The postcolonial flaneur and other fellow-travellers: Conceits for a narrative of redemption

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 18, Issue 5, 1997, Pages 821-842

  Williams, Adebayo ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0037791337     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599714614     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. For an absorbing meditation on Walter Benjamin and the trope of the flaneur, see T Eagleton, Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism, London: Verso, 1981. See also Susan Sontag, 'Under the sign of Saturn' in Sontag, Under the Sign of Saturn and Other Essays, New York: Doubleday, 1980.
2. For an absorbing meditation on Walter Benjamin and the trope of the flaneur, see T Eagleton, Walter Benjamin or Towards a Revolutionary Criticism, London: Verso, 1981. See also Susan Sontag, 'Under the sign of Saturn' in Sontag, Under the Sign of Saturn and Other Essays, New York: Doubleday, 1980.
3. Walter Benjamin reportedly committed suicide when he was refused entry to a neutral country while fleeing fascism during the second world war. For a recent essay that chronicles his intellectual ordeals and triumphs, see OK Werckmeister, 'Walter Benjamin's angel of history, or the transfiguration of the revolutionary into the historian', Critical Inquiry, 22(2), 1996, pp 239-267.
4. T Eagleton, The Ideology of the Aesthetic, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990, p 381.
5. For a recent critical discourse on the 'end of history' ideology see J Derrida, 'Spectres of Marx', New Left Review, 205, 1994 . For a critical endorsement of this see A Ahmad, 'Reconciling Derrida: "Spectres of Marx" and deconstructive polities', New Left Review, 208, 1994, pp 88-119.
6. For a recent critical discourse on the 'end of history' ideology see J Derrida, 'Spectres of Marx', New Left Review, 205, 1994 . For a critical endorsement of this see A Ahmad, 'Reconciling Derrida: "Spectres of Marx" and deconstructive polities', New Left Review, 208, 1994, pp 88-119.
7. For a critique of the tendency of postcolonial theory towards textual autarchy, see B Parry, 'Signs of our times'. Social Text, 28/29 1994, p 19. For a recent discourse on the Foucauldian notion of discursive formation, particularly from the perspective of interculturalism, see Biodun Jeyifo, 'The reinvention of theatrical tradition: critical discourses on interculturalism in the African theatre' in Erica Fischer-Lichte et al (eds), The Dramatic Touch of Difference, Tubingen: GNV, 1990, p 249.
8. For a critique of the tendency of postcolonial theory towards textual autarchy, see B Parry, 'Signs of our times'. Social Text, 28/29 1994, p 19. For a recent discourse on the Foucauldian notion of discursive formation, particularly from the perspective of interculturalism, see Biodun Jeyifo, 'The reinvention of theatrical tradition: critical discourses on interculturalism in the African theatre' in Erica Fischer-Lichte et al (eds), The Dramatic Touch of Difference, Tubingen: GNV, 1990, p 249.
9. See A Ahmad, The politics of literary postcoloniality', Race and Class, 36(3), 1995, p 7; and J Goss, 'Postcolonialism: subverting whose Empire?', Third World Quarterly 17(3), 1996, p 244.
10. See A Ahmad, The politics of literary postcoloniality', Race and Class, 36(3), 1995, p 7; and J Goss, 'Postcolonialism: subverting whose Empire?', Third World Quarterly 17(3), 1996, p 244.
11. A Ahmad, 'The Politics of literary postcoloniality', p 9.
12. A Dirlik, 'The postcolonial aura: Third World criticism in the age of global capitalism', Critical Inquiry, 20(2), 1994, p 333; and G Eley, quoted in N B Dirks, 'Introduction' in Dirks, Colonialism and Culture, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992, p 13.
13. A Dirlik, 'The postcolonial aura: Third World criticism in the age of global capitalism', Critical Inquiry, 20(2), 1994, p 333; and G Eley, quoted in N B Dirks, 'Introduction' in Dirks, Colonialism and Culture, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992, p 13.
14. A McClintock, 'The angel of progress: pitfalls of the term post-colonialism', Social Text, 31/32, 1992, p 93.
15. In an insightful critique of McClinton's sweeping notion of colonisation, Ahmad delimits colonisation to its capitalist phase. See 'The politics of literary postcoloniality'. However, Ahmad's orthodox Marxian perspective and overly rigid delimitation lead him to overlook, even within the terms of his own conceptual formulation, the phenomena of Roman and Turkish colonisation. For a useful treatise on the linkages between nascent capitalism and the emergence of the modern nation-state, see S Amin, Class and Nation, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980.
