally legitimated in service to certain imperial interests.^{[citation needed]} At the same time, postcolonial theory encourages thought about the colonist's creative resistance to the colonizer and how that resistance complicates and gives texture to European imperial colonial projects, which utilized a range of strategies, including anti-conquest narratives, to legitimize their dominance.

Characteristics[link]

The critical nature of postcolonial theory entails destabilizing Western ways of thinking, therefore creating space for the subaltern, or marginalized groups, to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourse. Often, the term postcolonialism is taken literally, to mean the period of time after colonialism. This, however, is problematic because the ‘once-colonized world’ is full of “contradictions, of half-finished processes, of confusions, of hybridity, and liminalities”.^[3] In other words, it is important to accept the plural nature of the word postcolonialism, as it does not simply refer to the period after the colonial era. By some definitions, postcolonialism can also be seen as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge.^[3][4] Due to these similarities, it is debated whether to hyphenate postcolonialism as to symbolize that we^[who?] have fully moved beyond colonialism.^[5]

In Post-Colonial Drama: theory, practice, politics, Helen Gilbert and Joanne Tompkins write: "the term postcolonialism – according to a too-rigid etymology – is frequently misunderstood as a temporal concept, meaning the time after colonialism has ceased, or the time following the politically determined Independence Day on which a country breaks away from its governance by another state. Not a naïve teleological sequence which supersedes colonialism, postcolonialism is, rather, an engagement with and contestation of colonialism's discourses, power structures, and social hierarchies ... A theory of postcolonialism must, then, respond to more than the merely chronological construction of post-independence, and to more than just the discursive experience of imperialism."^[6]

Often, previously colonized places are homogenized in western discourse under an umbrella label such as the ‘Third World’. Postcolonialism demonstrates the heterogeneity of colonized places by analyzing the uneven impact of Western colonialism on different places, peoples, and cultures.^[7] This is done by engaging with the variety of ways in which “relations, practices and representations” of the past is “reproduced or transformed”, and studying the connections between the “heart and margins” of the empire.^[7] Moreover, postcolonialism recognizes that there was, and still is, resistance to the West. This resistance is practiced by many, including the subaltern, a group of marginalized, and least powerful.

Post-colonialist thinkers recognize that many of the assumptions which underlie the "logic" of colonialism are still active forces today.^[8]. Some postcolonial theorists make the argument that studying both dominant knowledge sets and marginalized ones as binary opposites perpetuates their existence as homogenous entities. Homi K. Bhabha feels the postcolonial world should valorize spaces of mixing; spaces where truth and authenticity move aside for ambiguity. This space of hybridity, he argues, offers the most profound challenge to colonialism. (Bhabha, 1994: 113) Critiques that Bhabha ignores Spivak's stated usefulness of essentialism have been put forward. Reference is made to essentialisms' potential usefulness. An organized voice provides a more powerful challenge to dominant knowledge - whether in academia or active protests.

Goals[link]

In terms of postcolonial theory, the ultimate goal is accounting for and combating the residual effects of colonialism on cultures.^[8] It is not simply concerned with salvaging past worlds, but learning how the world can move beyond this period together, towards a place of mutual respect.

A key goal of post-colonial theorists is clearing space for multiple voices. This is especially true of those voices that have been previously silenced by dominant ideologies – subalterns. It is widely recognized within the discourse that this space must first be cleared within academia. Edward Said, in his book Orientalism, provides a clear picture of how the scholars who studied what used to be called the Orient (mostly Asia) disregarded the views of those they actually studied – preferring instead to rely on the intellectual superiority of themselves and their peers. This attitude was forged by European imperialism.

Postcolonial theory provides a framework that destabilizes dominant discourses in the West, challenges “inherent assumptions”, and critiques the “material and discursive legacies of colonialism”.^[3] In order to challenge these assumptions and legacies of colonialism, postcolonial studies needs to be grounded, which entails working with tangible identities, connections, and processes.

