Toward a Critique of Consumer Imperialism
For me, reading Achille Mbembe’s absorbing piece (“African Modes of Self- Writing,” Public Culture 14 [winter 2002]: 239–73) conjured up the well-worn modernist image of the critical philosopher as an escapologist: Initially imprisoned and confined by a host of ingenious shackles and devices, he disappears from view before publicly shrugging them all off after some secret minutes of unseen but energetic activity. He stands now before an appreciative audience absolutely untrammeled, in this case, with only a few Derridean or Lacanian fig leaves to conceal the shame that attends his postcolonial renaissance.
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