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The Politics of Decolonial Interpretation: Tradition and Method in Contemporary Arab Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2019

YASMEEN DAIFALLAH Open the ORCID record for YASMEEN DAIFALLAH [Opens in a new window]
YASMEEN DAIFALLAH*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
*
*Yasmeen Daifallah, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Santa Cruz, ydaifall@ucsc.edu
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Abstract

What is the relationship between interpretive methods and decolonizing projects? Decolonial thinkers often invoke pre-colonial traditions in their efforts to fashion “national cultures”— modes of being, understanding, and self-expression specific to a de-colonizing collectivity’s experience. While the substantive contributions of precolonial traditions to decolonial thought have received well-deserved attention in postcolonial and comparative political theory, this paper focuses on the role that interpretive methods play in generating the emancipatory sensibilities envisioned by decolonial thinkers. It draws on the contemporary Moroccan philosopher Mohammed ‘Abed Al-Jabri’s interpretive method to show that its decolonial potential lies in its “reader-centric” approach. This approach is concerned with transforming its postcolonial reader’s relationship to precolonial traditions, and not only with establishing the truth of historical texts or making use of their insights in the present as is more common in political-theoretical modes of interpretation. It does so through a tripartite process of disconnection, reconnection, and praxis.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 113 , Issue 3 , August 2019 , pp. 810 - 823
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2019 

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Footnotes

Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the UMass-Amherst Political Theory Workshop, the Georgetown Political Theory workshop, the Yale Middle East Social Science workshop, the American Political Science Association annual conference, and the University of California, Irvine Political Theory workshop.

I would like to thank Roxanne Euben, Murad Idris, Ellis Goldberg, Amel Ahmed, Nick Xenos, Barbara Cruikshank, Loubna El Amine, and Tejas Parasher for offering critical feedback on earlier drafts of this essay. Special thanks go to Leigh Jenco and four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

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