ABSTRACT
This paper had its immediate point of origin in the invitation to contribute to a lecture series on ‘Postcoloniality and California’ in the spring of 1991. Commonplace as the term ‘postcoloniality’ has rapidly become in literature, anthropology and Cultural Studies in recent times, the title begged a number of questions, about the notion of ‘postcoloniality’ and its efficacy, either in relation to California in particular, or to the United States in general. If the concept of ‘postcoloniality’ is spreading like brushfire through the terrain of cultural theory, what we propose by way of remedy is a carefully strategized ‘controlled burn’ approach that begins by posing the following questions.
