A Question of History: Geographical/Historical Context

Abstract

The discourse of postcolonial theory, and therefore postcolonial studies, has historically been subject to two major limitations. First, there is the “materialist/discursive divide” that I set out in the Introduction to this book — Yoshimoto’s “opposition between theory and history” (1991: 252). This concept refers to the conflict between the potential of historical focus to elide possible healing and de/reconstruction through narratological decolonization, and the potential of narrativization to elide the bitter horrors of what JanMohamed refers to as the “Manichean struggle” or “profound conflict” of colonialism’s historical reality (1985: 60).