Postcolonial Critique Research Articles

La condition des communautés minoritaires dans le roman africain contemporain : une analyse de Gahi ou l’affaire autochtone de Henri Djombo

This study analyses the condition of minorities, especially those of the indigenous (pygmies) in the novel Gahi ou l’affaire autochtone by Henri Djombo. Disenfranchised, oppressed and threatened with extinction, Aboriginal people are seen through the lens of stereotypes based on their sociological, cultural and identity differences. Considered as savages, they are ostracized by the Bantu people who deny them the right to exist. But the destruction of indigenous people leads to the destruction of the forest which is their natural living space. By the survival instinct they don’t allow themselves to be destroyed; they put in place strategies of resistance to keep themselves alive and to save their culture and identity. Based on that application of postcolonial criticism and ecocriticism, the study analyses the modalities of fictionalizing of the condition of this social category. The author calls for humanization of relationship between communities, despite their differences, and for a better consideration of human and environmental concerns.

New Area Studies as an Epistemological Framework: Some Reflections of Knowledge Production and Positionality

New Area Studies can be seen as resulting from the debate in the Area Studies between the need for disciplinarity and the urgency of ethical research practices in the social sciences. As such, it is fertile ground for reflexions on methodology, knowledge production and the construction of epistemic communities that go beyond disciplinary silos. In this paper, I argue that New Area Studies is useful as a lens through which to engage with decolonial and postcolonial critiques of the social sciences and humanities. To present New Area Studies as an epistemological framework, in this theoretical intervention, I first engage with its origins in the field of Area Studies and the critiques aimed at it. Next, I propose that taking such critique seriously involves necessarily a discussion of knowledge production and research practice. Finally, I propose that New Area Studies can be understood as an epistemological framework useful to address contemporary challenges faced by all social sciences, not only Area Studies. This paper weaves together decolonial and feminist approaches to research, to argue for the relevance of New Area Studies scholarship.

Relational integration/assimilation? A critical dialog with postcolonial and mainstream perspectives

Mainstream studies on integration and assimilation, epitomized by scholars like Richard Alba and Nancy Foner, tend to equate the terms, describing them as processes in which migrants lose their ethnic salience and gradually become barely distinguishable from the white majority. Postcolonial critiques, most notably from Willem Schinkel and Adrian Favell, challenge these views labeling them as methodological nationalism that allegedly perpetuates racial biases and reduces migrants’ agency. Ultimately Schinkel calls for deconstruction of the entire field of migration studies, while Favell advocates for separating integration from the logic of nation state. To rebuild a once-failed dialog between these influential but divergent perspectives, this article utilizes Klarenbeek’s relational integration theory, which argues in favor of balancing egalitarian social relations between majorities and minorities over one-directional integration models that assign migrants the role of passive recipients. Using Klarenbeek’s framework, I offer a critical perspective on both the mainstream tendency to problematize migrants and the radical deconstruction of integration suggested by postcolonial theorists. I argue that both mainstream and postcolonial scholars should move away from methodological whiteness, acknowledge the conceptual distinction between assimilation and integration, and incorporate insights from acculturation theories to foster a much-needed egalitarian dialog between their competing approaches.

Imperial Echoes: A Postcolonial Critique of Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier”

This article provides a postcolonial critique of Rupert Brooke’s First World War poem “The Soldier” (1914), revealing the underlying imperialist ideologies embedded in the poem. Written at the beginning of the First World War, the poem epitomises patriotic enthusiasm and glorifies the idea of dying for one’s country. However, from a postcolonial perspective, the poem can be interpreted as a reflection of the colonial mindset that prevailed during Brooke’s time. The assertion that a piece of foreign land could forever be England illustrates the colonial pretensions and cultural superiority inherent in British imperialism. Brooke’s idealisation of England and the depiction of the soldier’s death as a sacrifice under the English heaven serve to morally justify colonial expansion and warfare. This perspective ignores the presence and experiences of the colonised peoples, reducing them to mere backdrops for British heroism. Furthermore, the poet’s emphasis on England’s inherent virtues such as flowers, air and rivers points to a narrative of cultural hegemony. By focusing exclusively on the British soldier’s allegiance to England and glorifying the sense of Englishness, the poem neglects the brutal realities and ethical aspects of colonialism. This study therefore argues that Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier” employs patriotic idealism to glorify Englishness and sacrifice, which, from a postcolonial perspective, legitimizes the imperialist ideologies and cultural hegemony of British colonialism.

