Staging the politics of difference: Homi Bhabha's critical literacy

Abstract

Postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha sees writing, composition, as a highly activity. Writing, defined in its broadest sense, is closely linked to the acquisition of agency. This is why it is important that we not treat writing as a simple medium of communication in which there is some transparent mediation between already pregiven subjects, pregiven ob jects, and a preconstituted mise en scene. For Bhabha, writing constitutes, in a dialogic way, new relationships among these elements and is thus a continually revisionary, perhaps even revolutionary, activity. And, of course, the connection between writing and agency leads to issues of critical literacy. Bhabha believes that critical is intimately connected to the question of democratic representation. For example, he says in the inter view below that literacy is absolutely crucial for a kind of ability to be responsible to yourself, to make your own reading within a situation of political and cultural choice. Yet, at the same time we must be cautious not to treat as a panacea or to fetishize it. As Bhabha points out, racism often is the leading ideology of the most literate people. Thus, critical in and of itself guarantees nothing, but it is an essential step toward agency, self-representation, and an effective democracy. Conse quently, the kind of work we do in composition is extremely important socially, and more institutions need to understand that the work of compo sition is less about linguistic competence than it is about critical interven tion in the world.

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