The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 2: The Socialist Expansion of Post-Colonial Studies

Alexander Kiossev

The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 2: The Socialist Expansion of Post-Colonial Studies

Publication date: 27.03.2024

Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 3-4, pp. 191 - 205

https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.23.019.19438

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The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 2: The Socialist Expansion of Post-Colonial Studies

Abstract

The relationship between post-colonial and post-socialist studies is extraordinarily complex. Post-colonialists might argue that it can be approached from different perspectives as well as different power positions of knowledge production. As a result, I have chosen a specific trajectory that intersects and challenges the static power positions and is able to trace the debates and the unfolding of the complex problem over time. As a long-time scholar in this area, and moreover one who has taken many different roads in both fields, I will describe this relationship from the perspective of my own scholarly biography.

However, my professional career has spanned several decades and surpassed the transient trends and fashions within this scholarly field. As such, it can only be depicted as an extensive narrative comprising multiple episodes, published in sequence across the double issue of the journal Studia Litteraria, devoted to forms of engagement in contemporary Southern and Western Slavic literatures. Part 2 focuses on the socialist expansion of Post-Colonial Studies.

Relacja między studiami postkolonialnymi i postsocjalistycznymi jest niezwykle złożona. Badacze postkolonializmu stwierdzą, że można do niej podejść z różnych perspektyw, ale także z różnych pozycji władzy w produkcji wiedzy. W rezultacie wybrałem konkretną trajektorię, która przecina i kwestionuje statyczne pozycje władzy oraz jest w stanie prześledzić debaty i rozwój tego złożonego problemu w czasie. Jako wieloletni badacz w tej dziedzinie, a co więcej, osoba, która obierała wiele różnych dróg w obu podejściach, - postkolonialnym i postsocjalistycznym – opiszę tę relację z perspektywy mojej własnej biografii naukowej. Moja kariera zawodowa obejmuje kilka dekad i wykracza poza przemijające trendy i mody w tej dziedzinie naukowej. W związku z tym można ją przedstawić jedynie jako obszerną narrację składającą się z wielu epizodów, publikowanych w podwójnym numerze czasopisma Studia Litteraria, poświęconym formom zaangażowania we współczesnych literaturach południowo-i zachodniosłowiańskich. Część druga skupia się na socjalistycznej ekspansji studiów postkolonialnych.

Keywords

post-colonial studies, self-colonization, post-socialist studies, Russian colonialism

studia postkolonialne, samokolonizacja, studia postsocjalistyczne, kolonializm rosyjski

References

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Information

Information: Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 2023, Volume 18, Issue 3-4, pp. 191 - 205

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843933ST.23.019.19438

Article type: Original article

Titles:

English:

The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 2: The Socialist Expansion of Post-Colonial Studies

Authors

Alexander Kiossev

Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski"

Published at: 27.03.2024

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY

Percentage share of authors:

Alexander Kiossev (Author) - 100%

Information about author:

Aleksander Kiossev – Professor of the History of Modern Culture; his research interests include the cultural history of totalitarianism and transition, the theory and history of reading, and the visual culture of the city. He has published four books in Bulgarian, has been the director and editor of collective research, and his scholarly articles have been translated into almost all European languages. He was editor of the collective volume Post-Theory, Games and Discursive Resistance, and the collective volume Rules and Roles. Fluid Institutions, Hybrid Roles and Identities in East European Transformation Processes (1989–2005). Many of his essays are translated in English, German, French, Dutch, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Serbian and Macedonian languages. Since 2000 he has been a leader of several international research projects dedicated to the Balkan cultures, reading problems and autobiographies.

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Alexander, Kiossev. "The Disintegration of “Power/Knowledge”: Post-Socialist Studies as Decolonial Studies? A Personal Point of View. Part 2: The Socialist Expansion of Post-Colonial Studies" Studia Litteraria Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis. Mar 27, 2024. https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-litteraria-uic/article/the-disintegration-of-power-knowledge-post-socialist-studies-as-decolonial-studies-a-personal-point-of-view-part-2-the-socialist-expansion-of-post-colonial-studies

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