Postcolonial Research Articles

The Divine Mandate of Colonialism: Orientalism in Wilkie Collins’s 'The Black Robe'

In postcolonial studies, the missionary is inevitably associated with colonialism. This is explained by the fact that the missionaries’ main task was to spread Christianity by preaching the “blessings of civilisation” and implementing “the white man's burden”. This study adopts Edward W. Said's Orientalist discourse to critique the construct of the representation of indigenous peoples in Wilkie Collins's (1824-1889) The Black Robe (1881). Said's ideas are particularly instrumental in critically analysing the Western (mis)representation of Native Americans as savages who need to be civilised. The Black Robe is a partly epistolary novel revolving around a series of unfortunate events by Lewis Romayne, whose remorse for the accidental murder of a young man haunts him for the rest of his life. This research reveals inconsistencies regarding the author's religious views in the novel. It is argued that while Collins's anti-Catholic sarcasm aims to expose the corruption of religious orders, this attitude does not apply to colonial discourse. Rather, Catholicism is purposefully used as a divisive imperialist tool in the novel, and therefore the missionaries serve as colonial agents who “bless” discriminatory acts of British imperial policy, hence the image of the black robe that represents the colonial legacy consolidating the influence of British imperial power through religion. In The Black Robe, indigenous peoples are described as “bloodthirsty savages” and it is believed that their souls can be saved under the influence of Christianity. This enforcement also represents colonial hegemony, through which American Indians are subjected to social and cultural assimilation. The ideology of white racial supremacy manifests itself in the justification of the colonial missions, which claim that they have legitimate and religious rights over the land and culture of the natives.

Can The Pushed-Back Speak? Tracing Narrative Agency of Enemised and Victimised Migrants in Poland

The pushed-back migrants are the main subjects of the humanitarian crisis on the Belarusian-Polish border; however their presence as public discourse producers are rather scarce. The aim of this research is to trace the narrative agency of these people and explore its link to their emancipation. Drawing on the postcolonial theory, we address the question of how the subaltern(ised) subjects produce their discourse. With the analysis of media content, literature, and artistic materials, we argue that the discourse production of pushed-back migrants in Poland is heavily limited, restricted, and often interrupted, however they manifest agency by manoeuvring victimisation and contesting the enemisation of themselves. Using these results, we conclude that the researcher’s role during this crisis should be a mix of translation and representation of what the pushed-back said and were forbidden to say.

‘Pour constituer une “Bibliothèque de Littérature Nègre”’

Arthur Barnett Spingarn (1878–1971) was a Jewish American lawyer who during the early twentieth century built an extensive personal library of books by authors of African descent. In 1937, Spingarn delivered a speech in Washington, DC entitled ‘Collecting a Library of Negro Literature’, which sought to expand his audience’s understanding of black literature beyond the United States. The following year, Spingarn’s address was published in anonymous French translation by the Haitian literary and political journal La Relève (1932–1939). This article is an enquiry into how this translation, entitled ‘Pour constituer une “Bibliothèque de Littérature Nègre”’, was used by editors Jacques Carméleau Antoine, Jean Fouchard, and Jules Blanchet to feed into the cultural debates taking place in Haiti during the 1930s. I focus on two key aspects of Spingarn’s text: firstly, his vision for a transnational and transhistorical ‘bibliothèque de littérature nègre’, the broad scope of which corresponded to two related, yet ultimately divergent, cultural ideologies prevalent in post-occupation Haiti, namely, the cultural syncretism of the Indigenists and the ethno-nationalism of the Noirists. Secondly, I assess Spingarn’s schema for the individuals involved in building an archive of black literature, revealing parallel ‘bourgeois public literary spheres’ (Stieber, 2020, p. 13) in Haiti and the United States. The inter-American trajectory of Spingarn’s address reveals a transatlantic interest in collecting practices associated with black literature. A close reading of its republication in La Rèleve offers new directions for French postcolonial studies by demonstrating the value of periodicals as literary sites which juxtapose competing cultural visions and raise important questions regarding the collection and commodification of Africana.

