REVIEW ESSAY Mapping the New Imperialism: where is postcolonialism?

The question is a spatial one. Where is postcolonialism? It’s a question of location, or more precisely relocation. It is no longer located in the neighbourhood of modernism, May ‘68, structural Marxism and decolonisation theory. Postcolonialism has been relocated down the hall, sharing offices with the postmodernists and poststructuralists, the ‘other standpoint and anti-hegemonic theories such as feminism, gay/lesbian and ethnic studies ’ (p. xi). Surprisingly, perhaps, it shares room with disability studies. The question of location and disciplinary identity are thrown together, yet their intersection is addressed more in terms of the past than the future – more in terms of genealogy than cartography, although this much abused Nietzschean word is robbed of most of its originality. Thus, the editors Goldberg & Quayson introduce us to the new scale and sensibility of postcolonial studies by emphasising the recognisable standard, beginning with Said’s Orientalism (1978), traversing through Ashcroft et al’s The Empire Strikes Back (1989), and exploding into a range of trajectories – ‘image, culture and representation, studies of imperial and colonial history, anthropology, cultural studies, multiculturalism, and diaspora ’ (p. xi). The collection has no common agenda for revision but does cluster essays together. Chapters 1-4 (including Said, Bhabha, Spivak and Parry) provide conversational, personal and theoretical overviews. The next cluster focuses on race theory and diaspora – Goldberg on racial state formations