Postcolonial Discourse Changing Cultural Contexts

Postcolonial Discourse and Changing Cultural Contexts

Postcolonial discourse is fast becoming an area of rich academic debate. At the heart of coloniality and postcoloniality is the contested authority of empire and its impact upon previously colonized peoples and their indigenous cultures. This book examines various theories of colonization and decolonization, and how the ideas of a British empire create networks of discourses in contemporary postcolonial cultures. The various essays in this book address the question of empire by exploring such constructs as nation and modernity, third-world feminisms, identity politics, the status and roles of exiles, exilic subjectivities, border intellectuals, and the presence of a postcolonial body in today's classrooms. Topics discussed include African-American literature, the nature of postcolonial texts in first-world contexts, jazz, films, and TV as examples of postcolonial discourse, and the debates surrounding biculturalism and multiculturalism in New Zealand and Australia.

Postcolonial Discourse & Changing Cultural Contexts

Post-Colonial Nations in Historical and Cultural Context

Using historical and anthropological analysis, in Post-Colonial Nations in Historical and Cultural Context, Dmitri M. Bondarenko examines nation-building in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. He examines the nation and state as concepts and how these are changing globally, particularly in regard to the idea that the fundamental characteristic of a nation is a culturally homogeneous community. This feature became a cornerstone of the concept of the nation at its formation in the West by the end of the eighteenth century, but post-colonial migration flows from the Global South to the Global North are increasing multi-culturalism in the North. In contrast, liberated states of Asia and Africa have been multi-cultural from earlier on as they inherited the colonial borders in which typically many peoples were united. Throughout the book, Bondarenko argues that this history of multi-culturalism is an advantage to development in the Global South and that it’s necessary to depart from the classical, Western concept of the nation to simultaneously support citizen unity while preserving cultural diversity.