Rethinking postcolonialism : colonialist discourse in modern literatures and the legacy of ... classical writers

Acheraiou challenges postcolonial discourse analysis and proposes a new model of interpretation that resituates the historical, ideological and conceptual denseness of the Colonial idea. He questions key issues, including hybridity, Otherness and territoriality, and expands the postcolonial field by introducing ground-breaking theoretical concepts. Rethinking Postcolonialism challenges postcolonial discourse analysis and proposes a new model of interpretation that resituates the historical, ideological and conceptual denseness of the Colonial Idea. It questions key issues, including hybridity, Otherness and territoriality, and expands the postcolonial field by introducing valuable, ground-breaking theoretical concepts: colonialism-as-grafting, colonialist discourse as a rhetorical and ideological palimpsest, m̌tissage as the space of the impossible. Amar Achera̐ou explores imperial intellectual history and shows how the classical writers2 ideas on race, culture, identity and Otherness served as a template for modern colonialist ideology. Besides mapping the multi-layered Western imperial consciousness, the book probes Europe's anti-colonial tradition. It integrates the discussion of modernist literature with a critique of European post-Enlightenment philosophical concepts. In this interdisciplinary study, Achera̐ou addresses both ancient and modern canonical texts, and offers insightful textual analyses of works by Aristotle, Plato, Rudyard Kipling, Rider Haggard, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, Andř Gide and Albert Camus Front Matter....Pages i-x Introduction....Pages 1-8 Front Matter....Pages 9-9 Modern Europe and Classical Connections....Pages 11-39 Imperial Ideology: Between Totality and Differentiation....Pages 40-54 Impact of Classical Discourse of Barbarism on Modern Colonial Taxonomies....Pages 55-69 Colonialism: From Hegemony to Infantilism....Pages 70-81 Modernist Writers, Classical Ideal and Empire....Pages 82-112 Front Matter....Pages 113-113 Modernism, Modernity and Imperialism....Pages 115-120 Culture, Civilisation and Inter-Racial Encounters: Joseph Conrad’s Almayer’s Folly....Pages 121-137 Redeeming the Colonial Idea: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness....Pages 138-157 Pedagogy of Re-Colonisation or the Peaceful Re-Conquest: André Gide’s Voyage au Congo....Pages 158-175 Split Between Radical Rhetoric and Conservative Practices: Graham Greene’s Journey Without Maps....Pages 176-195 Getting Out of the ‘Nightmares’ of History and ‘Stiff’ Imperial Culture: Albert Camus....Pages 196-213 Conclusion....Pages 214-219 Back Matter....Pages 220-250 "Rethinking Postcolonialism challenges postcolonial discourse analysis and proposes a new model of interpretation that resituates the historical, ideological and conceptual denseness of the Colonial Idea. It questions key issues, including hybridity, Otherness and territoriality, and expands the postcolonial field by introducing valuable, ground-breaking theoretical concepts: colonialism-as-grafting, colonialist discourse as a rhetorical and ideological palimpsest, metissage as the space of the impossible."--Jacket