Postcolonial theory and globalized empathy
From development to difference
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11937697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jens Elze (English, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 156-165 |
| Publication date | 2018-04-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-0188 • E-ISSN: 1743-2790 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03080188.2018.1450925 |
| OpenAlex | W2800894132 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 13 |
Postcolonial theory, with its focus on epistemological difference, material subversion, and cultural hybridity, is said to be at odds with the emotional and cognitive takeover implied in empathy. My paper will, to the contrary, suggest that the critique of political developmentalism and the turn towards a preference for cultural difference that inaugurated postcolonial studies as we know it may have actually helped to forge a relation between the perspectives of postcolonial theory and empathy. This relation is based on the ultimately individual focus that both imply through their rejection of abstract rational politics, which politically limits them to humanitarianism. My reading of Indra Sinha's Animal's People will show how this novel performs the heavy impact of this entanglement between postcolonial otherness, empathy, and humanitarianism by arguing that the novel ironically restructures its plot and political imaginary to suit the needs of humanitarian empathy that governs the global market for postcolonial literatures
Aesthetics · Developmentalism · Empathy · Epistemology · Hybridity · Political science · Politics · Postcolonialism (international relations · Psychoanalysis · Reading (process · Relation (database · Sociology · The Imaginary · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · South Asian Cinema and Culture
| Citations per year | 0.38 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2023 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |