Postcolonial Critique Research Articles

Provincializing memory studies (again): Cosmopolitan, multidirectional, transcultural, and fugitive memories

This essay argues for the need of provincializing memory studies concepts of the third phase. Memory studies and postcolonial studies share several characteristics, such as their historical emergence, interdisciplinary foundation, and interest in knowledge production. I suggest that postcolonial critique may further enrich memory studies through Dipesh Chakrabarty’s concept of provincializing Europe, because it may help memory studies to confront a tendency to universalize and naturalize some of its concepts, including cosmopolitan, multidirectional, and transcultural memory. A critical historical analysis of these concepts demonstrates that they are not so much universal, as they produce margins and exclusions. Analyzing Tracey Sankar-Charleau and Jude Charleau’s Trinidad and Tobago Carnival performance Lady Solanaceae Ligahoo, I argue that it is important to move beyond universals to also consider cultural memories’ historical specificity. Otherwise, memory studies may risk neglecting countless fugitive memories on the margins of societies, cultures, and histories.

“This isn’t a place like Iraq or Afghanistan”: coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Middle Eastern other

ABSTRACT The study employs a postcolonial critique of the media coverage during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. By using literature on whiteness and Islamophobia and the need for a postcolonial critique, the author analyzes the hegemonic rhetoric surrounding the Ukrainian refugee crisis in comparison to coverage of violence directed toward brown bodies. The study also juxtaposes a postcolonial critique against vernacular readings of how social media users reacted to the attacks. Thus, the goal is to present trajectories for future studies of whiteness.

Nostalgia, Scapegoating, and Alterity Politics. An analysis of the Albatross Undercutting Zimbabwe’s Leverage of Bilateral Relations with China

The article explores the interplay of nostalgia, scapegoating, and alterity politics within the context of China–Zimbabwe relations. Grounded in postcolonial critique, constructivism, and psychology, the paper grapples with how identities, historical narratives, memory, and the legacy of colonialism shape state behavior and policymaking. Therefore, this study interrogates the contradictions, continuities, and discontinuities surrounding the ideological frameworks, histories, and power structures as they impact Zimbabwe’s postcolonial policy praxis and maneuvers with China. Pursuant, I foreground the agency of domestic political dynamics in shaping the nature, impact, success, or failure thereof, of China–Zimbabwe relations. Overarchingly, the study brings nuance to the broader salience of identity politics in shaping the Global South relations with emerging powers either as a source of leverage or hindrance.

Central Europe: bringing a forgotten realm to Global International Relations

In recent decades, intensive attempts emerged to introduce a new Global International Relations (GIR) research programme related to the post-colonial critique of western dominance and its efforts to overcome the current geopolitics of knowledge. Even though several regional and national approaches have been included in GIR, the integration of semiperipheral IR thinking is only in its early stages. Some of them still remain almost neglected within the GIR context. In response to this challenge, this paper aims to introduce the IR thinking produced in Central Europe (CE) by four semi-peripheral nations – Czechs, Hungarians, Poles and Slovaks – into the GIR framework. It highlights the specifics of the region that should be reflected in GIR as a genuinely global discipline. We address the specific position of Central Europe close to the West but, for various reasons, never fully integrated into its core and the related epistemological uncertainty of how to study regional realities. Simultaneously, we search for those regional CE ideas that would be more generally applicable in the study of international relations and, at the same time, mirror the unique experience of an area with not only close ties to the West in terms of civilisation but also a long tragic history.

Gospel, Liberation and Pluralism in Latin America

Seeing the world through the eyes of the marginalised has been a consistent theme in modern Latin American theology. When Latin American Liberation Theology first emerged, evangelical theologian René Padilla expressed a shared concern over the problem of poverty, but also warned that certain elements therein clashed with evangelical hermeneutics. Consequently, he called for a circular approach that would maintain a tension between the crisis of the moment and the authority of biblical revelation. In the twenty-first century, liberation discourse has expanded into postcolonial critique on indigenous culture and identity, including a stream known as Liberation Pluralism. Evangelicals share many of the same concerns. But as they engage with the discourse, there is an ongoing need to heed Padilla's warning. This article argues that evangelicals today can engage in postcolonial and liberation discourses, but that this should be carried out with that same circular hermeneutic which Padilla first proposed.