Furthermore, Postcolonialism deals with cultural identity in colonized societies: the dilemmas of developing a national identity after colonial rule; the ways in which writers articulate and celebrate that identity (often reclaiming it from and maintaining strong connections with the colonizer); the ways in which the knowledge of the colonized (subordinated) people has been generated and used to serve the colonizer's interests; and the ways in which the colonizer's literature has justified colonialism via images of the colonized as a perpetually inferior people, society and culture. These inward struggles of identity, history, and future possibilities often occur in the metropolis and, ironically, with the aid of postcolonial structures of power, such as universities.

Colonized peoples reply to the colonial legacy by writing back to the center, when the indigenous peoples write their own histories and legacies using the colonizer's language (e.g. English, French, Dutch) for their own purposes.^[9] "Indigenous decolonization" is the intellectual impact of postcolonialist theory upon communities of indigenous peoples, thereby, their generating postcolonial literature.

Notable theorists[link]

Edward Said[link]

Said took the term Orientalism, which was used in the West neutrally to describe the study and artistic depiction of the Orient, and subverted it to mean a constructed binary division of the world into the Orient and the Occident.^[10] This binary, also referred to as the East/West binary, is key in postcolonial theory.^{[citation needed]} Said argued that the Occident could not exist without the Orient, and vice versa; In other words, they are mutually constitutive. Notably, the concept of the ‘East’ (i.e. the Orient), was created by the ‘West’, suppressing the ability of the ‘Orient’ to express themselves. Western depictions of the ‘Orient’ construct an inferior world, a place of backwardness, irrationality, and wildness. This allowed the ‘West’ to identify themselves as the opposite of these characteristics; as a superior world that was progressive, rational, and civil.

Furthermore, Said, following Foucault, states that power and knowledge are inseparable. The ‘West’s’ claim to knowledge of the East gave the ‘West’ the power to name, and the power to control.^[4] This concept is essential to understanding of colonialism, and therefore recognizing postcolonialism.

To the extent that Western scholars were aware of contemporary Orientals or Oriental movements of thought and culture, these were perceived either as silent shadows to be animated by the Orientalist, brought into reality by them, or as a kind of cultural and international proletariat useful for the Orientalist's grander interpretive activity. (Said, 1978: 208)

Some postcolonial writers have critiqued Said's homogeneous binary of Occident and Orient, insisting that multiple variations of Orientalism have been created within the western world and are at work. Said believes that Europe used Orientalism as a homogeneous "other" to form a more cohesive European identity.^[11]

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak[link]

Spivak's main contribution to Postcolonial theory came with her specific definition of the term subaltern. Spivak also introduced terms such as 'essentialism', 'strategic essentialism'.^[7] The former term refers to the dangers of reviving subaltern voices in ways that might simplify heterogeneous groups, creating stereotyped impressions of their diverse group. Spivak however believes that essentialism can sometimes be used strategically by these groups to make it easier for the subaltern to be heard and understood when a clear identity can be created and accepted by the majority. It is important to distinguish that 'strategic essentialism' does not sacrifice its diversity and voices but that they are being downplayed temporarily to support the essential element of the group.

Spivak also uses the term 'epistemic violence' (from Foucault) which refers to the destruction of non-western ways of knowing and resulting dominance of western ways of understanding. This concept relates to Spivak's "Subaltern must always be caught in translation, never truly expressing herself" because of the destruction and marginalization of her way of understanding.^[7]

Furthermore, Spivak criticizes those who ignore the "cultural others" (the subaltern) and has offered constructive theories for allowing the West to go beyond its current position through self-criticism of western methods and ideals of understanding and exploring the alternatives offered by post-colonialism.^[7][12]

Spivak recognizes the project is problematic, as recovery and presentation of a subaltern voice would likely essentialize its message, negating the subaltern masses' heterogeneity. Spivak suggests "strategic essentialism" - speaking on behalf of a group while using a clear image of identity to fight opposition - as the only solution to this problem. Applying this approach, bell hooks addresses the white academic reader on behalf of subalterns in the conclusion to her paper "Marginality as a site of resistance".

