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Definitely read his review on Jacobin Magazine before reading this!
Excellent Marxist critique of postcolonial theory and the Subaltern Studies!
In addition, read Chibber’s marvelous essay
“On The Decline Of Class Analysis In South Asian Studies”
In addition, read Terry Eagleton’s outstanding critique of Spivak’s ‘post-colonial reason’
here.
A provocative intellectual assault on the Subalternists’ foundational work.
Postcolonial theory has become enormously influential as a framework
for understanding the Global South. It is also a school of thought
popular because of its rejection of the supposedly universalizing
categories of the Enlightenment.
In this devastating critique, mounted on behalf of the radical
Enlightenment tradition, Vivek Chibber offers the most comprehensive
response yet to postcolonial theory. Focusing on the hugely popular
Subaltern Studies project, Chibber shows that its foundational arguments
are based on a series of analytical and historical misapprehensions. He
demonstrates that it is possible to affirm a universalizing theory
without succumbing to Eurocentrism or reductionism.
Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital promises to be a historical milestone in contemporary social theory.
Review
“With its focus on cultural identities and mixtures, postcolonial
theory ignored the larger context of capitalist relations and thus
limited its scope to Western academia where it excelled in the game of
growing and profiting from the liberal guilt feeling. Chibber’s book
simply sets the record straight, bringing postcolonialism down from
cultural heights to where it belongs, into the very heart of global
capitalist processes. The book we were all waiting for, a burst of fresh
air dispelling the stale aroma of pseudo-radical academic
establishment.” (Slavoj Žižek)
“In this scrupulous and perceptive analysis, Vivek Chibber
successfully shows that the ‘universalizing categories of Enlightenment
thought’ emerge unscathed from the criticisms of postcolonial theorists.
He shows further that—perhaps ironically—Subaltern Studies greatly
underestimates the role of subaltern agency in bringing about the
transformations that they attribute to the European bourgeoisie.
Chibber’s analysis also provides a very valuable account of the actual
historical sociology of modern European development, of Indian peasant
mobilization and activism, and much else. It is a very significant
contribution.” (Noam Chomsky )
“In this outstanding work—a model of clarity in its architecture and
argumentation—key theorists of the ‘Subaltern’ and of postcoloniality
have met their most formidable interlocutor and critic yet. Chibber’s
critique of postcolonial theory and the historical sociological studies
associated with it is, at the same time, a vigorous and welcome defense
of the enduring value of certain Enlightenment universals as an
analytical framework to both understand and radically change the world
we live in” (Achin Vanaik )
“Vivek Chibber has written a stunning critique of postcolonial theory
as represented by the Subaltern Studies school. While eschewing all
polemics, he shows that their project is undermined by their paradoxical
acceptance of an essentially liberal-Whig interpretation of the
bourgeois revolutions and capitalist development in the West, which
provides the foundation for their fundamental assertion of the difference
of the East. Through a series of painstaking empirical and conceptual
studies Chibber proceeds to overturn the central pillars of the
Subalternists’ framework, while sustaining the credibility of
Enlightenment theories. It is a bravura performance that cannot help but
shake up our intellectual and political landscape.” (Robert Brenner )
“Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital is a
must-read book for students of comparative politics and social theory.
Vivek Chibber presents a forceful challenge to the Subaltern Studies
school and to postcolonial theory more broadly. Arguing with great
clarity, Chibber raises fundamental objections to their ideas about
capitalism, power, and agency, and presents an alternative account of
these ideas. Most fundamentally, he rejects the fundamental division
between ‘East and West’ associated with postcolonial theory and defends
the ‘universalizing categories of Enlightenment thought.’ This is a
major contribution that is bound to reshape debate on these important
issues.” (Joshua Cohen )
“In this book, Vivek Chibber has carried out a thoroughgoing
dissection of Subaltern Studies. Like a highly skilled anatomist, he
lays bare the skeleton, the nervous system, the arteries and veins of
this school … In the process the reader is also exposed to the
nitty-gritty of a materialist historiography.” (Amiya Kumar Bagchi )
About the Author
Vivek Chibber is Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University. He has contributed to, among others, the Socialist Register, American Journal of Sociology, Boston Review and New Left Review. His book Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India won the 2005 Barrington Moore Book Award and was one of Choice‘s Outstanding Academic Titles of 2004.
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