From Post-isms to Identity Politics: Reflections on American Humanities Today

Theories of poststructuralism, postmodernism and postcolonialism have dominated the U.S. humanities for almost half a century. As an indigenous theory of the U.S., postcolonialism, together with British Cultural Studies, transform the Anglo-American academic scene of the humanities and impact fields of social sciences. The core of postcolonial theory is identity politics, based largely in North American experience of diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and religious communities of immigrants. Such an academic theory has recently spilled over every social sector, constituting political correctness (PC) as a prevalent socio-political discourse, with far-reaching impact. Identity politics appears in various guises, such as multiculturalism and relativism, reverberating with the newly emergent populist, nationalist and ant-globalization sentiments across the world. Critique of identity politics may help navigate intellectual inquires to the theoretical and real issues that China faces now.