Contesting Knowledge, Contested Space: Language, Place, and Power in Derek Walcott’s Colonial Schoolhouse
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Keywords

Derek Walcott
coloniality
border thinking
pedagogy
creolization

How to Cite

Contesting Knowledge, Contested Space: Language, Place, and Power in Derek Walcott’s Colonial Schoolhouse. (2014). Teorie vědy Theory of Science, 36(1), 77-103. https://doi.org/10.46938/tv.2014.223

Abstract

Contesting Knowledge, Contested Space: Language, Place, and Power in Derek Walcott's Colonial Schoolhouse

Abstract: Derek Walcott's colonial schoolhouse bears an interesting relationship to space and place: it is both a Caribbean site, and a site that disavows its locality by valorizing the metropolis and acting as a vital institution in the psychic colonization of the Caribbean peoples. The situation of the schoolhouse within the Caribbean landscape, and the presence of the Caribbean body, means that the pedagogical relationship works in two ways, and that the hegemonic/colonial discourses of the schoolhouse are inherently challenged within its walls. While the school was used as a means of colonial subjugation, as a method of privileging the metropolitan centre, and as a way of recreating that centre within the colonies, Walcott's emphasis on place complicates and ultimately rewrites colonial discourses and practices. While the school attempts to legitimize colonial space, it in fact fosters what Walter Mignolo has termed "border thinking."

Keywords: Derek Walcott; coloniality; border thinking; pedagogy; creolization.

Spor o vědění, rozporovaný prostor: jazyk, místo a moc v koloniální škole Dereka Walcotta

Abstrakt: Koloniální škola Dereka Walcotta s sebou nese zajimavý vztah mezi prostorem a místem: je to jak místo v Karibiku, tak i místo, které své locality vzdává tím, že zvyšuje hodnotu metropole a jedná jako nepostradatelná instituce v psychické kolonizaci karibského lidu. Poloha školy v karibské krajině a přítomnost karibského těla znamenají, že pedagogický vztah působí dvěma způsoby a že hegemonické/ koloniální diskursy školy jsou uvnitř jejích zdí z vlastní podstaty zpochybňovány. Přestože škola byla používána jako prostředek koloniálního podmanění, jako metoda pro privilegování metropolitního centra a jako způsob znovuvytváření tohoto centra uvnitř kolonií, Walcottův důraz na místo komplikuje a v konečném důsledku přepisuje koloniální diskursy a praktiky. Zatímco škola usiluje o legitimizaci koloniálního prostoru, ve skutečnosti pěstuje to, co Walter Mignolo nazval "hraničním myšlením".

Klíčová slova: Derek Walcott; kolonialita; hraniční myšlení; pedagogika; kreolizace 

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