The Colonial Relationship : Between Binarism and Ambivalence in Albert Memmi and Homi K. Bhabha

Abstract

Albert Memmi and Homi K. Bhabha are two postcolonial theorists who have been interested in colonial relations and their consequences on the identity reconstruction of colonized but also of colonizer following decolonization. Thus, analysing the general conditions of the colonial relationship, Albert Memmi notes that this relationshipis essentially characterized by its binary and unequal nature. Because, despite the close link between the actors, the colonizer and the colonized have divergent interests insofar as their relationship is that of a dominator vis-à-vis a dominated and vice versa. As a result, each seeks to annihilate the desires of the other in a reflex of self-defense. But in his approach to the colonial relationship, while rejecting the binarism based on the mutual rejection between the colonized and the colonizer conceived by Memmi, Homi K Bhabha puts forward the notion of ambivalence to appreciate the relationship between the two protagonists. For according to him, the colonial relationship is neither fixed nor oppositional, but is the result of a continuous movement in time and space. In this article, we examine these two perspectives through a comparative approach.