America's Troubled Postcoloniality: Some Reflections from Abroad

Mackenthun, Gesa

doi:10.1353/dis.2000.0008

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Адже, маскуючись під доказ легітимності існування і навіть винятковості країни, вона демонструє нерозривний зв'язок між колоніальним та імперським мисленням. Хоча трансісторичність позиції Бьюела спричинила жваві дискусії (див., наприклад, реакцію німецької американістки Г. Макентан [13]), сама постановка проблеми видається цілком на часі.…”

Section: наталія висоцькаunclassified

Postcolonial Theory and American Literary Studies: Contact Zones

Vysotska¹

2022

Foreign Philol.

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The paper discusses the expedience and eff ectiveness of applying tenets of Postcolonial Theory for researching history and the current state of American literature. It argues that the United States was added to the domain of Postcolonial Studies as its legitimate object at the turn of the 21st century causing considerable controversy among representatives of both disciplines – Postcolonial, as well as American Studies, since this step required revision and extension of both fi elds. A brief overview is provided of some recent publications on the subject, including, in particular, the two 2000 monographs (Postcolonial America and Postcolonial Theory and the United States: Race, Ethnicity, and Literature), edited, respectively, by Richard King, and Amritjit Singh and Peter Schmidt. The paper explores four zones of inquiry which seem to boast the greatest potential for the most productive encounters between American literary studies and postcolonialism. These include, but are not limited to 1) approaching American literature from postcolonial perspective in terms of its eff orts to assert its national identity; 2) studying American ethnic literatures in postcolonial light proceeding from the notion of “inner colonization”; 3) exploring the consequences of globalizing/migratory processes for US literature as generating hybridity and metissage; 4) and, fi nally, factoring in professional connections many renowned theorists of postcolonialism (such as Homi Bhabha, G. Ch. Spivak, Edward Said, and Edouard Glissant) have established with America. Propositions put forward in the paper are illustrated by referring to three American novels authored by recent migrants to the USA from the African postcolonial states: Teju Cole (Open City, 2001), David Eggers (What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, 2006), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Americanah, 2014). It is concluded that a set of tools (terms, concepts and reading practices) fi rst devised for Postcolonial Studies may be (and already are) eff ectively used to analyze and interpret texts produced in the USA. Its relevance is enhanced by contemporary neoliberal global developments resulting in the emergence of broader and less visible forms of exploitation, which, in their turn, presuppose, in Simon During’s words, the turn from subalterneity to precarity. Key words: Postcolonial Theory, American Studies, American literature, ethnic literatures, globalization, subalterneity.

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Section: наталія висоцькаunclassified

Postcolonial Theory and American Literary Studies: Contact Zones

Vysotska¹

2022

Foreign Philol.

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Introduction: The Pirate as a Figure of Crisis and Legitimacy

Ganser

2020

Crisis and Legitimacy in Atlantic American Narratives of Piracy

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Pirates are everywhere today. Over the last decade, there have been numerous reports of Somali and new Caribbean 'piracy' in the news; data 'pirates' are persecuted by the defendants of copyright law and intellectual property; eco-activist groups on the high seas, often on the border of transgressing laws that protect global corporate business rather than oceanic ecosystems, are termed pirates in the media while they themselves have also adopted piratical symbols like the skull and crossbones. Similarly, "Pirate Parties" throughout Europe, though perhaps past their heyday, have used the label to question the future of representative democracy in favor of more direct forms of government. In popular cultural contexts, pirate symbols are used by the fashion and many other industries and, since Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series and a number of piratethemed computer games, have become prominent figures on the screen again. All of these examples actively draw on the figure of the pirate and its ambiguous semiotic qualities as a symbol used for both Othering and identification. In an Anglophone Atlantic context, it is between the colonial era and the mid-nineteenth century that pirates emerged as prominent figures. In prose writing alone, the popular cultural, sensational appeal of pirateinspired adventure stories, captivity narratives, popular histories and romances, and many other genres-in-the-making, was used in terms of the figure's potential to articulate moments of ontological instability and

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De-westernizing the gaze in Hulu’s Ramy (2019)

Bourenane

2024

Transnational Screens

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America's Troubled Postcoloniality: Some Reflections from Abroad

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

Postcolonial Theory and American Literary Studies: Contact Zones

Postcolonial Theory and American Literary Studies: Contact Zones

Introduction: The Pirate as a Figure of Crisis and Legitimacy

De-westernizing the gaze in Hulu’s Ramy (2019)

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