16. In an insightful critique of McClinton's sweeping notion of colonisation, Ahmad delimits colonisation to its capitalist phase. See 'The politics of literary postcoloniality'. However, Ahmad's orthodox Marxian perspective and overly rigid delimitation lead him to overlook, even within the terms of his own conceptual formulation, the phenomena of Roman and Turkish colonisation. For a useful treatise on the linkages between nascent capitalism and the emergence of the modern nation-state, see S Amin, Class and Nation, New York: Monthly Review Press, 1980.
17. See D Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990; and C Wise '(Post)modernity/(post)coloniality', Arena, 5, 1995, pp 40-42.
18. See D Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990; and C Wise '(Post)modernity/(post)coloniality', Arena, 5, 1995, pp 40-42.
19. For a sample of early postcolonial discourse see Ranajit Guha & G. Spivak (eds), Selected Subaltern Studies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
20. A Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992, p 222. The reference for Said's work is E Said, Orientalism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
21. A Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. London: Verso, 1992, p 222. The reference for Said's work is E Said, Orientalism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
22. 'The lion of Judea', Guardian 20 May 1997.
23. For the most devastating appraisal of Said's work to date see Ahmad, In Theory. For a stout defence of Said's position and as a consequence a withering dismissal of Ahmad, see Benita Parry's review of In Theory, in History Workshop Journal, 36, Autumn, 1993 pp 232-241.
24. For the most devastating appraisal of Said's work to date see Ahmad, In Theory. For a stout defence of Said's position and as a consequence a withering dismissal of Ahmad, see Benita Parry's review of In Theory, in History Workshop Journal, 36, Autumn, 1993 pp 232-241.
25. For the concept of the dominated status of intellectuals within a dominant elite, see P Bourdieu, 'The intellectual field: a world apart' in Boudieu, In Other Words, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990.
26. G Spivak 'Can the subaltern speak?, in C Nelson & L Grossberg (eds) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, Urbana, IL, 1988.
27. For examples of Spivak's retractions and reformulations, see J Stephens 'Cultural dominance at its most benevolent: an interview with Spivak', Arena, 6, 1996, pp 35-52.
28. For a penetrating elucidation of the phenomenon of widow sacrifice in India and a benign critique of Spivak see A Loomba, 'Dead women tell no tale', History Workshop Journal, 36, 1993, pp 209-227.
29. For a recent discussion of the notion of catachresis, see A Kumar, 'Catachresis is her middle name: the cautionary claims of Gayatri C Spivak', Cultural Studies, 11(1), 1997, pp 176-179.
30. For Spivak's existential self-projections, see GC Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, ed S Harasym, New York: Routledge, 1990; and Outside in The Teaching Machine, New York: Routledge, 1993. See also In Other Worlds, Essays in Cultural Politics, New York: Menthuen, 1981.
31. For Spivak's existential self-projections, see GC Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, ed S Harasym, New York: Routledge, 1990; and Outside in The Teaching Machine, New York: Routledge, 1993. See also In Other Worlds, Essays in Cultural Politics, New York: Menthuen, 1981.
32. For Spivak's existential self-projections, see GC Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic: Interviews, Strategies, Dialogues, ed S Harasym, New York: Routledge, 1990; and Outside in The Teaching Machine, New York: Routledge, 1993. See also In Other Worlds, Essays in Cultural Politics, New York: Menthuen, 1981.
33. See Maria Koundoura, 'Naming Gayatri Spivak', Stanford Humanities Review, Spring 1989, pp 91-92.
34. G C Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic, pp 67-68. Ahmad is particularly contemptuous of this category of postcolonial intellectual. See Benita Parry's intervention in her review of Ahmad's book. See also Dipesh Chakrabarty's review of In Theory in Cultural Studies II(1), 1997. According to Chakrabarty in obvious reference to Ahmad: 'It takes a very modern, very affluent, very uprooted kind of intellectual to debunk both the idea of progress and the sense of a "long past", not to speak of modernity itself, (p 147).
