The category of the colonial subject collapses if colonialism is not fully constitutive.

Evidence

More to the point, in any case, are the inflations that were soon to follow, on the heels of Orienta/ism. The cursory phrase ‘the Oriental subject’ was then to be revamped in a number of radicalist strands in subsequent literary theory as ‘the colonial subject’ and, yet later, as ‘the post-colonial subject’ … Now, the notion of a ‘colonial subject’- or ‘post-colonial subject’, for rhar matter- Presumes, of course, rhar we are indeed constituted by colonialism; then, in quick succession, by post-coloniality; if we are not constituted by colonialism, rhen the term ‘colonial subject’ is theoretically meaningless. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 698

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out the inflation chain from ‘Oriental subject’ to ‘colonial subject’ to ‘post-colonial subject’ — precisely the definitional lineage of essentialist identity categories the research is tracing.