عنوان

Reading Our Ruins

شماره

LA120393

زبان متن نوشتاري يا گفتاري و مانند آن

انگلیسی

عنوان اصلي

Reading Our Ruins

نام عام مواد

[Article]

نام نخستين پديدآور

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

محل نشرو پخش و غیره

Leiden

نام ناشر، پخش کننده و غيره

Brill

متن يادداشت

The essay enquires into what is accepted in academic and political circles as 'post-colonial' reality and questions some of the assumptions about its imagination, narratives, and edifices. It does this through the lens of moments taken from lived 'post-coloniality', mostly out of Kenya, which, like most 'independent nations' presumed a cut-off point between 'colonial' and its 'post' in the solemn ritual act of swapping flags one midnight. That the world, its presumptions and assumptions, certainly regarding civilizational apotheosis, is today in a state of befuddlement is no mystery. What is mysterious is the persistence of hollow ideas of the character of relationships among peoples, and the distribution of terminologies to refer to these-first world, third world, developed, undeveloped, colonial, post-colonial, neo-colonial, immigrant, expatriate-in a time when these neither make sense nor offer anything meaningful to the world. The essay finally retreats to the 'autopsy table' for inspiration: it imagines that the contradictions and confusions of the present era could also be read as an invitation to humanity to 'look at itself again and really see', and to, perhaps, this time, do so with that long-absent courage, truthfulness and humility that speak to human realities and allows for an examination of debris from unexplored past and present relationships that now disorder the human future. The essay enquires into what is accepted in academic and political circles as 'post-colonial' reality and questions some of the assumptions about its imagination, narratives, and edifices. It does this through the lens of moments taken from lived 'post-coloniality', mostly out of Kenya, which, like most 'independent nations' presumed a cut-off point between 'colonial' and its 'post' in the solemn ritual act of swapping flags one midnight. That the world, its presumptions and assumptions, certainly regarding civilizational apotheosis, is today in a state of befuddlement is no mystery. What is mysterious is the persistence of hollow ideas of the character of relationships among peoples, and the distribution of terminologies to refer to these-first world, third world, developed, undeveloped, colonial, post-colonial, neo-colonial, immigrant, expatriate-in a time when these neither make sense nor offer anything meaningful to the world. The essay finally retreats to the 'autopsy table' for inspiration: it imagines that the contradictions and confusions of the present era could also be read as an invitation to humanity to 'look at itself again and really see', and to, perhaps, this time, do so with that long-absent courage, truthfulness and humility that speak to human realities and allows for an examination of debris from unexplored past and present relationships that now disorder the human future.

تاريخ نشر

2018

توصيف ظاهري

13-27

عنوان

Matatu

شماره جلد

50/1

شماره استاندارد بين المللي پياييندها

1875-7421

اصطلاح موضوعی

African Studies

اصطلاح موضوعی

colonialism

اصطلاح موضوعی

Comparative Studies & World Literature

اصطلاح موضوعی

Criticism & Theory

اصطلاح موضوعی

Cultural History

اصطلاح موضوعی

historical metafiction

اصطلاح موضوعی

Kenya

اصطلاح موضوعی

Literature & Culture

اصطلاح موضوعی

Literature and Cultural Studies

اصطلاح موضوعی

Postcolonial Literature & Culture

اصطلاح موضوعی

postcolonialism

اصطلاح موضوعی

ruins

اصطلاح موضوعی

stories

اصطلاح موضوعی

the body

اصطلاح موضوعی

violence

مستند نام اشخاص تاييد نشده

Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor

شماره بازیابی

10.1163/18757421-05001012

نام الکترونيکي

فرمت انتشار

p

نوع ماده

[Article]

کد کاربرگه

275578

سطح دسترسي

a

تكميل شده

Y