Interrogating peace in a violent democracy: a global south critique

This article examines the complex and often conflicting forms of ‘peace’ in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, using a postcolonial critique to challenge the state’s top-down imposition of realist and neoliberal peace models. It begins by interrogating the concept of ‘peace’ in the context of the Brazilian State’s historical racialization and criminalization of favelas. The article develops four key arguments. First, it considers how militarized public security policies in the “War on Drugs” translate into ‘peace as war’ in the favelas. Second, it considers criminal governance as ‘peace as order’. Third, it critiques the Pacifying Police Program (UPP) as part of a neoliberal ‘tourist peace,’ prioritizing the safety of international visitors during significant events in 2014 and 2016. Finally, it highlights non-violent peace processes within the favelas, which aim to achieve a ‘positive peace.’ The article argues that different actors, including organized criminal groups, can produce various forms of peace, raising critical questions about whose peace is being pursued and at what cost.

Decoding the Orientalist Paradigm: A Critical Analysis of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire

In his book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin constructs a fantasyland of Westeros and Essos in which he employs a Eurocentric perspective through Orientalist tropes. This reveals a cultural, educational, and political dichotomy between his fictional Orient and Occident, depicting a more civilised and superior Westland and a more exotic and barbaric Eastland. Throughout the five books, Essos, which stands for Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, is always associated with barbaric and magical rituals, nakedness, slavery, savagery, and exotic and erotic elements, and is therefore depicted as a more dangerous landscape to live in. Westeros which represents Europe on the other hand, is portrayed as more civilised, educated, and chivalric, bestowed with every so-called superior European and Christian value. In this context, this study attempts to interrogate Edward Said’s post-colonial critique of Orientalism to elucidate the manifestations of the Eurocentric paradigm inherent in George R.R. Martin’s world-building techniques within his magnum opus, A Song of Ice and Fire, and to dissect the implications of the Orientalism within the broad spectrum of fantasy literature. To this end, through a close reading of the novels, this article will foreground the contrast between Westeros and Essos, highlighting the central position of Western societies and the otherisation of Eastern cultures by detailing the elements that perpetuate the superiority of the Occident and the inferiority of the Orient in Martin's fictional world.

“When He Comes, He Will Be Like an Englishman”: Space, Spy Fiction, and Englishness in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight

ABSTRACT This paper examines the appropriation of the spy fiction genre in Michael Ondaatje’s Warlight by means of a spatial approach. By adopting and at times subverting spy fiction tropes, Ondaatje’s novel voices a postcolonial critique of British geopolitical power and restrictive conceptualizations of Englishness. Warlight exploits the overlap between postwar and Brexit discourses on the b/ordering of Britain, enabling its critique to pertain to both contexts. The novel adheres to spy fiction depictions of London as a center of geopolitical power but questions the morality of exertions of this power. The Suffolk countryside functions as a means for the novel to address and challenge the notion of Englishness and the spy as its embodiment. The text exposes supposedly quintessential elements of Englishness as constructs and in so doing critiques restrictive views on Englishness and the b/ordering of Britain. Warlight’s focalization on a spy protagonist who feels most at home in Other spaces champions the value of acknowledging and relishing the heterogeneity central to Britain’s make-up.

From Methodological Authoritarianism to Epistemic Realism: Multidisciplinary Research Paradigms and the Post-modern Turn

The 20th century was characterized by a radical paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism. Postmodernism rejected the stances of objectivism, universalism and the construction of meta-narratives that were evident in the modern epoch. Postmodernism re-affirms subjectivism, perspectivism and particularism in knowledge attribution, acquisition and justification. Postmodernism therefore dethrones positivism, radical empiricism and all their objectivistic scientific edifices. Post-modernism has its roots in post-colonialism, de-colonialism and the agitations for racial and gender justice. This academic masterpiece used critical historical analysis, critical hermeneutics, decolonial and postcolonial criticism to situate postmodernism as an emancipatory philosophy of method that safeguards marginalized modes of knowledge in the South from the epistemicide of Western Positivism. The paper analytically illuminated that postmodern epistemological ethos leads to the emergence of post-positivism in the natural sciences and interpretivism in the humanities and social sciences by propagating deconstructionist and emancipatory multi-disciplinary methodologies such as critical discourse analysis, phenomenological interpretation, critical race theory and critical gender theory. This paper further argued that multi-disciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity are inevitable constellations of the eminent emergency of the postmodern epoch. The paper adds to knowledge by painstakingly contending that postmodernism entrenches situated knowledge and multidisciplinary methodologies that are equally valid, reliable, cogent and credible. Keywords: Methodology, Realism, Authoritarianism, Multidisciplinary, Postmodernism

