Longing for the other or espousing constructed gender? The role of colonial nostalgia in Debrot's Dutch Caribbean Novella

Abstract

Colonial nostalgia figures prominently as a subject of post-colonial literature. Often defined in terms of absorbing, contaminating or retarding the desired liberation process of current or former colonies, colonial nostalgia is rarely viewed in the broader context of post-colonial studies as a positive, constructive intellectual influence. The question remains, however, whether or not the literary depiction of and identification with the colonial mindset is tanta-mount to “writing without a future.” Could not colonial nostalgia, instead, point to a healthy and productive relationship between colonizer and colonized? How does the modern Dutch variant of colonial nostalgia compare with and differ from what is purportedly evident in the literatures of other colonial powers and so often the object of post-colonial criticism? A comparison of Cola Debrot's treatment of colonial nostalgia in his short story Mijn zuster de negerin (My Black Sister) with other, similar literary handlings of the same subject should help shed light on whether or not the Dutch variety of colonial nostalgia is unique or typical in its approach and possible effect. This investigation looks more generally into the special status of the Netherlands as a colonial power that remains attractive to its post-colonial “subjects’ and into how the post-colonial lands remain particularly attractive to the Netherlands. Finally, interesting connections can be made to recent observations about Franz Kafka's European variety of colonial nostalgia.