[...]... studies or postcolonial theory In reapprais ing some of the texts and traditions that bind these periods or fields together, the essays in this collection seek both to determine the usefulness of postcolo nial theory for reading the Enlightenment and the eighteenth century, and to explore the insights that alternative views of the historical and philosophical phenomenon of Enlightenment may offer to postcolonial. .. postcolonial theory as well as the way postcolonial theory has shaped eighteenth century studies The need for a more systematic and nuanced account of the relation between the two has become apparent as postcolonial theory has emerged as an important mode of enquiry into the cultural, political, economic, and literary impact of imperial expansion by European states across much of the globe The incorporation... be seen as simple variations on a postcolonial theme The diversity of local instantiations of the terms Enlightenment and postcolonial make the use of a definite article misleading (the Enlightenment, the postcolonial) The implications of their ostensible singularity differ in each case, as suggested by the kind of mix and match pairing that uses, for example, the Enlighten ment’ as a seemingly... was against the will and weight of the Empire, and it would have happened (as in Thailand and Japan) whether there was an Empire or not.25 The debate reminds us that the question of who reads and how they read matters as much as what is read As Chakrabarty, in his reply, neatly puts it, ‘To acknowledge our debt to the ideas of the Enlightenment is not to thank colonialism for bringing them to us’.26... and occupations, the dialogue between Chakrabarty and Ghosh serves to emphasize the material as well as discursive premises of colonial and postcolonial history In reminding us not to put the theoretical cart before the historical horse, such formulations point out the complicated relation between the discursive and the pragmatic, the ideological and the material Postcolonial notions of Enlightenment, ... analysis of the erasure of the Haitian Revolution from history exposes the blindness of Enlightenment and post Enlightenment bien penseurs: their incapacity to see the ways their thought inhibits recognition of the agency and institutions of others Yet Trouillot also exposes the way modern scholarly methods occlude the resistance of indigenous and colonial populations (while confining their history to their... understand the practice as well as the theory of Enlightenment II Enlightenment without others If postcolonial theory too often obscures the nuances of Enlightenment texts, influential formulations of Enlightenment have not, in general, acknow ledged colonialism None of the major studies Cassirer, Gay, Foucault, Horkheimer and Adorno explicitly analyses the colonial projects of the eighteenth century,37 while... furnishes the necessary prehistory to the dominant timeline of European empire, locating the point from which the history of the colony and thence the post colony can begin Enlightenment also becomes a pivot point between an initial wave of imperial activity the Spanish and Portu guese conquest of the Americas, the French, English, and Dutch colonial endeavours in the New World, as well as expanding trade and. .. ideas to define the postcolonial as a political programme that repudiates these ideas The Enlightenment has taken a beating in recent years at the hands of both poststructuralist and postcolonial theorists (It is hard to imagine how one might pronounce the words Enlightenment universal subject’ without a faint sneer.) The accusations levelled against Enlightenment within post colonial theory might... the cultural distinctness and autonomy of the Gaelic population ‘Towards a Postcolonial Enlightenment: The United Irishmen, Cultural Diversity and the Public Sphere’, in Clare Carroll and Patricia King (eds), Ireland and Postcolonial Theory (Cork: Cork University Press, 2003), 81 91 9 See e.g Walter Mignolo, ‘(Post)Occidentalism, (Post)Coloniality, and (Post)Subaltern Ra tionality’, in Afzal Khan and . alt="" The Postcolonial Enlightenment This page intentionally left blank The Postcolonial Enlightenment Eighteenth-Century Colonialism and Postcolonial Theory edited by Daniel Carey and Lynn. the texts and traditions that bind these periods or fields together, the essays in this collection seek both to determine the usefulness of postcolo nial theory for reading the Enlightenment and. describe some of the roles allotted to Enlightenment within postcolonial theory as well as the way postcolonial theory has shaped eighteenth century studies. The need for a more systematic and nuanced account