The Location of Culture by Homi Bhabha Review by: Amrohini J. Sahay College Literature, Vol. 23, No.

1, Comparative Poetics: Non-Western Traditions of Literary Theory (Feb., 1996), pp. 227-232 Published by: College Literature Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112240 . Accessed: 17/06/2013 05:28
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Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture. New York:Routledge, 1994.S55.00 he; np.
AMROHINI SYRACUSE
In the confusions Western aftermath that of the

J. SAHAY UNIVERSITY

followed

European the antagonisms dented intensity. tute for "Area Studies" soon "Oriental

revisionisms of the New Left and the national "identity" War in US and the Algerian and the Vietnam War, upon a seemingly new to address (and manage) space "theory" opened an unprece in the post-war social division of labor that had reached (Post)colonial theory by the the most as an academically "Left" susti State the US and by Department) Affairs" ministries of European govern "Foreign modes of inquiry. the (Post)colonial "popular" which emerged

Studies"

(primarily

sponsored

ments)

became

(supported one of

measure in various the theoretical and the ory combined "rigor" of (post)structuralism new "activist" field of "Cultural Since of the equally Studies." the late 1970s energies its canon Fanon's the field has formed The Wretched (Said's Orientalism, of the Earth, Anderson's The White Postcolonial Communities, Critic, Spivak's Imagined Young's Mythologies?) nary academic on the contemporary discipline interdiscipli K. Bhabha's that Homi first book The Location space in terms of a supposedly is itself "located" "innovative" "move from away of Culture as primary cate the singularities of 'class' or 'gender' and organizational conceptual in line with the "post-history," (1). As a result, gories" "post-gender," "post-produc and scene. It is in this tion," "post-necessity," reconstruction" (3) theory, his various that in short, "post-exploitation;" is currently the articulating are offered as a the destabilization of "post-al"1 condition "spirit of of social toward discursive revision and and cultural of is now an established

the existing "reform"ing boundaries. tional) The decade, on the racial book a selection formation "stereotypes" not is a

writings via

contribution established

the

project (representa

collection

of includes

twelve most

of

Bhabha's

which of an

of Bhabha's

written essays older and well

over known his

the

past of of

writings

(anti)colonial of of (86)?as the the

in terms production

read quite" authority, a fracturing texts of British to indicate colonial of colo ing of several as "Signs Taken as well text which nial strategies of surveillance, For Wonders"?the of introduced his "trademark" the pluralizaron of colo concept "hybridity" describing recent His more nial discourse. which extend the of (anti)colo essays, problematic on in terms of a more nial subjectivity focus include "up-to-date" "agency," readings of Fanon of the fiction of Salman contemporary poetry, (post)colonial alongside Rushdie ic and Toni Morrison, of as well colonialism as a more via traditional Conrad and cultural engagement Forster. with Also the canon included is

"mimicry"?the the same but

are these Among subjectivity. Freudian of fetishism, his theory as "a colonized of difference subject of disruption administration of colonial

analysis theorization that is almost his

a mode

"Dissemination," stituted standing essay of the and of

writings which "Race, "race"

a theorization as performatively con of the "nation" provides Time and the Revision of Modernity" which for an under argues as a differential articulation of cultural The sole new difference. Newness and Enters concerned the World" with the framed, "poetics once of in terms again, and translation"

in the book

is "How of

the problematic "migrant

"agency"

experience"

(212-224).

Book

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The

specific

epistemological various cultural which al was put

which question to "alternative" discourses, in question as

the organizes "multiculturalism"?an a device 70s and to bring early

book

is that

of

how has of lost

idea which back 80s, and the has notion since

to provide been used, "experience" its intellectu

an in

in the

the liberal-pluralist and fundamentally rescuing legitimacy?while experiential pol itics which it supports. in terms is broadly framed This of a distinction attempt a (multiculturalist) on the notion between model of culture based of "cultural diver sity" and difference" "recognition essentialist radical textuality "significatory lem of the ject Saussurean tural of what (34). of notion Bhabha opposes to it?a model of "cultural "cultural customs" on that interaction" diversity" (34) and, as cultural as relies such, relativism by the "cultural on on and inter the an "a

According

pre-given of "identity" of the

to Bhabha, whereas contents cultural and

rhetoric of

their boundaries

separation historical of of

to an emphasis leading of totalized cultures locations," where difference" by "cultural the "limit of (34).

live unsullied

difference" culture

culture" cultural

enunciation

In terms

the emphasizes as a prob [is thought] of the (speaking) "sub and notion articulation. "fluidi in late of post cul In

cultural

knowledge" "cultural linguistics),

(informed difference"

in is constructed which "identity" a characterized less by any discursive "fixity" subject can accommodate the complexities which ty" and "flexibility" of cultural societies. the politics Before examining capitalist it presupposes?it will cursive model of the social which short, specifically In "The of of "cultural resistance the at its theoretical conditions to Theory," texts of Commitment difference" to "colonial language of the or of

psychoanalysis a (post-Cartesian) provides the very process of discursive than

Lacanian

a discursive

of experience difference?and be useful to look them. his as

the dis more

as Bhabha outlines of possibility the genealogy of Bhabha locates colonialism, process becomes where by which it is articulated

in the

concept a mode of dom field of of insta the (38)

ination signification

authority"?a the master

colonial

"cultural

hybrid" difference"

"in the very practice the (33). Within announces a

"misread[ing]" at the bility fixity which of

(34) of "misappropriat[ion]" a productive level of enunciation, of colonial the boundaries discursivity of the binary is no longer of first of colonizer/colonized. understood as

that produces signs "ambivalence" which and constructs In other existing

modality a discursive deconstructs identifies]"

"hybrid

"exceed"

onizer/colonized rather, tions able as the

in a relation

(Derridean) term the

through this onized): "same" struction from of

of the "identity" demonstration

supplementarity. is destabilized (colonizer) fact that

the binary of col words, in a hierarchical relation but, As with all supplemental rela and rendered undecid

it is actually inclusive of its "other" (col marks of the of meaning which the "difference" overflow of an excess or self-decon in terms of a self-"dismantling" itself is further understood

deconstruction"

It is in fact precisely this notion of the colonial. of the "self ideology of the colonial?which marks of the colonial?the "postcoloniality" it within of Bhabha's discourse the specificity (post)colonial theory, distinguishing as humanism and new from of traditional the discourses (humanism) (Said), (Fanon), the as from "classic" Of

well

(Spivak). (post)structuralism as a sys on is itself dependent the erasure of colonialism this view tem of exploitation domination" the lines of "cultural and its rearticulation (32). along institutes of "domination" has had that the concept this displacement long Although "revisions" Marxism of classical in bourgeois (initially standing legitimacy sociology's course, introduced to a Weberian into cultural the Frankfurt School's through "superstructuralist" theory most it has been the social), model of "multidimensional" turn widely

228

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deployed ings of

in the discourses Foucault which

of (post)structuralism, constitute the foundation in the social) analysis social of

and, particularly, own of Bhabha's the colonial. of exploitation

in the

(early) "discourse"

writ (lan

in its circulation guage as in Foucault, displaces on the "multiple" sites a micrologic of

"Domination," through and relations

in Bhabha its emphasis

the global logic of (reversible) of operation The knowledge of "dispersion."

a mode of anti-"history" which of "genealogy" knowledge a descriptive social of "fields of local-ized (experiential) power." totality knowledge on the "local"?which This obscures the political of the local as economy emphasis more to the global? to the mode it relates amenable of descriptive "dou is, finally, a in ble readings"?always all of Bhabha's textual operative locality?which analyses (repetitively) stage.2 as a (local) This mode of reading, of foregrounding mark its lack of mastery the dominant which ideology deconstruct over, basically the narratives words, through equal this its hold (domination) over of the a neo-liberal of the the "same," the (its internal difference contradictions "within") of and

"power" is what this dispersion substitutes for a historical

inaugurates Foucault calls

practice ensconced

other nizer terms ?but

"self-deconstruction" of

of cultural is, more meanings, regulation in accommodation of the "other" pluralistic a bourgeois In within of "equality." thematics of the hierarchical of colonized/colo binary and so to render is designed both thus tropologically "equal") in fact, conceals from view the are

the reading practice (they are both traversed a discursive is merely space relations where

supplementarity

by diff?rance

(extra-discursive) of the

binary of the excess allegory

ruling of this objective The signifier. privileged in Bhabha's discourse of diff?rance) "identity," of his

which, equality, are not equal?the divided space determinately In (post)structuralist of production. the explanatory theory is fractured movements division differential by the "excess"ive they name for this is "hybridity"?a the range of fracturing-tropic-equality-as-discursive which its place takes concept "undecidable" in dominant concepts?"nation," (post)colonial of the colonial model (as

an

among

other

"subaltern," ory. In defense (post)colonial

"travel".currently

in circulation

the

however, which

supplementary Bhabha maintains (40) Yet,

readings us reminds a focus on the

of

various such

texts a

and of locates

that

theoretical of discourse, in allowing resistance,

(post)coloniality, a space of "empowerment" tural difference"

and his

"resistance" notion

"hybridization" for the "other" and

for based

"cul on

to emerge.

a politics of enunciation, substitutes on to be dependent reciprocally ized resistances: the of "spontaneous" the signs praxis

of empowerment an ethical empowerment?he with) "dialogue" and "immanent" the of dominant?for resistance. resistances

