From Critique of the Postcolony to a Postcolonial Form of Critique. On the Uses and Misuses of Foucault in Jean and John Comaroff's Work 1

This paper develops a philosophical approach to Jean and John Comaroffs' work by fleshing out and theoretically articulating the form of critique that the Comaroffs employ in their reading of the "postcolonial" condition. Even though Walter Benjamin's classical correlation betwee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista de estudios sociales (Bogotá, Colombia) Colombia), 2019-01 (67), p.17-25
Main Author: López, María del Rosario Acosta
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benjamin, Walter (1892-1940)
Colonialism
Context
Correlation analysis
Decolonization
Foucauldian analysis
Foucault, Michel
German literature
Law
Postcolonialism
Violence
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Summary:This paper develops a philosophical approach to Jean and John Comaroffs' work by fleshing out and theoretically articulating the form of critique that the Comaroffs employ in their reading of the "postcolonial" condition. Even though Walter Benjamin's classical correlation between law and violence provides the framework for the kind of critique the Comaroffs perform, I want to show that when the question refers to what kind of critique they undertake in the context of the postcolony, as well as what form it needs to take in the specific context of the postcolonial world, it is the Comaroffs' critical approaches to Michel Foucault rather than to Benjamin that become particularly illuminating.
ISSN:0123-885X
1900-5180
DOI:10.7440/res67.2019.02