Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 11:22:43 -0400 ()
From: Terry Goldie <tgoldie-AT-YorkU.CA>
Subject: Re: The trouble with nations WAS Re: Is the US postcolonial


On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, Nestor Miguel Gorojovsky wrote:
.  It was in this sense that I said that there was no chance to 
> imagine the US or Australia post-colonial.  These countries enjoyed 
> greater independence when still colonies than many formally 
> independent post-colonial countries now.  It may be a matter of 
> discussion whether this applies to peoples subject to the general rule 
   of  the colonists (the settlers and their State, I mean) or not may be  
  discussed.

 I'm sorry, but this assumption of "greater independence" precluding the
postcolonial label just doesn't work. What constitutes "greater?" It still
seems to me that some people simply do not want to award this privileged
status of "postcolonial" to a country which has an appearance of white
hegemony and oppressed indigenous peoples. But that does not make the
country "not postcolonial," in other words, not suitable for postcolonial 
analysis. I know I am repeating myself but there is a useful misnomer
which is "postcolonial literatures," which is basically the old British
Commonwealth, Latin America, etc. Beyond that postcolonial studies is a
way of seeing, which looks at culture through the various tangents of
colonization and its aftermath.

Terry

Terry Goldie
English Department
York University
North York, Ontario
Canada
M3J 1P3
voice: 416-604-3670
fax: 416-736-5412
email: tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca



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