Subject: Fw: Third Spaces and materialist critiques
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 18:16:46 +0100





>This is a rather delayed response (because of work) to Marlene Atleo's two
>postings of 12th September following the circualtion of my essay.
>
>I take Marlene's point from her first posting about the 'splitting effect'
>of socialisation in one language but then being forced to communicate in
>another which either ignores, denigrates or opposes the social traditions
of
>the first. Her use of seeing and knowing seems particularly apt. I'm no
>psychologist, but I can see that this would create a divided identity
>whereby one might mimic -- to use one of Bhabha's expressions -- the
>dominant language and culture and reserve one's 'mother tounge' for
>family interactions, or perhaps as a way of preserving a positive
>self-conception in the face of disparagement and/or racism.
>          What bothers me about Bhabha, is that he takes this negotiation
>and cuts it loose from the social conditions which created it. Having done
>so, he proceeds to speculate that this 'spit' is not a division forced by
>appaling social persecution, but an empowering opening of a doorway into
>another place/space: the the "interstitial" or the "in-between". This
>transcendental move denies the oppressive conditions which created the
>'split' in the first place. What is 'play' in this imaginary realm but
>escapism or psychological opium. Surely such withdrawal presages political
>and cultural surrender? Accomodation of the worst sort.
>          Yet this is not how Bhabha conceives of this strategy; for him
>this new 'place' is inherently critical of the very social conditions and
>cultural aggession which provoked the psychological defence of the 'split'
>in the first place. The why and how this should be so is, of course, not
>explained. Writing from a materialist perspective, Bhabha seems to overlook
>that the power of western metaphysics which provides the intellectual
>justification for colonialsm did not precede colonialism, but were formed
>and adapted in response to material economic and social conditions which
led
>to the global expansion and expoitation that was (and is) imperialism. His
>own metaphysics of the in-between reproduces the very chicken and egg
>relationship Marlene suggests Marx overlooks in his conception of culture:
>Bhabha seeks the metaphysical justisfication before the social praxis. In
>short, reification. The problem can be illustrated by his idea of
'mimicry'.
>To mimic the
>outward form may discomfort the coloniser, but it does nothing to address
>the material conditions (economic exploitation, military force) which
>provides his/her real power.
>          I doubt that recognising a common framework of negotiation would
>release any real impetus for material change of itslef. Only if it had
>potential to
>effect material change would such a framewok have any political force. In
>Bhabha's  formulation, it merely remains a very sophisticated form of
>escapism.
>
>     "Having produced the category 'mystery' out of the real world, he
>produces
>      the real world out of that category"
>                -- Marx and Engels, 'Holy Family'
>
>Lawrence Phillips
>University of Sussex
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Marlene R. Atleo <maratleo-AT-island.net>
>To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
><postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>Date: Saturday, September 12, 1998 4:50 PM
>Subject: Re: Third Spaces and materialist critiques
>
>
>>I hope everyone has gotten Lawrence's essay by now and read it.
>>My reactions to the essay are on several different levels:
>>One of the biggest problems in post colonial discussions I think is the
>>need to bring others into the frame or the "most rational frame" in which
>>to analyze what ever when if they were of the samae "rationality' they
>>would most likely be in that frame, ideology, theory, whaterver already.
>>Marx doesn't recognize culture as such but only as a residual of all of
the
>>other materialist articulations of history...I would suggest that there
are
>>many "spaces" and many "times"..Young's critique that LP uses as evidence
>>i.e., "driven from one conceptual scheme to another" suggests to me that
>>the over arching frame is not acknowledged...Lefebvre's "subtle
>>reformulation" of Marx's original observation of what might be called the
>>dialectical relationship between culture and the material base" does not
>>take into account the chicken/egg aspect of culture.
>>Lefebvre talks about the political organization of space expressing social
>>relationships and reacting back on them.  It seems to me that there would
>>be a need to go beyond the materialist base into the metaphysical which is
>>what I think is possibly so disturbing about Bhabha's position is that
>>there are millions who "live so lightly on the land" with abstract
>>resources that they can distance themselves from the ravages of
materialist
>>bases living in the "play" of abstract space.  I suggest that for many
>>though the "play" of abstract space may be the only place where they
>>live...a simulactum with no "real" engagement but a parallelism that
>>"others" eachother with neither wanting to move into the "third space"
>>because the framework has not been agreed on for negotiation.  The very
>>idea of needing to reveal the contraditions of space suggest that one
>>cannot live with paradox but needs to resolve them.  Perhaps Orientalists
>>can live with paradox without the need to resolve them.  I think we need
to
>>be able to understand the potential of the "third space" by understanding
>>the contraditions of the other two spaces.  Memmi I believe, speaks to
this
>>in the colonizer/colnonized.  For example when LP uses "bourgeous private
>>life" (Lefebvre) to illustrate Jameson's '.."spacial peculiarities" and
>>ideological frames and practices." is he not concretizing (filling in the
>>space/lower levels of analysis) of the abstraction of another?  I think
>>that the developmental "spaces" that the colonizer and the colonized.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>
>



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