Postcolonial Analysis Research Articles

Between an Empty Camera and Bare White Feet: Racial Complexity in the Photographic Archive of Ricardo Rangel

Amplified by a feedback loop of nationalist memorialization and international reception, the dominant narrative on Ricardo Rangel’s work reduces the anti-colonial purchase of his images to a simple disclosure of binarized injustice. By reading lesser-known images alongside his more canonical production, I argue that his wider archive in fact shows a gradated engagement with the racial complexities of late-colonial Mozambique and provides a key source of material for a post-colonial analysis of its capital, Lourenço Marques. To wit, Rangel’s images permit both a nuanced reflection on his own intermedial status and a critique of colonialism that goes beyond the sheer fact of native exploitation and marginalization.

Informal Street Vending in Harare

The informal street vendor in Zimbabwe has become a subject of abuse and neglect. The condition of subalternity suffered by blacks under colonial structures has been transferred to the vendor in the postcolonial epoch. The apparatus used by colonial regimes to keep the blacks at the peripheries of the city-scape are the ones now used to keep the vendor in subalternity – a condition where the vendor is a subject robbed of a voice, agency and visibility. In this study we situate the position of the subalternised vendor, showing how an intersection of identities of vulnerability subjugate the vendor to a neglected place at the periphery of economic society. Using sociological and postcolonial analysis we show how the position of the informal vendor in Harare as a subaltern has led policy makers in Zimbabwe to turn a blind eye to their plight and to treat them as a nuisance and as enemies.

Decayed Status of Caste Colonialism Sinkhole in the Novel ‘Pookkzhi’

This research paper on the phenomenon of 'Pookkukhi' is a symbol of the manner in which the violent operational politics of caste ideologies, which have become archetypes in the collective consciousness of the Indian social mind, are manifested through fabrications and the manner in which they operate in the social space. In this way, the study seeks to identify with the colonial dominance of caste that can govern the creator's creative mind. The creation of an author who is influenced by caste colonialism describes a philosophy of creation that does not seek to achieve decolonization. In the social set up, the novel sheds light on the dynamics of caste, which plays an important role, and the rejection of inter-caste marriages and the arrogance of caste slave bodies who dare to do anything to preserve their own caste. In accordance with the temporal and spatial contexts, casteism symbolises the sluggishness in the urban areas and the vitality in the rural areas. In such a caste-based society, the conceptualisation of woman as woman against woman (female characters Sirayi, Velayi) structured throughout the work is indicative of the space for woman in social dialectics. Sexual transgressions reflect the common sense of a patriarchal society where a woman's body is identified as a male object, portrayed as a sexual commodity, and denied her rights. It seeks to identify the multiplicity of colonial power that governs the creator's consciousness by examining the issues of society manifested in the work, caste-colonial dominance, the genocidal social disintegration resulting from slavery, and the triadic colonial power manifestations that question the existence of women. The study is based on the approaches of postcolonial analysis and interpretive analysis.

Why Am I A Woman? Or, Am I? Decolonizing White Feminism and the Latinx Woman Therapist in Academia

From the perspective of decolonial feminism and the coloniality of gender, in Spanglish, I develop an analysis of the Latinx woman as a racial and gender category of modernity/coloniality. My analysis unfolds through a narrative on my experiences as a Colombian immigrant, Spanglish speaker, and family therapist in academia in the United States. I am guided by an ethic of liberation and the central inquiries for decolonial feminists that contest bourgeois, White, and heterosexual feminism’s universal conception of the woman when exploring its European invention and purpose. I discuss modernity’s imposition of gender as a Eurocentric colonial system of oppression, inseparable from race and class. I provide a conceptual framework for my analysis that includes an overview of ethics of liberation; decolonial linguistic considerations responding to Anglo, White feminism in untranslatable Spanglish; discussion on decolonial and postcolonial analysis of the Latinx category; and key concepts of decolonial feminism and the coloniality of gender. I seek to make visible the operations of colonial power implicated in the Eurocentric, racialized, gendered, and classist configuration of the Latinx and the woman, to detach from it, and to consider other possibilities of existence.

