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Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial TheoryThe Discourse of Colonial Enterprise and Its Representation of the Other Through the Expanded Cultural Critique

Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial Theory: The Discourse of Colonial Enterprise... [Within colonial capitalism it is not just wealth, raw materials, and trade balance that shifts from the periphery to the centre. This shift is preceded, accompanied, and followed by a powerful and pervasive discourse event. I name this discourse event “British colonial enterprise” and its binary half “the discursive devaluation of native labour and culture.”1 Colonial historiography and literature mark this discourse event by inscribing into language the supra-valuation of British colonial enterprise and the devaluation of native culture and work practices. The supra-valuation of enterprise is made possible through making indigenous work and play appear inherently unproductive and valueless. Enterprise depends on the following binary oppositions: colonial enterprise names the industriousness and productive labour of empire building; it is a discourse that represents itself as primarily oriented towards work, even play within enterprise is oriented towards work and is a means of learning the rules of work; the binary half of the discourse is indigenous work and play, described as wasteful and unproductive exercises in valueless activity. The discourse of enterprise designates indigenous work habits, cast of mind, physiognomy, habits of work and play as primitive, childish, and pre-modern.2] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players and Postcolonial TheoryThe Discourse of Colonial Enterprise and Its Representation of the Other Through the Expanded Cultural Critique

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2005
ISBN
978-1-349-52353-5
Pages
1 –40
DOI
10.1057/9780230509665_1
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Within colonial capitalism it is not just wealth, raw materials, and trade balance that shifts from the periphery to the centre. This shift is preceded, accompanied, and followed by a powerful and pervasive discourse event. I name this discourse event “British colonial enterprise” and its binary half “the discursive devaluation of native labour and culture.”1 Colonial historiography and literature mark this discourse event by inscribing into language the supra-valuation of British colonial enterprise and the devaluation of native culture and work practices. The supra-valuation of enterprise is made possible through making indigenous work and play appear inherently unproductive and valueless. Enterprise depends on the following binary oppositions: colonial enterprise names the industriousness and productive labour of empire building; it is a discourse that represents itself as primarily oriented towards work, even play within enterprise is oriented towards work and is a means of learning the rules of work; the binary half of the discourse is indigenous work and play, described as wasteful and unproductive exercises in valueless activity. The discourse of enterprise designates indigenous work habits, cast of mind, physiognomy, habits of work and play as primitive, childish, and pre-modern.2]

Published: Sep 25, 2015

Keywords: Permanent Settlement; Chess Player; Cultural Critique; East India Company; Revenue Collection

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