1 Published in the Canadian Review of American Studies - Volume 30, No. , !

000 "o see more articles and boo# reviews from this and other $ournals visit %"P&'%RNA(S online at %"P&'%RNA(S.com )isci*linin+ Race, Crossin+ -ntellectual .orders in African American and Postcolonial Studies /ate 0c-nturff One of the common conceits of intellectual work, particularly in postcolonial theory, is that it is cosmopolitan in nature. Postcolonial critic Edward Said has made a virtue of the intellectual who crosses political and cultural boundaries.1 Julia Kristeva has theori ed cosmopolitanism as a political and intellectual position in !ations "ithout !ationalism. #n my own research into the recent development of the field of Postcolonial Studies, however, # have found that political borders have been $uite effective in reducin% intellectual e&chan%es between individuals workin%, nominally, on the same topic. #n this paper, # will ar%ue that the 'S()anadian border e&ists not only alon% the *+th Parallel but also e&tends its reach across academic fields of in$uiry,specifically, this paper will be lookin% to the divisions and potential intersections between Postcolonial and -frican -merican Studies. #t is precisely because of this divide that # will attempt to provide a superficial outline of the concerns of Postcolonial Studies. Postcolonial Studies, or postcolonial theory, is a field which, rou%hly defined, addresses the structure and effect of colonial power relations. #t e&amines the role of material, cultural, and psycholo%ical forces in maintainin% and disruptin% those colonial power relations. "hile some scholars workin% in this field have addressed non./ritish #mperial histories,notably 0isa 0owe and -nn 0aura Stoler,most scholars workin% in postcolonial theory have tended to focus on the history of /ritish #mperialism and on the history of the states which were sub1ect to /ritish colonial rule.2 -t the moment there are a number of ethical and intellectual problems with which postcolonial theorists are %rapplin%. 3y first forays into the field of -frican -merican Studies have led me to believe that these two disciplines share some of the same problems. -s a result, # have be%un to investi%ate the e&tent to which %reater contact between -frican -merican Studies and Postcolonial Studies mi%ht be productive. /efore proceedin% to outline those common concerns, # would like to acknowled%e that the differences between these two disciplines are also important. -s postcolonial critic -i1a -hmad has su%%ested, postcolonial theory has 4attracted few /lack intellectuals5 6789.: -hmad ar%ues that the cate%ories first of 4)ommonwealth5 and later of 4postcolonial5 were understood in the 'S to refer, by definition, to 4other minorities, the ones who were constituted not by slavery but by immi%ration5 6789. ;his disciplinary and historical divide has also been noted by critics, such as )hristine 3c)leod and bell

2 hooks, workin% within -frican -merican Studies.* ;hese critics %o on to ar%ue, however, that the disciplines of -frican -merican Studies and Postcolonial Studies ou%ht to be brou%ht into %reater contact,a %oal which # obviously share. -t the most %eneral level, the intellectuals workin% in the disciplines of -frican -merican Studies and Postcolonial Studies have in common the desire that their work will be, on some level, emancipatory. ;his is a desire that takes many forms. ;he history of the ethical aims of these two disciplines is one which ran%es from the desire for the emancipation of small intellectual and artistic circles, to the desire for the emancipation of cultural and social %roups, and even of nation.states. ;his work will focus specifically on the interest which some of the intellectuals workin% in these two disciplines have in creatin% a cultural and intellectual sphere which is not -n%lo. or Euro.centric. #t will address the problems that arise out of the use of 6European9 post.structuralist models of culture in this conte&t. <inally, it will e&amine the return of the notion of 4e&perience5 to work in these fields. Postcolonial Studies was formed, in part, out of the earlier field of )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies. )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies be%an with the wider publication and circulation of te&ts by writers livin% in countries once coloni ed by En%land 63oore. =ilbert 89. )ritics >i1ay 3ishra and /ob ?od%e have ar%ued that the publication and critical e&amination of )ommonwealth literatures that be%an in the 1+@As functioned to re.create, in the field of literature, a picture of the world in which the outline of the now. diminished En%lish empire was still clearly visible. ;hey writeB as the /ritish Empire broke up and attempted to sustain an illusion of unity under the euphemistic title of 4)ommonwealth,5 a new ob1ect appeared on the mar%ins of departments of En%lish 0iteratureB C)ommonwealth literature.5 D...E 4)ommonwealth literature5 did not include the literature of the centre, which acted as the impossible absent standard by which it should be 1ud%ed. 628@9 ;he production of these literatures as 4)ommonwealth 0iterature5 served to maintain a hierarchy in which En%lish literature was held as the standard 6and centre9 a%ainst which the literatures of its former colonies were 1ud%ed 63oore.=ilbert 2@9. 3oreover, )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies not only e&cluded the hetero%eneous histories of non. /ritish colonialism, it also tended to homo%eni e the e&perience of the diverse populations which e&isted within the communities and countries of the 4)ommonwealth.5 ;his is not to su%%est that the publication and criticism of these materials cannot be emancipatory but rather that the discipline of )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies, as it constituted itself in the 1+@As and 1+8As, was not wholly emancipatory, nor was it sufficiently self.refle&ive. "hat is now %enerally called 4postcolonial theory5 emer%ed, in part, out of a bur%eonin% critical awareness within )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies. !ovelist and critic "ilson ?arris is one of the first within )ommonwealth Studies to si%nal a %rowin% unease with the analysis of )ommonwealth literature in terms of the new critical model of universal aesthetic values. ?e ar%ues that such universalism elides

