The Cultural Trauma Of Decolonization: Colonial Returnees In The National Imagination

240 Pages·2020·2.646 MB·English

by  Ron Eyerman, Giuseppe Sciortino

CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY
The Cultural
Trauma of
Decolonization
Colonial Returnees in
the National Imagination
Edited by
Ron Eyerman · Giuseppe Sciortino
Cultural Sociology
Series Editors
Jeffrey C. Alexander
Center for Cultural Sociology
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
Ron Eyerman
Center for Cultural Sociology
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
David Inglis
Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology
University of Exeter
Exeter, Devon, UK
Philip Smith
Center for Cultural Sociology
Yale University
New Haven, CT, USA
Cultural sociology is widely acknowledged as one of the most vibrant
areas of inquiry in the social sciences across the world today. The
Palgrave Macmillan Series in Cultural Sociology is dedicated to the prop-
osition that deep meanings make a profound difference in social life.
Culture is not simply the glue that holds society together, a crutch for
the weak, or a mystifying ideology that conceals power. Nor is it just
practical knowledge, dry schemas, or know how. The series demonstrates
how shared and circulating patterns of meaning actively and inescapa-
bly penetrate the social. Through codes and myths, narratives and icons,
rituals and representations, these culture structures drive human action,
inspire social movements, direct and build institutions, and so come
to shape history. The series takes its lead from the cultural turn in the
humanities, but insists on rigorous social science methods and aims at
empirical explanations. Contributions engage in thick interpretations but
also account for behavioral outcomes. They develop cultural theory but
also deploy middle-range tools to challenge reductionist understandings
of how the world actually works. In so doing, the books in this series
embody the spirit of cultural sociology as an intellectual enterprise.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14945
Ron Eyerman · Giuseppe Sciortino
Editors
The Cultural Trauma
of Decolonization
Colonial Returnees in the National Imagination
Editors
Ron Eyerman Giuseppe Sciortino
Center for Cultural Sociology Dept Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale
Yale University Universita degli Studi di Trento
New Haven, CT, USA Trento, Italy
Cultural Sociology
ISBN 978-3-030-27024-7 ISBN 978-3-030-27025-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27025-4
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S e P
erieS ditor reface
I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
Why are these words from Tennyson so often quoted? Written for his
requiem elegy for Arthur Henry Hallam, like all great poetry they speak
to more than just the particulars of one case. They invoke experiences
and choices both universal and common: The reckoning of past with
present, and joy with sorrow, and the risks of affective engagement to
people, places, things, even life. And so they come to mind, often.
Tennyson’s poem speaks with peculiar force to the interrogative thrust
of this volume: How was that which was lost experienced? What eval-
uations, memories and considerations were conjured in thinking things
through? Of course decolonization was a triumph for those fighting
oppression, seeking autonomy and hungry for the freedoms that only
self-determination could bring. Yet for the former rulers at home and in
the colonies it was a collective loss of something valuable that could only
be deeply reflected upon. Contra what most social theory might predict
these subsequent regrets and meditations were not particularly themed
on the economic flows of raw materials or the logics of geo-power.
Indeed as the editors point out the major powers ‘got over’ these issues
surprisingly quickly. Life went on as usual with the same economies and
political operators controlling the world in more or less the same pecking
v
vi SERIES EDITOR PREFACE
order. There was even a plus side. Gone were the hassle, stress, embar-
rassment and expense of holding down a discontented empire.
The loss experience was all about meanings and identities. Most obvi-
ously the decline of empire during the twentieth Century challenged
entrenched visions of national destiny and superiority back in the metro-
pole. Much has been written on this theme over the years. It remains a
standard talking point for both second-rate and high-quality commenta-
tors, historians and political scientists as they seek to explain somewhat
puzzling moments of present-day gunboat diplomacy, or the rise of the
far right and hostility to immigration. Images are sometimes invoked
of the nation lashing out, attempting to conjure ghosts, pulling up the
drawbridge, or living in denial. These generally appear when the expert
does not approve of the thing they are explaining. The colonial stain is
polluting. It discredits and leads inexorably to the denunciation of what
are cast as irrational thoughts, deeds and policies.
By drawing upon cultural trauma theory this book helpfully moves
beyond such a speculative, moralistic or tendentious substitute for rig-
orous intellectual inquiry. It engages in a systematic comparative and
historical cultural sociology of the ways that colonial decline was under-
stood. The case studies indicate the surprising variety of pathways and
multiple structuring contingencies that shaped just how decolonization
was managed practically and understood imaginatively in various imperial
centers. The postcolonial meanings uncovered in this text are visible and
discursive; the sound bites few and far between. The sign on the door
might say: No psychobabble required.
With nearly all attention going to the colonial center and its accom-
modations to a new world order, too often forgotten in scholarship
are the “villains” of the piece. Colonial settlers tend to be seen today,
especially in movies and on radicalized campuses, as exploitative elites