Much debate has since taken place regarding how to effectively and fairly incorporate the subaltern voice into social studies. With such a huge mass of criticism against the idea of studying "others", many social scientists felt paralyzed, fatalistically accepting it as an impossibility. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, an Indian postcolonialist thinker, rejects this outright. "To refuse to represent a cultural Other is salving your conscience, and allowing you not to do any homework."^[12]

Postcolonial writers object to the colonized depiction as hollow "mimics" of Europeans or as passive recipients of power. Consequent to Foucauldian argument, postcolonial scholars, i.e. the Subaltern Studies collective, argue that anti-colonial resistance accompanies every deployment of power.

Dipesh Chakrabarty[link]

Dipesh Chakrabarty, writing in the nineties, made a major attempt to chart the subaltern's history of the Indian struggle for independence.^[13] In his book Provincializing Europe (2000) he seeks to counter scholarly eurocentric views by arguing that Europe should only be seen as "one region among many".^[14]

Frantz Fanon[link]

Fanon is one of the earliest writers associated with postcolonialism.^[15] In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon analyzed the nature of colonialism and those subjugated by it. He describes colonialism as a source of violence rather than reacting violently against resistors which had been the common view.^[16] His portrayal of the systematic relationship between colonialism and its attempts to deny "all attributes of humanity" to those it suppressed laid the groundwork for related critiques of colonial and postcolonial systems.^[17]

Frantz Fanon offered a violent prescription for moving beyond the colonial mindset. But violence in Fanon, who was trained as a psychoanalyst, is a cathartic practice aimed at "cleansing" the male colonized psyche from the effects of the epistemic violence of colonialism. That is why Fanon supported the most violent factions of FLN in Algeria. It is important to read Fanon's emphasis on revolutionary violence within the discourse of psychoanalysis.^[18]

Although Fanon is generally considered to be one of the earliest writers in this field, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule) had already proposed strongly postcolonial theories in 1909.^[19] Besides Gandhi, Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887–1949) had authored major works in this field.^[20] Vladimir Lenin's work "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", (1916), has also been regarded as one of the most important influences in the development of postcolonial theory.^[21]

Post-colonalism nations[link]

Postcolonialism as a literary theory (with a critical approach), deals with literature produced in countries that once were colonies of other countries, especially of the European colonial powers Britain, France, and Spain; in some contexts, it includes countries still in colonial arrangements.^[22] It also deals with literature written by citizens of colonial countries that portrays colonized people as its subject matter. In Dutch literature, a specific colonial and postcolonial segment is named Indies (after Dutch East Indies) literature. A sub-segment specifically focuses on postcolonial identity formation and culture of the diasporic Indo-Europeans, a (Eurasian) community originally from Indonesia. Its main author was Tjalie Robinson.^[23] Colonized people, especially of the British Empire, attended British universities and with their access to education, created this new criticism. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union during the late 20th century, its former republics became the subject of this study as well.^[24]

It is suggested^{[by whom?]} that there is a broad analytical division between the postcolonial nations and those nations that have been able to continue to forge nationalist unity and those marked by internal ethnic nationalists challenges. There is a strong commitment to the common political rules and institutions when it comes to the political elites from divergent political and ethnic backgrounds. There are various cases where such elites have created inclusive polyarchical regimes that are based on the accommodations, negotiation and fundamental acceptability of social interests present in Botswana, Namibia, Mauritius, and possibly South Africa.

The second pattern that is seen in postcolonial nations has been associated with the degeneration of civic nationalist unity when it comes to the wake of parochial which is ethnic nation-protecting. This is done by narrowing the patrimonial regimes that are based to cling to power by relying on an exclusive pattern of rule. This is seen in the worst cases in areas such as Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The nation state simply breaks apart into either separate communal movements being the no nationalist aggrandizing goals or the mixed interethnic movements with separatist goals. In both of these cases there is a big support by the military resources and a big social support to make sure that the perpetuation of relativity circumscribed territorial goals.

The Middle East and national identity[link]

In the last decade, Middle Eastern studies and research produced works focusing upon the colonial past's effects on the internal and external political, social, cultural, and economic circumstances of contemporary Middle Eastern countries; cf. Raphael Israeli's "Is Jordan Palestine?"^[25] A particular focus of study is the matter of Western discourses about the Middle East, and the existence or the lack of national identity formation:^[26]

“... [M]ost countries of the Middle East, suffered from the fundamental problems over their national identity. More than three-quarters of a century after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, from which most of them emerged, these states have been unable to define, project, and maintain a national identity that is both inclusive and representative”.^[27]

Independence and the end of colonialism have not ended social fragmentation and war in the Middle East.^{[26][citation needed]} Larbi Sadiki wrote in The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses (2004), because European colonial powers drew borders discounting peoples, ancient tribal boundaries, and local history, the Middle East’s contemporary national identity problem can be traced back to imperialism and colonialism.