35. G C Spivak, The Post-Colonial Critic, pp 67-68. Ahmad is particularly contemptuous of this category of postcolonial intellectual. See Benita Parry's intervention in her review of Ahmad's book. See also Dipesh Chakrabarty's review of In Theory in Cultural Studies II(1), 1997. According to Chakrabarty in obvious reference to Ahmad: 'It takes a very modern, very affluent, very uprooted kind of intellectual to debunk both the idea of progress and the sense of a "long past", not to speak of modernity itself, (p 147).
36. Apart from Bhabha's obvious anti-national narration, Spivak, for example, also sees herself as thinking 'more of the state than the nation'. See 'Cultural Dominance', p 47.
37. For a most recent survey of this battlefield, particularly as it concerns the Black intelligentsia, see R Posnock, 'How it feels to be a problem: Du Bois, Fanon, and the "impossible life" of the black intellectual', Critical Inquiry, 23(2), 1997.
38. For a recent discussion which makes a shrewd distinction between Said's and Bhabha's notions of hybridity, see 'Not a postmodern nomad: Les Terry's conversation with Stuart Hall', Arena, 5, 1995, pp 59-68.
39. H K Bhabha 'Introduction: narrating the nation', in Bhabha, Nation and Narration, London: Routledge, 1990, p 6.
40. H K Bhabha 'Foreword: remembering Fanon', in F Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, London: Pluto Press, 1991 p x.
41. H L Gates, 'Critical Fanonism', Critical Inquiry, 17(3), 1991; N Lazarus 'Disavowing decolonisation: Fanon, nationalism, and the problematic of representation in current theories of colonial discourse', Research in African Literatures, 1993, 24(4), pp 69-98; and C Robinson 'The appropriation of Frantz Fanon', Race and Class, 34, 1993, pp 79-92.
42. H L Gates, 'Critical Fanonism', Critical Inquiry, 17(3), 1991; N Lazarus 'Disavowing decolonisation: Fanon, nationalism, and the problematic of representation in current theories of colonial discourse', Research in African Literatures, 1993, 24(4), pp 69-98; and C Robinson 'The appropriation of Frantz Fanon', Race and Class, 34, 1993, pp 79-92.
43. H L Gates, 'Critical Fanonism', Critical Inquiry, 17(3), 1991; N Lazarus 'Disavowing decolonisation: Fanon, nationalism, and the problematic of representation in current theories of colonial discourse', Research in African Literatures, 1993, 24(4), pp 69-98; and C Robinson 'The appropriation of Frantz Fanon', Race and Class, 34, 1993, pp 79-92.
44. Albert Memmi, 'The impossible life of Frantz Fanon', Massachusetts Review, 14, 1973, pp 9-39.
45. I L Gendzier, Frantz Fanon: A Critical Study, New York: 1973, p 244.
46. Dirlik in 'The postcolonial aura' clearly separates Ahmad from the postcolonial group, a separation for which Ahmad in turn expresses profound gratitude. See The politics of literary postcoloniality'. But for a clear if severe disinheritance of Ahmad see Chakrabarty's review of In Theory, in Cultural Studies.
47. Dirlik in 'The postcolonial aura' clearly separates Ahmad from the postcolonial group, a separation for which Ahmad in turn expresses profound gratitude. See The politics of literary postcoloniality'. But for a clear if severe disinheritance of Ahmad see Chakrabarty's review of In Theory, in Cultural Studies.
48. Dirlik in 'The postcolonial aura' clearly separates Ahmad from the postcolonial group, a separation for which Ahmad in turn expresses profound gratitude. See The politics of literary postcoloniality'. But for a clear if severe disinheritance of Ahmad see Chakrabarty's review of In Theory, in Cultural Studies.
49. Shosat asks: 'When does the postcolonial begin?'. To which Dirlik facetiously but quite penetratingly replies: 'When the postcolonial critic arrives in America'. See 'The postcolonial aura', pp 328-329.
50. A Dirlik, After the Revolution: Waking to Global Capitalism, Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1992, p 99.
51. K-H Chen. 'Not yet the postcolonial era: the (super) nation-state and transnationalism of cultural studies, Cultural Studies, 10(1), 1996, p 43.
52. G Prakash 'Introduction', in Prakash (ed), After Colonialism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, p 5.
53. See for example the collection entitled After Europe: Critical Theory and Post-Colonial Writing (S Slemon & H Tiffin, eds), Sidney: Dangaroo, 1989.