: the Eurocentric and humanist values which not only construct the aesthetic principles of !ew )riticism, but which have also played a role in supportin% European imperial pro1ects. ?e writesB D# wonderE in what de%ree such humanism is in itself subconsciously ali%ned to the very colonial pre1udices it claims to deride which %ive it a new narcissistic density of 4complete5 literatures and 4enthrallin%ly interestin% colonial products.5 D...E -n unconscious political irony is in process of bein% born within the tellin% silences of the family of the "ord and this is one of the first steps 6who knowsF9 towards a radical chan%e of tone in the dialo%ue of vested interests between old worlds and new. 61+9G Similar criti$ues were levelled by !%u%i wa ;hion%Ho and )hinua -chebe in the late 1+8As and early 1+7As.@ ;he result of these debates was, in part, the vein of postcolonial theory that addresses itself specifically to constructin% analytical frameworks throu%h which to read the vested interests of both colonial and postcolonial literatures. ;hese concerns have a precedent in the 'S in the early.twentieth.century.debates concernin% the production and criticism of -frican -merican literature. #n a 1+:A essay, Sterlin% -. /rown addressed the role of cultural production within the movement towards political emancipation. ?is criti$ue anticipates a number of issues which have persisted in both -frican -merican and Postcolonial 0iterary StudiesB )ertain fallacies # have detected within at least the last si& years are theseB I"e look upon !e%ro books re%ardless of the authorHs intention, as representative of all !e%roes, i.e. as sociolo%ical documents. I"e insist that !e%ro books must be idealistic, optimistic tracts for race advertisement. I"e are afraid of truth.tellin%, satire. I"e critici e from the point of view of bour%eois -merica, of racial apolo%ists. 68A9 Jebates within )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies in the 1+@As and 1+8As, particularly those concerned with the work of ;rinidadian novelist >.S. !aipaul, raised very similar $uestions concernin% the responsibility of postcolonial writers to be either representative, accurate, or idealistic in their work. ;he notion that the coloni ed andKor raciali ed artist ou%ht to produce 4sociolo%ical documents5 that will accurately and representatively define the reality of their cultural conte&t is one which arises partially out of colonialist ethno%raphic and political practices. ;he so.called 4native informant,5 or translator, is an important fi%ure in the ima%inary of the coloni in% culture,as postcolonial critics, such as ?omi /habha and 3ary E. John, have pointed out. )olonialist re%imes attempted to su%%est that it was incumbent upon the coloni ed and raciali ed sub1ect to translate hisKher own cultural practices in order to facilitate the coloni in% administrationHs rule. -t the same time, the administration ur%ed the coloni ed sub1ectHs adoption of the lin%uistic and cultural practices of the dominant culture. #n the 1+GAs and 1+@As, 3artini$uan psycholo%ist and anti.colonial activist <rant <anon took up the same kinds of $uestions that /rown raised re%ardin% the role of the artist or

* creative writer in producin% a representative creative work. #n his early writin%, however, <anon is specifically interested in the role that the creative artist plays in sustainin% a stru%%le for liberation from the coloni in% authority. -ccordin% to <anon, a period of cultural nationalism is necessary in the stru%%le for independence. <anon ar%ues that the work of colonialism was supported by the erasure or %ross misrepresentation of the culture and history of a sub1ect people and, unlike /rown, posits that it is necessary to rewrite that culture and history in idealistic terms 64-ddress to the <irst )on%ress of !e%ro "riters and -rtists,5 1+8A :*(:89. #n later writin%, however, <anon %oes on to ar%ue that the work of a nationalist culture is not to correct past representations of the coloni ed culture with an accurate or essential ima%e of that culture. #n ;he "retched of the Earth, he writesB - national culture is not a folklore, nor an abstract populism that believes it can discover the peopleHs true nature D...E - national culture is the whole body of efforts made by a people in the sphere of thou%ht to describe, 1ustify, and praise the action throu%h which that people has created itself and keeps itself in e&istence. 62::9 ?is work follows /rownHs final statement in su%%estin% the need for a %eneration of writers and artists who do not reiterate a bour%eois aesthetic 6formed, in <anonHs terms, by the assimilation of the values of the coloni in% culture9. Similar issues were brou%ht to the fore in the 'S durin% the period in which <anon was writin%. ;here were, of course, a hetero%eneous array of cultural and political movements takin% up these issues in the 'S in the 1+@As and 1+8As. #n this paper, # will focus specifically on the /lack Power movement and the /lack -rts movement because the proponents of /lack Power drew perhaps the most e&plicit comparisons between the history of -frican -mericans in the 'S and the history of the peoples sub1ect to <rench and /ritish colonialism. ;he /lack Power and the /lack -rts movements also en%a%ed directly with the intellectual and political work of writers and anti.colonial activists, such as <anon and -milcar )abral. 3uch of the force of the first chapters of Stokely )armichael and )harles ?amiltonHs /lack Power depends on the repeated definition of the -frican -merican community as a colony.8 )armichael and ?amilton ar%ue specifically in their introduction that 4/lack Power means that black people see themselves as part of a new force sometimes called the C;hird "orldH5 6&i9. ;his comparison was made in an era in which colonial -frica and -sia were in the process of an often violent decoloni ation. ;he comparison of the treatment of -frican -mericans to the treatment of, for e&ample, the <ront de 0ibLration !ationale in -l%eria reframed the debate which the )ivil Mi%hts movement brou%ht to the fore in the 1+GAs. #t also upset the propa%ation of the ima%e of -merica as a rebellious former colony itself, recastin% the -n%lo.-merican rebel.citi en as a colonialist oppressor. ;he /lack Power movement addressed itself to the aesthetic.cultural sphere in part throu%h the /lack -rts movement. ;his movement was, in the words of one of its foundin% members, 4the aesthetic and spiritual sister of the /lack power concept,5 which

