The Location of Culture

Bhabha discusses the connections between the violence of southern enslavement in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and signs of violence in northern and central India in the 1850s and 60s. He does so to investigate the intersection of economic hardship, colonial policies, and social unrest and to examine how marginalized or insurgent subjects create collective agency.

Bhabha explores how colonial exploitation and economic policies exacerbated poverty in colonized areas, which created widespread discontent and violence. Bhabha connects the material struggles of the colonized peoples to deeper cultural, psychological, and symbolic forms of violence. This analysis sheds light on how colonial systems of power dehumanize subjects and provoke resistance. In this situation, violence is both an expression of despair and a form of agency. 

Bhabha also explores the concept of rumor and its performative power, examining how rumor and panic “double as sites of enunciation that weave their stories around the disjunctive ‘present’ or the ‘not-there’ of discourse” (286). He examines how panic spreads and how it both holds native peoples together and binds them with their masters, if antagonistically.

Bhabha examines the concept of “newness” within the frameworks of postcolonialism and postmodernity, examining how cultural exchanges can create new meanings, identities, and possibilities. Interactions between cultures create newness, especially interactions shaped by colonial histories.