On the specfics of postcolonial research in the conetmporary Ukrainian literary studies

2019 ◽  
pp. 446-461
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Baydalova

The postcolonial studies have been under discussion in the Ukrainian historiography, social science, culture studies and literary criticism since 1990 years. They have originated from American, European, and Australian academic studies and became more and more popular in modern Ukrainian culture recently. The nation and the nationalism, Orientalism, multicultural and ambivalent individuality self-presentation, the search of cultural identity, the problem of ambivalent attitude to the past are in the paradigm of postcolonial studies. The problems of national identity, the totalitarian past, the interactions with neighboring countries especially Russia and Poland, the instable Ukrainian society’s condition are analyzed under the postcolonial ideas in the Ukrainian intellectual discourse. The postcolonial theory has become the main interpretative strategy of the Ukrainian researchers lately. Nevertheless, there is no unconditional modus vivendi in the Ukrainian academia about postcolonial conceptions, strategies and principles. One of the most important unsolved issues is the question of correlation of postcolonial and postmodern components of the Ukrainian national literature. The inclusion of the studies of trauma and anticolonial and posttotalitarian discourses into the framework of the postcolonial studies is the most distinguishing feature of postcolonial studies in the Ukraine.

Author(s):  
John J. Su

This essay contributes to developing 21st-century readings of Rhys by exploring her work in relation to more recent theories of affect, particularly those associated with Brian Massumi. Massumi's work, including his influential concept of “the autonomy of affect,” is particularly intriguing in this regard because of its potential implications for postcolonial studies. Just as postcolonial studies has in the past decade sought to move beyond the center-periphery model that has dominated the discipline since its inception, readings of Rhys invite scholars to move beyond the focus on the purported (or failed) critique of Empire that has defined postcolonial Rhys scholarship. This chapter reads the two narrators of Wide Sargasso Sea, both of whom focus heavily on how their position within the British Empire is experienced on the level of emotions and affect. Rhys challenges the rigid distinctions between emotion and affect that underlie Massumi's theories, suggesting a more complex interplay between non-cognitive experiences and ideology.


Author(s):  
Novita Dewi

Scrutiny of unequal power-relations between the “East” and the “West” in politics, culture, economy, and various aspects of life is the concern of postcolonial studies. Foucault's concept of power is central in postcolonial theory with which Edward Said is celebrated for his dismantling of Orientalist views. Postcolonial literature, likewise, has contributed to the growth and development of postcolonial criticism. The first objective of this article is to give a brief overview of different terms attached to the word “postcolonial”, i.e. postcolonial literary criticism, postcolonial literature and postcolonial theory, since these terms enrich one another theoretically. The second objective is to discuss postcolonial hermeneutics as a reading tool to examine various mundane practices in Southeast Asian postcolonial society. The purpose is to achieve a balanced, reciprocal exchange of perspectives while providing legitimacy for alternative interpretations to the hegemony shown in “Western” discourse. Citing traditional ways of conflict resolution and eco-friendly land management as examples, this article concludes that postcolonial reading may shed light on how socio-religious conflicts, hybrid experiences of faiths, and other social practices operate and get their respective meanings in postcolonial countries across Southeast Asia.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Novita Dewi

Scrutiny of unequal power-relations between the “East” and the “West” in politics, culture, economy, and various aspects of life is the concern of postcolonial studies. Foucault's concept of power is central in postcolonial theory with which Edward Said is celebrated for his dismantling of Orientalist views. Postcolonial literature, likewise, has contributed to the growth and development of postcolonial criticism. The first objective of this article is to give a brief overview of different terms attached to the word “postcolonial”, i.e. postcolonial literary criticism, postcolonial literature and postcolonial theory, since these terms enrich one another theoretically. The second objective is to discuss postcolonial hermeneutics as a reading tool to examine various mundane practices in Southeast Asian postcolonial society. The purpose is to achieve a balanced, reciprocal exchange of perspectives while providing legitimacy for alternative interpretations to the hegemony shown in “Western” discourse. Citing traditional ways of conflict resolution and eco-friendly land management as examples, this article concludes that postcolonial reading may shed light on how socio-religious conflicts, hybrid experiences of faiths, and other social practices operate and get their respective meanings in postcolonial countries across Southeast Asia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kujath