(Post-)Colonial Violence: Ripper Street and Moral Injury

The period crime drama Ripper Street (BBC/multiple production partners, 2012–2016) engages in a variety of postcolonial sociocultural critiques. One of these areas of critique includes the moral injury/-ies suffered by Sergeant (later Inspector) Bennet Drake (played by Jerome Flynn), who served in Sudan and Egypt as part of the colonial military before becoming a police officer. Often called upon to engage in what would now be considered police brutality, Drake’s increasingly ambivalent relationship to violence, those who command (or have commanded) him, and the expressions of shame and self-harm he exhibits make him a clear victim of moral injury. This article will explore how Drake is represented, and also how he is representative of returning soldiers, contextualised in both colonial (contemporary to the period in which the series is set) and postcolonial (contemporary to the period in which it was filmed) critique.

Animal’s Gaze in Sinha’s Animal’s People

The article critically studies Indra Sinha's Animal’s People by critiquing Animal, a deformed young man born in the aftermath of the Bhopal disaster. Narrated by Animal himself via tapes transcribed by an Australian journalist, the novel explores themes of animality, identity, and representation. The article draws on a variety of scholarly perspectives, including ecocriticism, postcolonial criticism, posthumanism, and others to uncover the complexities of Animal's character. Drawing on the insights of Julietta Singh, Justin Omar Johnston and Andrew Mahlstedt, among many other scholars, the paper critiques common interpretations of Animal as the voice of the oppressed and offers a new perspective on his character. The paper argues that Animal's voyeuristic gaze is not compatible with typical animal behavior, but rather affirms Animal’s compromised morality as a deformed human being. Despite his efforts to establish his animality, Animal's actions betray macho human tendencies and challenge the idea that he is the appropriate figure to represent animals and ecology at large.

Could reconstructive post-colonial criticism and critical epistemology contribute to forming a more critical doctor in Latin America?

Could reconstructive post-colonial criticism and critical epistemology contribute to forming a more critical doctor in Latin America?

The Rise of Decolonial Image: Postcolonial Reading to Django Unchained Movie by Quentin Tarantino

This paper provides postcolonial analysis of Django Unchained movie which is written and directed by American Film writer Quentin Tarantino in 2012. More specifically, the analysis focused on three primary components: firstly, Quentin Tarantino’s critique for slavery of blacks and racial discrimination, secondly, Orientalized Oriental discourse via postcolonial lens, and thirdly, decolonization discourse which is represented by Django, the protagonist of the movie. Throughout the movie, the viewers can see many scenes of slavery and racial intolerance which reflects many historical facts in the era of American slavery; including how blacks were obliged to work and how they were treated inhumanely. In a similar vein, the viewer can see the spirit of Orientalized Oriental phenomenon through Stephen as one of the major actors of the movie who embodies the phenomenon which supported abusing with blacks although he is a black actor. Quentin Tarantino gives a spectacular role to Django who becomes a symbolic emancipation of blacks and earns his freedom and frees his wife, Broomhilda. Postcolonial critics react against the imperial history of colonization, like the structure of racism as well as colonial power which reshaped itself by Orientalized Oriental discourse. After all, Django Unchained Movie contributes to the discourse of postcolonialism in which Quentin Tarantino reveals some historical facts about African American slavery, and in contrast to many other Film Makers, he gives a good role to non-European hero, Django.