The New Calling

The New Calling

POSTCOLONIALITY IN ERWIN CLARKSON GARRET’S THE DYAK CHIEF BALLAD

This research would analyze the postcoloniality of Erwin Clarkson Garret’s The Dyak Chief Ballad. This research using the elements of poetry theory, poetry and history and postcolonial theory. The method of this research using structural approach and postcolonial analysis. This research analyze the elements of poetry, the translation into Bahasa Indonesia, the historical context of the poetry, and postcolonial aspect of the poetry is the elements. The result of this research are the identification of intrinsic elements of this ballad, the translation into Bahasa Indonesia, the historical context of this ballad that related to early first world war, and the representation of the native (the East) by the West.

Postcolonial Analysis of Don DeLillo's Falling Man

Postcolonial Analysis of Don DeLillo's Falling Man

Birth of the Mexican Problem: Oil in Mexico, U.S. Social Sciences, and Transnational Labor, 1917–1920

Abstract Birth of the Mexican Problem is a historian’s version of a postcolonial analysis. I use the narrative history and research materials of one of the earliest think tanks in U.S. history to show how and why Mexico was made legible to U.S. audiences. Not just a response to early twentieth-century Mexican migration, the so-called Mexican problem was also deeply tied to U.S. capitalists’ economic interests in Mexico. I argue for the centrality of ties between big business, academics, and government in constructing ideas about Mexico and Mexican transnational labor. The story begins with an oilman named Edward Doheny.

Promises of a truth machine: deception and power in smart grids in India

ABSTRACT Smartness in smart grids and cities is an assemblage of devices that produce data as truth claims and deploy new modes of governance focused on chal (deception, cunning) and bal (power) with a promise to reduce losses and maximise profits. Building on postcolonial geographies, the paper argues that chal (छल) and bal (बल) are central to understanding the deployment of smart grids in India. Managers use the idea of the practice of chal and bal by political citizen-subjects, and the disorder of governance this causes, to justify the deployment of smart infrastructure. However, the paper shows that smartness can be understood as automation, and deployment from a distance, of chal and bal by a capital-state nexus to counter the chaliya (छलिया) (deceptive/cunning/cheat/trickster) citizen-subjects. Planners and implementers expect data and digitalisation to bring order by (re)training and excluding lower-level workers and consumers. These promise to reduce resource losses, making electricity utilities profitable. Rather than being distinctly corporate or clearly in the domain of the state, smart is situated at the fracture of public and private resources, and political and civil spaces. By developing a postcolonial analysis of smart grids and focusing on the ‘inbetweeners’, electricity utility staff and middle-class citizen-subjects, the paper furthers the understanding of smartness and subalternity of elites.

A Preacher’s Perspective

AbstractThis article presents a critical, postcolonial analysis of the travel accounts of the Dutch church minister Sytze Roorda van Eysinga (1773–1829), who travelled within the East Indies archipelago in the 1820s as ‘visitator’ of the churches and schools in the colony. Which elements are characteristic of the preacher’s perspective? What did he emphasize in his travel texts? How did he represent the indigenous people who had to be Christianized eventually? So far, only little attention has been paid to the preacher’s perspective in general and to the work of Sytze Roorda van Eysinga in particular. First, Roorda’s representation of the tropical landscape is analysed. Then, his ideas about the indigenous people are discussed, mainly using the theoretical framework of the bookMissionary discourses of difference. Negotiating Otherness in the British Empire, 1840–1900by Esme Cleall (2012).

