Timothy Fitzgerald
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195300093
- eISBN:
- 9780199868636
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300093.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, ...
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This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro‐American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralized category of religions and world religions. For centuries the English word Religion meant Christian Truth, and it stood in opposition to superstition, paganism, and falsehood. As such Religion encompassed not only individual salvation but also, and of equal importance, what we today refer to as the secular, the state, politics, economics, law, and science. Until the second half of the seventeenth century there was no powerful discourse on the nonreligious. Indeed, terms such as politics and economics were newly coined in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the term secular had a profoundly different nuance, for example, referring to the priesthood. Furthermore, the discourse on Religion as Christian Truth in contrast to superstition and paganism overlapped significantly with discourses on “our” civility, as opposed to “their” barbarity, and thus functioned as an expression of the superiority of the Christian male elite. Current uncritical practices of historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and religionists in their projection of modern Anglophone categories such as “religion,” “politics,” and “economics” as though they are eternal features of all human experience and social organisation indirectly and usually unconsciously serve the interests of the modern state under the guise of secular objectivity.Less
This book analyzes the development of different meanings of the term “religion” in different contexts and in relation to other categories with shifting and unstable nuances such as the state, politics, economics, and the secular. It traces a major transformation of the category as a function of Euro‐American colonialism and capitalism from its traditional meaning of Christian Truth to the modern generic and pluralized category of religions and world religions. For centuries the English word Religion meant Christian Truth, and it stood in opposition to superstition, paganism, and falsehood. As such Religion encompassed not only individual salvation but also, and of equal importance, what we today refer to as the secular, the state, politics, economics, law, and science. Until the second half of the seventeenth century there was no powerful discourse on the nonreligious. Indeed, terms such as politics and economics were newly coined in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the term secular had a profoundly different nuance, for example, referring to the priesthood. Furthermore, the discourse on Religion as Christian Truth in contrast to superstition and paganism overlapped significantly with discourses on “our” civility, as opposed to “their” barbarity, and thus functioned as an expression of the superiority of the Christian male elite. Current uncritical practices of historians, political scientists, anthropologists, and religionists in their projection of modern Anglophone categories such as “religion,” “politics,” and “economics” as though they are eternal features of all human experience and social organisation indirectly and usually unconsciously serve the interests of the modern state under the guise of secular objectivity.
Diana Jeater
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203797
- eISBN:
- 9780191675980
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203797.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This book studies African marriage relationships in Southern Rhodesia during the early 20th century. It is a cogently argued history of sexuality and gender relations in colonial Africa. This book's ...
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This book studies African marriage relationships in Southern Rhodesia during the early 20th century. It is a cogently argued history of sexuality and gender relations in colonial Africa. This book's analysis pays careful attention to methodological questions and fruitfully combines historical and anthropological approaches. This book examines the marriage relationship and the regulation of sexuality in terms of both the political and the production systems, and offers insights into the nature of gender relationships before and during the colonial period. The book analyses colonial ideology, its contradictions and its effects on the people of Southern Rhodesia, and explores the interactions between black and white, male and female.Less
This book studies African marriage relationships in Southern Rhodesia during the early 20th century. It is a cogently argued history of sexuality and gender relations in colonial Africa. This book's analysis pays careful attention to methodological questions and fruitfully combines historical and anthropological approaches. This book examines the marriage relationship and the regulation of sexuality in terms of both the political and the production systems, and offers insights into the nature of gender relationships before and during the colonial period. The book analyses colonial ideology, its contradictions and its effects on the people of Southern Rhodesia, and explores the interactions between black and white, male and female.
Keith E. McNeal
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813037363
- eISBN:
- 9780813042121
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813037363.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Latin American Studies
The central question in this chapter is why each of the study's focal traditions has experienced such different political fates in the postcolonial era: Afrocentric embracing of Shango versus an ...
