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“foundational text” of postcolonial <strong>the</strong>ory and colonial discourse, drew on post-<br />

structuralist <strong>the</strong>ory to argue <strong>the</strong> West def<strong>in</strong>ed itself aga<strong>in</strong>st <strong>the</strong> ‘Orient’ as “one of its<br />

deepest and most recurr<strong>in</strong>g images of <strong>the</strong> O<strong>the</strong>r”. 37 Edward Said’s analysis of <strong>the</strong><br />

relationship between <strong>the</strong> West and <strong>the</strong> Orient revealed questions regard<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> ways<br />

Brita<strong>in</strong> “managed and even produced” <strong>Ionian</strong>s “politically … and imag<strong>in</strong>atively”. 38<br />

Possession of an empire complicated <strong>the</strong> question where <strong>the</strong> boundaries of <strong>the</strong><br />

“imag<strong>in</strong>ed community” lay. 39 Frederick Cooper and Anne Stoler argue that “colonial<br />

projects were fundamentally predicated on a tension between notions of<br />

<strong>in</strong>corporation and differentiation”, apparent <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> contradictions “between a<br />

universalistic western rhetoric of citizenship, and its particularistic application <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

colonies, and between <strong>the</strong> notion of universal rights and <strong>the</strong> militaristic and coercive<br />

strategies of racial rule”. The danger that “African rebels or Creole nationalists might<br />

seek to opt out of European civilization, [provoked for example, by <strong>the</strong> Sa<strong>in</strong>t<br />

Dom<strong>in</strong>gue revolution] … raised profound questions about <strong>the</strong> universality of<br />

citizenship and civil rights” with<strong>in</strong> Europe itself. 40<br />

Imperial historians have attempted to reassess <strong>the</strong> effects of <strong>the</strong> colonisers on<br />

<strong>the</strong> colonised, rebuff<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> justifications of Empire by highlight<strong>in</strong>g its negative<br />

impact, and develop<strong>in</strong>g an analysis of <strong>the</strong> colonies as a “doma<strong>in</strong> of exploitation”, of<br />

a mascul<strong>in</strong>e (sexual) self-<strong>in</strong>dulgence, or as “laboratories of modernity” where<br />

37 Kennedy D., “Imperial history and Post-Colonial Theory”, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth<br />

History, 24, 1996, p. 347; Said E., Orientalism, (London, 1978), p. 1.<br />

38 Said E., Orientalism, p. 3.<br />

39 Marks S, “History, <strong>the</strong> Nation and Empire: Snip<strong>in</strong>g from <strong>the</strong> periphery”, History Workshop, 29,<br />

Spr<strong>in</strong>g 1990, p. 115.<br />

40 Cooper F. and Stoler A. L., (eds.), Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures <strong>in</strong> a Bourgeois World,<br />

(California, 1997), pp. 2-3, 10.<br />

31

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