I have a research study about postcolonial architecture in vietnam and i’m using homi bhabha’s theoretical framework of hybridity and third spaces, but I’m a bit stuck to how i could find an angle on it to have a meaningful research thesis. It is very interesting to see how the traditionally vietnamese architecture has incorporated some elements of french colonial architecture and how this has created a new blend of building styles, but i feel like that would be more of an observation and analysis of how this came to be. I dont live in vietnam, in fact i haven’t been there in a decade…. I am wondering if there are any relevant and pressing questions about cultural identity in the built environment or if there are any angles i haven’t looked at yet. do you have any ideas as to what direction my research could go into im a bit stuck…

I'm currently reading Ben okri book "the famished road" as my assignment,and i need to proof that it's a decolonial novel, i got this idea from his interview with the booker prize interview where he states that the past two novel that he published follows a western narrative and this one follows what he perceives to be as a Nigerian narrative where time moves diffrent..I know that this is a postcolonial sub reddit but i just need some help and what kind of perspective can I use in my assignment

I'm completely new to post-colonialism theory. I have a question which is 'what does Said mean when he present Flaubert as an example in chapter 2. Should I read any further to get his meaning? Sorry for my incorrect grammar, because I'm not native english/us.

Hi all. I recently came across Cedric Robinson's "The Appropriation of Frantz Fanon", and I'm quite intrigued by it, especially as someone who has read (excerpts of) Black Skin, White Masks and Wretched of the Earth. In particular, I'm struck by Robinson's claim that several postcolonial scholars (e.g. Gates, Spivak) utilize Fanon as a text or ornamentation as opposed to engaging with his class analysis and revolutionary-oriented theory. In contrast, Robinson says Benita Parry and Edward Said tend to uphold the latter and treat Fanon as more than a text. I'm wondering what you all think of this.

Furthermore, and a bit of a tangent, because Fanon is a psychiatrist, Robinson charts how Fanon deviates from psychoanalytical takes on the colonial condition towards a class lens. Given that, I'm wondering what you all think of incorporating psychoanalysts like Lacan in your own analyses of postcolonialism and culture more broadly.

Hey guys, a german left youtube channel has published a nice critique of postcolonial theory, which I wanted to share with you: [ENG] 10 critiques of Postcolonial Theory w/ Michael Kuhn (youtube.com)

Hi everyone, I am teaching a seminar on literary and cultural theory and I'm struggling to fin good and relatively easy (first year students) readings for my students. It would be ideal to have one short literary text like a short story or excerpt in combination with a theoretical text about e.g. hybridity that can "easily" be applied for analysis.. really looking forward to your input!! Thanks a lot in advance!

Dear all, what are your toughts about the eternal feminine posed by simone de beauvoir?

I have to develop a series of workshops based on soft skills for the economic empowerment of rural women in the area where I work. Until now I've maily read about ecofeminism, but I'm finding it really difficult to move from the academic/theorical world to the real empirical everyday life. Obviously I want the workshops to be decolonial and critical of the main economic/development narratives.

Does anybody have some case studies or literature recommendations on postcolonial or postdevelopment women's organisations who have worked to improve/change their livelihoods?

Right now, I only know The Lace Makers of Narsapur by Maria Mies, and philosophies such as Buen Vivir, eco-swaraj...

Hey, I have to write a seminar paper on nationalism and want to incorporate some left theories and concepts including Post Colonialism. Questions that interest me are:

-Are nations artificial or natural? -Should people organize around national lines or not? -Is it an instrument of the Bourgeoisie/State or a way to unite oppressed people against the ruling/colonial class?.. -Even though some nations can be seen as artificial and maybe even as an instrument of the ruling class, does it make sense for liberation movements to call themselves ‘national’ etc?

I greatly appreciate any recommendation and advice!

The Lion and the Lily: The Rise and Fall Of Awadh by Ira Mukhoty

Filming Fiction: Tagore, Premchand, and Ray

Desperately need them for a project (research paper), but can't find them anywhere :(( Would be super grateful for a pdf or anything else I could use!

Hello everyone!

I wrote a little piece on some of the problems with the postcolonial framework - primarily my critique rests on the problem that even while, to some extent, the mission of postcolonialism is realizing the value of native histories in a non-Eurocentric light, it often subverts its own mission exactly by hanging on to categories such as "Eastern" and "Western" - and even projects it back in time, which is really rather anachronistic (are ancient Greeks markedly 'Western' by comparison to Alexandrian Jews, or Nestorian Arabs? Are ancient Assyrians markedly "Eastern" by comparison to Carthaginians? I don't think so.)

https://magnusarvid.substack.com/p/religion-and-the-critical-divide

What do you think? Is there a place for a 'double-critique', so to speak? Have you ever heard this type of argument before?

Hello! I am currently struggling to find a good Subaltern Studies materials. Are there any recommendations from you guys? 😭 I really want to read more about Spivak’s works but I also need secondary materials for that. Thank you so much in advance!

