Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 15:45:51 +1000
Subject: Re: the meaning of postcolonial


<color><param>8000,0000,0000</param><FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>From the margins of this field I have some questions about Terry's grad's 
definition of the 'oldhat'.<italic>


<FontFamily><param>Arial</param>> So, I think it's useful to consider *postcolonialism* as a 
></color>condition or as a way of seeing through the framework not 
>necessarily of oppression but of a specific cultural logic whose 
>organizing principle is *postcoloniality* ...<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>


</italic>Here I  find it difficult to sustain the juxtaposition of postcolonialism as 
a condition, and, as a way of seeing through the condition. <italic>


<FontFamily><param>Arial</param>> The *postcolonial* artefact, then, becomes a signifier for those 
>texts which reflect, critique, and comment upon this condition in 
>order to represent (consciously or not) postcolonialism --  <FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>


</italic>To be honest, if you tranpose the words 'artefact' and 'signifer' this 
statement begins to make some sense.


The *postcolonial* signifier, then, becomes an artifact of those texts 
which reflect, critique, and comment upon this condition ...


<italic><color><param>8000,0000,0000</param><FontFamily><param>Arial</param>(and this is where I depart from the idea of

> origins and into multiple beginnings and ongoings).<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>


</italic>I think the distinction between 'origins' and 'beginnings' is interesting and 
could be played with a bit. How  might ' beginnings' be accounted for in 
the face of what is sometimes referred to as life being the experience of 
the 'always already'.



<italic><FontFamily><param>Arial</param>><color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>Postcoloniality and postcolonialism, as far as

> I'm concerned, are frequently taken as ontological states rather 
</color>>than as epistemological constructs,.........</italic>


<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>Why cant the post-colonial be both ontological ( most 'isms' are) and 
epistemological - can they be separated?<italic><FontFamily><param>Arial</param>


<FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>Steve <FontFamily><param>Arial</param>


</italic><color><param>8000,0000,0000</param><FontFamily><param>Times New Roman</param>Date sent:      	Thu, 6 Jul 2000 14:46:42 -0400 ()

From:           	Terry Goldie <<tgoldie-AT-yorku.ca>

To:             	postcolonial list <<postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>

Subject:        	the meaning of postcolonial

Send reply to:  	postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu


<italic><color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param><FontFamily><param>Arial</param>> This comes up every once in a while and those of us who have been in the

> field a long time might find the question more than a bit oldhat. It is

> tempting to say Appiah, Ashcroft, McClintock, Mishra, Slemon, etc. But

> here is a comment from a grad class I taught a few years ago, from 

> Candida Rifkind: 

> 

> I think it may be useful to make a distinction here similar to the one

> between postmodernism and postmodernity and the postmodern (cf. Jameson).

> Yes, I know there are differences between the postmodern and the

> postcolonial but, contra Slemon, I'm going to go ahead and make the

> comparison because it may be one way out of this.

> 

> So, I think it's useful to consider *postcolonialism* as a condition or as

> a way of seeing through the framework not necessarily of oppression but of

> a specific cultural logic whose organizing principle is *postcoloniality*,

> which I think of as an historical periodization and as a theoretical,

> aesthetic, and political ethos. The *postcolonial* artefact, then, becomes

> a signifier for those texts which reflect, critique, and comment upon this

> condition in order to represent (consciously or not) postcolonialism --

> assymetrical power relations fractured through multiple categories of

> difference and differentials (and this is where I depart from the idea of

> origins and into multiple beginnings and ongoings). So it, for me at

> least, has less to do with oppression studies, locations, or individual

> categories like race and class, or even origins, than it does with

> representing a cultural condition which includes resistance as well as

> oppression, movement as well as locations, roots as well as routes,

> subjects as well as nations and empires. 

> 

> I think Christine's point about the tendency to collapse ontology and

> epistemology is important. Postcoloniality and postcolonialism, as far as

> I'm concerned, are frequently taken as ontological states rather than as

> epistemological constructs, whether historical, political, aesthetic, or

> moral. I'm moving towards the idea here that the ontology of the

> postcolonial condition (the way it makes us be) is always identified and

> interpreted through the epistemologies of postcoloniality. 

> 

> 

> Candida is no longer on this list but I asked her permission and she

> agreed to have me post it.

> 

> 

> 

> 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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