G 4proposeDdE a radical reorderin% of the western cultural aesthetic5 6!eal 17*9. #n advocatin% the central importance of the cultural sphere, and in developin% a theory of cultural production, the /lack -rts and the /lack Power movements were in sympathy with the work of )aribbean and -frican anti.colonialist activists, includin% <anon, )abral and !%u%i. )abral, for e&ample, ar%ues in a speech entitled 4!ational 0iberation and )ulture5 that the value of culture as an element of resistance to forei%n domination lies in the fact that culture is the vi%orous manifestation on the ideolo%ical or idealist plane of the physical and historical reality of the society that is dominated or to be dominated. 6G*9 0ike critics <anon and )abral, the /lack -rts movement understood the 4interested5 nature of its own canon.buildin% activities primarily as the production of a distinct black publicKpoliticalKaesthetic sphere. ;he motivation for this work was self.avowed political interest. ;he definition of te&ts as inherently or representatively -frican -merican, however, was not on the whole theori ed by the /lack -rts 3ovement as an 4interested5 construction. -s Jon 0. 0ee writes, black art and music were understood as 4a creative e&tension of our -frican selves5 621:9. #n the decades subse$uent to the rise and fall of the /lack Power and /lack -rts movements, the discipline of -frican -merican Studies has continued to be concerned with the development of a comple& model of culture. )ritics in -frican -merican 0iterary Studies have worked to publish, and en%a%e with, a canon of cultural material which, in <anonHs terms, acts 4to describe, 1ustify, and praise the action throu%h which that people has created itself and keeps itself in e&istence.5 3ost notable has been the e&traordinary work of ?enry 0ouis =ates, Jr., in publishin%, antholo%i in%, critici in%, and, indeed, canoni in% -frican -merican literary te&ts. #n the 'S, ;oni 3orrison has characteri ed succinctly the importance 6for better or worse9 of the work of literary scholars. She writesB )anon buildin% is Empire buildin%. )anon defence is national defence. )anon debate, whatever the terrain, nature and ran%e 6of criticism, of history, of the history of knowled%e, of the definition of lan%ua%e, the universality of aesthetic principles, the sociolo%y of art, the humanist ima%ination9, is the clash of the cultures and all of the interests are vested. 64'nspeakable5 +9 #n response to the $uestion of the interests at stake in cultural canoni ation, =ates posits a post.structural characteri ation of his own canon.buildin% activities. #n this, he, and a number of other scholars workin% in -frican -merican 0iterary Studies, diver%es from the /lack -rts movementHs constructions of a canon and criticism which is defined as authentically or inherently -frican -merican. "hile =ates ar%ues for the need to 4read a black te&t within a black formal cultural matri&, as well as its CwhiteH matri&,5 he %oes on to remind his reader that the 4Dthe black cultural matri&E is a historically contin%ent phenomenonN it is not inherent in the nature of Cblackness,H not vouchsafed by the metaphysics of some racial essence5 60oose 8+9.

@ =atesHs remarks su%%est the influence of post.structuralism on contemporary debates about culture within -frican -merican 0iterary Studies. ?is re1ection of 4the metaphysics of some racial essence5 responds to a historical form of racism which depends on the definition of distinct and deterministic racial essences. ?owever, his comments also reflect the influence of post.structuralist theory, which has been used as an effective tool for the deconstruction of representations of an ob1ect or %roup in terms of a central structurin% 4essence.5 "ithin Postcolonial Studies, the influence of post. structuralism has been even more pronounced.7 One of the concepts which has had perhaps the widest impact on both -frican -merican and Postcolonial Studies is the post. structuralist model of the selfKother binary throu%h which identity is formed. ;his model has been influenced by the work of =erman philosopher <riedrich ?e%el. #t has been developed by the psychoanalyst Jac$ues 0acan and by post.structuralist writers, such as Jac$ues Jerrida and ?LlOne )i&ous. Postcolonial and -frican -merican criticism have adopted 6and adapted9 the notion that the individual, the community, and the nation %ain a sense of self throu%h the production of an opposite or other. ;his model is one in which the human is defined throu%h a depiction of the inhuman, or the -merican is defined throu%h a depiction of the un.-merican. Postcolonial critic Edward Said employs this model of identity formation in his work in Orientalism 61+8+9. ?e ar%ues that the work of the European Orientalist scholar was driven by the need to define the non.European other 62A1(2G9. ;his, in turn, secured for the European a sense of a cohesive identity or self. ?owever, for Said, the relationship of the European self to its 6self.constituted9 Oriental other is only ever a historical event. Said writes in the introduction to Orientalism that the "estern European discourse of Orientalism 6which frames the Oriental as its 4other59 is a 4cultural, historical phenomenon5 which must be treated 4as a kind of willed human work5 61G9. #n )ulture and #mperialism 61++:9, Said focuses specifically on the rise of nationalism at the turn of the last century as the locus of cultural discourses based on a self.other binaryB #n time, culture comes to be associated, often a%%ressively, with the nation or the stateN this differentiates 4usH from 4them,5 almost always with some de%ree of &enophobia. )ulture in this sense is a source of identity, and a rather combative one at that.5 6&iii9 SaidHs remarks here are very similar to 3orrisonHs re%ardin% the vested interests at stake in literary canon buildin%. )ritic ?omi /habha has adopted a more psychoanalytically informed version of this model of identity formation. /habha draws 1ointly on the works of <anon and 0acan to develop a model of the relationship formed between the coloni in% self and the coloni ed other. 'nlike Said, /habha su%%ests that this process of identity formation is a universal psychic structure, not a historical phenomenon. #n 4Mememberin% <anon,5 /habha outlines 4three conditions that underlie an understandin% of the process of identification5 61189.+ ?e be%ins by statin% that 4to e&ist is to be called into bein% in relation to Otherness, its look or locus5 61189. ;he selfKother relationship, however, is not marked by