Hello,

I am writing a thesis for my BA in literary studies and have focused my topic around post-colonialism in Ireland. I have already considered and reflected on the contextually-specific writings of Joe Cleary, Claire Connolly and W.J. McCormack (to name a few).

For my last chapter I am trying to argue why a post-colonial approach to literature differs from the normative and dominant approach that New Criticism or Post-structuralism implies. I am doubting which theorist to use in order to substantiate my claims.

Edward Saïd would be the obvious choice and would provide me with a baseline overview of postcolonial theory’s approach. It could be useful to state him as the founder of this movement and so providing an overview of its spirited origins.

It just feels overdone and unoriginal because most postcolonial discourse refers to his groundbreaking work. Am I overthinking it? Would it be most relevant and useful to use his descriptions of empirical hegemony in literature? Or would you suggest using a more contemporary or modern theorist?

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

i am especially talking about hegel and kant but you can do it with all other influential but racist and eurocentric ones.

i have a bit of a background about each of them as a philosophy under/graduate.

like, talking to some of those scholars, it seems to me that everyone is trying to extract that bit where the racism doesnt really apply anymore.

• its either looking into alternative works of those philosophers.

• or trying to reformulate by saying their works can be used against themselves.

• or trying to pour in some axioms that say stuff like author & works are unrelated, the not so racist part being someone else talking and not themselves.

• etc.

can you give an updated opinion on how the academic landscape is dealing with this matter? is there even a rescue for these philosophers' philosophies?

my personal view is that i rather spend and waste my time in exploring alternative philosophers (female ones or someone like spinoza or even very niche ones of the past) or even geographically different ones like african (ubuntu) philosophy or indigenous, filipino philosophy etc.

(i need to clarify, its not just "white" scholars but i think predominantly white ones or just those with a white upbringing.)

Hello! Since Fanon based his anti-colonial work on the colonization of Africa, especially with reference to Algeria, his critique is of European classic colonialism, the administrative kind. But I'm wondering, are there anticolonial thinkers who have written on the subject but from the position of settler colonialism?

Has Dipesh Chakrabarty responded anything to Chibber's critique of his work? I know Spivak and Chatterjee respond but do not see anything from Chakrabarty himself.

Dear friends, I have a question. Does anyone know if there are any sensible studies of the social sources of colonialism? Is it even possible to talk about something like this? Given that in the societies of the colonisers there were sometimes philosophical movements designed to justify colonialism, is there any research on the societies of the colonising powers? Or is there anyone who could tell me about it? Maybe I'm wrong, but from my perspective, this is a kind of a blank spot in postcolonial studies at the moment, and I would like to know if anyone has done any research on this at all.

I am writing a paper in art history and need help with some readings from postcolonial theory.
I am looking into the subject of globalization and a shared global art world from a postcolonial point of view. My starting point is the fracturing of the international stage into a pluralist space today with many key persons, where it is common now to account for a new “post-nation” internationalism in the art world. In my paper I am mostly trying to identify examples of art activities from earlier decades to demonstrate how "internationalism" in art is not a novel thing attributable to this century; a lot of art activism and activism in general from the 1980s led to the devaluation of art exhibitions produced from a strictly national perspective, but even before that there was a slow process fermenting.
Right now I am looking for a very specific subject that I am sure must've been addressed in postcolonial theory. It is the notion of "the arrival of the nation state." I am interested in readings that might highlight some productive views of the nation, addressing

• how the postcolonial "nation" itself might have stood as a polemic to earlier Eurocentric order through its process of decolonisation, but taking into account moments from after independence and its status as a sovereign entity
• how the status of the postcolonial nation arriving into the international stage of independent nations also promoted a kind of "arriving at the present"
• where this "arriving at the present" was not just for postcolonial nation states, but also for the rest of the nation states (colonizers included) in the globe. I'm seeing it as a sort of how even former colonial powers through their status as nations are kind of following the postcolonial nation, as every nation state "enters" the "present" (the post war period, or late 40s onwards)
• and how this idea of the postcolonial nation state-led "arrival" is kind of at the centre of today's idea of a plural international platform that is pretty much "post national"

I am pretty sure these are some very basic intro things addressed by the discourse, but since I do not specialize in postcolonial theory and know of its debates only from my art history related readings, I really need to be nudged towards specific readings.
Please suggest books (or specific chapters, even better) that address this area!

What do you guys think?

Greetings everyone,

I wish to write about post-colonial literature in comics. So far a couple names came to mind (Hugo Pratt's Corto Maltese, most of Sergio Toppi's production), but I know I could do far better with international titles: I'm looking for original works which have been conceived for a comic book format, not adaptations (Transmediality is cool, yet I feel it would drive me too far off my topic).

Thus, my search goes for authors coming from the UK, Eire, former British colonies and Commonwealth Countries, just because that's where the focus of my work is.

Do you have any suggestions? Thanks,

Maria

Hey everyone! I am trying to find Arun Mukherjee's article "Whose Post-Colonialism and Whose Postmodernism?", but it's not available through my library nor can I find it online. Does anyone here have a PDF copy that they can share? I would be very thankful.