Absolutely Postcolonial - (Angelaki Humanities) by Peter Hallward (Paperback)

About the Book

Provides an incisive critique of well-established positions in postcolonial theory and a dramatic expansion in the range of interpretative tools available

Book Synopsis

We may yet find a precise use for the notoriously elusive category 'postcolonial', but only on the condition that we abandon its usual associations with plurality, fragmentation, particularity and resistance. This book argues that the category is best used to describe an ultimately singular configuration. A singularity is something that generates the medium of its own existence, in the eventual absence of external criteria and other existences. Like other singularities - pertinent comparisons include aspects of Buddhism and Islam, as well as concepts drawn from the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou - what is distinctive about a postcolonial discourse or literature is its abstraction from the domain of relationality. Here, Hallward offers a new conceptual distinction between singular and specific modes of differentiation, which should prove influential in a range of discourses.

From the Back Cover

Contrary to its usual characterisation in terms of plurality, particularity and resistance, this book argues that the post-colonial is best understood as an ultimately singular or non-relational category. A singularity is something that generates the medium of its own existence, to the eventual exclusion of other existences. Drawing on the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou and guided by comparisons with Buddhism and Islam, Absolutely postcolonial defends this approach both through a detailed critique of postcolonial theory and through comparative, comprehensive readings of four very different contemporary writers: Edouard Glissant, Charles Johnson, Mohammed Dib, and Severo Sarduy. Along the way, it also looks to some of these same writers for resources with which we might develop a relational or specific alternative to the postcolonial paradigm that has become so influential in literary and cultural studies.

Review Quotes

A brilliant refusal of its established terms of engagement, this book marks a major advance in thinkin g through and beyond postcolonial theory., Diana Brydon, Professor of English, University of Western OntarioPeter Hallward's book is perhaps the key theoretico-political intervention of the last decade - one of those few where one cannot but exclaim: 'Finally the word we were all secretly waiting for!' One can only hope that his critique of postcolonial theory will set in motion the much-delayed liberation of teh academic Left from the postmodern jargon which has long dominated cultural studies. If ever a book was a weapon, this is it!, Slavoj Zizek, Institute for Social Studies, LjubljanaThis monumental study transforms the terms within which critical understanding of postcolonial culture has been conducted. Lucid, difficult, highly original and sometimes contentious, Hallward's stimulating book provides a new bench-mark for all future debate in this field., Paul Gilroy, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Yale UniversityBringing a real philosophical intelligence to bear on the field, this extremely important book is a singular intervention in every sense of the word., Keith Ansell Pearson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick

About the Author

Peter Hallward teaches at King's College London, and is the author of Subject to Truth: The Philosophy of Alain Badiou (2002)