Beyond Postcolonial Theory

332 Pages·1998·30.56 MB·English

by  E. San Juan Jr. (auth.)

Beyond
Postcolonial
Theory
ALSO BY E. SAN JUAN, JR.
From Exile to Diaspora
The Philippine Temptation
Hegemony and Strategies ofTransgression
Allegories of Resistance
Racial Formations / Critical Transformations
From the Masses, to the Masses
Reading the West / Writing the East
History and Form
Mediations: From a Filipino Perspective
Writing and National Liberation
Beyond
Postcolonial
Theory
E. San Juan, Jr.
BEYOND POSTCOLONIAL THEORY
Copyright © E. San J uan, 1998. All rights reserved.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1998978-0-312-17426-2
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission except in the case ofbrief quotations
embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address Sr. Martin's
Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
ISBN 978-1-349-61659-6 ISBN 978-1-349-61657-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-61657-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
San Juan, E. (Epifanio), 1938-
Beyond postcolonial theory / E. San J uan, J r.
p. cm.
lncludes bibliographical references and index.
1. Developing coumries. 1. Tide.
D883.S16 1998
909'.09724---<ic21 97-19890
ClP
Design by Acme Art, lne.
First edition: January, 1998
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
TTrraannssffeerrrreedd ttoo DDiiggiittaall PPrriinnttiinngg 22001111..
To all political prisoners in the world, north and south
No uprisingfails. Each one is a step in the right direction.
-Sa!ud Algabre,
leader of the Sakdal rebellion
in the Philippines, 1935
The tradition 0/ the oppressed teaches us that the ''state 0/
emergency" in which we live is not the exception but the rule.
0/
We must attain to a conception history that is in keeping
with this insight. Then we shall clearly realize that it is our
task to bring about areal state 0/ emergency.
-Wa!ter Benjamin,
"Theses on the Philosophy of History" (1940)
Resolution in hardship, perseverance to the end. [0J nly those
0/
who have aims and ambitions flr the benefit not the
individual, but 0/ humankind as a whole, can persevere to
the end.
-Ding Ling,
"Thoughts on March 8"
To the socialist, no nation is free whose national existence is
based upon the enslavement 0/ another people, flr to him
colonial peoples, too, are human beings, anti, as such, parts
0/ the national state. International socialism recognizes the
0/
right free independent nations, with equal rights. But
socialism alone can create such nations, can bring self
determination o/their peoples. This slogan o/socialism is like
all its others, not an apolog)' flr existing conditions, but a
guidepost, a spur flr the revolutionary, regenerative, active
policy o/the proletariat. So long as capitalist states exist, i.e.,
so long as imperialistic world policies determine and regulate
the inner and the outer lift 0/ a nation, there can be no
"national selfdetermination" either in war or in peace.
-Rosa Luxemburg,
The Crisis in German Socia! Democracy (1916)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments .................................... ix
Introduction .......................................... 1
1. Interrogations and Interventions:
Who Speaks for Whom? ......................2 1
2. Postcolonial Theory versus the Revolutionary Process
in the Philippines ............................ 53
3. "Vnspeakable" Subalterns: Lessons from Gramsci,
EI Saadawi, Freire, Silko ....................... 83
4. The Multicultural Imaginary: Problematizing Identity
and the Ideology of Racism ................... 113
5. Revisiting an "Internal Colony": V.S. Asian
Cultural Formations and the Metamorphosis
of Ethnic Discourse ......................... 155
6. Globalization, Dialogic Nation, Diaspora " ............. 195
7. Beyond Postcolonial Theory:
The Mass Line in C. L. R. James's Works ........ 227
8. Imagining the End ofEmpire:
Emergencies and Breakthroughs ................ 251
Notes .............................................2 75
Bibliography ........................................2 86
Index ............................................. 315

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It has been over two decades since I edited one of the first collections of
Georg Lukac' s writings in English translation (published in 1973 in New
York City); despite the vicissitudes of the struggle during the Cold War
era, the ideals of the great revolutionary thinker still exercise a catalyzing
influence on the minds of my generation, including myself. One of these
ideals is condensed in fact in the third part of Marx' s "Theses on
Feuerbach"; "The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of
human activity can be conceived and rationally understood only as
revolutionizing practice." Whether conceived as radicalizing "theoretical
practice" or united-front/coalition work, most of these essays were first
tried out as lectures, "interventions" if you like, or remarks on various
occasions and then, with the benefit of the antagonisms and challenges
from those arenas of contestation, rethought and revised in a new format.
No doubt many of the themes and arguments found he re continue the
projects begun in my earlier works, among them Racial Formations/
0/
Critical Transformations, Hegemony and Strategies Transgression, and
The Philippine Temptation.
Most of those occasions took place in the Philippines, particularly
at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City and at various
campuses of the University of the Philippines (in Metro Manila, Iloilo
City, Miag-ao, and Baguio City), and also at the International Academy
of Management and Economics (IAME) in Makati City, Philippines. I
want to thank in particular Professors Soledad Reyes and Lulu Torres of
Ateneo de Manila University, Dr. EImer Ordofiez of the University of
the Philippines, Professor Tomas Talledo (UP Visayas), Professors
Roland Simbulan and Ed Villegas (UP Manila), and President
Emmanuel T. Santos of the IAME for their hospitality and encourage
ment in inviting me to lecture at the aforementioned institutions.
Here I also want to acknowledge the comradeship ofDr. Giovanna
Covi and Mark Beitel of the Universita degli studi di Trento, Italy, for
giving me the opportunity to share my ideas with the members of the
English Seminar in Trento during May 1995. Thanks also to Professor
Donald Pease who instigated the composition of parts of "The Multi-