The Politics of Women’s Migration in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy

Purpose: This research explores how women in Lucy migrate from their former location to a new one to overcome trauma and better their lives but instead in their new environment they experience suppression and undergo worse situations than their former place. Methodology: Qualitative research was used to write this paper since it involves textual analysis, so the research design is explanatory and the data is presented in running text. Information of this research paper was gathered from the primary source (Lucy) and secondary sources (Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and Sex Workers in the New Economy, Women who Go and Women Who Stay: Reflections of Family Migration Processes in a Changing World, The Role of Female Migration in Development Towards a Transnational Perspective on Migration: Race, Class, Ethnicity and Nationalism Reconsidered, Women in Movement: Feminism and Social Action, International Migration: The Female Experience and Situation and Role of Migrant Women: Specific Adaptation and Integration Problems). Feminism was deemed a suitable theory on which this research paper could be hitched, in order to show how informal international migration causes underdevelopment in the country of origin and poor standard of living in the new environment. Findings: It is realized that the informal international migration of Kincaid’s protagonist and intra-national migration of other characters in Lucy fail to bear any good fruit, instead Lucy is nostalgic and she becomes wayward in her new environment. The other characters are not also happy in their new environment despite the fact that feminists condemn violence against women perpetuated by patriarchy and sexism in any place in which women find themselves. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and: This research will make people to understand that international migration without the notice of the government of both countries involved is not mostly fruitful. Since there is a reason (fate) for one to originate from a particular country, one needs to grow and work in it. Intra-national migration can be encouraged for those who wish to change environment. This study will also deepen discussion in the field of feminism and post-colonialism. In the theory of feminism this research will help feminists to understand better that women and men are unique, they complement each other. There are some tasks that women cannot do and succeed like men. In Lucy, Lewis is happy in the end after migrating whereas Maria and Lucy are not. As for the theory of post-colonialism, it would help postcolonial critics to dwell more on the present situation in the postcolonial societies rather than the past. Readers of this article will help familiarize it to leaders of the world to make their environments more comfortable for their citizens, so that informal international migration can easily be stopped. Their citizens will greatly contribute in the development of their countries and the emigrants would be at peace at home because it is very difficult for one to be genuinely accepted in a foreign environment.

Cекулярность и религия: реальность или концепт?

The article examines radical rethinking of the correlation between secularity and religion in so-called post-secular period, which has led to the emergence of a variety of concepts based on very different grounds. The article is aimed at searching an answer to the following question: are the common, taken for granted theoretical concepts of secularity and religion can be adequate to the reality they seek to describe, and, if so, how this could be proved? The article examines the concept of “secularity” in the modernity as meta-narrative according to which secularity and religion are seen as opposites where strengthening of one necessarily entails the weakening of the other; the disintegration of this meta-narrative in postcolonial critique and the theory of “multiple secularities”, which has raised doubts about the adequacy of the historical interpretation of secularity as a homogeneous project within the framework of modernization as a global process is studied. The history of the concept “religion” in relation to secularity is reviewed; it is proved that today, due to the infinite variety of empirical manifestations of religiosity (doctrines, symbols, rituals, institutions, etc.), their analytical description is complicated due to the lack of a common conceptual ground. The contradiction between institutional and individual religion, and various theories of new types of religiosity, are considered. The article analyzes the concept of pluralism as one of the research strategies in studying the correlation of secularity and religion; pluralism is seen as the situation when none of the competing worldviews can pose itself as the final arbiter of the available systems of ultimate meanings, which gives individuals and communities the right to freely construct their religious identity. The author pays special attention to Ch. Taylor and R. Bellah’s concepts of secularity and religion. It is concluded that in the crisis of the previous research strategy in the study of secularity and religion, the most adequate is meta-position as an attempt to assess the relationship between the reality being described and theoretical methods of describing it. In addition, meta-position presupposes a fundamental shift of the research focus from the subject as an object to the subject as a researcher and to the specifics of the research process.

East Asian Social Science: State of the Art or Next Big Thing?

The paper offers a cursory overview of the state of social scientific knowledge production in East Asia. Conceptually, East Asia is strongly anchored in Eurocentric premises. These have been questioned not only by postcolonial critics but also by the globalization of social reality that has made them theoretically untenable. Steeped in epistemological conservatism and an empiricism inherited from the Anglophone world, East Asia does not yet seem ready to let go of the delusionary certainty these premises provide and of the short-term gratifications the construction of more of the same awards. Given its position in the world, the region should be poised to become a genuine social scientific innovator. But this presupposes coming to terms with an intellectual legacy that has run its course.

