The Debate on Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of CapitalLeading thinkers’ critiques of award-winning Postcolonial Theory, as well as the author’s responses and reformulations Vivek Chibber’s Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital was hailed on publication as “without any doubt … a bomb,” and “the most substantive effort to dismantle the field through historical reasoning published to date.” It immediately unleashed one of the most important recent debates in social theory, ranging across the humanities and social sciences, on the status of postcolonial studies, modernity, and much else. This book brings together major critics of Chibber’s work to assess the efficacy of his argument from differing perspectives. Included are Chibber’s own spirited responses and reformulations in light of these criticisms. With contributions by Partha Chatterjee, Gayatri Spivak, Bruce Robbins, Ho-fung Hung, William H. Sewell, Jr., Bruce Cumings, George Steinmetz, Michael Schwartz, David Pederson, Stein Sundstøl Eriksen, and Achin Vanaik. |
Contents
The Chibber DebateAchin Vanaik | 1 |
How Does the Subaltern Speak? An Interview with Vivek Chibber | 15 |
Subaltern Studies and CapitalPartha Chatterjee | 31 |
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak | 71 |
A Response | 91 |
SubalternSpeakBruce Robbins | 103 |
Reply to Bruce RobbinsVivek Chibber | 115 |
Review Symposium on Vivek Chibbers | 123 |
On the Articulation of Marxist and NonMarxist Theory | 139 |
Capitalist Development Structural Constraint | 149 |
The Labor of Representation | 159 |
Subaltern StakesTimothy Brennan | 183 |
Looking for Resistance in All the Wrong Places? Chibber | 215 |
Credits | 257 |
Notes | 275 |
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