Postcolonial Cultural Studies: Writing a Zulu Woman Back Into History

Abstract

While postcolonial studies has - for a long time and for good reason - been concerned with critical analysis of literature, field has recently witnessed some change as scholars have increasingly studied literature as well as other cultural products and phenomena. In research and teaching, they have gone predominantly literary focus of postcolonialism, which characterized late-twentiethcentury scholarship, to other cultural realms.1 The present article will explore this trend by outlining theoretical and methodological framework of postcolonial cultural studies and by reflecting on both its benefits and its challenges. In second part, a case study on a South African life narrative shall demonstrate ways in which postcolonial cultural studies can serve as a suitable approach to literary texts and their historical, social, and political contexts.Postcolonial Cultural StudiesDiscussing history and (interdisciplinarity of postcolonialism in his book Interdisciplinary Measures, Graham Huggan comes to conclusion that would probably be true to that status of literature and literary has shifted with move to a culturally oriented analysis.2 Yet, his careful phrasing - would probably be true to say - suggests that he is not quite convinced of this shift in focus; instead, he critically reflects upon this development.In is sometimes now as 'first wave' of postcolonial criticism (the period between roughly mid-1980s and mid-1990s), literary modes of analysis were central, and most of key figures to emerge from this period were trained literary critics.3Huggan's choice of words and passive voice - what is sometimes now seen - imply again that he doubts this classification. He goes on to discuss recent work of 'second wave', by comparison, as a materialistinspired postcolonial criticism that is self-consciously interventionist in its approach to current social and political debates.4 While some critics consider 'second wave' a corrective to these earlier textualist/culturalist tendencies,5 Huggan polemically criticizes it for the lack of anxiety it shows over its own interdisciplinary methods, and unabashedly symptomatic readings it gives of literary and other cultural texts.6 Contrary to metaphors of 'first' and 'second wave', which suggest change and development, Huggan argues that literature continues to be central in he classifies as not-so-new forms of postcolonial analysis.7 His arguments provide appropriate starting point for exploring postcolonial cultural studies. Why has study of literature been so influential in postcolonial studies? Why do scholars go beyond this focus and include other cultural products as well? Which products do they include? What benefit does it have to combine postcolonial and cultural studies? In ways are approaches concerned with issues of (interdisciplinarity?Examining why literature has played a pivotal role in postcolonialism, Ania Loomba argues that literature is an important means of appropriating, inverting or challenging dominant means of representation and colonial ideologies.8 Literature does not simply 'mirror' its historical, social, and political surroundings but is characterized by its aesthetic mediation between reality and imagination. Creating fictional settings, characters, and plot-lines, it can playfully confront dominant sets of knowledge and construct alternative realities. Moreover, polyvalence is one of defining features of literature, which is why texts allow for different, possibly even contradictory, readings. Therefore, literary texts are, as Leela Gandhi argues, more than any other social and political product [... ] most significant instigators and purveyors of colonial power and its double, postcolonial resistance.9 Given that literature has been so important in postcolonialism, it is not surprising that many scholars in this field are trained in or affiliated with literary studies. …