ABSTRACT
In 1999 Newsweek magazine listed Bhabha as one of ‘100 Americans for the Next Century’. Bhabha has become something more than the everyday cultural critic, contributing to worldwide debates in contexts like the World Economic Forum. With his increased prominence have come increasingly animated debates over whether or not Bhabha actually deserves such distinction. In fact, the title of this chapter can be read in several ways. There are those who have written about Bhabha, some who have written in the manner of Bhabha, and those who have gone after him with theoretical scores to settle. Few critics of his prominence have been subject to so much adverse commentary, and accordingly much of this chapter will consider writers who have gone after Bhabha in the last sense. You will see that even the most critical commentators accept Bhabha’s importance. Many, however, feel that the lessons of his work need serious qualification before they are turned once again to the colonial and neocolonial contexts. Indeed, for some critics, we are after Bhabha in the sense that we can do without his work and indeed theory generally-or at least we ought to be after Bhabha in this sense. To explore these different readings of Bhabha’s influence, this chapter discusses representative or canonical examples of critical responses, rather than give endless lists of texts to which you might refer. However, almost every text in post-colonial studies references Bhabha’s work at some point.
