(POST)COLONIAL MELANCHOLIA, ETHNIC ABSOLUTISM, AND PLANETARY HUMANISM: EXPLORING (IMPERIAL) AMNESIA/NOSTALGIA, RAC(ISM), AND CONVIVIALITY IN OPEN CITY

Abstract

Anchored in the theoretical arrangements of postcolonial melancholia, this paper examines the melancholic consolidation of inclusive exclusionary narratives prompted by unresolved imperial amnesia/nostalgia in Teju Cole’s Open City. Drawing on the theoretical framework of postcolonial melancholia, it foregrounds the ways in which the neo-traditional pathology perpetuates the morbidity of heritage, Empire’s denial of its loss, and racial and ethnic absolutism. Planetary humanism arises as a counter-discourse to ethnic absolutism, racism, and imperial nostalgia or amnesia, envisioning an ethics of shared vulnerability that sustains the fragile coexistence of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural identities. The protagonist, Julius, experiences black criminality, racial segregation, and disruption of the past rooted in sustaining postcolonial melancholia. His recollection of the violent events of history dismantles the Empire’s facile declaration of racially pure history. The other immigrants, Farouq and Khalil, become victims of the pathological conditioning of the European societies, spotlighting the themes of xenophobia, guilt, and rac(ism).  Julius and Farouq challenge the Western conviction that multiculturalism has collapsed, envisioning instead a resilient cohabitation of differences that reanimates the ideal of conviviality amidst the anxieties of the post-9/11 epoch. In Open City, postcolonial melancholia and ethnic absolutism engage in an overlapping relationship, and planetary humanism cripples this cyclical relation, marking a thematic transition from nostalgia/amnesia toward the emancipatory registers of synchronicity, multiplicity, and conviviality. The paper aims to desacralize imperial and colonial powers, exposing their melancholic, fictional, and mythical portrayal of colonial history and racial stereotypes, thereby nullifying the Empire’s claim to omnipotence and advancing the possibility of an ethical, convivial mode of being-in-the-world.