THE DIASPORIC LIFE OF PAKISTANI-AMERICAN GIRL IN DUR E AZIZ AMNA’S AMERICAN FEVER

American Fever is a novel that tells the story of a high school girl from Pakistan named Hira who joins a student exchange program for 1 year in America. As a diaspora subject, Hira's arrival to America raises issues related to identity. Hira is seen as a stranger and she also has difficulty to adapt in a new environment with the different culture from Pakistan. Therefore, Bhabha's theory of postcolonialism is applied in this study. This thesis aims to reveal the cultural strategy undertaken by Hira to survive in America by connecting with contextual conditions and to find out the author's views on diaspora issues through the novels she wrote. This thesis is a critical-qualitative study. Primary data are from novels and secondary data are from the internet, books and articles. The results of the analysis of this novel show that as a diaspora subject, Hira experiences a phase of 'unhomeliness' caused by her first arrival to America. Then, to overcome this condition, Hira applies a cultural adjustment known as mimicry. The result of mimicry is that Hira has hybrid identity, as a Pakistani and an American. Amna, as the author of this novel conveyed her idea regarding the issue of diaspora that he experienced in 2008 that diaspora subjects will experience 3 phases namely 'unhomeliness', mimicry, and hybridity when they come to the host country. In conclusion, Bhabha's postcolonial theory is related to the events in American Fever which are the depiction of the author's personal experience as a diaspora subject in the past.

Rightful Recognition of Kurdistan as a Colony and De-colonizing Knowledge Production

In recent years the field of Kurdish Studies has witnessed several workshops and panels on the theme of “decolonizing,” influenced by such conversations in Postcolonial, Black and Indigenous Studies. Interestingly, many of these attempts in academic venues have not engaged with the question of ongoing colonial status of Kurdistan and how this status impacts knowledge production. This paper aims to propose a clear definition of a relationship of coloniality with a focus on colonial violence in the region of Bakur and explain why such terminology is necessary, intellectually and politically. As it explains the limits of the terminology used in academic knowledge production about state violence and Kurdish resistance, it also discusses contemporary alternatives to these dominant academic frameworks. It is argued that a rightful decolonization of knowledge about Kurdistan and freedom movements in the region can take place when we simultaneously recognize ongoing colonization, and acknowledge that it is ultimately the organized anti-colonial movements, which can determine definitions of self-determination, as well as the political means to gain and sustain it.

THE COLONIAL PROJECT OF THE EMPIRE: THE ROMANOV STATE AND ITS JEWISH SUBJECTS

Abstract
 Introduction. The rethinking of the imperial heritage in Ukraine has once again become relevant in light of the current Russian-Ukrainian war. Jewish studies are one of the areas of humanitarian knowledge that this process has embraced. The "Jewish question" formulated by the imperial establishment in the "long XIXth century" is considered as one of the colonial projects of the Russian Empire. The research aim is to present this project in its main characteristics, to compare its development with the context of socio-economic, cultural and political changes in society. An important aspect of the study is also to enlighten changes in historiography, paying attention to the authors who covered the relationship between the imperial authorities and Jewish subjects. The new approach of the study is the proposed methodological, the use of postcolonial theory and subaltern studies in the research of the Jewish population of the Russian Empire. The approach allows to outline the peculiarities of imperial policy in the Ukrainian lands, the south of the empire, and to emphasize the subjectivity of the Jewish population in its relations with the authorities. Conclusions. Nevertheless, it was a colonial project which ideology, practices, and language can be described as orientalist. In the "long XIXth century," two periods have been distinguished within the dialog between the empire and the Jews. For the first period, despite the empire's regional diversity, the assimilation of the Jewish population was declared. The ideological foundation for its practices was the traditional Judeophobia, supported by the Orthodox Church. In the second stage, a democratization of society and the emergence of civil institutions pushed the bureaucracy to a project of emancipation aimed at the Jews of the empire. At the same time, the political stage of nation-building processes in the south of the empire and the spread of modern anti-Semitism were contradictory factors on the path of Jewish emancipation.

Understanding the Disaster Unconscious: The Marichjhapi Massacre Depicting Precarious Lives and Vulnerable Ecologies in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide

The paper situates the massacre of Dalit refugees of Marichjhapi Island (1978-79) in West Bengal, India through a multidisciplinary reading of Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide (2004) along with local history, vernacular literature, reports and experiential narratives. The refugees from East Pakistan/Bangladesh who settled on the island of Marichjhapi at Sundarbans (currently one of the most ecologically endangered places on Earth) were forcefully evicted by the government citing ecological issues. Utilizing a framework that incorporates both ecocriticism and postcolonial theory, this paper reads the vulnerable humans and non-humans, especially the island's unique ecosystem and fauna as victims of anthropocentrism and biopolitics, propelled by ecological and political factors acting together. Taking up from Ghosh’s own interventions on ecological thought and the Sundarbans, the paper further delves into the concept of “the disaster unconscious” in postcolonial literature as suggested by Pallavi Rastogi through a close reading of The Hungry Tide. It describes the co-constitution of precarious lives (both human and non-human) and fragile environments during disaster as what Blanchot would call “outside of temporality” marking the ‘necroeconomy’ of the nation-state, as conceptualized by Achille Mbembe.

