Freeing Postcolonial Studies from Registers of Alterity: Preliminary Considerations Towards a non-oppositional Para-colonial Praxis

Abstract

Aims: This paper traces the development of the terms related to postcolonialism in literature departments, taking up the proliferation of the term ‘Global South’ as an alternative to Third World as its starting point.

Methodology and Approaches: The paper presents a detailed analysis of various ways in which we seek to interrogate the colonial influence and seek to represent the same in humanities through an assessment of the merits and meanings of various terms in currency. The paper posits that existing imaginaries are all built on oppositional binary frameworks that seek to ‘other’.

Outcome: In contrast to such imaginaries that cause postcolonial studies to remain fixated, the paper argues for the need to create imaginaries that seek to assert while accepting the complexities and myriad influences of the past. The paper posits the term Paracolonial, presenting the existing manner in which the term has been hitherto used and suggests its suitability for creating a new approach towards the area, rooting this approach, taking inspiration from Buddhism, in an acceptance of co-dependent origination as a guiding principle for phenomena.

Conclusion and Suggestions: It is hoped that such an orientation will avoid the pitfalls of both an uncritical valorisation of the values of the coloniser while avoiding the othering inherent in cultural nationalism.