Ella Shohat

The &s;post-colonial&s; did not emerge to fill an empty space in the language of political-cultural analysis. On the contrary, its wide adaptation during the late eighties was coincident with and dependent on the eclipse of older paradigm, that of &s;Third World.&s; The terminological shift indicates the professional prestige and theoretical aura the issues have acquired, in contrast to more activist aura once enjoyed by &s;Third World&s; within progressive academic circles. In that sense the prefix &s;post&s; aligns the &s;post-colonial&s; with another genre of &s;posts&s; – &s;post-war,&s; &s;post-cold war,&s; &s;post-independence,&s; &s;post-revolution&s; – all of which underline a passage into new period and a closure of a certain historical event or age, officially stamped with dates. Since the &s;post&s; in &s;post-colonial&s; suggests &s;after&s; demise of colonialism, it is imbued, quite apart from its users&s; intentions, with an ambiguous spatio-temporality. Spreading from India into Anglo-American academic contexts, &s;post-colonial&s; tends to be associated with Third World countries which gained independence after World War II.