Kumaraswamy writes that "in places like Iraq and Jordan, leaders of the new state were brought in from the outside, [and] tailored to suit colonial interests and commitments. Likewise, most states in the Persian Gulf were handed over to those who could protect and safeguard imperial interests in the post-withdrawal phase".^[27]

According to Sadiki, "with notable exceptions like Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, most [countries] ... had to [re-]invent, their historical roots" after colonialism. Therefore, "like its colonial predecessor, postcolonial identity owes its existence to force".^[28]

South Asia[link]

Subaltern Studies Collective

Africa[link]

The interior of Africa was not colonized until almost the end of the 19th century, yet the impact of colonialism was even more significant to the indigenous cultures, especially because of the Scramble for Africa. The increasingly efficient railway helped European powers to gain control over all regions of Africa, with the British particularly emphasizing goals of conquest. The British Empire sought to build a single railway through the continent and succeeded in building tracks from Egypt to Cape Town.

Many African empires existed in the pre-colonial era, such as the Empires of Ashanti and Benin, and the Kingdoms of Dahomey, the Buganda Kingdom, [now Uganda] and Kongo. Nigeria was home to the Haussa, Yoruba and Igbo cultures and Chinua Achebe was among the first to take up this history in the construction of a postcolonial identity, as in Things Fall Apart.

Kenyan Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o was educated at the British University of Leeds and wrote the first postcolonial East African novel, Weep Not, Child, in 1964. The later The River Between addresses postcolonial religious issues. His essay Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature is considered^{[by whom?]} one of the most important pieces of African literary criticism.

Africans and non-Africans both live in a postcolonial world of "genders, ethnicities, classes and languages, of ages, families, professions, religions and nations. There is a suggestion that individualism and postcolonialism are essentially discontinuous and divergent cultural phenomena. " Work cited: ^[29]

Criticism of focusing on national identity[link]

Scholars criticize and question the recent post-colonial focus on national identity. The Moroccan scholar Bin 'Abd al-'Ali argues that what is seen in contemporary Middle Eastern studies is 'a pathological obsession with ... identity'.^[30] Nevertheless, Kumaraswamy and Sadiki argue that the problem of the lack of Middle Eastern identity formation is widespread, and that identity is an important aspect of understanding the politics of the contemporary Middle East. ^[27]
Ayubi (2001) questions if what Bin 'Abd al-'Ali described as an obsession with national identity may be explained by 'the absence of a championing social class?'^[31]

Postcolonial literature[link]

Postcolonial literature is a body of literary writings that reacts to the discourse of colonization.

Founding works on postcolonialism[link]

• Edward Said: Orientalism (1978)^[32]
• Aimé Césaire: Discourse on Colonialism (1950)
• Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
• Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
• Albert Memmi: The Colonizer and the Colonized (1965)
• Kwame Nkrumah: Consciencism (1970)

Other important works[link]

