Unrealized Promises: The Subject of Postcolonial Discourse and The New International Division of Labor (original) (raw)

The most recent meaning of both forms of the term came into use when the field of postcolonial studies itself came into existence. Insofar as postcolonial theorists addressed the abstract condition, naming it for the first time and constituting it as an object of study, it may be said that postcolonial theory preposterously constituted-in the sense that it named and made legitimate-the postcolonial condition. Yet "postcolonialism," just like "postcolonial," may refer both to a specific historical period and to formerly colonized space, on the one hand, or to an abstract symbolic condition, only vaguely associated with that geo-historical location, on the other. The respective entries in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) expose this duality. The term "post-colonial" is defined as "[o]ccurring or existing after the end of colonial rule; of or relating to a former colony. In later use also: of or relating to the cultural condition of a former colony, esp. regarding its relationship with the former colonial power." This double meaning is echoed in the OED entry for "postcolonialism," which reads, "[t]he fact or state of having formerly been a colony; the cultural condition of (a) post-colonial society." 10 8 Despite later variations, in 1997 Laclau maintains that floating and empty signifiers are, for all practical purposes, the same: "In the case of a floating signifier we would apparently have an overflowing of meaning while an empty signifier, on the contrary, would ultimately be a signifier without a signified. But if we analyze the matter more carefully, we realize that the floating character of a signifier is the only phenomenic form of its emptiness" (1997: 306). Laclau is an Argentinean-born political theorist working at the University of Essex, U.K. Hence, the postcolonial, as an abstract condition of being and knowing, is inextricably linked to postcolonialism as an academic field. As will be discussed below, this proximity has crucial implications for the centrality of the subject in postcolonial theory and, particularly, for where that subject is situated in a geo-economic totality. For the time being, 14 12 Dirlik is a Turkish historiographer specialized in Chinese history; he taught in the U.S.A, at Duke University and the University of Oregon; though still active, he is now retired. Ahmad considers that even today "the already existing structures of the nation-state are a fundamental reality" and hence "the struggle for even the prospect of … transition presumes a national basis" (318, emphasis in text). Yet, as in the case of Dirlik, Ahmad's emphasis is on the fact that today "the nation-state has ceased to be the discrete site for the reproduction of advanced capital" (313, emphasis in text). But the changing role of the nation-state must be distinguished from the possibility of a continued pertinence of the Third World category. As Ahmad's account of 13 I use the term "Third World" as "a matter simply of common parlance," a usage "which makes no theoretical pretence and applies the nomenclature 'Third World' simply to the so-called developing countries" (Ahmad 1992: 307). Nonetheless, as the political analyst and literary theorist at the Centre of Contemporary Studies in New Delhi, India, Aijaz Ahmad also explains, "this term, 'Third World', does not come to us as a mere descriptive category, to designate a geographical location or a specific relation with imperialism alone. It carries within it contradictory layers of meaning and political purpose" (307). For a full length analysis and historization of the term as a theoretical category see Ahmad 1992: 287-318. 14 See also Ahmad 1992: 287-318, esp. 304-311.