8 the ?e%elian dialectic that one finds in different forms in both 0acan and <anon. /habha does not a%ree with <anonHs contention that 4the real Other for the white man is and will continue to be the black man. -nd conversely5 6$td. in 4Mememberin%5 11+9. ;his, /habha ar%ues, is a 4too hasty5 and too literal turn away from 4the ambivalences of identification to the anta%onistic identities of political alienation and cultural discrimination5 611+9. /habhaHs work also distin%uishes itself from SaidHs in ar%uin% that it is difficult to conceive of the process of sub1ectification as a placin% within Orientalist or colonialist discourse for the dominated sub1ect without the dominant bein% strate%ically placed within it too. 60ocation 829 /habhaHs work emphasi es the multi.directionality of the operation of colonial power, and he ar%ues that the coloni er and the coloni ed are e$ually sub1ect to those operations. /habha is at once concerned with reassertin% the effectiveness of unconscious forces of 4sub1ectification,5 and, at the same time, is careful to reco%ni e the a%ency of a coloni ed sub1ect capable of a 4sly5 speakin% back to colonialist discourse. "here /habha points to the elision of the a%ency of the coloni ed 4other5 in SaidHs use of the self.other model, bell hooks has offered another direction for criti$ue. She ar%ues that the use of these variants of the post.structuralist model of the self.other relationship in the study of the representation of race has produced a critical tendency to focus e&clusively on race as it was deployed to construct non.-n%lo peoples. hooks writesB #n far too much contemporary writin%,thou%h there are some outstandin% e&ceptions, race is always an issue of otherness that is not whiteN it is black, brown, yellow, red, purple even. Pet only a persistent, ri%orous, and informed criti$ue of whiteness could really determine what forces of denial, fear, and competition are responsible for creatin% fundamental %aps between professed political commitment to eradicatin% racism and the participation in the construction of a discourse on race that perpetuates racial domination. 6G*9 "ithin the conte&t of -frican -merican Studies, hooksHs criti$ue su%%ests a form of academic re.coloni ation of 4blackness5 as territory ripe for intellectual pickin%,a point that ?elen ;iffin, Ella Shohat, and -nne 3c)lintock have each made concernin% the mobili ation of the cate%ory of the 4other5 in postcolonial theory.1A hooksHs comments are also reminiscent of the initial criti$ue of )ommonwealth 0iterary Studies. Just as 3ishra and ?od%e ar%ue, the focus on race or otherness as the specific locus of non.whites does not mean that this model does not contain an implicit standard which is 4white5 or 4-n%lo5 or 4Euro5.centric. Postcolonial critics, such as -bdul Jan3ohamed and ?elen ;iffin, ar%ue that post.structuralism has a tendency to reinforce the Eurocentric focus that it proposes to disrupt. #n this vein, ;iffin writes that

7 4Otherness5 as a source of interest, revivification, even celebration 6and certainly academic e&ploitation9 is pervasive in European and Euro.-merican post.structuralist theory. /ut as it is currently theori ed, it remains perpetually foreclosed, its apparent avenues of newness and difference always turnin% out to be cul.de.sac contained by that same European archive D...E Post.structuralist e&cursions into difference, still rediscovers Europe. 6*2+9 ;iffinHs point concernin% this trend is that it tends, in practice, to involve the critical e&amination of European colonialist discourses about non.Europeans in order to better understand the functionin% of the European sub1ect,which continues to act as the centre or norm. #n the effort to deconstruct and historici e representations of 4otherness,5 there is one area, in particular, in which scholars in -frican -merican and Postcolonial Studies appear to be workin% in concert. 3orrison, hooks, and "are have all called for,and performed,an attentive deconstruction of 4whiteness5 as a cate%ory. 3orrisonHs Playin% in the Jark analyses the representation of race in -n%lo.-merican literature. 0ike Edward Said, she ar%ues that the representation of 4blackness5 is often constructed in relation to an implicit definition of 4whiteness.5 She states that Playin% in the Jark 4is an effort to avert the critical %a e from the racial ob1ect to the racial sub1ectN from the described and ima%ined to the describers and ima%inersN from the servin% to the served5 6+A9. 0ike /habha, she ar%ues that raciali in% and racist discourse affects both the ob1ect of the discourse and the author of the discourseB ;he scholarship that looks into the mind, ima%ination, and behavior of slaves is valuable. /ut e$ually valuable is a serious intellectual effort to see what racial ideolo%y does to the mind, ima%ination, and behavior of masters.5 611(129 ;he call for an e&amination of 4whiteness5 does not entirely resolve the conflicts which arise out of the use of post.structuralism in disciplines shaped, in part, by the desire to produce a distinct and separate intellectual and cultural field. ;he post.structuralist insistence on the necessity of the discursive relationship between the cultural and social formations of both the dominant and the sub1ected %roups may be in conflict with the desire to set aside the study of European philosophical and cultural traditions in an attempt to undermine the academic privile%in% of those traditions. ;he deconstruction of representations of race has raised another critical problem. ;here is a tendency in both -frican -merican and Postcolonial Studies to valori e 4race5 as the most constructed,and most deconstructible,identity cate%ory. =atesHs otherwise illuminatin% essay on 4"ritin% and CMaceH and the Jifference #t 3akes5 is e&emplary of this trend. ?e writesB Mace is the ultimate trope of differences because it is so very arbitrary in its application. ;he sanction of biolo%y contained in se&ual difference, simply put, does not and can never obtain when one is speakin% of 4racial difference.5 6*+9

+ #n an article which appears ne&t to =atesHs in its first printin%, -nthony Kwame -ppiah supports =atesHs claim concernin% the lack of biolo%ical sanction for racial difference 6219. ;hat said, more recent discussions in biolo%y have likewise su%%ested the unreliability of chromosomal denominations of se&ed identity. ;homas 0a$ueur and Judith /utler have also $uestioned the e&tent to which the apparent biolo%ical 4factH of se&ual identity has ever e&isted outside of constructions of masculinity and femininity.11 Postcolonial critic -nne 3c)lintock has %one further in su%%estin% that the cate%ories of race and %ender cannot be analysed separately. 3c)lintock has set out a sustained criti$ue of the e&tent to which colonial.racial relations of power are naturali ed throu%h a nineteenth.century, "estern European model of family relations. 3c)lintock su%%ests that the European model of the family acted to naturali e and support relations of power between se&es, classes, and races simultaneously. She writesB ;he family offered an indispensable fi%ure for sanctionin% social hierarchy .... /ecause the subordination of woman to man and child to adult were deemed natural facts, other forms of social hierarchy could be depicted in familial terms to %uarantee social difference as a cate%ory of nature. ;he family ima%e came to fi%ure hierarchy within unity as an or%anic element of historical pro%ress, and thus became indispensable for le%itimisin% e&clusion and hierarchy within nonfamilial social forms such as nationalism, liberal individualism and imperialism. ;he metaphoric depiction of social hierarchy as natural and familial thus depends on the prior naturalisin% of the social subordination of women and children. 6#mperial *G9 )entrally, 3c)lintockHs work demonstrates that the construction of a workin% class, for e&ample, cannot be e&amined in isolation from the construction of racial identity and %ender identityB 4race, %ender and class are not distinct realms of e&perience, e&istin% in splendid isolation from each other ... they come into e&istence in and throu%h relations to each other5 6#mperial G9. 3c)lintockHs work also has an important precedent in the work of feminist writers of colour. =loria -n aldQa and )herrRe 3ora%aHs influential collection ;his /rid%e )alled 3y /ackB "ritin%s by Madical "omen of )olor contains a number of essays which comment on the mutually constitutive relationship of representations of race to representations of %ender, class, and se&uality.12 #n this collection, the )ombahee Miver )ollective write that they often find it difficult to separate race from class from se& oppression because in our lives they are most often e&perienced simultaneously. "e know that there is such a thin% as racial.se&ual oppression which is neither solely racial nor solely se&ual, e.%., the history of the rape of /lack women by white men as a weapon of political oppression. 621:9 0ikewise, in 4;owards a /lack <eminist )riticism,5 /arbara Smith outlines a 4black feminist criticism5 which would reco%ni e 4that the politics of race and class are crucially interlockin% factors in the works of black women writers5 6*129.

1A "hile -n aldQa and 3ora%a advocate 4a feminist political theory5 which is more attentive to the e&perience of women from different racial.ethnic and economic back%rounds 6&&iv9, they are careful nonetheless to state that they are not attemptin% to construct themselves as unified as women of colour. 3ora%a adds that this %roup should not be understood as one defined by 4essential5 characteristicsB 4"e are not so much a CnaturalH affinity %roup, as women who have come to%ether out of political necessity5 64foreword,5 n.pa%.9. #n this, they anticipate =atesHs characteri ation of race and later postcolonial interro%ations of both race and %ender. -mon%st the essays in this collection is -udre 0ordeHs well.known ar%ument that 4the masterHs tools will never dismantle the masterHs house5 6++9. 0ordeHs statement su%%ests another potential refusal of the post.structuralist method. Post.structuralist scholarship is often precisely an attempt to dismantle the masterHs house with the masterHs tools,to rationally deconstruct European rationality in European te&ts. 0ordeHs essay, however, elaborates a less direct interro%ation of deconstructive practice. She focuses on a feminist reliance on the institutions and discourses of patriarchal power and su%%ests that those structures cannot be separated from the power relations within which they were formed 6++(1AA9. ;his, in itself, is an ar%ument not dissimilar to <oucaultHs notion of institutional power. "here 0orde differs from <oucault is in her return to the cate%ory of e&perience. 0ordeHs work here shares the tendency in Edward SaidHs to read identity as constructed throu%h power relations, while, at the same time, callin% for a more accurate narration of a particular place or identity or e&perience. She writesB in a world of possibility for us all, our personal vision helps lay the %roundwork for political action. ;he failure of the academic feminist to reco%nise difference as a crucial stren%th is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. Jivide and con$uer in our world, must become define and empower.5 61AA, my emphasis9 ;he place of e&perience has been problemati ed by post.structuralist writers who view e&perience as always already constituted by institutional discourses. Mecently, however, e&perience has returned to critical debates as a form of criti$ue of the Eurocentric focus of some post.structuralist scholarship. )ritics such as Judith /utler ar%ue, on the one hand, that post.structuralismHs detachin% of %endered or racial attributes from the biolo%ical opens up the potential to see varied performances of %endered or raciali ed identities as e$ually authentic,or rather, as e$ually inauthentic. On the other hand, theorists such as 0orde have su%%ested that a repudiation of the authenticity of identity and e&perience is the privile%e of those individuals whose e&perience and identity have been represented within the dominant discourse. "ithout the privile%e of the institutionali ation and le%itimi ation of oneHs e&perience as authentic, a re1ection of the authenticity of oneHs e&perience appears somewhat less emancipatory. Said has also invoked the cate%ory of e&perience in response to the problems which arise out of postcolonial uses of post.structuralism. <or Said, it is e&perience, precisely, that

11 e&ceeds political and theoretical formulations of 4us5 and 4them,5 of 4self5 and 4other.5 ?e writesB 0et us be%in by acceptin% the notion that althou%h there is an irreducible sub1ective core to human e&perience, this e&perience is also historical and secular, it is accessible to analysis and interpretation, and,centrally important,it is not e&hausted by totali in% theories, not marked and limited by doctrinal or national lines, not confined once and for all to analytical constructs. 6)ulture :19 Said ar%ues that e&perience e&ceeds 4analytical constructs5 like the post.structuralist selfKother binary because oneHs e&perience is that one is never 4only, mainly, e&clusively, white DsicE or /lack, or "estern, or Oriental5 6)ulture ::@9. )ritics such as 0orde and Said have advocated the circulation of representations of 6authentic9 e&periences of difference and sub1ection. -t the same time, they wish to interro%ate representation as a site upon which the imprint of constructed relations of power are visible. ;his bind has produced a tendency to delve further into post. structuralist e&planations of the relationship between lan%ua%e, sub1ectivity, and power. )onversely, it has produced an increasin% number of calls to remove the $uotation marks from the terms 4race,5 4class,5 4%ender,5 and 4se&uality5,to distin%uish between the constructed nature of cate%ories such as 4black5 or 4white5 and the way in which bein% identified as black or white continues to affect the e&periences of individuals. Postcolonial Studies, at its intersection with post.structuralist, feminist, and -frican -merican Studies, finds itself face to face with this problem at the moment. 0ike the scholars workin% within -frican -merican Studies, postcolonial critics %rapple with the e&planatory comple&ity of post.structuralismHs account of the selfKother binary and the desire to drive away from the cul.de.sac of Eurocentrism. 0ikewise, as /enita Parry has commented, the reduction of relations of power to the rules of lan%ua%e is unappealin% 6129. ;he problems raised by postcolonial appropriations of post.structuralism have moved scholars such as ?ortense Spillers, Mey )how, -sha >aradhara1an, and ?omi /habha towards psychoanalytic e&planations of sub1ectivity as a potential source for a more comple& understandin% of the way in which power is e&ercised throu%h cate%ories of identification. -t the same time, a call for a reassessment of the relationship of e&perience to identity and representation recurs in recent postcolonial writin%. 3ary E. John, like Said, has ar%ued that instead of strivin% to reduce race to an empty or illusory notion, perhaps one must take on its ineducable imbrication with other concepts, not e&cludin% such 4unviable5 markers as skin color. -s Patricia "illiams has it, 4# wish to reco%nise that terms like CblackH and CwhiteH do not be%in to capture the rich ethnic and political diversity of my sub1ect. /ut # do believe that the simple matter of the color of oneHs skin so profoundly affects the way one is treated, so radically shapes what one is allowed to think and feel ... , that the decision to %eneralise from such a division is valid.5 6++91:

12 #t is unclear if these assertions will provide a sufficient, or even a temporary, solution to the intellectual and ethical conflicts which e&ist in -frican -merican Studies and in Postcolonial Studies. Said, like 0orde, has ar%ued that e&perience can provide an important framework throu%h which to analyse and criti$ue cultural institutions and the relations of power which they incarnate. #n his essay 4;ravellin% ;heory,5 Said locates a subversive potential in the intrusion of 4sentiment, passion, DandE chance5 into the consciousness shaped by institutional discourses. 4-t such a moment, then,5 Said writes, mind, or 4sub1ect5 has its one opportunity to escape reificationB by thinkin% throu%h what it is that causes reality to appear to be only a collection of ob1ects or economic donnLes. -nd the very act of lookin% for the process behind what appears to be eternally %iven and ob1ectified, makes it possible for the mind to know itself as sub1ect and not as a lifeless ob1ect. 6*79 "hat is particularly interestin% about this account of the 4crisis,5 which 4is converted into criticism of the status $uo5 6*79, is that this crisis is precipitated by the force of precisely those thin%s which are usually opposed to rationality and ob1ectivityB sentiment, passion, and chance. #ntellectual self.consciousness, in SaidHs account, occurs as the result of a dis1unction between a sub1ective passion and an authoritative discourse. <or Said, e&ile is the e&perience which produces this dis1unction. ;hat is to say, the displaced sub1ectHs passionate, sentimental, or chance attachment to a homeland is that which allows hisKher critical consciousness of the artificiality of the discourse of the new location in which they find themselves. Said %oes on to ar%ue, in Mepresentations of the #ntellectual, that the ethical intellectual must always occupy the position of outsider or of e&ile. Said characteri es his work as an attempt to ne%otiate a position for the intellectual between individual 4affiliation, national back%round, and primeval loyalties5 and the universal 4standard of truth about human misery and oppression5 6&ii9. ?e ar%ues that e&iles are best suited to the position of intellectual, not 1ust because their e&periences and affiliations are at odds with the location in which they find themselves, but because they can ultimately distance themselves from both their 4home5 and their new location. ?e writesB ;he pattern that sets the course for the intellectual as outsider is best e&emplified by the condition of e&ile, the state of never bein% fully ad1usted, always feelin% outside the chatty, familiar world inhabited by natives, so to speak, tendin% to avoid and even dislike the trappin%s of accommodation and national well.bein%. E&ile for the intellectual in this metaphysical sense is restlessness, movement, constantly bein% unsettled, and unsettlin% others. Pou cannot %o back to some earlier and perhaps more stable condition of bein% at homeN and, alas, you can never fully arrive, be at one with your new home or situation. 6G2(G:9

1: "hile Said emphasi es the distance which e&ile,actual or metaphysical,provides, # find SaidHs and 0ordeHs discussions of e&perience at their most productive when they emphasi e that neither he nor she nor # simply becomes an e&ile from nowhere, but rather that we become e&iles precisely because we once felt that we belon%ed somewhere. #n this, they provide a reminder of the importance of rememberin% both the place of the border that marks our own intellectual belon%in% and the limits of our e&ile. Notes 1 See SaidHs characteri ation of the intellectual as outsider or as e&ile in Mepresentations in particular. 2 # have in mind 0isa 0oweHs early )ritical ;errains, which responds to SaidHs work on Orientalism and attempts to outline some of the distinctions between different European political and literary attitudes towards the 3iddle East. 0ikewise, -nn 0aura StolerHs Mace focuses on Jutch constructions of race, %ender, and misce%enation in Jutch colonial holdin%s in Southeast -sia. : -hmadHs statement is particularly about -merican intellectuals and not the /lack /ritish intellectual movements of the 1+8As and 1+7As, which have en%a%ed directly with postcolonial theory. ;he work of Stuart ?all and Paul =ilroy would be e&emplary in this latter case. * )hristine 3c)leod comments on this in her article 4/lack -merican 0iterature and the Postcolonial Jebate.5 hooksHs comments, in Pearnin% in particular, will be discussed in more detail below. G ?arris makes a point in this essay which critic -imL )Lsaire has also made concernin% European humanist philosophy. Specifically, )Lsaire ar%ues that, within the celebration of the liberty, e$uality, and fraternity of humanity, there e&ists an implicit cate%ory of the inhuman. ;he cate%ory of the 4inhuman,5 )Lsaire ar%ues, allowed the celebration of humanist values in Europe in the midst of a period in which European countries were sub1ectin% non.European peoples to colonial rule 61G9. @ # have in mind !%u%i wa ;hion%HoHs Jecolonisin% and )hinua -chebeHs 4-frican "riter.5 8 ;he definition of a sin%ular -frican -merican community with homo%eneous e&periences and aims has inspired a %reat deal of criticism by both those workin% within the /lack Power movement 6/eal :*:9 and by subse$uent academic evaluations of /lack nationalist movements and nationalism in %eneral 6hooks G7N =ilroy 2G9. # donHt intend to su%%est homo%eneity here but rather to repeat the terms of their ar%ument as it is made in their published work. 7 <or a more e&tended analysis, # would refer the reader to /art 3oore.=ilbertHs Postcolonial ;heory. 3oore.=ilbert provides a careful, clearly written analysis of the influence of post.structuralism on postcolonial theory.

1* + ;his passa%e also appears in ;he 0ocation of )ulture on pa%e **. 1A 3c)lintock makes this point in her essay 4;he -n%el of Pro%ressB Pitfalls of the ;erm CPost.)olonialismH5 67G9 and Shohat makes a similar ar%ument in 4!otes on the CPost. )olonialH5 61A79. 11 0a$ueurHs 3akin% Se& traces "estern, particularly European, definitions of the difference between 4male5 and 4female.5 0a$ueur ar%ues that they have, in every case he e&amines, depended upon pre.e&istin% constructions of masculinity and femininity and that the difference has indeed not always been understood as very %reat. 12 #n her essay 4On the ;hreshold of the "omanHs Era,5 ?a el >. )arby su%%ests an even earlier presentation of this ar%ument in the work of -nna Julia )ooper, #da /. "ells, and novelist Pauline ?opkins. 1: 0ikewise, in her discussion of constructions of 4race5 and 4ethnicity,5 Sne1a =unew succinctly points out that 4while CraceH has no basis in fact, racism does5 6::9. Stuart ?all has also ar%ued that 4it is only too temptin% to fall into the trap of assumin% that, because essentialism has been deconstructed theoretically, therefore it has been displaced politically5 62*+9. 1or#s Cited -chebe, )hinua. 4;he -frican "riter and the En%lish 0an%ua%e.5 3ornin% Pet on )reation Jay. !ew PorkB Joubleday, 1+8G. +1(1A:. -hmad, -i1a . #n ;heoryB )lasses, !ations, 0iteratures. 0ondonB >erso, 1++2. -n aldQa, =loria, and )herrRe 3ora%a, eds. ;his /rid%e )alled 3y /ackB "ritin%s by Madical "omen of )olor. !ew PorkB Kitchen ;able, "omen of )olor, 1+7:. -ppiah, -nthony. 4;he 'ncompleted -r%ument.5 )ritical #n$uiry 12 61+7G9B 21(:8. /eal, <rancis 3. 4Jouble JeopardyB ;o /e /lack and <emale.5 Sisterhood is Powerful. Ed. Mobin 3or%an. !ew PorkB >inta%e, 1+8A. :*A(G2. /habha, ?omi. ;he 0ocation of )ulture. 0ondonB Moutled%e, 1++*. ,,,. 4Mememberin% <anon.5 "illiams and )hrisman 112.2*./rown, Sterlin% -. 4Our 0iterary -udience.5 "ithin the )ircle. Ed. -n%elyn 3itchell. Jurham, !)B Juke 'P, 1++*. @+(87. )abral, -milcar. 4!ational 0iberation and )ulture.5 "illiams and )hrisman G:(@G. )arby, ?a el >. 4On the ;hreshold of the "omanHs Era.5 )ritical #n$uiry 12 61+7G9B 2@2(88. )armichael, Stokely, and )harles ?amilton. /lack Power. !ew PorkB Mandom, 1+@8. )Lsaire, -imL. Jiscourse on )olonialism. ;rans. Joan Pinkham. !ew PorkB 3onthly Meview P, 1+82. )hambers, #ain, and 0idia )urti, eds. ;he Post.)olonial Suestion. 0ondonB Moutled%e, 1++@. )ombahee Miver )ollective. 4- /lack <eminist Statement.5 -n aldQa and 3ora%a 21A( 17. <anon, <rant . 4-ddress to the <irst )on%ress of !e%ro "riters and -rtists.5 1+G@. ;owards an -frican Mevolution. ;rans. ?aakon )hevalier. 0ondonB Pen%uin, 1+8A. :*(

