Nation After World: Rethinking “The End of Postcolonial Theory”

Abstract

This article explores anxieties about the status of the “postcolonial” and the rise of the “global,” “world,” and “transnational” as vogue categories of analysis and identification in scholarly discourse. Contrary to concerns that postcolonial studies/theory has become outmoded in the twenty-first century, eclipsed by the flows of neoliberal globalization, the worldwide resurgence of populist nationalist movements in recent years suggests otherwise. Focusing on developments in the Global North in particular, the article argues that the nation remains a potent category for reclamations of cultural, economic, and political sovereignty, often in ways that belie the avowed liberal and secular ideals of these countries. Such reactionary movements, fuelled by feelings of ressentiment, reveal not only the endurance of national imaginings in our current moment, but also the continuing relevance of postcolonial studies as a body of knowledge and political imperative for justice.