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The central question in this chapter is why each of the study's focal traditions has experienced such different political fates in the postcolonial era: Afrocentric embracing of Shango versus an Indocentric blind eye toward Shakti Puja? If they are convergent in so many respects at the grassroots level, then why have these vernacular ritual traditions become so divergently politicized in the postcolonial era? The chapter accounts for this divergence in terms of differing colonial ideologies of racial subordination regarding Africans versus Indians in the articulation of hierarchy and religion in the southern Caribbean, as well as their reiterative effects within the field of postcolonial multicultural politics that emerged in the time-released wake of decolonization. Indeed, colonial ideologies of racial subordination continue to cast their spell across the terrain of religious and cultural politics in Trinidad and Tobago, despite the aims of activists on both sides to contest colonial ideology and overturn the colonization of spiritual consciousness inherited from the past. The analysis proceeds with an understanding of diasporas as alternative counter-nationalisms, and as resources for emergent postcolonialisms.Less
The central question in this chapter is why each of the study's focal traditions has experienced such different political fates in the postcolonial era: Afrocentric embracing of Shango versus an Indocentric blind eye toward Shakti Puja? If they are convergent in so many respects at the grassroots level, then why have these vernacular ritual traditions become so divergently politicized in the postcolonial era? The chapter accounts for this divergence in terms of differing colonial ideologies of racial subordination regarding Africans versus Indians in the articulation of hierarchy and religion in the southern Caribbean, as well as their reiterative effects within the field of postcolonial multicultural politics that emerged in the time-released wake of decolonization. Indeed, colonial ideologies of racial subordination continue to cast their spell across the terrain of religious and cultural politics in Trinidad and Tobago, despite the aims of activists on both sides to contest colonial ideology and overturn the colonization of spiritual consciousness inherited from the past. The analysis proceeds with an understanding of diasporas as alternative counter-nationalisms, and as resources for emergent postcolonialisms.
Stephen Howe
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199249909
- eISBN:
- 9780191697845
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199249909.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter discusses Ulster Unionism and the validity of claims that it is a settler colonial ideology. Many critics have noted the virtual silence of Irish nationalist intellectuals about the ...
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This chapter discusses Ulster Unionism and the validity of claims that it is a settler colonial ideology. Many critics have noted the virtual silence of Irish nationalist intellectuals about the history, culture and politics of Ulster Unionism. Multiple lines of explanation invoking concepts of nationality, ethnicity, religion, imperialism, and regionalism have been proposed. The centrality of religion to most varieties of Ulster Protestant identity is emphasized. If senses of nationality and ethnicity are loosely articulated and shifting, religious identification appears more clear-cut as a basis for identity in Northern Ireland. Unionist ideology, and Northern Ireland itself, cannot be understood without reference to settler colonial origins, but equally are inexplicable without reference to those original structures' long erosion. It is their disappearance that dictated the nature of nineteenth- and twentieth-century communal conflict.Less
This chapter discusses Ulster Unionism and the validity of claims that it is a settler colonial ideology. Many critics have noted the virtual silence of Irish nationalist intellectuals about the history, culture and politics of Ulster Unionism. Multiple lines of explanation invoking concepts of nationality, ethnicity, religion, imperialism, and regionalism have been proposed. The centrality of religion to most varieties of Ulster Protestant identity is emphasized. If senses of nationality and ethnicity are loosely articulated and shifting, religious identification appears more clear-cut as a basis for identity in Northern Ireland. Unionist ideology, and Northern Ireland itself, cannot be understood without reference to settler colonial origins, but equally are inexplicable without reference to those original structures' long erosion. It is their disappearance that dictated the nature of nineteenth- and twentieth-century communal conflict.
Claudio Lomnitz-Adler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520077881
- eISBN:
- 9780520912472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520077881.003.0017
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how and why colonial ideology emerged. It addresses the race and caste in the colonial (prenational) period. The evolution of hierarchy and individualism is discussed. Spanish ...
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This chapter examines how and why colonial ideology emerged. It addresses the race and caste in the colonial (prenational) period. The evolution of hierarchy and individualism is discussed. Spanish ideology recognized an Indian society but denied a slave society. Furthermore, it argues that the specific dynamics of caste instability in New Spain explain much of the post-independence attitudes toward race and, as a result, they also help in understanding the ways in which the national community was ideologically constituted. The implantation of liberalism as the official ideology had the net effect of discarding certain aspects of the colonial racial ideology while it built on others. The rise of liberalism in a society that had been built upon the Spanish hierarchical model gave rise to a particular form of discrimination against Indians and a particularly flagrant valorization of whiteness. The ideology of the Revolution had mestizo nationalism at its core.Less
This chapter examines how and why colonial ideology emerged. It addresses the race and caste in the colonial (prenational) period. The evolution of hierarchy and individualism is discussed. Spanish ideology recognized an Indian society but denied a slave society. Furthermore, it argues that the specific dynamics of caste instability in New Spain explain much of the post-independence attitudes toward race and, as a result, they also help in understanding the ways in which the national community was ideologically constituted. The implantation of liberalism as the official ideology had the net effect of discarding certain aspects of the colonial racial ideology while it built on others. The rise of liberalism in a society that had been built upon the Spanish hierarchical model gave rise to a particular form of discrimination against Indians and a particularly flagrant valorization of whiteness. The ideology of the Revolution had mestizo nationalism at its core.
