Postcolonial Europe

Frank Schulze-Engler began his talk by stating his irritations with the idea of Postcolonial Europe whilst he generally agrees with the work that comes about from its study it certainly has some fundamental problems that arise. The key problem is how do we actually identify what Postcolonial Europe means. Obviously to undergo further study in an area the most important thing is to define and identify exactly what it is. Unfortunately there are widely varying views of how we engage with a Postcolonial Europe. Do we look at Europe from a geographic point of view? Or do we start looking at it from a political perspective? Or perhaps an historic and ethnic point of view?

In the first case where does the boundary stop? There has been ongoing debate about Turkey’s or Morrocco's inclusion into the European Union (and as stated there could be further debate if the EU decides to go ahead with its plan to build a massive solar farm in north Africa) . This here raises another issue. Is the European Union the definition of a modern Europe or should we go by the Council of Europe? Both with differing member states. Should we go by a different political entity or should we ignore this and go by the historical definition of Europe which is traditionally Western-centric. We must be aware of the dominance of the former major colonial powers in Britain and France and their influence over European affairs. Europe has to come to terms with its colonial history but also with its present and the influx of migrants (both legal and illegal) and new citizens. This idea of “old” versus “new” has only recently entered the debate with hundreds of years of dominance by the “traditional” Europe. If we were to go by that example then to what extent would Australia be considered European? We could say that we tick all the boxes with the exception of geography and as pointed out by Schulze-Engler this is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

To engage with a Postcolonialist discourse Europe must grapple with its colonial past. Only recently have Europeans become conscious of the “barbarity” that permeated through the dominant center. This allows for a Europe that understands the realities of its Colonial past yet can still interact with its former colonies. The “other” was stated as being a key component to the European identity. By viewing Postcolonial through a white Christian framework is to deny the reality of millions of Europeans who suffer because of race or religion or culture. In a literary sense they must move away from looking at literature through their national perspective and move towards a European perspective that acknowledges the modern cosmopolitanisation. Schulze-Engler pointed out that this wild mixing of cultures and “different people” can contribute to the making of a new purely European culture which certainly cannot be a bad thing.