Retroactive Categorizations, or Post-Coloniality as Condition

Abstract

The rise of the post-colonial and de-colonial narrative that is being experienced nowadays in post-Soviet countries stands in contrast with the rejection of this narrative by the Russian academic and sociocultural mainstream. The paper analyzes the opportunities and constrains of the “post-colonialism” conceptual framework. As well, the arguments of researchers who were skeptical about this framework are reconstructed. The author separates “post-colonialism” as a research strategy and “de-colonialism” (“de-colonial thought”) as a form of activism. According to the author, the paradigm of post-colonial studies, despite its inherent theoretical shortcomings, contains a serious analytical potential, while de-colonialism is an internally contradictory ideological program. In addition, the article makes a distinction between post-colonialism as a situation and post-colonialism as a reflection on this situation. Post-coloniality is possible without colonialism. It denotes the comprehension and rethinking of a certain historical experience, regardless of whether the past condition qualifies as colonial.