Problematizing “Honour Crimes” within the Canadian Context: A Postcolonial Feminist Analysis of Popular Media and Political Discourses

Honour-based violence has garnered significant attention within Canadian national discourses, especially within popular media and political rhetoric. Frequently conceptualized as a culturally specific form of violence embedded with patriarchal understandings of honour, these crimes have been mobilized within mainstream media to vilify certain ethnic and racial communities, particularly from the Global East. Relying on ethnocentric explanations, honour crimes are imagined as foreign phenomena that have been imported into Canada by immigrant populations who actively resist assimilation and fail to adopt liberal Western values of equality and freedom. This paper seeks to unsettle these very tropes surrounding the “honour crime” label using a postcolonial feminist lens. Drawing on the murder case of Aqsa Parvez, this paper calls into question the discursive strategies used to construct “honour crimes” and the racialized tropes that they perpetuate. Further, this paper examines how this label is mobilized to carry out “political work” and support certain political agendas, which include managing immigrant populations.

Marketing Islamophobia: A Post-Colonial Analysis of the John Updike’s Terrorist (2006)

Many people's opinions of Muslims and Islam have evolved since the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Muslims and Islam have been blamed for helping to breed terrorists. This prediction has thus been included in the literature. The same thing is done by John Updike in his book Terrorist. He has played Jews and Muslims. The disparity between the two identities fuels Western viewers' and Americans' fears about Islam. Updike masterfully alienates his Muslim protagonist from his community by utilising language, narrative style, concepts, and symbols. To analyse the Islamophobic and Orientalist elements in Updike's Terrorist, this study analyses and contrasts the two. American Jews and Muslims from Egypt are two very different populations.

Imperfect Solidarities: Tagore, Gandhi, Du Bois, and the Global Anglophone

Imperfect Solidarities: Tagore, Gandhi, Du Bois, and the Global Anglophone

The problems of the leader, national treason and the readiness of the people to fight for their freedom in the fairy-tales by Ivan Lypa

The relevance of the study is due to the interest in Ivan Lypa’s work, which was awakened by the turbulent dynamics of the national processes of Ukrainian society, the rethinking of Ukrainian history and culture. Despite the intensification of research into the writer’s work, fairy-tale creativity remained within the margins of attention. However, they are of research interest in the context of the problem of ideology in fairy-tale texts, which is considered in the article through the prism of post-colonial studies. The subject of this study is the anti-colonial elements of the “Tales of Freedom” poetics by Ivan Lypa. The methodology of analysis is based on the theoretical foundations of post-colonial criticism, in particular on the ideas of E. Said, G. Ch. Spivak, E. M. Thompson, S. Pavlychko, M. Ryabchuk, T. Gundorova, Ya. Polishchuk, O. Yurchuk, whose ideas help to consider Ivan Lypa’s “Tales of Freedom” as a bank of post-colonial technologies for occupied Ukraine. The purpose of this study is to deconstruct imperial narratives in I. Lypa’s philosophical tales and to identify the technologies and practices for liberating Ukraine from colonial dependence. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that by distancing himself from specific historical eras, the writer transfers the problems of Ukrainian society into a fairy-tale space. This helps him look at Ukrainian prospects completely removed from time but rather from the viewpoint of eternity. In a fairy-tale space, the author solves the long-standing historical problems of Ukraine associated with the loss of independence: the lack of strong leaders, national treason, the unwillingness of the people to fight, the demoralization of society, the disbelief in one’s own strength, education on a false history imposed by the metropolis. Consideration of fairy tales from the point of view of post-colonialism allows us to find veiled allegories and hidden intentions in the author’s work, in which the writer shows how Ukraine should free itself from colonial dependence. An important factor in this, according to Ivan Lypa, is the return of historical memory. The perspective of the study is the post-colonial analysis of Ivan Lypa’s work as an ideological and artistic integrity.

