Description
Book SynopsisHow can we best forge a theoretical practice that directly addresses the struggles of once-colonized countries, many of which face the collapse of both state and society in today's era of economic reform? This book examines the ways in which modernity inserted itself into and altered the lives of the colonized.
Trade Review"This is an ambitious and exciting book by a gifted young anthropologist. David Scott takes two ex-colonial countries which he personally knows well, Sri Lanka and Jamaica, and subjects aspects of their constructed representation to probing criticism. He does much more than simply apply familiar principles of constructivist critique to new ethnographic material. Scott's purpose is to encourage the rethinking of political options for the future, and in so doing to extend the meaning of postcolonial critique."
—Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center"In this powerfully argued and theoretically sophisticated book, David Scott interrogates the conditions of possibility for a post- 'third world' politics that is both critical and strategic. . . . A major work which marks a new departure in the field."
—Stuart HallTable of ContentsIntroduction: Criticism after Postcoloniality3Pt. 1Rationalities21Ch. 1Colonial Governmentality23Ch. 2Religion in Colonial Civil Society53Ch. 3The Government of Freedom70Pt. 2Histories91Ch. 4Dehistoricizing History93Ch. 5"An Obscure Miracle of Connection"106Pt. 3Futures129Ch. 6The Aftermaths of Sovereignty131Ch. 7Community, Number and the Ethos of Democracy158Ch. 8Fanonian Futures?190Coda: After Bandung: From the Politics of Colonial Representation to a Theory of Postcolonial Politics221Acknowledgements225Index227