(in

the dominated

dominating and particular of "misreading" and and such economic a radical

is seen

"misappropriation" empowerment understanding ized anti-global which (social) ference) (semiotic) he

of

the through of empowerment

collective resistance dialectic

a political In fact,

and of scene the the of two

understanding On the supports.

is thoroughly occluded between dominating dialectic (not terms textual a "pure" but

by the local and dominated axis of the dif

this opposed

localized

the materialist

difference-between is dissolved and,

a relational

under This and as

difference-^/i&m. dominating the dominant

the guise of deconstruction dominated themselves

ference-between tive practices theoretical these of

is replaced self-reflexivity, by a and making indeterminate of the dif has the effect of rendering the exploita as a "undecidable" and thus unavailable The that only such option decided under resis

for any "decided" resistance. collective "ground" terms is to follow "withinist" Bhabha and acknowledge

Book

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version) courses

for the tance?necessary of the dominant "subtle" "meditative" of In fact as the dominant Bhabha

praxis revolutionary social relations?should which race, "reflects" gender,

of social be upon

sub (not only transformation in favor of a more abandoned the self-un-mastering of the dis

approach class, an has

the only approach ry. In "The Postcolonial essay previously manual for

entire essay mode of appropriate and the Postmodern:

in Redrawing a in the 90s,3 Bhabha offers izing) literary methodological as founded on "the peculiar of contemporary theory (post)colonial temporality in providing language Engaged metaphor." published studies on the articulation of differential, that is based imaginary . .a moments of history and culture. process junctive by which into subjects of their history and experience others may be turned dominant witness contest to (post)colonial the unequal and criticism and uneven as Bhabha forces of specifies cultural it is "criticism a social even

to valorizing this meditative to (post)colonial relevant theo knowing an The Question of Agency" (171-197), the Boundary, the MLA's "official" (canon account of the

sexuality. dedicated

dis

objectified (176-178) [as a] bear[ing] in the involved (171). This of

"bearing "class struggle" rent "new division It is, of academic

for political witness"

social

authority highly

within significant

representation the modern world testimonial to

order" the

is a politically and the consequent of are

eradication

regime labor

times"?who of

professionals on intent renarrating the commodification that

of "ideological struggle" privileging theorists of of ideology?the contradictions emergent of "difference" for public of these theorists are

by the cur the so-called in the social

course,

through not fortuitous

the narratives

consumption. such given

both on high "visibility"-status stream media in the US?where Gates receive six-figure on race, offers and make

the electoral "public for their regular

in the UK and in the main circuit political as Cornel West and H.L. such intellectuals" "best-selling" appearances around the and (autobiographical on television programs country.4 is itself of are the the result of the other) and in

"meditations" conservative And rization yet,

newspapers the hegemony of

and magazines of "ideological subject race and

(renovation)

the

struggle" in the discourses theorists This

retheo

ideological

gender bourgeois theory where as subject-of-"performance." of the subject a form its ("desiring") through "radicality" in the recent oped "post-gender" as the its own (self)"difference" normalized of "differential as at this conventions of

converging

of avant-garde in their promotion which lucidly garners devel

post-essentialist subject, "act"ivism most of experiential

of writings fundamental

theories) arrives feminism, Barthes lag"

re-signification" a form of what

the everyday. of the bourgeois might be called

theorist Butler, queer Judith "performs" "act" of subjectivity which the disrupts a "cultural activates This disruption politics" social an imaginary ("ideology" Whereas of in these Butler of

"agentless" Bhabha takes his

(a-causal) a different which

"agency" route

"agentless-agency." a re-reading through of the ludic

the discourses of the Roland

to derive (180-187). of which

version,

by way is elaborated

writings

signification signified activist

for "Time-lag," closure" (183)?a effects This

Bhabha, moment

the concept of through moment "a contingent signals of "delay" between the signifier

"time in the the

and

maneuvers a space of the for the cognitive of relative autonomy moment in the process of signification, under "indeterminate" state of "con as "returning" to the "present" in a new of the symbolic stood the subject a "politics" turn of the in mobilizes trol" and individual agency, (private) "resignifying" in the texts of Laclau, The politics which of the contingent, reappears "contingent." subject.