Danilyn Rutherford
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226570105
- eISBN:
- 9780226570389
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226570389.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
Living in the Stone Age scrutinizes a stubborn colonial fantasy: one that has trapped the people of the troubled Indonesian territory of West Papua in the past. The book focuses on the experiences of ...
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Living in the Stone Age scrutinizes a stubborn colonial fantasy: one that has trapped the people of the troubled Indonesian territory of West Papua in the past. The book focuses on the experiences of a handful of Dutch officials tasked with establishing a post in the Wissel Lakes region of the highlands when the territory was still part of the Netherlands Indies. Two of these officials played a key role in the campaign to retain western New Guinea as a separate Dutch colony after the Indies gained independence; they saw the Stone Age Papuans as too primitive to rule themselves. The book explores how these officials relied on the hospitality and expertise of local people and how they used sympathy as a means of colonial state building. It examines the dreams of mastery and vulnerability that their dependence on technology inspired. In doing so, it advances a surprising argument: to account for the historical production of this fantasy, and the historical work it has done, we have to tell the story of colonialism as a tale that begins with weakness, not strength. The book ends with a reflection on the ethical and epistemological implications of cultural anthropologists’ own deployment of sympathy as a method. Living in the Stone Age uses a minor episode in colonial history to ask some big questions: on the origins of colonial ideology, the impassioned nature of colonial practices, and what it takes for cultural anthropologists to make claims about such things.Less
Living in the Stone Age scrutinizes a stubborn colonial fantasy: one that has trapped the people of the troubled Indonesian territory of West Papua in the past. The book focuses on the experiences of a handful of Dutch officials tasked with establishing a post in the Wissel Lakes region of the highlands when the territory was still part of the Netherlands Indies. Two of these officials played a key role in the campaign to retain western New Guinea as a separate Dutch colony after the Indies gained independence; they saw the Stone Age Papuans as too primitive to rule themselves. The book explores how these officials relied on the hospitality and expertise of local people and how they used sympathy as a means of colonial state building. It examines the dreams of mastery and vulnerability that their dependence on technology inspired. In doing so, it advances a surprising argument: to account for the historical production of this fantasy, and the historical work it has done, we have to tell the story of colonialism as a tale that begins with weakness, not strength. The book ends with a reflection on the ethical and epistemological implications of cultural anthropologists’ own deployment of sympathy as a method. Living in the Stone Age uses a minor episode in colonial history to ask some big questions: on the origins of colonial ideology, the impassioned nature of colonial practices, and what it takes for cultural anthropologists to make claims about such things.
Liora Bigon
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780719099359
- eISBN:
- 9781526109736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719099359.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Imperialism and Colonialism
Insights into the French architectural agenda as implemented in Dakar in the interwar period are the subject of this chapter. It seems that drawing on Hobsbawm’s term ‘the invention of tradition’ is ...
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Insights into the French architectural agenda as implemented in Dakar in the interwar period are the subject of this chapter. It seems that drawing on Hobsbawm’s term ‘the invention of tradition’ is particularly useful for the analysis of the French colonial architectures in question, yet not without being aware of the historiography of this term and its problematic. Having been widely employed in historical and anthropological research regarding Africa, examples using ‘invented tradition’ from research in the arts and architecture of Africa are not abundant. These include almost exclusively references to French North Africa, particularly to the neo-Moorish buildings in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia (style arabisance). The contribution of this chapter therefore lies in continuing this line of thought by expanding on the reciprocal relations between colonial forms and ideologies, and in the transnational application of these relations, that is into the territories of sub-Saharan Africa as well.Less
Insights into the French architectural agenda as implemented in Dakar in the interwar period are the subject of this chapter. It seems that drawing on Hobsbawm’s term ‘the invention of tradition’ is particularly useful for the analysis of the French colonial architectures in question, yet not without being aware of the historiography of this term and its problematic. Having been widely employed in historical and anthropological research regarding Africa, examples using ‘invented tradition’ from research in the arts and architecture of Africa are not abundant. These include almost exclusively references to French North Africa, particularly to the neo-Moorish buildings in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia (style arabisance). The contribution of this chapter therefore lies in continuing this line of thought by expanding on the reciprocal relations between colonial forms and ideologies, and in the transnational application of these relations, that is into the territories of sub-Saharan Africa as well.
Michael Dietler
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520265516
- eISBN:
- 9780520947948
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520265516.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek and Roman colonists during the first millennium ...
