The Debate on Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital

Leading thinkers’ critiques of award-winning Postcolonial Theory as well as the author’s responses and reformulations. Vivek Chibber’s Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital was hailed on publication as “without any doubt … a bomb” and “the most substantive effort to dismantle the field through historical reasoning published to date.” It immediately unleashed one of the most important recent debates in social theory ranging across the humanities and social sciences on the status of postcolonial studies modernity and much else.. This book brings together major critics of Chibber’s work to assess the efficacy of his argument from differing perspectives. Included are Chibber’s own spirited responses and reformulations in light of these criticisms. With contributions by Partha Chatterjee Gayatri Spivak Bruce Robbins Ho-fung Hung William H. Sewell Jr. Bruce Cumings George Steinmetz Michael Schwartz David Pederson Stein Sundstøl Eriksen and Achin Vanaik.