(анти)колоніальні стратегії художнього мислення Євгена гребінки В поемІ «богдан»

(анти)колоніальні стратегії художнього мислення Євгена гребінки В поемІ «богдан»

BETWEEN MOTHER FIXATION AND COLONIAL ATTRACTION: DERACINATION, ILL-FATED MIGRATION, AND REDEMPTION IN KEN BUGUL’S THE ABANDONED BAOBAB

The Abandoned Baobab, Ken Bugul’s brutally sincere autofiction, is the prototypal model of African postcolonial, feminist, and psychological narrative built around the post-traumatic stress disorder, self-flagellation, and “excesses” of a speaking female/colonial subject in desperate need of love. The paper analyzes the protagonist’s alienation, identity crises, and ill-starred sojourn in Europe against the backdrop of maternal attachment and absorption of colonial codes. The study is eclectically anchored on Hendrika C. Freud’s reconstruction of the Electra complex and postcolonial theory. Its major finding is that notwithstanding the protagonist’s anguish at maternal abandonment and her subsequent colonial assimilation, she still employs repressed norms and values associated with the mother/the land/Africa to berate (neo-)colonialists, Westerners, and herself. The paper concludes that the protagonist-narrator redeems herself somehow through the willful adoption of the appellation Ken Bugul, the admission of her errors, and the return to the motherland.

From Post-structuralism and Marxism to Postcolonial Cultural Subversion and Political Resistance against the Once-colonized

abstract
 Contemporary political movements such as Marxism and post-Marxism, as well as intellectual and academic movements such as post-structuralism, postmodernism, and psychoanalysis have had a great influence on postcolonial literary criticism. There has been so much debate around the question whether issues of colonial/neocolonial domination and decolonial resistance should be regarded as political or cultural issues or as a combination of both political and cultural sectors (including ethical and psychological points of view) that the terms “political”, “cultural” themselves have appeared to be relative terms–assuming different meanings at different times. This paper will show how such poststructural conflations of the “political” and “cultural” regarding the issues of both domination and resistance can appear as problematic for postcolonial context where the division between the two terms appears so obvious at times that the boundary between them is inescapably erected once again producing ultimately an ambivalence. However, whatever the approach is to colonial/neocolonial dominations, and whatever the mode of resistance is proposed to challenge them, whether it is political or cultural or psychological, radical or liberal, or conflation of them, every discussion ultimately produce a liberal self-criticism at the cost of the once-colonized peoples, states and their cultures.

Introduction: Poetics from the Global South

Postcolonial literary studies has focused on narrative prose. We argue that the field would benefit from expanding this focus to poetics from the Global South. By utilizing the rubric of the Global South, we include decolonial thought from hispanophone and lusophone domains alongside postcolonial thought, often identified with the anglophone academy. Our approach to poetics foregrounds poetry as a literary form pertinent to the project of theorizing global cultural form more broadly. Without proposing a Manichean poetics that would sever the Global South from the Global North, we take a geographically situated approach to poetics, examining how attention to poetry from the Global South might produce knowledge relevant to decolonial and postcolonial critique. Here, we define this special issue’s key terms and scope, provide an overview of current scholarship within postcolonial poetry studies, and offer a brief analysis of M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Discourse on the Logic of Language” in light of our proposed framework of poetics from the Global South.

Mapping identity and place in Yongping Li’s The End of the River

ABSTRACT This article offers to postcolonial literary studies a case study of Borneo grappling with its colonial legacy and cultural identity by exploring the dynamic interplay between place and identity in Yongping Li’s two-volume novel, Da He Jin Tou (The End of the River). Using a theoretical framework rooted in postcolonial geo-humanities, including the concept of place in postcolonialism, Yi-Fu Tuan’s notion of “topophilia”, and Robert Tally’s literary cartography, the article argues that Li’s mapping of Borneo as a dynamic interactive space offers entry into a process of affective identification that transcends national borders and ethnicity. To achieve this, the article first contextualizes Li’s Borneo writing within a postcolonial spatial framework, and then proceeds to analyse the novel, highlighting a meeting between Tuan’s humanistic geography as related to place and affective bond, and Tally’s literary mapping of spatiality to demonstrate Li’s identification with the textured and affectively charged Borneo.

Looking into Walcott’s Homer: Omeros between epic and mock-epic

This essay’s contribution to an already voluminous body of criticism on Derek Walcott’s Omeros (1990) consists in its attention to questions of specifically poetic genre, by which it opens a space in postcolonial studies for the consideration not just of literary forms beyond the novel – the larger aim of this special issue – but also of poetic forms beyond the lyric. Previous critical accounts have discussed the poem’s allusions to Homer at length. This essay builds upon these accounts by arguing for a mock-epic interpretation of these epic signifiers, which by the analogies they establish between Homer’s and the poet’s respective milieux allegorize the postcolonial poet’s alienation from his cultural milieu. This mock-epic inversion turns on the figure of Homer, or more specifically on the ways in which Omeros negotiates the many contradictions his figure entails within a Western cultural framework. The poet’s capacity for Homeric analogies distinguishes him from his subjects, whose frame of reference apparently excludes Homer. But if Homeric epic’s cultural logic is not reproduced by Omeros itself, it is represented in that poem by images of Afro-Caribbean folk-cultural practice which resist Homeric analogy. If these images are “epic”, it is because they center the cultural practice of the St. Lucian people themselves, without reference to the poet’s external position.

Decolonial Processes in Modern Ukrainian Literature through the Disclosure of the Soviet Man Image. City Space as One of the Identity-Forming Factors

A post-colonial approach to literary studies of modern literature, in particular Ukrainian, has gained considerable popularity over the last decade. Clearly, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent attainment of independence have laid the foundation for the development of post-colonial studies in our territory. Injuries inflicted during the long period of colonisation (although not all researchers agree to use this term, noting the absence of a key characteristic of the colony — “a large body of water” is missing) have been understood and reflected both in literature and its researchers. However, currently we are at a stage, when writers are moving beyond the refl ection typical for post-colonial viewpoints, delving into the exploration of logical connections between events and their consequences, examining ways to process these traumas. Therefore, in modern research, the decolonial approach, which emerges as a branch of postcolonial thought, is more relevant. In particular, this is discussed by Agnieszka Matusiak and Tamara Hundorova.Tamara Hundorova identifies a unique form of decolonial aesthetics in Ukrainian literature — aesthesis. This is the manifestation of the unknown, even the opposite of the generally accepted modern concept of “aesthetics” — corporeality, sensuality, and mystical practices. Agnieszka Matusiak observes that modern Ukrainian science and culture have undergone a ‘decolonial turn’ (decolonial-detotalitarian, as she calls this phenomenon, a complete shift in emphasis in discussions about Donbas). Decolonisation is intrinsically linked in Ukrainian realities with de-Sovietization. While at the governmental level, this occurs through changing street names and re-evaluating Soviet political figures, people raised under this system find it challenging to shed an identity formed under vastly different values and conditions. The article aims to showcase the depiction and transformation of the Soviet man in modern Ukrainian literature, illustrating changes that signify a shift towards a decolonial perspective. Also of interest are the aspects of traumatic memory and the identity crisis of characters, invariably linked with the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Invisibility in global health: A case for disturbing bioethical frameworks.

In recent years, the global health community has increasingly reported the problem of 'invisibility': aspects of health and wellbeing, particularly amongst the world's most marginalized and impoverished people, that are systematically overlooked and ignored by people and institutions in relative positions of power. It is unclear how to realistically manage global health invisibility within bioethics and other social science disciplines and move forward. In this letter, we reflect on several case studies of invisibility experienced by people in Brazil, Malaysia, West Africa and other transnational contexts. Highlighting the complex nature of invisibility and its interconnectedness with social, political and economic issues and trends, we argue that while local and targeted interventions might provide relief and comfort locally, they will not be able to solve the underlying causes of invisibility. Building from the shared lessons of case study presentations at an Oxford-Johns Hopkins Global Infectious Disease Ethics Collaborative (GLIDE), we argue that in dealing with an intersectional issue such as invisibility, twenty-first century global health bioethics could pursue a more 'disturbing' framework, challenging the narrow comforting solutions which take as a given the sociomaterial inequalities of the status quo. We highlight that comforting and disturbing bioethical frameworks should not be considered as opposing sides, but as two approaches working in tandem in order to achieve the internationally set global health milestones of providing better health and wellbeing for everyone. Insights from sociology, anthropology, postcolonial studies, history, feminist studies and other styles of critical reasoning have long been disturbing to grand narratives of people and their conditions. To rediscover the ethos of the WHO Alma Ata Declaration-a vision of "health for all by the year 2000"-these thinking tools will be necessary aids in developing cooperation and support beyond the narrow market logic that dominates the landscape of contemporary global health.

