Deconstruction and the Postcolonial At the Limits of Theory

by Syrotinski, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781846310560
• ISBN10: 1846310563
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-09-01
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

Until recently, postcolonial theory has almost exclusively emphasized an Anglophone context, but increasingly the focus of postcolonial studies is shifting to a more comparative approach.Deconstruction and the Postcolonial at the Limits of Theoryconnects the work of three key postcolonial figuresHomi Bhabha, Edward Said, and Gayatri Spivakwith the work of an earlier generation of predominantly poststructuralist French thinkers, including Jacques Derrida. Arguing that postcolonial studies stands to gain by turning back to, not away from, these theories, Syrotinski reconsiders the underlying conceptual tensions and theoretical stakes of what he terms as "deconstructive postcolonialism."

Author Biography

Michael Syrotinski is professor of French and Francophone Studies and director of the Centre for Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen, as well as the author of Singular Performance: Reinscribing the Subject in Francophone African Writing and Defying Gravity: Jean Paulhan’s Interventions in Twentieth-Century Intellectual History.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
Introduction: a few liminal remarks	p. 1
Postcoloniai deconstruction
Deconstruction in Algeria (Derrida 'himself')	p. 11
Hybridity revisited	p. 26
Spivak reading Derrida: an interesting exchange	p. 40
Deconstruction and postcolonial Africa
Defetishizing Africa	p. 65
Reprendre: Mudimbe's deconstructions	p. 82
Violence and writing in the African postcolony: Achille Mbembe and Sony Labou Tansi	p. 98
Conclusion: (Postcolonial Blanchot?)	p. 117
Bibliography	p. 124
Index	p. 133
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