Granting the colonized active agency paradoxically argues for their colonizability

Evidence

The “Oriental” Other cannot be granted an active agency, for to do so is in effect to argue for the Other’s colonizability. Subtracting this agency from our calculation would then have to lead us back to the forces that underlie colonialism and Orientalism, forces embedded in the European structures of thought that cannot be allowed to conscript the Other in its genealogy and narrative. — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 44

Categorization

• XREF: A sharp challenge within postcolonial studies itself; connects to the broader agency debate in Said’s Orientalism and postcolonial theory.
• DEEPTHINKING: A dense, paradigm-challenging move: agency attribution undercuts itself by presupposing the colonized as subjects of colonizing forces. The logic deserves extended unpacking.