Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 08:08:34 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Conservative post-colonial studies?


Dear Paul, 

It depends what you mean by conservative and radical. I would assume that
once you talk of nation, people, any group, you end up with some form of
conservativism, tradition, no matter how much you qualify it. You need to
imagine a collectivity to resist something else. So you end up with an
essentialism.

I also would have thought it possible to approach post WW2 decolonization
in terms of liberal free trade, globalization, modernization, in which
postcolonialism is a subsection of a larger development. 

This takes you back to the problem of kinds of imperialism and the
expansion of the West. So you are bound to end up stepping on toes. But
basically Tiffin and Bhabha are right in seeing that once Caliban answers
back he is part of the system. As must be postcolonialism. Indeed from one
standpoint it and all forms of modernization are part of liberal market
capitalism which ideally aims at post-nationalism, multiculturalism, the
free flow of labour and goods. Thatcher used to read Marxism Today, and
the Wall Street Journal can sound very progressive on immigration, etc. 

So your student not only could do postcolonialism but probably is needed.  

Bruce


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