Postcolonial studies occupy a steady position in the academic sphere, and the cultural industry has likewise adopted postcolonial concepts in many of its productions. Touching on issues of representation, these works often aim to make headway toward emancipating the oppressed by acknowledging and sounding their voices. While the focus on cultural difference promotes a sense of heterogeneity, it is often a hegemonic power relation that still forms the basis of these commodified works. In The Postcolonial Cultural Industry, scholars explore many of the questions that arise from this duplicity: How faithful is the cultural industry toward postcolonial principles? At what point are claims of emancipation and diversity merely pretexts to take advantage of misled audiences? How can cosmopolitan views be conveyed without reverting to stereotypes and exoticisms? In the same vein, this issue will examine how postmodernism relates to these tensions, bearing in mind its emanant “cultural turn,” and, significantly, the question of language: for how do we use it, when language itself is still delicately intertwined with colonial history?
All the same, plenty of authors—as they take part in the cultural industry—demonstrate ways to employ literature for more redeeming ends. Analyzing literature in its many forms, be it on screen or on paper, our authors discuss the ways in which contemporary writers present a counter voice to insidious misrepresentations. In this issue of FRAME, we will be investigating the different faces of postcolonial discourse within the cultural industry, touching on the possibilities for more democratic and equitable ways of representing cultural diversity and history.
Main Articles
Sandra Ponzanesi | The Postcolonial Cultural Industry: From Consumption to Distinction
Abstract and PDF
Alessandra Benedicty–Kokken | Ananda Devi and Dany Laferrière: The Cultural Industry, Poverty Discourse, and Postcolonial Literatures in French
Abstract and PDF
Patricia Schor | Postcolonial Exceptionality and the Portuguese Language: José Eduardo Agualusa’s The Book of Chameleons
Abstract and PDF
Akin Adesokan | Postcoloniality and the “Cultural Turn”
Abstract and PDF
Paulo de Medeiros | Review | Splintered Visions
PDF
Masterclass
Laura Isherwood | Framing Blackness and Appropriating Monstrosity in Blacula
Abstract and PDF