Cultural nationalism remains the constitutive ideology of Third World literary theory.

Evidence

If the whole history of Western textualities, from Homer to Olivia Manning, was a hisrory of Orientalist onrology, Third World Literature was prima facie the site of liberationist practice. The two theoretical categories, ‘Colonial Discourse’ (or ‘Oriental ism’, in the Said ian sense) and ‘Third World Literature’, were thus conjoined, even if the act.ual practitioners of the one or the other were differentially located in the division of academic labours. Inevitably, t~en, cultural nationalism of one kind or another continues robe the constitutive ideology of the theoretical positions from which these issues are raised. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 263

Categorization

• XREF: Continues the Ahmad argument tying postcolonial theory’s discourse-first moves back to material/class structure evasion — directly relevant to the strategic-essentialism research question. — connects to: Nationalism must be read against prior cultural systems, not political ideologies — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 58; Idealizing a past by stripping its material basis persists as cultural nationalism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 472; Third World literary theory’s rise marked retreat from activist anti-imperialism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 145 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Idealizing a past by stripping its material basis persists as cultural nationalism #expands (0.82) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 472
• Third World literary theory’s rise marked retreat from activist anti-imperialism #complicates (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 145
• Cultural nationalism assumes speaking from one’s own tradition is anti-imperialist resistance #responds-to (0.78) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 19
• Nationalism must be read against prior cultural systems, not political ideologies #qualifies (0.75) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 58