The Neocolonialism of Postcolonialism:

Why is it that, in a conspicuously neocolonial global environment, the terrn «postcoloni-alisrn)) has achieved such widespread acadernic currency? This paper analyzes the current vogue for postcolonial studies in western universities, presenting both a challenge to its commodified intellectual status and a defense of its capacity for cultural critique. «Postco-lonialism, » the paper argues, does not imply that the colonial era is over; on the contrary, it confronts the «neocoloniality » of our present times. Key words: Postcolonialisrn, Neocolonialism, global hegemony, cornmodity culture. There appears to be in both [the] subdisciplines [of ((Third World Literature)) and «Colonial Discourse Analysis*] far greater interest in the colonialism of the past than in the irnperialism of the present. (Ahmad, 1992: 93) We live in neocolonial, not postcolonial, times. US military intervention in the Gulf and the Horn of Africa; structural dependency in the Caribbean and Latin America; continuing racial oppression and factional strife in Sout