Haunted Empire: Gothic and the Russian Imperial Uncanny by Valeria Sobol

Reviewed by: Haunted Empire: Gothic and the Russian Imperial Uncanny by Valeria Sobol Anna Cavazzoni (bio) Valeria Sobol, Haunted Empire: Gothic and the Russian Imperial Uncanny (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies) (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2020). 198 pp., ill. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-1-5017-50595. Valeria Sobol's book applies a colonial lens to analyze gothic motives in the Russian-language literature of the nineteenth century. While the English gothic has been studied from a postcolonial perspective, Haunted Empire pioneers this approach in the Russian imperial context.1 The book's greatest contribution is its framing of postcolonial analysis in the category of the imperial uncanny that serves a double role. It captures both the complexity of the imperial identity's construction and the anxiety caused by the encounter with the colonized other. Analyzing several literary works from the pre-Romantic and Romantic periods, Sobol reconstructs a certain pattern in narratives about two regions: the Baltics including Finland, and Ukraine. Accordingly, the book is divided into two parts, "The North" and "The South," of three chapters each. Other imperial [End Page 299] regions, such as the Caucasus and Siberia, remain beyond the scope of Sobol's study. The book starts by explicating the meaning of the imperial uncanny using the example of Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. In the provincial town of Taman, the main character Pechorin meets a blind child who answers him only in Ukrainian. Characterized by Sobol as one of the most disturbing scenes in the entire novel, it exemplifies the imperial uncanny as the feeling of instability and the threatening ambiguity of the Russian imperial space. Lermontov employs many elements of the gothic mode to express this anxiety. The gothic and historicism were used together to construct the empire's colonial identity. There was a direct connection between remote time and exotic places as the chronotope of these novels. As English gothic constructed Southern Europe as both a timeless and barbaric place, Russian gothic was eradicating the history of recently annexed lands to justify imperial expansion as a civilizing mission. Accordingly, one of the discourses used by the Russian Empire to justify its expansion was historical. It argued that the annexed territory was inhabited either by people kindred to the Russians, such as the Finns, or by a separated branch of the Russians, as in the case of the Ukrainians. The second discourse was geographical contiguity, which was especially popular in justifying Russia's eastward expansion. The third discourse was the civilizing mission, which was rarely applied to Russia's European acquisitions. The categories of the North and South that divide the book into two parts reflect the mental mapping of the Enlightenment that still dominated the European symbolical geography of the period the same way that West and East structure our political geography today. As Larry Wolff reminded readers in his Inventing Eastern Europe, the South–North nexus dated back to the Renaissance division between the culturally rich South and the barbaric North, which had its origins in Tacitus's Germania. The Enlightenment reversed the cultural poles of the continent by proclaiming the superiority of the North. Subsequently, the locus of historical backwardness and barbarism was associated with the East to produce the familiar opposition of West and East.2 Russia was historically associated with the North, and the gothic novels of the nineteenth century embraced this symbolical geography. The North is essential for the gothic genre focused on medieval [End Page 300] Europe, and Livonian ruins and castles provided a perfect setting for Russian gothic novels. There was also an ideological advantage in exploiting the Livonian past. Associated with German domination, it allowed the Russian conquest to be presented as bringing the light of reason to a place that had been held in medieval darkness by its former overlords. Besides, the local populations were considered as historically linked to the Slavs. The Decembrist writers, such as Nikolai Bestuzhev and Vil'gel'm Kiukhel'beker (Wilhelm Küchelbecker), explored the Livonian theme for their political agenda. Decembrists approved of the series of reforms carried out by the imperial government in the Baltic provinces that emancipated serfs...

Transformation of the Western Gaze: A Postcolonial Analysis of Rudyard Kipling and John Davies’ ‘Kim’

Construction of the Orient by the 'West' in narrative imaginations involves numerous problematic distortions in its depictions. This ‘construction’ follows the view of the Orient through the ‘western gaze’, which establishes and further thrives on binaries and hegemonies between the Occident and the Orient, mainly through the processes of ‘exoticisation’ and ‘othering’. Kipling’s ‘Kim’ and Davies’ adaptation of the book can be seen to employ the ‘western gaze’ in different manners according to their respective affiliations with the colonial and postcolonial periods. This paper seeks to trace the transformation of this western gaze from the colonial to the Postcolonial period; from a book to a film, and explores how it brings about numerous consequences of the colonial period to the modern contemporary world.