• Syed Alatas, "The Myth of the Lazy Native" (1977)
• Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, [1983] (1991) rev. ed., London: Verso. ISBN 0-86091-329-5.
• Guy Ankerl. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations, Geneva INU PRESS; 2000 ISBN 2-88155-004-5
• Bill Ashcroft, The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature (1990)
• Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. "The Empire Writes Back", (1989)
• Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths & Helen Tiffin, eds. (1995) The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. London: Routledge ISBN 0-415-09621-9
• Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffths and Helen Tiffin. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies, Routledge: 1998.
• Samir Amin. L’eurocentrisme (1988)
• Balagangadhara. "The Heathen in his Blindness..." Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion. (1994, 2nd ed. 2005) ISBN 90-04-09943-3.
• Homi K. Bhabha: The Location of Culture (1994)
• Iain Chambers and Lidia Curti (ed.): The Post-Colonial Question, Routledge: 1996
• Partha Chatterjee (1993)Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories, Princeton University Press.
• Hamid Dabashi, "Iran: A People Interrupted" (2007)
• Bartholomew Dean and Jerome Levi eds., At the Risk of Being Heard: Indigenous Rights, Identity, and Postcolonial States (2003) University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-06736-2
• Leela Gandhi Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Columbia University Press:1998 ISBN 0-231-11273-4.
• Nikita Dhawan: "Postkolonial Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung" (2005)
• Ernesto "Che" Guevara: Colonialism is Doomed
• Alamgir Hashmi (1988) The Commonwealth, Comparative Literature and the World: two lectures. Islamabad: Gulmohar
• Philip Carl Salzman and Donna Robinson Divine (eds.). Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Routledge 2008.
• Paulin J. Hountondji, African Philosophy: Myth & Reality (1983)
• Abdul JanMohamed, Manichean Aesthetics: The Politics of Literature in Colonial Africa (1988)
• Declan Kiberd, "Inventing Ireland" (1995)
• Vladimir Lenin. "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism", (1916)
• O. Mannoni and Pamela Powesland . "Prospero and Caliban, The Psychology of Colonization"
• Ashis Nandy. The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism. (1983)
• Ashis Nandy. Traditions, Tyranny, and Utopias: Essays in the Politics of Awareness (1987).
• Achille Mbembe, "On the Postcolony", edited by The Regents of the University of California (2000)
• Anne McClintock, "The angel of progress: pitfalls of the term 'postcolonialism'" Colonial Discourse/Postcolonial Theory, edited by M. Baker, P. Hulme and M. Iverson (1994)
• John McLeod, Beginning Postcolonialism, second edition (Manchester University Press, 2010).
• Walter Mignolo: "The Idea of Latin América" (2005)
• Walter Mignolo: "Local histories/global designs: Coloniality" (1999)
• Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Infinite Layers/Third World?" (1989)
• Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes" (1986)
• Valentin Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa (1988)
• Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures (1997), and Contesting Cultures"(1997)
• La Paperson, "The Postcolonial Ghetto" (2010)
• Benita Parry: Delusions and Discoveries (1983)
• Prem Poddar and David Johnson, ed. (2008). A historical companion to postcolonial literatures in English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3602-0. http://books.google.se/books?id=wIFMuFC0E-wC&dq=prem+poddar&hl=sv&ei=-xaaTdTdFYWcOqfUpbwP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAg. 
• Masood Ashraf Raja: Postcolonial Student: Learning the Ethics of Global Solidarity in an English Classroom
• Anibal Quijano, Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality (1991), reissued in Globalizations And Modernities (1999)
• Roberto Fernández Retamar: "Calibán: Apuntes sobre la cultura de Nuestra América" (1971), reissued in "Calibán and Other Essays" (1989)
• Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)^[33]
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988)
• Gayatri Spivak: "The Postcolonial Critic" (1990)
• Gayatri Spivak: "Selected Subaltern Studies" (1988)
• Gayatri Spivak: "A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Towards a History of the Vanishing Present" (1999)
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, (1986) "Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature"
• Robert J.C. Young, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (1990)^[32]
• Robert J.C. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (1995)
• Robert J.C. Young Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001)

See also[link]

• Chinua Achebe's An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"
• Cultural Alienation
• Cultural cringe
• Critical theory
• Cross-culturalism
• Ethnology
• Inversion in postcolonial theory
• Linguistic imperialism
• Nation-building
• Post-colonial anarchism
• Postcolonial feminism
• Post-Communism
• Ranajit Guha Subaltern Studies
• Ranjit Hoskote
• Robert J.C. Young

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Contemporary Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature
• Paper about Post-Colonialism: Definition, Development and Examples from India
• The Postcolonial Space
• Postcolonialities
• Postcolonial Studies Association

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Homi K. Bhabha

Born	1949 Mumbai, India
Era	20th-century philosophy
School	Post-colonial theory Post-structuralism
Main interests	History of ideas · Literature
Notable ideas	"Third-space", "Enunciatory Present"
Influenced by Edward Said, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, Frantz Fanon, Toni Morrison, VS Naipaul, Walter Benjamin

Homi K. Bhabha (born 1949) is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language, and the Director of the Humanities Center at Harvard University. He is one of the most important figures in contemporary post-colonial studies, and has coined a number of the field's neologisms and key concepts, such as hybridity, mimicry, difference, ambivalence.^[1] Such terms describe ways in which colonised peoples have resisted the power of the coloniser, according to Bhabha's theory. In 2012, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in the field of literature and education by the Indian government.

