Literary Theory
Series II: Handout #6
Resident Aliens by Das Nuffa Dat: reflects a view of postcolonial criticism as the self-proclaimed voice of the oppressed subaltern peoples of the developing world (though partly influenced by the careerist interests of jet-setting elites with minimal authentic connection to the peoples for whom they claim to speak—especially with regard to the influence of Western capitalism and cultural values). Is a rich subaltern (whose ancestors collaborated with the former colonial power) really a subaltern? Do they have a right to speak for the subaltern with whom they have minimal contact? Crew’s point here has some affinities with the “radical chic” critique of Tom Wolfe: rich people also want the moral high ground (without compromising the basis of their power), so they affiliate themselves with celebrity spokespersons for the oppressed. Bourdieu similarly describes the class politics of taste in Distinction.
Postcolonial Criticism: Gayatri Spivak, Homi Bhabha, and Edward Said are some of the big names; aimed at undermining the universalist claims of Europeans to speak for “human nature”; Europeans and Americans (“white,” Western cultures) tend to look down on other cultures, and to see them as simultaneously worthy of colonization: a combination of exploitation and sanctimonious pseudo-benevolent assistance (Christianization, capitalism, and sham-representative government).
Perhaps we should
review the history of imperialism?
Much of this postcolonial criticism tracks back to Frantz
Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961),
which is mainly about resistance to the French colonial empire (remember too
that Derrida is from Algeria). Similar
books are written about American involvement in Indochina and
For now, perhaps we
should also review—since we’ve covered the colonial condition—the “postcolonial
condition” with reference to American culture (though the racial component is
less applicable here than in the developing world.)