탈식민주의의 ‘뿌리’

• 영문명: The Roots of Postcolonialism
• 발행기관: 한국비평이론학회
• 저자명: 이경원(Kyung-Won Lee)
• 간행물 정보: 『비평과 이론』제14권 2호, 65~95쪽, 전체 31쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2009.12.30

영문 초록

This paper purports to trace back the roots of postcolonialism under the assumption that postcolonialism began with the inseparble history of black diaspora, anti-slavery, and decolonization. The foremost precursors were eighteenth-century African American writers who described their experiences of slavery in the mode of autobiography or reminiscence, exploring the genre of the slave narrative elabrated later by Frederick Douglass. These ex-slaves have given not only a dramatic story of captivity and liberation but also a Christian confession that depicts their physical deliverance as an allegory of spiritual salvation. But the later half of the nineteenth century has witnessed the emergence of a more radical and subversive discourse of black self-representation. Most noteworthy among them are Martin R. Delany, Alexander Crummell, and Edward W. Blyden. Reconstructing the pejorative concepts of the 'Negro"and Africa, these early black nationalists attempted to undermine and debunk the dominant ideology of white supremacy and Eurocentric mode of thought. Their argumentations for the necessity and possibility to 'uplift' the Negro and 'civilize' Africa were intellectually invigorating and politically provocative as well. Yet they disclosed a variety of struggles and contradictions, say, between idealism and materialism, between separatism and assimilationism, or between universal civilizationism and ethnocentric racialism. Moreover, they displayed flamboyant and chauvinistic slogans like 'Back ot Africa' and 'Africa for Africans,' but showed little readiness to divorce themselves from the institutional support of white abolitionists and philanthropists. So their nationalist and Afrocentric undertakings were embedded in the yearning to venerate Christian ethics and imitate Anglo-Saxon civilization. Their dream of a renascent Africa as well as a reconstructed black America always implied making blacks more like whites. Despite these theoretical and ideological contradictions, however, the early black nationalists cannot be reduced to 'white men's niggers' or 'fools of history' incapable of articulating their thoughts. Rather, by engaging with the taken-for-granted notions of black inferiority and barbarity, they have laid the cornerstone of anticolonial movements and national liberations in the next century. As the progenitor of Pan-Africanism and Negritude, these early black nationalists can be legitimately called the roots of postcolonialism today.

키워드

인종주의 식민주의 니그로 문명화 흑인민족주의 아프리카중심주의 탈식민주의 racism colonialism race the Negro civilization black nationalism Afrocentrism postcolonialism