He is married to attorney and lecturer Jacqueline Bhabha.

Early life[link]

Bhabha was born into a Parsi family from Mumbai, India. He is an alumnus of St. Mary's School (ISC, 1967–68), Mazagoan, Mumbai. He graduated with a B.A. from Elphinstone College at the University of Mumbai (formerly University of Bombay) and a M.A. and D.Phil. in English Literature from Christ Church, Oxford University.

Career[link]

After lecturing in the Department of English at the University of Sussex for more than ten years, Bhabha received a senior fellowship at Princeton University where he was also made Old Dominion Visiting Professor. He was Steinberg Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania where he delivered the Richard Wright Lecture Series. At Dartmouth College, Bhabha was a faculty fellow at the School of Criticism and Theory. From 1997 to 2001 he served as Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. In 2001-02, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at University College, London. He has been the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University since 2001. Bhabha also serves on the Editorial Collective of Public Culture, an academic journal published by Duke University Press. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India in 2012.

Ideas[link]

One of his central ideas is that of "hybridisation," which, taking up from Edward Said's work, describes the emergence of new cultural forms from multiculturalism. Instead of seeing colonialism as something locked in the past, Bhabha shows how its histories and cultures constantly intrude on the present, demanding that we transform our understanding of cross-cultural relations. His work transformed the study of colonialism by applying post-structuralist methodologies to colonial texts.

Influences[link]

Bhabha's work in postcolonial theory owes much to post-structuralism. Notable among Bhabha's influences include Jacques Derrida and deconstruction; Jacques Lacan and Lacanian psychoanalysis; and Michel Foucault's notion of discursivity.^[2][3] Additionally, in a 1995 interview with W.J.T. Mitchell, Bhabha stated that Edward Said is the writer who has most influenced his thought.^[2]

Reception[link]

Bhabha has been criticized for using indecipherable jargon and dense prose. In 1998 the journal Philosophy and Literature awarded Bhabha second prize in its "Bad Writing Competition,"^[4] which "celebrates bad writing from the most stylistically lamentable passages found in scholarly books and articles." Bhabha was awarded the prize for a sentence in his The Location of Culture (Routledge, 1994), which reads:

If, for a while, the ruse of desire is calculable for the uses of discipline soon the repetition of guilt, justification, pseudo-scientific theories, superstition, spurious authorities, and classifications can be seen as the desperate effort to “normalize” formally the disturbance of a discourse of splitting that violates the rational, enlightened claims of its enunciatory modality.^[4]

Emeritus professor of English at Stanford University, Marjorie Perloff, said that her reaction to Bhabha's appointment at Harvard was one of "dismay," telling the New York Times "He doesn't have anything to say." While Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at New York University, commented on the meaning of Bhabha's writing: "One could finally argue that there is no meaning there, beyond the neologisms and Latinate buzzwords. Most of the time I don't know what he's talking about."^[5]

In a 2005 interview, Bhabha answered criticisms and expressed annoyance at the expectation that philosophers use the "common language of the common person," while scientists are permitted to use language that is not immediately comprehensible.^[6] In a review entitled ‘Goodbye to the Enlightenment’ Terry Eagleton writes in The Guardian (Feb. 8, 1994) that “Bhabha’s aim is to put the skids under every cherished doctrine of Western Enlightenment, from the idea of progress to the unity of the self, from the classical work of art to the notions of law and civility”. Bhabha points to India, for instance, in his sense of alternative possibilities when he argues that the very idea and practice of secularism is changing.^[7]

Works (incomplete)[link]

