8 - Conclusion: neocolonialism and the future of the discipline

Summary

This book has attempted to demonstrate that postcolonialism is a set of at times overlapping and at times distinct strategies aimed at undermining colonialism, as well as wider forms of imperialist subjugation. Postcolonial philosophy is a complex intermingling of political and ethical thinking, and theorists such as Spivak, Mudimbe and Mbembe show how an understanding of both empirical and discursive structures of oppression is necessary for the establishment of a critique. If Derrida points out that ethics and politics require the deployment of different sets of concepts (he argues that the former insists on absolute openness while the latter requires the creation of norms and rules), most of the thinkers assessed in this study engage at least to some extent with both levels. Nevertheless, the split among readers of postcolonial thought remains palpable. “Materialists” such as Parry and Lazarus turn away from the “textualism” of Bhabha or Spivak, while more “deconstructionist” thinkers such as Syrotinski or Philip Leonard imply that the ethical reading strategies recommended by Derrida and his followers must be embraced before political liberation can occur. Certainly, Glissants work indicates that there should be a distinct space for cultural and aesthetic postcolonial experimentation, and when the ethics of relationality is explored through literature and art it is clear that it should not have to submit to a clear political agenda. But I hope to have shown that, despite the hostility accompanying debates among postcolonial readers, postcolonial ethics and politics remain a more or less anxious coupling detectable from Fanon to Mbembe.