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This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek and Roman colonists during the first millennium B.C. Analyzing archaeological data and ancient texts, the book explores these colonial encounters over six centuries, focusing on material culture, urban landscapes, economic practices, and forms of violence. It shows how selective consumption linked native societies and colonists and created transformative relationships for each. It also examines the role these ancient encounters played in the formation of modern European identity, and colonial ideology and practices, enumerating the problems for archaeologists attempting to re-examine these past societies.Less
This book presents a theoretically informed, up-to-date study of interactions between indigenous peoples of Mediterranean France and Etruscan, Greek and Roman colonists during the first millennium B.C. Analyzing archaeological data and ancient texts, the book explores these colonial encounters over six centuries, focusing on material culture, urban landscapes, economic practices, and forms of violence. It shows how selective consumption linked native societies and colonists and created transformative relationships for each. It also examines the role these ancient encounters played in the formation of modern European identity, and colonial ideology and practices, enumerating the problems for archaeologists attempting to re-examine these past societies.
David Killingray
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205661
- eISBN:
- 9780191676741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205661.003.0022
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
Empires are gained by force and need to be maintained by force, and it was ever so true with the British Empire. The term ‘Imperial defence’ gained a specific meaning in the last decades of the 19th ...
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Empires are gained by force and need to be maintained by force, and it was ever so true with the British Empire. The term ‘Imperial defence’ gained a specific meaning in the last decades of the 19th century when it came to be applied to an integrated system of defence for the home islands, the overseas territories whether formally or informally held, and the commercial and strategic links between them. This chapter is concerned principally with the historiography of the military and the schemes and strategies devised between the 1880s and 1960s to defend an Empire that was often overstretched, under threat from foreign powers, and where alien British rule was increasingly challenged by unwilling subjects. In the late 19th century, ideas on Imperial defence were discussed in service and other journals intended to influence ministers and service chiefs. The debate over Imperial defence was included in most of the general histories of British Imperial relations of the time, often by enthusiastic proponents of colonial ideology. The debate over Britain’s decline from Imperial Great Power status seems set to continue as part of the broader debate on decolonization.Less
Empires are gained by force and need to be maintained by force, and it was ever so true with the British Empire. The term ‘Imperial defence’ gained a specific meaning in the last decades of the 19th century when it came to be applied to an integrated system of defence for the home islands, the overseas territories whether formally or informally held, and the commercial and strategic links between them. This chapter is concerned principally with the historiography of the military and the schemes and strategies devised between the 1880s and 1960s to defend an Empire that was often overstretched, under threat from foreign powers, and where alien British rule was increasingly challenged by unwilling subjects. In the late 19th century, ideas on Imperial defence were discussed in service and other journals intended to influence ministers and service chiefs. The debate over Imperial defence was included in most of the general histories of British Imperial relations of the time, often by enthusiastic proponents of colonial ideology. The debate over Britain’s decline from Imperial Great Power status seems set to continue as part of the broader debate on decolonization.
Keally McBride
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780190252977
- eISBN:
- 9780190253004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190252977.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory, Comparative Politics
Examining colonialism and its relationship to the rule of law seems counterintuitive since colonialism implies the exercise of power, and the rule of law portends to bound power. But looking at the ...
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Examining colonialism and its relationship to the rule of law seems counterintuitive since colonialism implies the exercise of power, and the rule of law portends to bound power. But looking at the historical practices of British colonial rule illuminates how the rule of law was an element in the development of an unequal system of international economics, politics, and law. The connection between colonial regimes and ideals of the rule of law has led some observers to reject the rule of law as a tainted instrument. This chapter argues that focusing upon the practices, as opposed to the ideologies, of the rule of law in the context of British colonialism can illuminate how the rule of law functions in shaping international political orders.Less
Examining colonialism and its relationship to the rule of law seems counterintuitive since colonialism implies the exercise of power, and the rule of law portends to bound power. But looking at the historical practices of British colonial rule illuminates how the rule of law was an element in the development of an unequal system of international economics, politics, and law. The connection between colonial regimes and ideals of the rule of law has led some observers to reject the rule of law as a tainted instrument. This chapter argues that focusing upon the practices, as opposed to the ideologies, of the rule of law in the context of British colonialism can illuminate how the rule of law functions in shaping international political orders.
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846310287
- eISBN:
- 9781846312724
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781846310287.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines the reception and representation of Calixthe Beyala and her writing and evaluates the extent to which she has been incorporated into majority ethnic culture in France. It ...
