David Punter, "Postcolonial Imaginings:Fictions of a New World Order" (Book Note)

 

"Postcolonial Imaginings" has two primary goals: the first is to analyze a broad array of canonical and noncanonical texts associated with the "postcolonial," and the second is to shift postcolonial criticism toward the "literary." Punter acknowledges that his book is a mere "shadow" of a more extensive project that would comprehensively compare diverse postcolonial writings across various societal formations and languages. While recognizing the impossibility of such an ambitious undertaking, Punter's latent desire to make broad judgments about postcolonial literature shapes both the strengths and limitations of his work.

 

The book introduces readers to intriguing noncanonical texts, such as Elspeth Barker's "O'Caledonia" (1991). However, the breadth of Punter's project prevents him from giving due consideration to the distinctions between individual texts. Consequently, there is a tendency to flatten the specificities of various postcolonial locations and texts, as disparate works like Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart" (1958), Keri Hulme's "The Bone People" (1985), and William Gibson's "Neuromancer" (1984) are treated equally under a common psychoanalytic framework of mourning and loss. This leveling out is ironic, considering Punter's sensitivity to contemporary neocolonialism and his criticism of the globalizing tendencies in postcolonial anthologies.

 

Punter's aim to steer postcolonial criticism toward the literary relies on an interesting but somewhat arbitrary description of the literary as "the uncanny, as the haunting and the haunted; as that which resists pinning down, that which will always squirm away and produce 'other', 'unauthorized' meanings." Similarly, his description of the postcolonial is contingent upon a psychoanalytic discourse, emphasizing a pattern of "loss and reversal" as its singular defining characteristic. While these definitions enable Punter to develop compelling psychoanalytic readings of literary works, they risk oversimplifying the complexities inherent in different texts and contexts.

Punter's project encounters certain stylistic and theoretical limitations. The book includes references that require further expansion. For instance, in the preface, Punter mentions Dipesh Chakraborty's article "Postcoloniality and the Artifice of History" (1992) without providing a detailed explanation of its relevance to his own project. In chapter 12, he contrasts a contemporary neocolonial US world order, represented by the World Bank and the IMF, with Derek Walcott's and Wilson Harris's literary critiques of global politics. However, he does not adequately develop his ideas about "a wider international movement" toward an alternative world order.

Punter's thought-provoking remarks about the ways postcolonial theorists might fall into the trap of an Enlightenment model of viewing theory "as the next 'stage' on the path to truth" are unfortunately marred by occasional misrepresentations of specific postcolonial critics.