Reflections on the Postcolonial Condition in Europe
July 1st, 2010
The phrase ‘the postcolonial condition’ is usually invoked with respect to the particular state of the many colonies that were freed from colonial rule during the second half of the twentieth century. It is often assumed therefore that it refers to the common circumstances of countries around the world that are living on in the legacy of colonialism. In this lecture, however, I shall be arguing that while the rest of the world has gradually freed itself from its postcoloniality, as it earlier freed itself from the shackles of colonialism, it is the Europe where colonialism came from that remains caught within the postcolonial condition and it is largely for this reason that it is in Europe where the idea of ‘the postcolonial’ has had most currency. Postcoloniality remains the enduring condition of Europe, a colonial effect that continues to link colony and metropole under its common shadow.
Prof. Dr. Robert Young
Robert Young is a postcolonial theorist, cultural critic, and historian.
He is Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University.
Young is the founding General Editor of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies which appears quarterly.