living off the fat of the land and the sweat of the colonized body. We
can effortlessly conjure images of privileged country club memberships,
boorish landowners, and patronizing, benevolent but still racist admin-
istrators. It seems hard to really care for this cast of characters or believe
they could undergo a “real” cultural trauma. Their discontents might be
dismissed as self-indulgent suffering or as a problem of the privileged.
But this volume shows the demographic and social composition of the
colonists was far more diverse than we might commonly imagine. They
did not all live on Easy Street. And perhaps no one else experienced the
loss of empire more palpably. The studies presented here display them
SERIES EDITOR PREFACE vii
feeling betrayed and abandoned. Some fled in terror of lawlessness and
reprisals. Others might be bankrupted, their property unsalable. Back
in the motherland these people who only half-belonged could easily
become stigmatized or a national embarrassment. Often deeply attached
to their colonial territories, to farms, businesses and institutions built up
over the generations, many had truly loved and lost. Whether we like it
or not theirs was a cultural trauma too. Indeed, it is an important one for
cultural trauma theory to consider at this particular moment in its own
evolution.
In recent years the literature on cultural trauma has amply testified
to the collective process through which suffering is constructed. This
involves narratives, gestures, intellectual work and social organization.
None of this is to say that death, violence, injustice and degradation
are not real. However, the push has been to uncover the mechanisms
through which all these realities have been made socially visible and
consequentially relevant. There has been a cost to the choices made. A
focus on groups generally considered as victims of history and hierarchy,
or on assassinations, atrocities and natural disasters has not helped the
constructivist cause of the cultural trauma paradigm. A parallel choice to
focus on eventually successful cases rather than on permanently repressed
evils or failed mobilization has compounded things. There is a sense of
suffering that just needed a voice, that just needed time, and that would
eventually bubble to the surface and become known. The truth will out,
the lazy reader might conclude, and so real trauma gives birth to cultural
trauma, eventually.
In this collection, we move away from familiar territory and so help
further decouple the ontological reality of suffering from the collective
representations through which it becomes known and, also in some
ways, experienced. We also winnow away our confounding gut feelings
about the worthy and unworthy. Here we have a book that considers
those who might be considered by some to have a lesser right to cry,
mourn, feel outrage or claim to have experienced injustice. The volume
also considers many failed efforts to obtain compensation, or to be for-
mally recognized as disposed victims of history and policy. Even at the
time of regime change few had much sympathy or interest in what the
erstwhile colonists had to say. They might have been talking but often
nobody was really interested, really listening. Some claims never made
it off the launchpad. By pushing cultural trauma theory into this new,
slightly uncomfortable territory and by looking at failed or ambivalent
viii SERIES EDITOR PREFACE
trauma many of the studies presented here best display the cultural con-
structivism and normative neutrality that is at the core of the cultural
trauma paradigm. The documentation of claims-making activity is more
clearly differentiated out from themes of advocacy and historical witness-
ing that we find in parallel literatures. The trauma paradigm serves more
visibly and accurately as a tool for a generalizing comparative cultural
sociology. It is shown to offer a way of explaining and interpreting, not
implicitly or unintentionally congratulating, commiserating or cheering
on as the scholarly narrative unfolds. We tell our students that the expli-
cans should not become the explicandum. But here is a case that tests the
rule: Looking to the cultural trauma of decolonization helps us better
understand the essence of cultural trauma theory itself.
Oxford, UK Philip Smith
July 2019
a
cknowledgementS
The idea of this volume formed while Giuseppe Sciortino was Willy
Brandt Visiting professor at Malmo University, one of the cities
Ron Eyerman claims as his own. Many discussions in Malmo paved
the way to this project. Subsequently, the idea grew and evolved
through two intensely stimulating workshops. The first, held at Yale
University’s Center for Cultural Sociology (CCS), was partially funded
by the MacMillan Center. The second was hosted by the International
Migration Laboratory of the Università di Trento. We would like to
acknowledge the generous support afforded by these institutions, which
included the exemplary hands on organizing of the secretarial staff and
the guiding imagination of Nadine Amalfi. The essays here published
were presented in rough form at our first meeting and then, more than
a year later, as nearly completed final drafts at the second. We are very
grateful for the discussions and critical comments that occurred during
these face-to-face meetings and then over the internet as authors and
editors shared their ideas. We are grateful to all members of our crew for
having accepted to participate in this project. Even more for the schol-
arly skills and intellectual curiosity they have provided. Their willingness
to apply specialized knowledge in new ways and engage in a compara-
tive, interdisciplinary project is an exemplar of the academic ideal. Thank
you all. Some colleagues have been quite helpful along the way helping
us with ideas, bibliographic references and comments upon our drafts.
Among them, we wish to thank Martina Cvajner, Mario Diani, Johanna
Esseveld, Nicholas Harney, and Peter Kivisto. Dr. Todd Madigan worked
ix