“Globalization and the Post-Colonial Moment: With Particular Reference to
Australian Fiction in the Era of ‘Reconciliation’”
While we tend to think of globalization as one of capitalism’s latest avatars, which
is aided and abetted by the transnational reach of electronic media and cultural
wares, on another level it is plausible to claim that colonialism was in fact the first
global event in world history. If we consider that the contemporary geopolitical
map continues to be shaped by the global domination of the North Atlantic – a
state of affairs which began in the sixteenth century – then decolonization appears
as a more or less minor political shift, which failed to diminish the economic and
cultural hegemony of the West. Such a construction of the narrative of history has
the merit of relativizing the significance of the post-colonial moment as just
another chapter in the story of the exploitation of the planet’s resources by a
minority of individuals.
It is also useful to remind oneself that “post-colonialism” imposed itself as a
globalized concept which lumps together immense local differences, to the point
of obscuring ongoing inequalities and injustices more than it actually reveals them.
This is blatantly the case in a former settler colony like Australia, where a postcolonial stance was adopted by intellectuals only too eager to blur the distinction
between the “post-colonizing” and the “post-colonized” (categories proposed by
Simon During). With hindsight, the theoretical enthusiasm of critics like Stephen
Slemon, who constructed a model of post-coloniality upon the ambivalences of the
Second World, remains embarrassing in view of the work it does towards allowing
the beneficiaries of conquest to posture as its actual victims.
In this context it can be argued that the current “reconciliation” debate,
though this is itself part of a globalized attempt on the part of the world’s
politicians to take the past in their stride as a prelude to more domination and
exploitation, presents at least an opportunity for finally addressing the settlers’
disavowal of local peoples’ existence and histories – which was almost complete
until fairly recently. Acknowledging local realities, including the fate reserved to
the Aborigines – then and now – will provide the possibility of a liberation from
globalized patterns, and will prove more effective than the exclusive celebration of
white national culture in making a truly post-colonial Australia imaginable at last.
Marc Delrez (University of Liège)