The Library
Spectres haunting : postcommunism and postcolonialism
Tools
Lazarus, Neil (2012) Spectres haunting : postcommunism and postcolonialism. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, Vol.48 (No.2). pp. 117-129. doi:10.1080/17449855.2012.658243 ISSN 1744-9855.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2012.658243
Abstract
In this essay, I attempt to take stock of recent suggestions that the literatures and cultures of the former Soviet bloc countries be considered “postcolonial”. I begin by asking what is intended by this suggestion. While it is necessary to recognize that the Russian imperium and the Soviet order that succeeded it were clearly colonial in character, there are some good reasons to wonder whether the assimilation of “post-Soviet” criticism to “the postcolonial” is a good idea. Concerning postcolonial studies itself, I argue that the enterprise has hitherto been animated by a species of third worldism that has retarded understanding of the contemporary world-system; in particular, the postcolonialist idea of “the west” as the super-agent of domination in the modern global order strikes me as being deeply misconceived. On the “post-Soviet” side of the ledger, I worry both about a premature (if understandable) anti-Marxism and a tendency to insist precisely on that narrative of “the west” that postcolonial studies, in its indispensable critique of Eurocentrism, has managed to dislodge.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Postcolonial Writing | ||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||
ISSN: | 1744-9855 | ||||
Official Date: | 2012 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Volume: | Vol.48 | ||||
Number: | No.2 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 117-129 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1080/17449855.2012.658243 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |