Inversion in postcolonial theory

Inversion in postcolonial theory

The concept of inversion in postcolonial theory and subaltern studies refers to a discursive strategy which opposes or resists a dominant discourse by turning around its categories and re-enacting an asymmetrical relation with the terms the other way around.Fact|date=February 2007 The term can be used with positive, negative or neutral value-connotations.Or|date=September 2007

Origins and uses

The term derives from studies of modalities of resistance by the Subaltern Studies school, but reflects concerns pervasive from the earliest days of post- and anti-colonial writing. Ranajit Guha refers to inversion as one of the modalities of peasant revolt in colonial India, noting practices such as forcing landlords to carry peasants on Sedan chairs. Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth provides an extensive discussion and partial advocacy of inversion in a social context defined by strong binaries. A reversal of the coloniser's monopoly on violence is taken to be necessary to break out of the master-slave dialectic, a learnt sense of cultural inferiority and the learned helplessness of the colonised. The term "inversion woodcuts" also appears in peasant studies as a description of imagery such as an ox killing a butcher (e.g. James Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance, 166-72).

The term has become useful as a way of theorising violence. Definitions of terms such as racism and sexism are contested, and theorists who use structural or institutional definitions thus refuse to typify actions against members of structurally dominant groups by structurally subordinate groups, or prejudicial beliefs against members of dominant groups, with these terms. Actions such as Palestinian suicide bombing, the 911 attacks, land reform in Zimbabwe, the writings and actions of Valerie Solanas and SCUM, and what are treated by the state as racially-motivated crimes against white people, would be examples of cases where the term would be used. Ward Churchill's essay On the Justice of Roosting Chickens is an example of this kind of analysis from an author sympathetic to inversion. Harold Adelman's criticism of certain depictions of Palestinian violence as 'inversion pure and simple'

Attaching positive values to an essence of the oppressed, as in some black consciousness and Afrocentric ideas, would also be an instance of inversion, especially to critics. Edward Said argues against this inversion, suggesting that "in Post-colonial national states, the liabilities of such essences as the Celtic spirit, négritude, or Islam are clear: they have much to do not only with the native manipulators, who also use them to cover up contemporary faults, corruptions, tyrannies, but also with the embattled imperial contexts out of which they came and in which they were felt to be necessary" (Culture and Imperialism [1994] 16).

Inversion versus subversion

Theorists inspired by deconstruction, such as Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha, criticise inversion as failing to overcome binaries. Inversion is sometimes contrasted with "subversion", with the observation that subversion breaks down a binary whereas inversion retains it. As Partha Bramerjee summarises the controversy in subaltern studies, "It appeared as if the consciousness of protest and resistance was always already implicated in the terms of the dominant discourses themselves, for inversion and negation had to depend on the continued existence of the dominant as the necessary Other."

Homi Bhabha asks: "Can the aim of freedom of knowledge be the simple inversion of the relation of oppressor and oppressed, centre and periphery, negative image and positive image?" His answer is that hybridity is to a preferable strategy, "negotiation rather than negation".

This rejection of inversion is a source of contention between postcolonial theorists such as Spivak, Said and Bhabha, and identity-political anti-colonial theorists associated with Afrocentrism, black consciousness and various nationalisms.

References

Prathama Banerjee, review of Subaltern Studies X,http://www.lib.virginia.edu/area-studies/SouthAsia/SAserials/Biblio/bss10.html

Ward Churchill, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens"http://cryptome.org/ward-churchill.htm

Howard Adelman, "Optimism and Pessimism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"http://www.yorku.ca/crs/Publications/OCEP%20PDFs/H%20A%20Optimism%20and%20Pessimism-%20the%20Israeli-Palestinian%20Conflict.PDF

Homi Bhabha, excerpt from "The Commitment to Theory", http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/commit.htmland in The Location of Culture, pp.18-28.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Postcolonialism — (postcolonial theory, post colonial theory) is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of theories found among the texts and sub texts of philosophy, film, political science and literature. These theories are reactions to the cultural …   Wikipedia

  • Inverse — or inversion may refer to:* Inverse (program), a program for solving inverse and optimization problems * Inversion (music) * Inversion (prosody), the reversal of the order of a foot s elements * Inversion (linguistics) * Inversion (law),… …   Wikipedia

  • On the Justice of Roosting Chickens —   …   Wikipedia

  • Orientalism (book) — Orientalism   …   Wikipedia

  • anthropology — anthropological /an threuh peuh loj i keuhl/, anthropologic, adj. anthropologically, adv. /an threuh pol euh jee/, n. 1. the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs… …   Universalium

  • List of philosophy topics (I-Q) — II and thou I Ching I Ching I proposition I Thou I Thou relationshipIaIamblichus (philosopher)IbYahya Ibn Adi Yahya Ibn Adi Ibn al Arabi Muhyi al Din Ibn al Arabi Abu Bakr Ibn Bajja Abu Bakr Ibn Bājja Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Yahya Ibn as Say igh… …   Wikipedia

  • Europe, history of — Introduction       history of European peoples and cultures from prehistoric times to the present. Europe is a more ambiguous term than most geographic expressions. Its etymology is doubtful, as is the physical extent of the area it designates.… …   Universalium

  • Matriarchy — Gynecocracy redirects here. For the pornographic novel, see Gynecocracy (novel). Matriarch redirects here. For other uses, see Matriarch (disambiguation). Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • Terminology of homosexuality — The terminology of homosexuality has been a contentious issue since the emergence of homosexual social movements in the mid 19th century. As with racial terms within the United States ndash; such as negro , black , colored , and African American… …   Wikipedia

  • India — /in dee euh/, n. 1. Hindi, Bharat. a republic in S Asia: a union comprising 25 states and 7 union territories; formerly a British colony; gained independence Aug. 15, 1947; became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations Jan. 26, 1950.… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”