Abstract
To be a postcolonial subject is to be an unbidden guest at the table of modernity. Its fruits are spread delectably before one: tech nological prowess, economic development, political freedom. Yet, as one reaches for these, one feels a hint of queasiness, for they evoke the postcolonial double bind: a desire to embrace the modern, but the knowledge that the dialectic of modernity has entailed the subjection of the colonized. What elements of the postcolonial contract entail the continuance of this subjection by other means? Is the postcolonial version of modernity inevitably marked as belated and inauthentic? Doubts about the salubriousness of the meal are compounded by the uncomfortable sense of being unwelcome—superficially, there is good cheer, a slap on the back, but this bonhomie is tinged with suspicion and arrogance. One will eat at this table if one is lucky enough to squeeze in among the habitual diners, but not without misgivings.
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