As interest in the field of postcolonial studies has grown in recent decades, the theoretical issues with which it is concerned have been applied to an increasing number of areas. As a branch of literary theory, it has provided one of the most important critical platforms for modern theorists and writers who attempt to address issues of cultural identity. However, the analytical potential of postcolonial theory has not gone unnoticed in other academic disciplines. In particular, research into global economics and politics has recognised its relevance to an understanding of the balance of world order and its political dynamics. As was earlier suggested, historians have also demonstrated an increased interest in the area of postcolonialism, particularly in terms of the challenge that it offers to received models of history.Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the path along which postcolonial studies has travelled to recognise the differences between what used to be pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial, as Ashcroft et al would name it. The paper will discuss the main issues as postulated by the proponents of postcolonialism starting from Edward Said and finishing off with Graham Huggan. Particular attention will be paid to the notion of nationalism and how it provided the fuel to the subaltern (Spivak’s term) to make the colonial the post-colonial, that is, how to construct a new (national) identity in the former colonised.Key terms: postcolonial, nationalism, Edward Said, Graham Huggan


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Jarosław Kujath

As interest in the field of postcolonial studies has grown in recent decades, the theoretical issues with which it is concerned have been applied to an increasing number of areas. As a branch of literary theory, it has provided one of the most important critical platforms for modern theorists and writers who attempt to address issues of cultural identity. However, the analytical potential of postcolonial theory has not gone unnoticed in other academic disciplines. In particular, research into global economics and politics has recognised its relevance to an understanding of the balance of world order and its political dynamics. As was earlier suggested, historians have also demonstrated an increased interest in the area of postcolonialism, particularly in terms of the challenge that it offers to received models of history.Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the path along which postcolonial studies has travelled to recognise the differences between what used to be pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial, as Ashcroft et al would name it. The paper will discuss the main issues as postulated by the proponents of postcolonialism starting from Edward Said and finishing off with Graham Huggan. Particular attention will be paid to the notion of nationalism and how it provided the fuel to the subaltern (Spivak’s term) to make the colonial the post-colonial, that is, how to construct a new (national) identity in the former colonised.Key terms: postcolonial, nationalism, Edward Said, Graham Huggan


Author(s):  
Munirah AL-Gharib

This text examines the convergent and double-sided relationship between anthropology as an ethnological study, which of necessity uses literary language - and writing itself as a subject for ethnography. Cultural Reader-response theory shows that every text involves some participation on the reader’s part and is not a solitary unchanging object. This response will itself be a function of social and cultural relations. At the same time, cultural and social life, studied by anthropologists, only becomes explicable through language and the results of ethnographic fieldwork are always, therefore, mediated by linguistic forms. The development of literary anthropology gained momentum in the 1980s but had already germinated in the pioneering work of Levi-Strauss whose work on kinship structures in the 1940s and his study of myth turned the attention of anthropologists towards the important and neglected dimension of language. Since then it has been recognised that an anthropologist’s work is diminished if theoretical and linguistic aspects are unaddressed. and the realm of socio-anthropology has been enriched. Disciplinary and genre distinctions have become very fluid in the past few decades and many university departmental studies now blend literary criticism with culture studies, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, folk discourses, and hermeneutics. While a standard definition of one of any two terms may be possible, it may not always be practical. Therefore, the definition of these two terms—anthropology and literature—needs to be updated from time to time to reflect ongoing developments and the advancements taking place in various fields. In particular, it is evident that coinciding with the linguistic turn’ in English literature studies, the discourse of anthropology has become permeable. A broad ‘literary anthropology’ can become possible as a science only if it maintains a dialogue between ideas, actions, and texts. The results and conclusions of this study substantiate the inseparable and interdependent relationship between two traditional approaches to investigating man as a social being.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2013 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalerante Evagelia

