Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree outside Delhi, May 1817

Abstract

I would like to thank Stephan Feuchtwang for his sustain ing advice, Gayatri Spivak for s ugg~sting that 1 should further develop my concept of coJorual mimicry; Parveen Adams for her impeccable critique of the text; and Jacqueline Bhabha, whose political engagement with the discriminatory nature of British immigration and nationaliry law has convinced me of the modesty of the theoretical enterprise. [Bhabhal 'Bhabha's title duplicatos the title ora [983 bOok by com paralist Franco Morelli , but given that the "English book" is the Bible, it seems rather to point to a biblical phrase. "signs aDd wonders" (probably a hendiadys for "wondrous signs") (hal appears about thirty limes throughout the Old and New Testaments. Hendiadys (Greek for "one by means of two") is a figure of speech in which two words. joined by "and," are actually joined in a more intimate way (one of the nouns, usu ally the second, is secretly bei.ng used as an adjective). As when Edmund says 10 Edgar in King Lear: "I have told you what 1 have seen and beard but faintly, nothing like the image There is a scene in the cultural writings of English colonialism which repeats so insistently after the early nineteenth century -and, through that rep etition. so triumphantly inaugurates a literature of empire -that I am bound to repeat it once more. It is the scenario, played out in the wild and word less wastes of colonial. India, Africa, tbe Caribbe an, of the sudden, fortuitous discovery of the English book. It is, like all myths of origin, mem orable for its balance between epiphany and enunciation. The discovery of the book is, at once, a moment of originality and authority, as well as a process of displacement that, paradoxi cally, makes the presence of the book wondrous to the extent to which it is repeated, translated, misread, displaced. It is with the emblem of the English book -"signs taken for wonders"as and horror of it. " (whcre "image and horror"= "horrible imagc"). Or Lady Macbeth: ''To be the samc in thine own act and val our/As thou arl in desirc." (act and valor= valorous acl.) BHABHAISIGNS TAKEN FOR WONDERS

Failures in Decolonization and ‘the Return to the Past’: Reading V.S. Naipaul

“…First, the majority of available literature is about literary criticism which articulates common post-colonial themes such as alienation, exploitation and identity crisis of the once colonized subjects (Singh 2013;Park 1996;Harode 2012) while some others critically concentrate how the colonial people 'entangled' in the western form of modernity and secularism in his works (Cader 2008;Singh 2006). The other category, small in number, is critical about Naipaul's Westernized world view towards the post-colonial socio-political and cultural developments (Said 1993 and1986;Bhabha 1985;Eid 2000;Johnstone 1979;Cudjoe 1988). These two categories, though sufficiently talk about the impact of colonialism on indigenous cultures and the implications of decolonization, do not pay significant attention to how 'the ideological returning to the organic biases of the past or tradition' bring about violent repercussions on the present moment of existence.…”

“…Naipaul digs deep into the Asian Feudal hierarchy in his large number of fictions and non-fictions over a time span of fifty years. Despite criticism about his male-chauvinism (Mohan 2004) and celebration of the 'triumph of colonialist moment' (Bhabha 1985), Naipaul has succeeded in depicting a postcolonial reality that kept on failing in building a righteous society of universal emancipation (oriented towards the ideals of truth, freedom and justice) through reasonable application of Law and Order. Despite his western orientation, he is 'ruthlessly honest' (Said 1993: 19) in portraying the objective side of the colonial and decolonizing projects.…”

Law of Geography and the Geography of Law: A Post-colonial Mapping

“…In exploring geographies of resistance and transformative politics, the concept of "third space" offers a productive point of departure.224 Initially coined to mark zones of resistance by the colonial subalterns, the "third space" concept pointed out that the instability and contradiction of colonial discourses furnish grounds for the emergence of hybridized subjectivities, triggering a process whereby "other 'denied' knowledges enter the dominant discourse and estrange the basis of its authority." 225 At work here is an "enabling violation" 226 of "the colonized," which animates subaltern agency to transform "conditions of impossibility into possibility." 2 27 Balram's and Deeti's assertive negotiations with their contexts attest to this phenomenon.…”

O conceito de resistência em três textos da literatura brasileira à luz da teoria pós-colonial

“…Recentemente, porém, Achebe, Okri, Coetzee, Phillips, Gordimer e outros retratam em sua ficção a paródia, a ironia, a cortesia dissimulada que, em seu revide, o sujeito colonizado usa para usurpar a autoridade e desestabilizar o centrismo do colonizador. Bhabha (1984;1986) insiste sobre a resistência do sujeito colonial praticada através do questionamento da autoridade colonial e justifica, em termos teóricos, a mímica, a paródia, o hibridismo e a cortesia dissimulada introduzidos pelos autores ficcionais acima mencionados. Se, por um lado, Spivak (1988), ligando a resistência à condição de subalternidade, duvida da possibilidade da fala do sujeito colonial, Parry (1987) localiza a voz do sujeito colonial em vários ofícios que conduzem à subjetividade e à agência.…”

“…Recentemente, porém, Achebe, Okri, Coetzee, Phillips, Gordimer e outros retratam em sua ficção a paródia, a ironia, a cortesia dissimulada que, em seu revide, o sujeito colonizado usa para usurpar a autoridade e desestabilizar o centrismo do colonizador. Bhabha (1984;1986) insiste sobre a resistência do sujeito colonial praticada através do questionamento da autoridade colonial e justifica, em …”