Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History
1 total work
Addressing the problem of forging a theoretical practice that deals with the struggles of once-colonized countries with crumbling societies, the author proposes a strategic practice of criticism that brings the political more clearly into view. Through a series of linked essays on culture and politics in his native Jamaica and Sri Lanka, the book examines the ways in which modernity inserted itself and altered the lives of the colonized. The institutional procedures encoded in these modern post-colonial states and their legal systems come under scrutiny, as do our contemporary languages of the political. The author's aim is to demonstrate that modern concepts of political representation, community, rights, obligation, and the common good do not apply universally and require reconsideration. His ultimate goal is to describe the modern colonial past in a way that enables us to appreciate more deeply the contours of our historical present and that enlarges the possibility of reshaping it.