Date: Sat, 15 Apr 1995 18:37:09 -0800
From: jones/bhandari <djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu>
Subject: C.L.R. JAMES/Negri


Now Mr Dumain whether you are disappointed in me, your response was exactly
the  the clarification which I was seeking.  There are only formal
resemblances between James' work and today's post-colonials, from Paul
Gilroy to Homi Bhaba.  

What I tried to do in my post was just show how easy it is for
post-colonial intellectuals to use certain phrases and concepts.  That made
your sides split; I am usually just frustrated.  Even deconstructionists
are now recoiling at the use of some of their concepts, e.g., Gayatri
Spivak wrote a piece sometime ago called "Who Claims Alterity" which is a
discussion of the use of her subaltern and deconstructionist phrases in 
the assimilation of post-colonial immigrants.  Indeed Spivak's piece read
to me a veiled critique of often-featured novelist Bharati Mukherjee, whose
novels I just suggested could also be described with Jamesian themes. 
Spivak seemed concerned that those novels may appear to have  certain
deconstructionist and subalternist themes. 

At any rate, the discussion ahead of seems to be Negri.  Having read
Negri's Revolution Retrieved (the critique of Keynes) and Marx after Marx
(the discussion of the Grundrisse), I would like to say that if one is
looking for a real analysis which can withstand rigorous scrutiny,
Mattick's critique of Keynes and Postone's treatment of the Grundrisse are
far superior.  I know this needs to be backed up.  But I will only  throw
back this question: what is the contribution of Negri's and Guattari's
Communist Like Us?  

Rakesh 







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