Postcolonial Theory: Bhabha and Fanon

Anindita Monda

Abstract: Enlightenment had fixed a standard of modernity. By this fixed standard or criteria of civilization, classification or categorization of society is started. It sets a certain structure of thought. By these criteria of evaluation, other societies are ranked as civilized, semi-civilized or barbarian. For example, west= urban= industrial= developed= good= desirable or the non-west= rural= agricultural= underdeveloped= bad= undesirable. That means, it produces a certain kind of knowledge about a subject and certain attitudes towards it. So, we can say that the idea of west and non-west is basically a construction. The west and other became two sides of a single coin. What each now is, and what the terms we use to describe them mean, depend on the relations which were established between them long ago. The so called uniqueness of the west was, in part, produced by Europes contact and self-comparison with other societies which were very different in their histories, ecologies, patterns of development and cultures from the European model. The basis of comparison was that fixed standard which was derived from Enlightenment. The difference of these other societies and cultures from the west was the standard against which the Wests achievement was measured. It is within the context of these relationships that the idea of the west took on shape and meaning. (Hall, 1992: 278)

Keywords: colonialism, west, other, east, ambivalence