Decolonization through Spoken Word Poetry: A Postcolonial Analysis of Emi Mahmoud and Safia Elhillo’s poetry

Hip Hop has been a cultural wave creating and modifying the revolution started in the 1970s by Black people against systemic oppression, and while it manifests itself as a commodified narrativization against racism, sexism and other equally troublesome oppressive ideologies, it becomes a site for change through ethnographic performativity. Spoken Word poets have used this tool to bring marginal narratives to the center and challenge the heteropatriarchal lens, misogynoir and racist practices all around the world. Spoken word poetry has not been researched analytically or theoretically much previously, and even when it was, the research and statistics were limited to the technical aspects of performance. This paper deals with the idea of culture being a site for performance, and simultaneously performance being the action that precedes stereotypes and false representations of marginalized cultures throughout the global north. The spoken word poets use the stage as a liminal space for a multiplicity of cultures to thrive, and challenge the oppressive tools, including that of language, clothing, and voice used by mainstream cultures to oppress the said communities, and normalize their own traditions and morals. The paper reveals the performative tactics used by spoken word poets in order to deinstitutionalize systems of power, and establish a counter narrative of their own as a form of revolution.

Experiencing Religion: Post-Colonial Views for Religious Education

Framed within religious historicism, the present study reviews, through historical and empirical insights, the lessons that Philippine RE can learn from the liberating function of religion and liberated religious undercurrents parallel to institutional religion in the Philippines. The liberating function of religion is often overlooked in post-colonial discourses while religious undercurrent views seem neglected due to pre-occupations with untangling power imbalances submerged in the voices of institutional religion in post-colonial analysis. Hence, in this presentation, I give particular attention to the liberating role of contemporary religion in contrast to the post-colonial thrust to rid institutional religion of power and control and secondly, the liberated religious views of young Filipino audiences from empirical findings I found from my previous studies. For religious undercurrents, I limit myself to current unorthodox religious interpretations of young Filipino audiences departing from conventional assumptions of religion and culture. My analysis of liberating religion and liberated religious views from empirical findings show epistemological shifts from the Christian interpretation in a post-colonial context. These shifts point to de-institutionalized but theocentric religious ideas inspired by moral and communal considerations, which form the basis of RE content.

Cultural Exchange during English-Language Voluntourism (EVT) in Lima, Peru: A Postcolonial Analysis

ABSTRACT In recent years, English-language voluntourism (EVT) has grown in popularity, with many conceptualizing it as a form of cultural exchange between English speaking volunteers and members of a non-English speaking host community. This article explores relationships between and within volunteers and host groups of an EVT program in Lima, Peru. Using a postcolonial analytical framework, we explore how bringing together voluntourists and members of host communities from different socioeconomic backgrounds can reinforce inequality and difference between groups, even when framed as a “cultural exchange.” Presenting the idea of “worlds within worlds,” we argue that EVT, and the diffusion of English as a foreign “world” language, underscore an unequal and postcolonial dynamic between actors and the “worlds” from which they originate, both internationally and intra-nationally. In this way, EVT as cultural exchange creates a microcosm for maintaining wider systemic structures and inequalities.

Hagar and Epistemic Injustice: An Intercultural and Post-colonial Analysis of Genesis 16

Having one's voice heard and being known by one's name are foundational aspects of respect and human dignity. Likewise, being able to contribute to shared understanding is at the core of epistemic justice. This intercultural and post-colonial inquiry of Gen 16 considers the Egyptian Hagar-known by her foreign Semitic name meaning "Fleeing One"-as an example of epistemic injustice. Integrating Miranda Fricker 's work on epistemic injustice, this study espouses the justice of hearing and seeing the marginalised and oppressed, as exemplified by Yhwh. As the Egyptian woman's voice- once ignored-gives testimony within the text to a fuller understanding of God, so also listening to/seeing other contemporary African scholars' voices/writings opens one's ears/eyes to fuller understandings of God today. These voices include the seminal work of David Tuesday Adamo, a vanguard in African biblical hermeneutics, in whose honour this examination is written.