Untitled - witz cultural

355HYPERTEXT 3.0era colonies, such as Belarus and the Ukraine, never were able to redefine thecenter/margin relation of empire and colony:Unlike western colonies, which have increasingly talked back to their former masters,Russia's colonies have by and large remained mute, sometimes lacking Westerneducatednational elites and always lacking the encouragement ofwestern academiathat foregrounding issues relevant to them would afford. They continue to be perceivedwithin the paradigms relevant to Russia, the objects of Russian perceptionrather than subjects responding to their own histories, perceptions, and interests. Inthat connection, the perception of postcolonialist commentators that history rs"the discourse through which the West has asserted its hegemony over the rest ofthe world" is incorrect.In fact, Thompson argues, both pre-Soviet and Soviet Russian ideology hasso permeated European and American discourse that we readily employ themisleading division into "West and non-West" that disregards Russia's successful"effort to manufacture a history one that stands in partial oppositionto the history created by the West on the one hand, and on the other to the historysustained by the efforts of those whom Russia had colonized. In doingso, Russia has successfirlly superimposed portions of its own narrative on theWestern one."Hypertext as ParadigminPostcolonial TheoryThe example of the mass media's misinterpretation of thecurrent situation in Zimbabwe, like the problems inherentinthe rhetoric of African liberation, demonstrates how easily wefall into the habit of binary thought. Derridak deconstructionreminds us that many of the concepts and categories we routinely opposepowerful/weak,colonizer/colonized, male/female, inside/outside-actuallyshare many qualities that, when recognized, weaken the force of the originalcontrast. In fact, many such culturally affirmed oppositions are like the standarduse of red and green in traffic lights: the contrast has its practical uses,certainly, but in reality these colors exist along a spectrum and not in binaryopposition. Binary oppositions are generally rhetorical techniques or thoughtformsthat have limited practical and political uses, just as long as they are notmisunderstood.The value of hypertext as a paradigm exists in its essential multivocality,decentering, and redefinition of edges, borders, identities. As such, it providesa paradigm, a way of thinking about postcolonial issues, that continuallyserves to remind us ofthe complex factors at issue. As Odin convincinglyargues, "The perpetual negotiation of difference that the border subject