Third World literary theory effaces Marxism-rooted radical cultural heritage

Evidence

In declaring nationalism to be the main political imperative of our era, the theoretical positions of ‘Third World Literature’ and ‘Colonial Discourse Analysis’ would tend to subvert, with overt intent or not, the rich history of our oppositional and radical cultural productions, which have more often than not come out of communist political practice and, more broadly, from inside a political culture deeply marked by Marxism. What we need to do is ro build vastly better knowledges on the basis of that heritage; to revert, instead, from the Marxist critique of class, colony and empire ro the emptiness of a Third-Worldist nationalism is politically and theoretically a regression. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 190

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s goal: Ahmad’s materialist critique of ‘Colonial Discourse Analysis’ and Third-Worldist nationalism as discourse-first moves that obscure class structures. — connects to: Metropolitan theory idealized the singularized Third World as the site of cultural opposition — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 148; Third World literary theory’s rise marked retreat from activist anti-imperialism — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 145; Cultural nationalism remains the constitutive ideology of Third World literary theory. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, 263 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: How does this relate to strategic essentialism — is Third-Worldist nationalism for Ahmad a case of essentialism without the ironic stance Spivak theorized?

Broader Connections

• Third-worldist nationalism regresses from the Marxist critique it displaces #expands (0.85)
• Third-Worldist cultural theory structurally suppresses class and gender analysis #expands (0.84) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 363
• Third World literary theory’s rise marked retreat from activist anti-imperialism #corroborates (0.82) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 145
• Cultural nationalism remains the constitutive ideology of Third World literary theory. #corroborates (0.80) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 263
• Postcolonial literary theory’s rapid shift from nationalism to poststructuralism concealed material world dynamics #complicates (0.75) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 163
• Postcolonial literary theory obscures the political and economic materialities determining it #expands (0.72) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 43