The Colonial Matrix of Power in Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced

Abstract

This paper examines Akhtar’s Disgraced from the perspective of the colonial matrix of power. The play reminds us that the coloniality of power is a particular form of domination even in the post-racial era. The coloniality is discussed with the ideologies of racism and capitalism along with the concepts of metaphor, white ignorance, and credibility judgment. Ironically, the coloniality in Disgraced is read as a decolonial concept because it illuminates the dark side of colonialism. Amir as a tragic hero, whose hubris is to overcome the limit of racial identity with the class hierarchy of capitalism and to take advantage of white ignorance, engages in open debates by putting everything on the table to reveal power relations and to recognize differences. The intercommunication among the hybrid racial groups is considered as one form of decolonial projects to think differently from the perspective of the periphery, a minority among minorities.