230

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and Mouffe, a determinate "cross-class" gle issue

other class

post-marxists, politics and

is a pretext for a theoretically politics as claimed others, the of

the move principled

toward

the abandonment and the shift

of to

alliancesrecognition which "coalitions," and of

are

as a re-ordering the only "effective" Marxist theories

practice of the

and sin symbolic of intervention. mode not "effective." the go They post

for Bhabha Clearly, "reduce" the site simply race. Marxists, are (is Bhabha the For him, subversion race gle unless ready.

these

are

for struggle believe realizes,

post-colonial, that these struggles is the

the post-gender, cannot really the of site colonial, site

beyond gender, strug for the in the

historical conditions objective in and of itself the colonial in and gender the "subversive" the academy of

"outside"

autonomous),

for Butler as

itself

is the recent of

postcolonial of struggle book Outside

for Spivak, post-gendered, Machine (1994) Teaching tions of its own on the "own

title of her in and

suggests,

in other words, should be change. Struggle, terms" of?within the existing limits of?these It should be determined race, academy. nial, gender, by the "situation of the political, this understanding which differential However, grants never sites of difference, asks the (reductive?) of what these question "own terms" (limits) of the "situation regime "own terms" of the

the condi provides conducted ("negotiated") various sites of the colo itself (26-28). to the

itself

"autonomy" determines

"own itself?" These terms" are precisely the ide on of wage-labour and capital which relies the of the materiality and dispersal of "difference." (cultural) "Difference," fragmentation as an effect is produced of the fundamental contradiction under social capitalism, It is an articulation not of an ahis relations of production. between the forces and ological torical labour. autonomy notion On of this desire (as ludic to but claim) [post]structuralists as Bhabha celebrate, does, of the the division of

as a "competit(ive)" of of "struggle move "war of positions" is a violently italics removed) (29, cynical (post)Gramscian on the de-regulated a market the political model of "free" competition, of affirming of the exploited and oppressed where the anti-colonial should with compete place the anti-gender should with the anti-race should with the anti compete compete . . and all within themselves homophobic. intellectual and tionary practices political as its historical which has undertaken task of social contradiction for the in capitalism radical overthrowing as well. of Such a model confirms the reac a neo-liberal

understanding, social struggles

"negotiation"-al identifications" and

the piece-meal as a means to defuse of class societies

pragmatism ("effectivity") reform of the different sites the revolutionary on based profit Bhabha's rhetoric pressure and not

necessary needs. The seminates tural

of the intelligibility furthermore, limits, political are laid bare moves in its very opening (despite in which it is couched) radicalism where he provides occurred difference." attention difference" in and on to in 1992 seen in Los Angeles Bhabha that the suggests "the 'language' of recent to him Los Angeles on focus between the

which the an

book

dis

of politico-cul of the "race "analysis"

riots" which of "cultural is an

place of cultural

the epistemological filter through to understanding what took key social crises off histories sparked by

(2). According South Central

[c]onflicts Americans term of However, Bhabha's forged racialized

Koreans, of

Mexican

African-Americans the borderlines and the

of ethnic symptom in a

violence Callinicos

deprivation of social layered "turf-war"

concept that victimage analysis theory

'disrespect?a the sign is, at once, (2). which moves echoes beyond the media

as Alex facile

description

of

explains, an elevated

which

Book

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231

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coverage 80s such ?the "blacks, dle class sion

of

that

time Wolfe's

(reinforced novel not

as Tom

LA riots were whites South

were source who the most visible of their oppres far from being of difference," capable being mystified race is a sign, on the one hand, of "disrespect," of how concept through as a mediation functions of how "cultural differ and, on the other, of class conflict, as a means ence" is politically for the ruling class of channeling "effective" attention (52-54).5 Here, the vacuous "cultural from of the its ruthlessly and capital exploitative book will be Bhabha's undoubtedly Although are attempting scene which of dominant ludic writings it is, ultimately, relations of production, "within present transnational race. with racist the ideological imperatives capitalism. of these global practices on the received the dif

Hispanics Korean merchants

cultural of race in the representations by influential Vanities The Bonfire the and the films of Spike Lee) of riots but a "multi-ethnic" intra-racial of poor "class rebellion" and Asians" the lower-mid (mis)directed against primarily

away basis on

appreciatively to "preserve its own that

ference

(compromise) usefulness for

relations

"negotiation" constitutes

its

patriarchal

NOTES
in contemporary of the logic of the "post-al" theorization the original theory see Marxist in Work Zavarzadeh's "Post-ality" in the first issue of Transformation: Boundary Politics and Culture (1995). Theory, Economics, 2 It is of course to note as relates to the common-place lev necessary charge of "totalizing" and global understanding of all social phenom eled against a historical materialist "integrative" ena of tion that Bhabha's local which makes discourse, is itself a "totalizing" "examples," to historical materialism. on the basis claims about colonial discursivity general one in contradistinc mode of intelligibility, although in English. by Robert London: Edited by Giles Gunn and Stephen Monthly, 1 For

Mas'ud

the Boundary of Literary Study ^Redrawing Greenblatt. 4 See the article on "The New Intellectuals" March, 1995. 5 For the entire see Race and Class.

S. Boynton Bookmarks,

in The Atlantic 199352-57

analysis

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