Otherization and Identity Distortion in Dangarembga’s Writing

In spite of the fact that most African novelists, penning stories in English language by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, were graduates of the British colonial missionaries and universities, they had yet been able to escape the suppressive ideology of colonization and become genuine mouthpieces for their native communities’ struggles and adversity. Amongst whom, the Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga rose to the fore as representative of her fellow countrywomen during the British colonization. Henceforth, concomitant with the rise of postcolonial criticism in the literary arena, this paper aims to address the European colonial mechanism of otherization and its impact on the identity construction of the otherized subject in Dangarembga’s novels, Nervous Conditions and The Book of Not. Dangarembga foreshadows the main thematic realm of her semi-autobiographical trilogy, through her first novel’s title which is reminiscent of Frantz Fanon’s preface in the book of The Wretched of the Earth. To unravel the intricate complexities of the colonizer/colonized contact, this study pinpoints the psychological confusion of the protagonist, Tambuzdai, as an exemplar of the colonized Black individual’s distress. To fathom the depth of Tambu’s psyche during those encounters, this paper relies on Elke Boehmer’s attribution of otherization as a Western self-projecting process that seeks to produce self-soothing and “dark mirror-images” of the other. In addition, Du Bois’s analysis of double consciousness seems to account for the protagonist’s identity crisis and self alienation. In conclusion, Dangarembga does not seem as an opponent of cultural exchanges in general or hybridity in particular, but she simply advocates cautious adaption that does not decentre and disregard one’s native-ness and cultural origins.

THE EXPERIENCE OF TRANSFERRING AND OVERCOMING HISTORICAL TRAUMA IN SHORT STORIES: AN EXAMPLE OF JANA EGLE AND DACE VĪGANTE

The article aims to evaluate and characterise the reflection of the transference of historical trauma and the perspective of overcoming it in the short stories of contemporary Latvian women. The article deals with examples of the short stories of Latvian writers Jana Egle and Dace Vīgante, highlighting the impact of historical and psychological conditions and the traumatic consequences of the heroes’ fates. The theoretical and methodological basis of the article is the theoretical studies on postcolonial criticism, cultural memory and trauma, and intergenerational communication issues by Aleida Assman, Dominick LaCapra, Laurie Vickroy, Polly Jones, Gabriele Schwab, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and others. The selected examples of Egle's and Vīgante's stories reflect the inclusion of individual stories in the collective trauma narrative. The chronotope of the historical memory in Egle’s and Vīgante’s prose forms a hard-to-exit labyrinth where the deep subconscious traumas resonate with insuperable conflicts after the Second World War and the unavoidable coincidences of circumstances. The characters have fallen not only into the historical and sociopolitical traps but also into the traps of personal traumas. Both writers highlight the limits of historical memory marked by the intersection of individual and collective memory.

R2P, the Imperial Critique, and Self-Determination: Recovering the Narrative of the Tlaxcaltecas

Abstract Scholars look to early modern canonical texts to understand the philosophical underpinnings of R2P. Meanwhile, critiques argue these origins couch Western imperial intentions. This article complicates the story by returning to a pivotal historical moment – the Spanish encounter with the Aztecs – to explore protective war from an overlooked angle: that of Spain’s indigenous allies, the Tlaxcaltecas. Despite being oppressed by the imperialistic Aztecs, canonical Western texts related to R2P and post-colonial critiques both elide the Tlaxcaltecas’ precarious agency – the rights and duties moulded by endemic structures of violence before, during, and after protective intervention – by problematically embracing simple binaries of European oppressor and indigenous oppressed. Restoring the Tlaxcaltecas to the story complicates tropes about imperial projections of force and the pervasive assumption in R2P discussions of the ‘innocent oppressed’. Our conclusions provide new perspective from which to view future Pillar 3 dilemmas by recognising that the protected sometimes have a bellicose role to play.

