Postcolonial Translocations: Cultural Representation and Critical Spatial Thinking

Munkelt Marga, Schmitz Markus, Stein Mark, Stroh Silke

Abstract

The sites from which postcolonial cultural articulations develop and the sites atwhich they are received have undergone profound transformations within the lastdecades. This book traces the accelerating emergence of cultural crossovers andoverlaps in a global perspective and through a variety of disciplinary approaches.It starts from the premise that after the ‘spatial turn' human action and culturalrepresentations can no longer be grasped as firmly located in or clearlydemarcated by territorial entities. The collection of essays investigatespostcolonial articulations of various genres and media in their spatiality andlocatedness while envisaging acts of location as dynamic cultural processes. Itexplores the ways in which critical spatial thinking can be made productive:Testing the uses and limitations of ‘translocation' as an open exploratory modelfor a critically spatialized postcolonial studies, it covers a wide range of culturalexpressions from the anglophone world and beyond - literature, film, TV,photography and other forms of visual art, philosophy, historical memory, andtourism.The extensive introductory chapter charts various facets of spatial thinking from avariety of disciplines, and critically discusses their implications for postcolonialstudies. The contributors' essays range from theoretical interventions into thecritical routines of postcolonial criticism to case studies of specific cultural texts,objects, and events reflecting temporal and spatial, material and intellectual,physical and spiritual mobility. What emerges is a fascinating survey of themultiple directions postcolonial translocations can take in the future.This book is aimed at students and scholars of postcolonial literary and cultural studies, diasporastudies, migration studies, transnational studies, globalisation studies, critical space studies,urban studies, film studies, media studies, art history, philosophy, history, and anthropology.