Between the Lines: South Asians and Postcoloniality

3. Pedagogical Alternatives: Issues in Postcolonial Studies Interview with Gauri Viswanathan

---------------Pedagogical Alternatives: Issues in Postcolonial Studies Interview with Gauri Viswanathan Deepika Bahri and Mary Vasudeva This interview was conducted in segments, by mail and through telephone conversations in March and May 1994, between Viswanathan's busy schedule and repeated trips to India. DB/MV: Given the current proliferation of work done in the name of the "postcolonial," it seems imperative that we work toward developing a definition . Much of the work done under this label seems to suggest very different notions of what "Postcolonial" Studies should entail. How would you define the term? GV: "Postcolonial" is a misleading term because it assumes, first ofall, a body of knowledge or a specifiable period of time after colonialism. It is sometimes used interchangeably with "decolonized": Ngugi's apt phrase "decolonising the mind" accurately describes the agenda of postcoloniality.l I might define Postcolonial Studies broadly as a study of the cultural interaction between colonizing powers and the societies they colonized, and the traces that this interaction left on the literature, arts, and human sciences of both societies. But in its more popular usage, I suppose, "postcolonial" has come to signify more or less an attitude or position from which the decentering of Eurocentrism may ensue. DB/MV: Does nomenclature both enable certain narratives and their study and disable others? GV: In this case, "postcolonial" has enabled the inclusion of modern literatures into the English curriculum, on the grounds ofa global link between these 55 Interview with Gauri Viswanathan literatures forged by colonial history. But at the same time I think it has disabled , to some extent, a serious study of the specific histories of these other societies : All postcolonial societies, whether of India, Africa, or the Caribbean, are assumed to have a parallel history. The term "postcolonial" sometimes tends to rob serious study of non-European literature of a contextual focus. Therefore, I would like to see a judicious balance ofconcentrated regional study with a broader theoretical emphasis. Furthermore, the term has acquired the characteristics ofan adjective that expresses attitudes rather than a field ofstudy-like "radical" or "subaltern"-so that there is a self-selection even in what is taken up for discussion. The term "postcolonial" has not evoked the kind of resistance that Fredric Jameson's characterization ofThird World literature as allegory certainly has, though one could make a strong argument that there are distinct allegorical overtones.2 DB/MV: Could you elaborate on the allegorical overtones in the use of the term "postcolonial"? GV: I was contrasting the fierce resistance Jameson evoked in critics, when he spoke about Third World national allegory, to the ready acceptance of the term "postcolonial." I don't think people had too much difficulty in seeing how the term "Third World" homogenized multiply constituted histories and- disparate territories into one unified whole, and people actively resisted this totalizing tendency; however, the same kind of resistance has not occurred with the use of "postcolonial." People have accepted the term as an accurate representation , whereas I think that the term has to be specialized, particularly in the context of Third World nationalism. DB/MV: Do you think there has been much examination of the use and meaning of the term or its specificity? GV: I don't think so, at least as far as I can see. It has not been subject to the kind of self-examination that "Third World" has; we say "the so-called Third World," but we don't say "the so-called postcolonial." People use the word as a descriptive term, and this is indicative of the tendency to approach Postcolonial Studies as a kind of self-positioning. DB/MV: A kind of nonreflective self-positioning? You are saying people aren't seeing any necessary political or subversive charge in this term. Is this a term you see as emerging from the academy rather than a historical situation? There's obviously a certain historical grounding there-but do you see its use in the academy as separate, somewhat, from this grounding? What causes the acceptance of this term? GV: I think the first part of your question prOvides the answer: You ask if it comes from the academy, and by and large it has come out of the academy. You do see it as a descriptive term in America, whereas in India and other countries 56 Deepika Bahri and Mary Vasudeva with a colonial past it has a very...