Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 13:43:27 +0200
Subject: location (was Re: Post-postcolonial theory)


Radika:

Is 'Western' in your sense really 'Western' in the sense of encompassing Europe and _then_ the New World?  My impression is that many US trained and based academics start believing that their side of the Atlantic represents the 'West' and all of its charms, with Europe and its intellectual tendencies being something of an bibliographical vineyard, something to stir in for exoticism.

Also, the question of why there are not more Third World academics participating in these discussions is interesting. I don't think it is a question of ignorance and a matter of these people needing to be shown the light, in an evangelical sort of way. Although I don't want to make broad generalisations, my gut feeling is that for many, their absence is chosen, since their perspectives and objectives while writing their colonial and post-colonial history tends to start from modest research into events and situations, rather from the position of grand designs, which are carefully sprinkled with anecdotes to support them. My problem with the latter is that it is is hard to call it history, methodologically speaking.

This goes back to Danny Butt's comment of 'the blokes doing the "keeping it real" posturing'. Personally, I can't see how you can call someone who is saying 'let's get back to the sources' as 
boring. Theory can give us ideas of how to think about the past, but it cannot dictate how the past was.

Samuel 


radhika wrote:

I believe Malini J. asked a similar type qs in an earlier discussion on diasporas and vernaculars etc - and the qs (most probably unintentionally)got "skipped" over.

Why indeed- is the role of this list just one of "networking" among western-located postcolonial intellectuals or access from the rest of the world to a western-located postcolonial Academia (goes to the problem of the "location" of what we call the Internet and who inhabits cyberspace...)

My guess is that a look at the subscribers' list, for example, will reveal most of us have .edu, .ca ,  .au , .ac.uk etc addresses.

   - perhaps we need to talk about this?




__________________________________________
Sent by Sofcom Mail - The world's coolest and safest FREE email service.
http://www.sofcom.com.au


     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---