Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial LibrarySubject to Colonialism provides a much needed revisionist perspective on the way twentieth-century Africa is viewed and analyzed among scholars. Employing literary, historical, and anthropological techniques, Gaurav Desai attempts to generate a new understanding of issues that permeate discussions of Africa by disrupting the centrality of postcolonial texts and focusing instead on the cultural and intellectual production of colonial Africans. In particular, Desai calls for a reevaluation of the “colonial library”—that set of representations and texts that have collectively “invented” Africa as a locus of difference and alterity. Presenting colonialism not as a singular, monolithic structure but rather as a practice frought with contradictions and tensions, Desai works to historicize the foundation of postcolonialism by decentering both canonical texts and privileged categories of analysis such as race, capitalism, empire, and nation. To achieve this, he focuses on texts that construct or reform—rather than merely reflect—colonialism, placing explicit emphasis on processes, performances, and the practices of everyday life. Reading these texts not merely for the content of their assertions but also for how they were created and received, Desai looks at works such as Jomo Kenyatta’s ethnography of the Gikuyu and Akiga Sai’s history of the Tiv and makes a particular plea for the canonical recuperation of African women’s writing. Scholars in African history, literature, and philosophy, postcolonial studies, literary criticism, and anthropology will welcome publication of this book. |
Contents
Race Rationality and the Pedagogical Imperative | 19 |
Dangerous Liaisons? Frustrated Radicals Master Professionals | 62 |
Colonial SelfFashioning and the Production of History | 116 |
Coda | 167 |
179 | |
193 | |
Other editions - View all
Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library Gaurav Desai Limited preview - 2001 |
Subject to Colonialism: African Self-Fashioning and the Colonial Library Gaurav Desai No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Afri African Native African philosophy African Studies Africanist Akiga Akiga's Story Akiga's text Allier anthro anthropology Appiah argue arrested development Asante Asantehene attempt beliefs British Bronislaw Malinowski chapter Christian claims clitoridectomy colo colonial Africa colonial discourse colonial library Comaroff context critical critique cultural dangerous supplement debate disciplinary discipline discussion economic essay European Facing Mount Kenya Fanon functionalism Gikuyu Gluckman Golden Stool historians important instance institutional intellectual intelligence testing interest Jean Comaroff Jomo Kenyatta knowledge Kumasi Kwame Anthony Appiah Lévy-Bruhl literary literature London Loram Mafeje mbatsav mentality missionaries modernity narrative nial Oralai particular political position postcolonial poststructural practices precisely problematic professional question race racial racism rationality reading recognize relevance rhetoric Saama sense Smith social South African structure suggests theoretical theory thinking tion tional tradition tsav understand University Press V. Y. Mudimbe Western women writes York
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Page 6 - We can thus conceive the social agent as constituted by an ensemble of 'subject positions' that can never be totally fixed in a closed system of differences, constructed by a diversity of discourses among which there is no necessary relation, but rather a constant movement of overdetermination and displacement. The 'identity...