Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 12:38:26 -0500
From: Shekhar Krishnan <shekhar-AT-mindspring.com>
Subject: Re: poco and pomo


Friends --

I think that to argue for the massiveness and pervasiveness of capitalism
(cf Tim Durkin's post) to the extent that we -- little heed to place -- are
all marginalised now by capitalism is to obscure, first of all, the power
relations that inhere in contemporary colonialism or neocolonialism; and
secondly, to obscure the structuring of the international division of
labour that keeps certain elites in whichever country in a position of
socio-economic and cultural supremacy. And these global cosmopolitan elites
are still concentrated in the metropolitan West. We're not all at the same
stage or mode of production, however little certain postmodern and
postcolonial critics like to believe in the omnipotence of capitalism and
bouregois culture-power. There are still structural imbalances that roughly
correspond to place and geography.

There are some problems with my argument here in that it re-introduces a
theory of stages, but it's a knotty theoretical and methodlogical problem.
deC's assertion -- and I'm not so familiar with him, but the line of
argument is familiar -- if taken uncritically, could become
self-fulfilling, and to a large extent it has in much postcolonial studies.


Shekhar

_____

Shekhar Krishnan
1305, Potomac Street, NW
Apt.204
Washington, DC 20007
U.S.A.

Georgetown University
School of Foreign Service
(Culture & Politics Division)
37th & O Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057
U.S.A.




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