Colonial discourse analysis emerged from radical theory’s retreat from immediate activist struggles

Evidence

The cognate subdisciplines of ‘Third World Literature’ and ‘Colonial Discourse Analysis’ emerged at a rime when radical theory was in the process of distancing itself from the kind of activist culture that had started developing throughout Western Europe and North America during the period of the great anti-imperialist struggles in Indochina and Southern Africa. This distancing on the part of contemporary metropolitan radicalism from irs own immediate past has led to other kinds of distancing as well. In terms of.historical periodizarion, there appears to be in both these subdisciplines far greater interest in the colonialism of the past than in the imperialism of the present. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 365

Categorization

• XREF: This is the core of Ahmad’s materialist critique relevant to the reading purpose — connects directly to the strategic essentialism / discourse-first critique thread. — connects to: French colonial defeats and occupation, not Asian decolonization, radicalized Western literary theory — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 175; American deconstruction stripped political radicalism from French theory into a hermetic textual technology. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 229; Said frames anti-imperial resistance chiefly as cultural discourse and identity — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 851 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-colonial critique before Said was overwhelmingly Marxist-affiliated #corroborates (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 320