“NOT I”: postcolonial reconfigurations of Samuel Beckett

Since the inception of postcolonial studies, literature, as taught around the world, has been critiqued for its neo-empirical drive. In addition to Eurocentric canons, various critical lenses and modes of appraisal have also been revised and altered to better understand and engage with texts. This essay moves away from the Bloomian notion of the literary canon that ends with Samuel Beckett, and instead, it compares and contrasts Beckett’s works in new contexts, with the writings of Salman Rushdie, Upamanyu Chatterjee, and M. Mukundan, who intertextually refer to Beckett in their work. The ensuing discussion brings to light the ubiquitous nature of key Beckettian themes that have inspired writers, especially in a postcolonial scenario, which is permuted by the shifting relations of languages and cultures that shape one’s identity.

Gender and power as negotiated in Bukusu circumcision ceremonies

Recent studies on language and gender that focus on songs and beer drinking sessions within the context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony have shown that language is gendered and that it espouses male gender. Against this backdrop, in this study we aim to denaturalise this view by focussing on conversations within the circumcision ceremony. By using theoretical and methodological principles from critical discourse and conversation analysis in particular, we argue that, by using linguistic strategies, traditional gender roles are not only discursively highlighted but they are also negotiated and even resisted. This study falls within recent discussions in critical discourse analysis that have shown that language masks asymmetrical power relations on the one hand, and within postcolonial studies that have shown that gender discourses can reflect collisions between differing points of views on the other hand. The data used in this study is four audio recordings of conversations that took place alongside the main ceremony. This data has been analysed at the level of content and prosodic organisation to identify discursive practices that reveal the negotiation and contestation of gender roles. The study contributes to recent discussions in critical discourse analysis by exposing gender asymmetries and contestations that lie behind ‘taken-for-granted’ realities, with specific examples from the postcolonial context of the Bukusu circumcision ceremony.

Is Decoloniality a New Turn in Postcolonialism?

Abstract A new orientation appeared in cultural studies at the turn of the twenty-first century. As it centers around the concept, “decoloniality,” it has been called the “decolonial turn” by some scholars. Since the decolonial turn addresses “decoloniality,” one would think it signals a new orientation in postcolonial studies. Proponents of “decoloniality,” however, have denied it as a concept of postcolonialism and even regretted its conflation with postcolonialism and decolonization. This article critically examines major ideas in the decoloniality program in relation to issues of postcolonialism and argues for its placement in the context of postcolonialism so as to enrich postcolonial studies and advance the project of decoloniality.

The phenomenon of identity and the problem of the Other in postcolonial studies

The author of this article analyzes the problem of relationship with the Other, generated by the crisis of identity. The theories of decolonialism and postcolonialism are served as the methodological basis of this study. It is concluded that identity politics is fueled by hidden or repressed group identities seeking public recognition. This is dangerous in escalating violence as identity politics capitalizes on cultural myth and postcolonial trauma. The author of this article argues that overcoming the postcolonial complex is possible by making national identity the dominant identity while maintaining sovereignty and horizontality in the relationship with the former metropolis.

Tracing the Postcolonial Ecocritical Aspects of Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide

This research article examines Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Hungry Tide in the theories of Postcolonialism and Ecocriticism. It provides a new perspective by interrelating postcolonial and ecological issues of indigenous people in the novel. The research article addresses the harsh realities of the protagonist in Sundarbans Island and reflects on the power of colonialization and the degradation of ecological wealth. The research article also traces the postcolonial elements and ecological aspects through various episodes, anecdotes, and experiences narrated in the novel. It focuses on the Sundarbans (Island) and investigates the link between the postcolonial geographies and identities. The research article highlights the problems of indigenous people in the novel. The research examines how the British colonization of India affected the local people and the environment. It mainly examines how the indigenous people play a role in safeguarding their environment. The article also interrelates the aspects of Postcolonial and Ecocriticism to highlight other social issues that the book raises.