AbstractThe present paper is involved with the Pedagogical faculties’ students’ critique on the current educational system as it has been altered after 1981. The research was carried out utilizing both quantitative and qualitative tools. Students-voters participated in the interviews whereas active voters were difficult to be located to meet the research requirements. The dynamics of the specific political party is based on a popular profile in terms of standpoints related to economic, social and political issues. The research findings depict the students’ strong wish for a change of the curricula and a turn towards History and Religion as well as an elevation of the Greek historic events, as the History books that have been written and taught at schools over the past years contributed to the downgrading of the Greek national and cultural identity. There is also a students’ strong belief that globalization and the immigrants’ presence in Greece have functioned in a negative way against the Greek ideal. Therefore, an overall change of the educational content could open the path towards the reconstruction of the moral values and the Greek national identity.


Author(s):  
Andrew Dean

Coetzee’s interest in destabilizing the boundaries of literature and philosophy is most evident in later fictions such as Elizabeth Costello. But as Andrew Dean argues in this chapter, this interest in moving across boundaries in fact originates much earlier, in Coetzee’s quarrel with the institutions and procedures of literary criticism. Coetzee used the occasion of his inaugural professorial lecture at the University of Cape Town (Truth and Autobiography) to criticize the assumption that literary criticism can reveal truths about literature to which literary texts are themselves blind. Influenced in part by such figures as Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man, Coetzee posed a series of challenging questions about the desires at stake in the enterprise of literary criticism. Developing these thoughts, Dean explores the way in which Coetzee’s earlier fiction, including such texts as Foe (1986), is energized by its quarrelsome relationship with literary criticism and theory, especially postcolonial theory.


Author(s):  
Marie-Sophie de Clippele

AbstractCultural heritage can offer tangible and intangible traces of the past. A past that shapes cultural identity, but also a past from which one sometimes wishes to detach oneself and which nevertheless needs to be remembered, even commemorated. These themes of memory, history and oblivion are examined by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his work La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000). Inspired by these ideas, this paper analyses how they are closely linked to cultural heritage. Heritage serves as a support for memory, even if it can be mishandled, which in turn can affect heritage policies. Memory and heritage can be abused as a result of wounds from the past or for reasons of ideological manipulation or because of a political will to force people to remember. Furthermore, heritage, as a vehicule of memory, contributes to historical knowledge, but can remain marked by a certain form of subjectivism during the heritage and conservation operation, for which heritage professionals (representatives of the public authority or other experts) are responsible. Yet, the responsibility for conserving cultural heritage also implies the need to avoid any loss of heritage, and to fight against oblivion. Nonetheless, this struggle cannot become totalitarian, nor can it deprive the community of a sometimes salutary oblivion to its own identity construction. These theoretical and philosophical concepts shall be examined in the light of legal discourse, and in particular in Belgian legislation regarding cultural heritage. It is clear that the shift from monument to heritage broadens the legal scope and consequently raises the question of who gets to decide what is considered heritage according to the law, and whether there is something such as a collective human right to cultural heritage. Nonetheless, this broadening of the legislation extends the State intervention into cultural heritage, which in turn entails certain risks, as will be analysed with Belgium’s colonial heritage.


2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-35
Author(s):  
Jim Birckhead

Anthropologists in Australia are becoming increasingly involved in government contract work on Indigenous land tenure and management issues, most of which require some ‘expert’ input to help authenticate cultural identity and establish connection to ‘country’. In this paper I have reviewed some issues and themes drawn from my uneven and serendipitous work as an anthropologist. This work has been done as both an academic and practitioner, over the past couple of decades on Indigenous land tenure, hunting, management, and ranger training at this dynamic and contentious interface between Indigenous cultural processes and government agencies. My aim is to raise questions of both ethics and epistemology and to reflect on the work of the anthropologist in these domains, without attempting to systematically cover all of the possible issues.


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