Includes book editing duties, journal articles, and book chapters

• (Ed.) Nation and Narration, Routledge (1990; ISBN 0-415-01483-2)
• The Location of Culture, Routledge (1994; ISBN 0-415-05406-0)
• Edward Said Continuing the Conversation, co-ed. with W.J.T. Mitchell (originally an issue of Critical Inquiry), 2005. ISBN 0-226-53203-8
• "Cosmopolitanisms" in Public Culture 12.3, eds Sheldon I. Pollock, Homi K. Bhabha, Carol Breckenridge, Arjun Appadurai, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2000.
• "In a Spirit of Calm Violence", 1993.
• "Modernity, Culture, and The Jew", eds Laura Marcus & Bryan Cheyette, 1998.
• "On Cultural Choice", 2000.
• "V.S. Naipaul", 2001
• "Democracy De-Realized", 2002.
• "On Writing Rights", 2003.
• "Making Difference: The Legacy of the Culture Wars", 2003.
• "Adagio", 2004.
• "Still Life", 2004.
• Foreword to The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon, transl. Richard Philcox, 2004.
• "Framing Fanon", 2005.
• "Without Boundary", with Fereshteh Daftari and Orhan Pamuk, 2006.
• "The Black Savant and the Dark Princess", 2006.

See also[link]

• List of deconstructionists
• Post-colonialism
• Post-structuralism
• Postmodernism

References[link]

External links[link]

Academic homepages and profiles

• Faculty webpage at Harvard University
• Harvard Alumni Association Global Series (India) Speaker Biography
• Gewertz, Ken. "Telling tales out of, and in, class" at Harvard University Gazette, 31 January 2002
• Philweb's webpage devoted to Bhabha
• Culture Machine article on Bhabha

Articles

• A Response to Is Multiculturalism Bad For Women?, Boston Review, 1999
• Humanities at Harvard
• World Economic Forum panel: Defining "Home": Divided Loyalty or Dual Loyalty (2003)
• World Economic Forum panel: Defining Migration Priorities (2003)

Interviews

• Interview with Kerry Chance (pdf)
• Interview with Christian Hoeller
• Interview in Pulse Berlin, from the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy
• Interview with Jeff Makos
• Interview with W.J.T. Mitchell
• Interview with Sachidananda Mohanty
• Interview with Jonathan Rutherford (pdf)

Videos

• A Global Measure - Writing, Rights, and Responsibilities, University of California, Santa Barbara, 4 October 2004; Google Video
• Scope II: Sites & Subjects Preconference Interview, Narrating Heritage conference, Austria, 12 July 2006; YouTube
• On Global Memory: Thoughts on the Barbaric Transmission of Culture, University of California, Berkeley, 18 April 2008

Michela Wrong (born 1961) is a British journalist and author who spent six years as a foreign correspondent covering events across the African continent for Reuters, the BBC, and the Financial Times. Her debut book, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (2001) covers the time she has spent in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as it transitioned from the leadership of Mobutu to the that of Kabila. Her second book "I Didn't Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation" (2004) is the story of Eritrea and its existence through Italian, British, American and Ethiopian occupation.

"It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower" (2009) tells the story of John Githongo, a Kenyan journalist and civil society activist who, in 2002, took on a senior anti-corruption role within the newly elected government of President Mwai Kibaki. In this role, Githongo uncovered widespread evidence of corruption (notably the Anglo-Leasing scandal) located high up within the Kibaki government. The book also discusses the role of ethnicity in Kenyan politics and is strongly critical of the response of the international aid community to the Githongo case. The World Bank and the British government's aid department (DFID) come in for particularly strong criticism, though notable exceptions are also highlighted, such as Edward Clay, the then British High Commissioner to Kenya.

Wrong writes regularly for the New Statesman magazine. She currently lives in London.

Works[link]

• Wrong, Michela (2001). In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo. HarperCollins. pp. 352. ISBN 978-0-06-018880-1. 

• Wrong, Michela (2005). I Didn't Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation. HarperCollins. pp. 448. ISBN 978-0-06-078092-0. 

• Wrong, Michaela (2009). It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower. Harper. pp. 368. ISBN 978-0-06-134658-3. 

External links[link]

• Michela Wrong's website
• Going Too Far an interview with Wrong in Guernica Magazine

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