1G :8. ,,,. ;he "retched of the Earth. ;rans. )onstance <arrin%ton. !ew PorkB =rove, 1+@7. =ates, ?enry 0ouis, Jr. 0oose )anonsB !otes on the )ulture "ars. !ew PorkB O&ford 'P, 1++2. ,,,. 4"ritin%, CMace,H and the Jifference it 3akes.5 0oose )anonsB !otes on the )ulture "ars. !ew PorkB O&ford 'P, 1++2. =ilroy, Paul. 4Moute "orkB ;he /lack -tlantic and the Politics of E&ile.5 )hambers and )urti 18(2+. =unew, Sne1a. 4Postcolonialism and 3ulticulturalism.5 Pearbook of En%lish Studies 28 61++89B 22(:+. ?all, Stuart. 4"hen "as the PostcolonialF5 )hambers and )urti 2*2(@A. ?arris, "ilson. 4Meflection and >ision.5 )ommonwealth 0iterature and the 3odern "orld. Ed. ?ena 3aes.Jelinek. 0iO%e, /el%iumB Mevue des 0an%ues >ivantes. 1+8G. 1G( 1+. hooks, bell. Pearnin%B Mace, =ender and )ultural Politics. /ostonB South End, 1++A. Jan3ohamed, -bdul. 4;he Economy of the 3anichean -lle%ory.5 )ritical #n$uiry 12 61+7G9B G+(78. John, 3ary E. Jiscrepant Jislocations. /erkeleyB ' of )alifornia P, 1++@. Kristeva, Julia. !ations "ithout !ationalism. ;rans. 0eon S. Moudie . !ew PorkB )olumbia 'P, 1++:. 0a$ueur, ;homas. 3akin% Se&B /ody and =ender from the =reeks to <reud. )ambrid%eB ?arvard 'P, 1++A. 0ee, Jon 0. 4;owards a JefinitionB /lack Poetry of the Si&ties.5 "ithin the )ircle. Ed. -n%elyn 3itchell. Jurham, !)B Juke 'P, 1++*. 21:(2:. 0orde, -udre. 4;he 3asterHs ;ools "ill !ever Jismantle the 3asterHs ?ouse.5 -n aldQa and 3ora%a +7(1A1. 0owe, 0isa. )ritical ;errainsB <rench and /ritish Orientalisms. #thaca, !PB )ornell 'P, 1++1. 3c)leod, )hristine. 4/lack -merican 0iterature and the Postcolonial Jebate.5 Pearbook of En%lish Studies 28 61++89B G1(@G. 3c)lintock, -nne. 4;he -n%el of Pro%ressB Pitfalls of the ;erm CPost.)olonialism.H5 Socialte&t :1K:2 61++29B 7*(+7. ,,,. #mperial 0eather. !ew PorkB Moutled%e, 1++G. 3ishra, >i1ay and /ob ?od%e. 4"hat is Post 6.9 colonialismF5 "illiams and )hrisman 28@(+A. 3itchell, -n%elyn, ed. "ithin the )ircle. Jurham, !)B Juke 'P, 1++*. 3oore.=ilbert, /art. Postcolonial ;heory. 0ondonB >erso, 1++8. 3orrison, ;oni. Playin% in the JarkB "hiteness and the 0iterary #ma%ination. )ambrid%eB ?arvard 'P, 1++2. ,,,. 4'nspeakable ;hin%s 'nspoken.5 3itchell :@7(+7. !eal, 0arry. 4;he /lack -rts 3ovement.5 3itchell 17*(+7. !%u%i, ;hion%Ho wa. Jecolonisin% the 3indB ;he Politics of 0an%ua%e in -frican 0iterature. 0ondonB James )urrey, 1+71. Parry, /enita. 4PostcolonialB )onceptual )ate%ory or )himeraF5 Pearbook of En%lish Studies 28 61++89B :(21.

1@ Said, Edward. )ulture and #mperialism. !ew PorkB >inta%e, 1++:. ,,,. Orientalism. !ew PorkB >inta%e, 1+8+. ,,,. Mepresentations of the #ntellectual. !ew PorkB >inta%e, 1++@. ,,,. 4;ravellin% ;heory.5 Maritan 1.: 61+729B *1(@8. Shohat, Ella. 4!otes on the CPost.)olonial.H5 Socialte&t :1 61++29B ++(11:. Smith, /arbara. 4;owards a /lack <eminist )riticism.5 3itchell *1A(28. Stoler, -nn 0aura. Mace and the Education of Jesire. Jurham, !)B Juke 'P, 1++@. ;iffin, ?elen. 4;ransformative #ma%eries.5 <rom )ommonwealth to Postcolonial. Ed. -nna Mutherford. Sydney, -ustraliaB Jan%aroo, 1++2. "are, >ron. 4Jefinin% <orcesB CMace,H =ender and 3emories of Empire.5 ;he Post. )olonial Suestion. Ed. #ain )hambers and 0idia )urti. 0ondonB Moutled%e, 1++@. 1*2( G@. "illiams, Patrick, and 0aura )hrisman. )olonial Jiscourse and Post.)olonial ;heory. !ew PorkB )olumbia 'P, 1++*. htt*,22 !3. 00.!04.4!2*roduct2cras230 20c-nturff.html