Postcolonialism

Description

Postcolonialism is a book that examines the influence of postcolonial theory in critical geographical thought and scholarship. Aimed at advanced-level students and researchers, the book is a lively, stimulating and relevant introduction to ‘postcolonial geography’ that elaborates on the critical interventions in social, cultural and political life this important subfield is poised to make. The book is structured around three intersecting parts – Spaces, 'Identity'/hybridity, Knowledge – that broadly follow the trajectory of postcolonial studies since the late 1970s. It comprises ten main chapters, each of which is situated at the intersections of postcolonialism and critical human geography. In doing so, Postcolonialism develops three key arguments. First, that postcolonialism is best conceived as an intellectually creative and practical set of methodologies or approaches for critically engaging existing manifestations of power and exclusion in everyday life and in taken-as-given spaces. Second, that postcolonialism is, at its core, concerned with the politics of representation, both in terms of how people and space are represented, but also the politics surrounding who is able to represent themselves and on what/whose terms. Third, the book argues that postcolonialism itself is an inherently geographical intellectual enterprise, despite its origins in literary theory. In developing these arguments and addressing a series of relevant and international case studies and examples throughout, Postcolonialism not only demonstrates the importance of postcolonial theory to the contemporary critical geographical imagination. It also argues that geographers have much to offer to continued theorizations and workings of postcolonial theory, politics and intellectual debates going forward. This is a book that brings critical analyses of the continued and omnipresent legacies of colonialism and imperialism to the heart of human geography, but also one that returns an avowedly critical geographical disposition to the core of interdisciplinary postcolonial studies. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures List of Boxes Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Postcolonial theory and geography Thinking through postcolonialisms Postcolonialism: a narrative and structure Part I: spaces Part II: ‘identity’/hybridity Part III: knowledge Postcolonial propositions Note Chapter 2: A brief history of postcolonial geography Postcolonial Geography, c.2000 The geographical tradition Connective geographies and colonial networks Identity, belonging and nationhood Real geographies of postcolonialism Postcolonial location Postcolonial Geography c.2014 Narrating the planetary Acknowledging other postcolonialisms Planetary indigeneity Seeing like an Empire Problematizing translations Further Reading Part I: Spaces Chapter 3: Orientalism, the geographical imagination and postcolonial spatialities Orientalism: a methodology for the postcolonial geographical imagination Orientalism is an inherently geographical thesis Orientalism is a discourse Orientalism’s materialities Orientalism and Geography now Thinking at Orientalism’s limits? Further Reading Chapter 4: Imperial, colonial and postcolonial cities The Imperial City The Colonial City The Postcolonial City The post-colonialcity 1: taking post-colonialtemporality seriously The postcolonial city 2: anticolonial nationalism The postcolonial city 3: the presence of the colonial in the post Postcolonial Geography and Urban Studies: learning ‘the city’ differently Notes Further Reading Chapter 5: Nature, postcolonialism, environmentalism Postcolonial Geography, Enlightenment thought and the spatial politics of culture/nature Culture/nature hierarchy as colonial geography Nature as worlding Environmentalism, Postcolonial ecocriticism and Indigenous Geography Indigenous geography and other environmental knowledges Notes Further Reading Part II: ‘Identity’/hybridity Chapter 6: ‘Identity’, interstitiality, hybridity Locating Culture: interstices, articulation and hybridities A postcolonial politics of articulation: ambivalence and mimicry The political limits of mimicry New Ethnicities: British Cultural Studies and the politics of representation A scenario of representation: British-Asian dance music Articulation, hybridization and space Interrogating ‘Identity’ and hybridity: the bogey of authenticity Notes Further Reading Chapter 7: Multiculturalism, cosmopolitanism, planetarity: the challenge of living together The capacious logic of multiculturalism Cosmopolitan closures Of cosmopolitanism’s cosmos Kant’s geography: the finitude of the earth’s surface Encountering Planetarity Encountering Planetarity Further Reading Part III: Knowledge Chapter 8: Subaltern studies and geography Introducing Subaltern Studies From archive to knowledge Can the subaltern speak? Latin America, decolonialism and Indigenous scholarship Subaltern Studies and Geography Subaltern geographies Notes Further Reading Chapter 9: Responsibility, geography, knowledge Mobilizing responsibility’s geography Some limits on responsibility The EuroAmerican locatedness of geographical knowledge production The teleology of geographical knowledge production Empiricism, post-empiricism and place Abstraction and the authoritarianism of theory Towards responsible geographical knowledge production Note Further Reading Chapter 10: Coda: postcolonial futures in the shadow of the anthropocene … and then along came the Anthropocene For postcolonial politics Bibliography Index