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This chapter examines the reception and representation of Calixthe Beyala and her writing and evaluates the extent to which she has been incorporated into majority ethnic culture in France. It suggests that the tensions that emerge between the postcolonial commodity that is Beyala and the expectations of her consumers are indicative of the enduring nature of colonial ideology. It also argues that the consecration of Beyala as a major francophone author is largely the result of the symbolic capital she has acquired as an exotic object rather than a great writer.Less
This chapter examines the reception and representation of Calixthe Beyala and her writing and evaluates the extent to which she has been incorporated into majority ethnic culture in France. It suggests that the tensions that emerge between the postcolonial commodity that is Beyala and the expectations of her consumers are indicative of the enduring nature of colonial ideology. It also argues that the consecration of Beyala as a major francophone author is largely the result of the symbolic capital she has acquired as an exotic object rather than a great writer.
Shona N. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816677757
- eISBN:
- 9781452948232
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816677757.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
This chapter continues the explanation a theory of Creole indigeneity with a discussion of the literary figure of the Caliban—emblematic of the dialectic of struggle with colonial power and ideology ...
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This chapter continues the explanation a theory of Creole indigeneity with a discussion of the literary figure of the Caliban—emblematic of the dialectic of struggle with colonial power and ideology in the Caribbean. Drawing from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and Aimé Césaire’s own adaptation, it analyzes the figure of the Caliban to further elaborate a theory of Creole indigeneity by examining how the Creole as a new native subject is narratively instituted so that the two senses of being proposed by Wynter and Burton collapse under a single discursive sign—Caliban. It also designates the Caliban’s labor as the bridge between early modern “racial” ambiguity and post-Enlightenment racial subjectivity, as well as between the material labor of the formerly enslaved and the cultural and discursive labor of the anticolonial and postcolonial writer.Less
This chapter continues the explanation a theory of Creole indigeneity with a discussion of the literary figure of the Caliban—emblematic of the dialectic of struggle with colonial power and ideology in the Caribbean. Drawing from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and Aimé Césaire’s own adaptation, it analyzes the figure of the Caliban to further elaborate a theory of Creole indigeneity by examining how the Creole as a new native subject is narratively instituted so that the two senses of being proposed by Wynter and Burton collapse under a single discursive sign—Caliban. It also designates the Caliban’s labor as the bridge between early modern “racial” ambiguity and post-Enlightenment racial subjectivity, as well as between the material labor of the formerly enslaved and the cultural and discursive labor of the anticolonial and postcolonial writer.
Daniel Carey and Lynn Festa (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199677597
- eISBN:
- 9780191803710
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199677597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature, European Literature
Over the last thirty years, postcolonial critiques of European imperial practices have transformed our understanding of colonial ideology, resistance, and cultural contact. The Enlightenment has ...
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Over the last thirty years, postcolonial critiques of European imperial practices have transformed our understanding of colonial ideology, resistance, and cultural contact. The Enlightenment has played a complex but often unacknowledged role in this discussion, alternately reviled and venerated as the harbinger of colonial dominion and avatar of liberation, as target and shield, as shadow and light. This book brings together two arenas — 18th-century studies and postcolonial theory — in order to interrogate the role and reputation of Enlightenment in the context of early European colonial ambitions and postcolonial interrogations of Western imperial aspirations. This book addresses issues central not only to literature and philosophy but also to natural history, religion, law, and the emerging sciences of man. The chapters situate a range of writers — from Hobbes and Herder, Behn and Burke, to Defoe and Diderot — in relation both to eighteenth-century colonial practices and to key concepts within current postcolonial theory concerning race, globalization, human rights, sovereignty, and national and personal identity.Less
Over the last thirty years, postcolonial critiques of European imperial practices have transformed our understanding of colonial ideology, resistance, and cultural contact. The Enlightenment has played a complex but often unacknowledged role in this discussion, alternately reviled and venerated as the harbinger of colonial dominion and avatar of liberation, as target and shield, as shadow and light. This book brings together two arenas — 18th-century studies and postcolonial theory — in order to interrogate the role and reputation of Enlightenment in the context of early European colonial ambitions and postcolonial interrogations of Western imperial aspirations. This book addresses issues central not only to literature and philosophy but also to natural history, religion, law, and the emerging sciences of man. The chapters situate a range of writers — from Hobbes and Herder, Behn and Burke, to Defoe and Diderot — in relation both to eighteenth-century colonial practices and to key concepts within current postcolonial theory concerning race, globalization, human rights, sovereignty, and national and personal identity.