54. For example number one, see B Jeyifo, Oguntoyinbo: modernity and the 'rediscovery' phase of postcolonial literature', Comparative and General Literature, 43, 1995, p 99. For two, see A K Appiah 'Is the post- in postmodernism the post- in postcolonial?', Critical Inquiry, Winter, 1991, p 348.
55. For example number one, see B Jeyifo, Oguntoyinbo: modernity and the 'rediscovery' phase of postcolonial literature', Comparative and General Literature, 43, 1995, p 99. For two, see A K Appiah 'Is the post- in postmodernism the post- in postcolonial?', Critical Inquiry, Winter, 1991, p 348.
56. For a penetrating account of this intellectual drama in India, see P Brantlinger, 'A postindustrial prelude to postcolonialism: John Ruskin, William Morris and Ghandism', Critical Inquiry, 22(3), 1996, pp 466-485.
57. The classic critique of this tradition remains, E Hobsbawn & T Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
58. Blyden dismissed them as 'apes and parasites'. As quoted in L Spitzer, The Creoles of Sierra Leone: Responses to Colonialism, 1870-1945, Madison, WI: Wiser, 1974, p 113.
59. For a useful review of this tradition, see O Dare, '126 years of patchy service', in Dele Giwa (ed), Nigeria: Twenty-five Years On, Lagos: Academy Press, 1985.
60. See K Nkrumah, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, New York, 1965.
61. For an exploration of this issue, see S Howe, 'The interpreter: Basil Davidson as public intellectual', Race and Class, 36(2), 1994, pp 19-44.
62. For an insightful analysis of this phase of cultural recovery, particularly in the hegemonic postcolonial African fiction, see B Jeyifo, 'Determinations of remembering: postcolonial fictional genealogies of colonialism in Africa', Stanford Literature Review, 10(1-2), 1993, pp 99-116.
63. See B Jeyifo, Oguntoyinbo, modernity and the "rediscovery" phase', and 'Wole Soyinka and the tropes of disalienation', in Jeyifo (ed) Art, Dialogue and Outrage, New York: Pantheon, 1993.
64. For an exploration of this contradiction see my 'Literature in the time of tyranny: African writers and the crisis of governance', Third World Quarterly, 17(2) 1996.
65. For samples, see the works of various African scholars such as the late Claude Ake, VY Mudimbe, Hountondji Echeruo, Irele, Okpewho, Jeyifo, Mazrui, Amin, Ajayi, Ekeh, etc.
66. For a recent discussion of this phenomenon, see my 'Closed states and open borders: interrogating the fictions of postcolonial nationhood in Africa', in Black Renaissance, 3, 1997.
67. See W I Robinson, 'Globalisation: nine theses on our epoch', Race and Class, 38(2), 1996, pp 13-33.
68. J Sachs, The limits of convergence'. The Economist 14-20 June, 1997, pp 21-24.
69. The Classic text remains F Fukuyama's triumphalist celebration, The End of History and the Last Man, London: Penguin, 1992.
70. See M Miyoshi, 'A borderless world? From colonialism to transnationalism and the decline of the nation-state', Critical Inquiry, Summer 1992.
71. The recent electoral triumph of the left in France, the phenomenon of 'euroscepticism' in British politics and the remarkable rupture in the Conservative Party that this has engendered, the fierce resistance to transnational regrouping even in the periphery are all instances of the contradictory pull of globalisation towards and away from the nation-state.
72. See MT Berger, "The end of the 'Third World?' ", Third World Quarterly, 15(2), 1994, pp 257-275.
73. See J H Mittleman, 'The globalisation challenge: surviving at the margins', Third World Quarterly, 15(3), 1994, pp 427-441.
74. A Sen, Inequality Re-Examined, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992.
75. There are two major historical approaches that seek to explain the phenomenon of globalisation. The first is the instrumentalist - Weberian approach which sees globalisation as a contingent, multi-centred process which is a response to a deeper but open rationality within the world-system. The second is historical-materialist in inspiration and sees globalisation as the structured but multivalent response of capitalism to a changing world which it transforms while being also simultaneously transformed by the consequences. For a brilliant condensation of the arguments, see P Wilkin, 'New myths for the South: globalisation and the conflict between private power and freedom', Third World Quarterly, 17(2), 1996, pp 227-238.
76. R Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
77. JF Bayart, The State in Africa: the Politics of the Belly, Harlow: Longman, 1993.
78. A Dirlik, 'The postcolonial aura', p 350.