Toward an African Critical Orientation

ABSTRACT This essay proposes an African orientation to critical work. We begin by locating the need for postcolonial indigenous African bases for critical interventions in the idea of epistemic freedom articulated by African decolonial thinkers along with the postcolonial critique of Frankfurt School and Chicago circle critical theory. Next, we develop a basis for critical interventions in Bantu cosmology by drawing on Omedi Ochieng’s groundwork thesis and applied sociolinguistics. That basis, we argue, prioritizes relatedness and community wellbeing, and is therefore broader and distinct from the narrow focus on power and domination as they relate to individual subject envisioned in liberalism. We illustrate the heuristic potential of the African critical orientation for critical intercultural and critical rhetorical work by discussing the African Medical and Research Foundation’s (AMREF) Mukogodo community organizational development initiative and the #Rhodesmustfall protests of 2015–2016.

Field Notes: Why We Need Eastern Europe?

These Field Notes map the impact that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had on research in architectural history. We asked scholars already involved with Eastern Europe and Russia how the conflict has affected their approach to the region and to their work. In five responses to this question, these authors identify the need to dismantle conceptual and geopolitical frameworks that have been inherited from the late Soviet period, critically re-read the historiography of Russian avant- garde and constructivist architecture, and confront the question of postcolonial critique in Eastern Europe from a viewpoint in the Global South. Taken together, these notes from the field offer both immediate reactions from scholars to the terrible war in Ukraine and reflections on possible paths for architectural history writing in the aftermath of this shock.

Transnational Chinese literature and Sinopolyphony

Abstract The unprecedented power of China and its cultural expansion are increasing the need to examine its hegemonic impact in the field of literature. The new concept of ‘sinophone’, inspired by postcolonial criticism, reveals vigorous protests against Mainland’s centrality by advocating Chinese Diaspora literature, which has been too long relegated to a peripheral status. This study seeks to reconsider such debates through investigations of historical reasons, ideological issues, and perspectives they have widened. The sinophone literature is thus set up as a creative space, denationalized as well as transnationalized. Denying both the weight of the matrix and the chimerical archipelago, it follows the poetics of relation, the intermixture, and the Open.

A collective inquiry into betweenness: emerging scholars of color navigating the socialization process

PurposeAs emerging scholars of color with transnational backgrounds, we collectively recount our socialization experiences in US higher education institutes. We explore moments of betweenness as catalysts for envisioning a more inclusive academia that operates beyond the tokenism of diversity.Design/methodology/approachEmploying betweener autoethnography (Diversi and Moreira, 2018), we inquire into the sense of impasse encountered by South Korean female emerging scholars in the field of education in becoming an outsider within the academic system.FindingsChronicling our shifts in perspectives of our positionality, we interweave inquiries motivating us to challenge normative pressures and map our betweener experiences onto the Wiedman and DeAngelo’s (2020) socialization model. Through this process, we wedge open in-between spaces in the socialization process that accommodate the nuanced positionality of transnational scholars.Originality/valueIntegrating postcolonial critiques on the Western-centric meritocratic academia, this piece sheds light on the complexity and fluidity of emerging transnational scholars’ socialization processes. The thick, nuanced description deepens the understanding of the complexity of their identity negotiation within the dominant logics of academia. Our inquiries interwoven through betweener autoethnography serve as guidance for mentoring international graduate students and transnational scholars.

Category construction and knowledge production in childhood studies: rethinking ‘left-behind children’ through the case of ‘liushou children’ in China

ABSTRACT Narratives about children whose parents have migrated exhibit a common global trend, with these children and their families being widely pathologised, creating a stereotyped image of this group. Hence, it is timely and necessary to interrogate the category construction of left-behind children and the politics surrounding the knowledge produced. This article explores the global construction and widespread stigmatisation of left-behind children through the lens of a postcolonial critique and criticises the hegemonic notion of childhood promoted primarily by the Global North. It then explores the indigenous category of ‘liushou children’ for left-behind children in China – revealing its cultural expectations and Indigenous construction. Although the pathologisation of such children occurs in both global and indigenous dimensions, the understanding and causation of such pathologisation differs since diverse actors often present different understandings of this phenomenon, which refract different expectations, moral and value judgements, or political motivations. Therefore, this article calls for research on the lives of these children in the context of global economic and social structural shifts and how these are reshaped in local and national dimensions. In so doing, it provides insights into ongoing debates on the politics and ethics of knowledge production in childhood studies.