Climate Change and Healthscapes: Toward a Postcolonial Critique for Planetary Well-being

ABSTRACT Climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to human development. Despite recent efforts by organizations like the IPCC to integrate social perspectives, the article contends that a more substantial contribution from social scientists is essential. This article argues for the integration of social scientific perspectives, particularly within the realm of health, to comprehend climate change as both a consequence and a driver of social change and human behavior. It highlights the necessity of acknowledging the interplay between socioeconomic systems, capitalist expansion, and environmental degradation, particularly emphasizing the impact of climate change on health. By reframing climate change as contingent on social phenomena, new avenues for understanding and addressing the issue emerge. The article proposes a shift from a narrow focus on direct health impacts of extreme weather events to a broader consideration of subtler yet equally detrimental effects on health, such as reduced food and water availability, increased infections, mental health concerns, displacement, and migration. Furthermore, it advocates for embracing an expanded conception of health, integrating planetary health principles that underscore the interconnectedness of ecosystems and human well-being. In addition, the article contends that existing frameworks still lack adequate incorporation of postcolonial perspectives, necessitating a deeper examination of historical legacies of conquest and exploitation. By adopting an assemblage model that acknowledges the complex interplay of historical continuums and global inequalities, this article offers a critical appraisal of current interpretations of climate change and health. It emphasizes the imperative of rehabilitating planetary health as a prerequisite for human well-being while acknowledging and addressing the enduring impacts of colonialism and colonial logics of conquest on land, bodies, and histories.

Hybridity in Arabic Science Fiction

This essay tackles the nuances of establishing Arabic science fiction (ASF) within postcolonial literature. It argues that even though postcolonial critics writing about ASF have established the genre’s postcoloniality, they have, nevertheless, noticed that it neither entirely ascribes to postcolonial tropes nor fulfills established postcolonial functions. This essay argues that a deeper understanding of Homi Bhabha’s nuanced exploration of hybridity beyond the often oversimplified explanations answers this dilemma. As Michael Syrotinski explains, Bhabha’s hybridity compromises two interconnected modes: diversity and difference. This essay explains that these two modes are present in ASF’s Arabic term, al-khayal al-‘ilmi, and in the genre’s characteristics. The essay also illustrates the presence of both modes in Talib Imran’s ASF short story, “Ashbah.” Understanding hybridity in ASF not only enhances our understanding of the genre’s postcoloniality but also deepens our appreciation for the diversity of postcolonial literature and its resistance to standardized forms of expressions.

Recovering African contestation and innovation in global politics: Francis Deng and sovereignty-as-responsibility

Abstract Against both liberal narratives and postcolonial critiques, this article argues that sovereignty-as-responsibility – the theory of sovereignty embraced in the responsibility to protect (R2P) – is part of a problem space that emerged with decolonization, rather than the end of the Cold War. The internally displaced person (IDP), the vehicle which Francis Deng used to critique Westphalian sovereignty, had to be theorized against the rise of the postcolonial state. In recovering the questions motivating Deng we find a stark politics driving his work on IDPs and sovereignty. Against the claim that the heart of R2P is armed coercive intervention for humanitarian purposes, Deng used sovereignty-as-responsibility to promote a profoundly political critique of the colonial legacy and the postcolonial state, which was taken up by states of the Global South in debates on the ratification of R2P. Recovering Deng's work on IDPs and sovereignty-as-responsibility highlights R2P as itself a site of contestation, and offers a case for how ideas emerge ‘from below’ in global politics.

