The Prolonged Life of Post-Secularism: On the Possible Ways of Reading Postcolonial Fiction

The article’s main aim is to find out whether it is possible to employ the categories and notions of postsecular thinking while discussing the field of postcolonial fiction, both in terms of theoretical compatibility and practical usage for the purposes of literary analysis. The point of departure for the author’s investigation is thus a question of the critical potential of such terms as secularity, religiosity, secularism and postsecularism, terms which have distinctly European roots, with reference to the culturally alien, non-Western communities whose paths have been to a considerable extent charted by European imperialism. Can these notions be applied to other historical and social realities, bearing in mind that they are intimately interwoven with the history of the European continent, stemming from the divorce of institutional religion from state authority and the familiar narrative of secularized modernity? To examine the issue, together with other dilemmas arising in the interaction of cultures which have been developing under the direct influence of Enlightenment with postcolonial societies, the author first scrutinizes a particular work of fiction, Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost, pointing out that the consideration of its postsecular elements is vital in understanding the complex situation of the postcolonial country it depicts. The author then proceeds to tackle the question of the reception of postsecularism in the field of postcolonial studies as the domain of avowedly secular criticism and methodology.

 The article’s main aim is to find out whether it is possible to employ the categories and notions of postsecular thinking while discussing the field of postcolonial fiction, both in terms of theoretical compatibility and practical usage for the purposes of literary analysis. The point of departure for the author’s investigation is thus a question of the critical potential of such terms as secularity, religiosity, secularism and postsecularism, terms which have distinctly European roots, with reference to the culturally alien, non-Western communities whose paths have been to a considerable extent charted by European imperialism. Can these notions be applied to other historical and social realities, bearing in mind that they are intimately interwoven with the history of the European continent, stemming from the divorce of institutional religion from state authority and the familiar narrative of secularized modernity? To examine the issue, together with other dilemmas arising in the interaction of cultures which have been developing under the direct influence of Enlightenment with postcolonial societies, the author first scrutinizes a particular work of fiction, Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost, pointing out that the consideration of its postsecular elements is vital in understanding the complex situation of the postcolonial country it depicts. The author then proceeds to tackle the question of the reception of postsecularism in the field of postcolonial studies as the domain of avowedly secular criticism and methodology.