Of Hauntings, Impasses and Lacunae: The South African Debate on Postcolonial Theory

Abstract

Which modalities of postcolonial theory gained currency within the literary-cultural discourses of the South African academy? In seeking to answer this, I highlight the key concerns in the debate on postcolonial theory in South Africa: the question of the applicability of the term postcolonial or a notion of postcoloniality as an ex­planatory discourse for the South African case; the question of critical disablement of the investigating intellectual who deploys postcolonial theory informed by decon­struction; the question of the political implications of postcolonial theory as appro­priated in the South African academy; and the question of the focus on racial and cultural difference at the expense of an analysis of class. The mode of articulation of postcolonial theory in South Africa submerges a "liberal-humanist" tendency - one that sought to abrogate some of the most radical insights of postcolonial theory. What results from this will to power is a deadlocked institutional politics that does not yet begin to exhaust the potentialities of postcolonial theory - a correlative reduc­tivism of literary criticism (should we posit one) could then perhaps be traced back to
this moment of appropriating a theoretical lexicon.

Opsomming
Watter modaliteite van postkoloniale teorie het posgevat binne die literer-kulturele diskoerse van die Suid-Afrikaanse akademie? In die soeke na hierdie antwoord beklemtoon ek die volgende belangrike punte in die debat oor postkoloniale teorie in Suid-Afrika: die kwessie van die toepaslikheid van die term postkoloniale of 'n idee van postkolonialiteitstudies as 'n verklarende diskoers vir die Suid-Afrikaanse geval; die vraag van kritiese belemmering van die ondersoekende intellektueel wat post­koloniale teorie ingelig deur dekonstruksie ontplooi; die kwessie van die politieke implikasies van postkoloniale teorie soos aangewend in die Suid-Afrikaanse aka­demie; en die vraag van die fokus op rasse- en kultuurverskille ten koste van 'n ontleding van klas. Die modus van artikulasie van postkoloniale teorie in Suid-Afrika verskuil 'n "liberaal-humanistiese" neiging - een wat sommige van die mees radikale insigte van postkoloniale teorie verwerp. Wat volg uit hierdie wil vir mag is 'n dooie­punt institusionele politiek wat nog nie eers begin om die potensiaal van post­koloniale teorie uit te put nie - 'n korrelatiewe reduktivisme van literere kritiek (sou ons een aanneem) kan dan moontlik teruggevoer word tot hierdie oomblik van toeeiening van 'n teoretiese leksikon.