Beyond homocolonialism: working towards queer decoloniality in Bangladesh

AbstractThe queer movement in Bangladesh suffered a crisis in 2016 with the murder of two activists, leading to an unwanted hyper-visibility in wider society, and a chilling effect on activism. We detail what it means to think beyond postcolonial critiques of international LGBTQ rights, briefly explaining the realities and limits of queer politics in Bangladesh, focusing on sexual health infrastructures and the emergence of legal citizenship for the “third-gender” hijra population. We argue that these dimensions of queer existence remain circumscribed, and that a public discourse of sexualities remains difficult to create as a terrain for equality. We explore whether the framing of ‘decolonial’ is useful here, conceptualized as a process of working through the postcolonial critique of western structures of financial and sexual frameworks, towards an understanding of crisis that requires reading colonialism in its later evolution in the context of nationalism, neoliberal development, and religious fundamentalism.

Between paternalism and colonialism: Czechs and Slovaks from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century

The study focuses on the postcolonial analysis of the development of mutual Czech-Slovak relations from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century. The core of the analysis are specific literary representations of these mutual relationships based on the textual corpus of Czech and Slovak literature. In the broader public discourse of Central European literature, Czech-Slovak relations are only rarely analysed using postcolonial criticism. In the field of literary science, this is an unexplored area of Czech-Slovak relations. The contribution therefore seeks to complement postcolonial research on the material of Czech and Slovak non-fiction texts, as well as neglected novels. It focuses on the postcolonial analysis of literary representations of mutual Czech-Slovak relations, which developed between paternalism and colonialism in the observed period. The critical reading of these literary representations is based on the description of power relations identifiable through more or less conspicuous features of superiority and subordination, which are relevant to interpret through postcolonial theories. The author of the paper is aware of the specifics and differences of power relations between small cultures in the Central European area compared to the analysis of relations between a large empire and a politically subordinate colonial culture. For this reason, he expands the repertoire of terminology from postcolonial criticism (Homi H. Bhabha and Edward W. Said) and uses not only the basic terms colonialism and Orientalism, but also other terms to define the diverse scale of the power relationship of the Czechs to Slovak culture, e.g. paternalism (to introduce the Czech figure of the elder brother), pre-colonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the savior) and anticolonialism (to introduce the Czech figure of the Slovaks as victims). Using postcolonial terminology, the study approaches specific literary figures that have become part of Czech thinking about Slovak culture. The situation of Slovak culture in the observed period can be interpreted through Kiossev’s metaphor of self-colonization, which reflects the positive reception of the cultural and educational mission of the Czechs in Slovakia. The used corpus of texts from Czech and Slovak literature and its analysis served as a starting point for understanding cultural stereotypes and literary representations of nascent national identities. Czech colonialism developed in the political, cultural and linguistic framework, first as a recognition of Slovakia by Czech slovakophiles, after 1918 it was already part of the discussion in the public space. All these period attitudes of the Czechs towards Slovakia were prescribed in literary texts of a fictional and non-fictional nature and as part of the Czech cultural memory they filled the Czech cultural myth about Slovakia.

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.

Desert Cinema as World Making Medium in Claire Denis’s Beau Travail (1999) and High Life (2018)

Beau Travail (1999) and High Life (2018) may appear as two films that are far too incongruous to be used to compare and contrast the models of post-colonial critique in the work of Claire Denis. However, this essay asserts that both films actively world in their consideration of space as they engage with colonial histories and consider new queer futures in the medium of film. This concept of “worlding” comes through Pheng Cheah’s (2016) construction of the idea of world in temporal terms as normative basis for transformation as made by capitalist forces. By extension, world literature, and I argue world film, both contributes to the process and acts as agent in world-making. It also attends to how the work of such queer world practitioners shares a commonality under-considered across transnational artistic and scholarly spaces: that of troubling and thereby queering, to borrow from Judith Butler (2006 [1990]), the otherwise creatively liberating but often normatively containing of “a world.” Despite the fact that these films were made nearly 20 years apart, these two films offer a frame for Denis’s critique of contemporary neocolonial efforts both terrestrial and beyond. These two films world, albeit in different desert settings; one in the setting of the Global South, documenting the current occupation of spaces in the Global South by the neocolonial power of the Global North, and one that projects that neocolonial power onto citizen subjects (who are launched into outer space).

“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.