Indignity

This essay, 'Indignity', argues for a radical reassessment of the category of dignity as the basis for the human or humanity. Suggesting that this Kantian notion, employed liberally in human rights work, modern constitutions, and philosophical frameworks, often involves an obfuscation of the reality of human's existence in the world, It is propose that the term should be replaced by disposability, and that postcolonial feminism can usefully look to postcolonial literary texts to see how they conceive of justice beyond the terms of dignity. But theoretical notions of the literary are also employed to propose a robust notion of Marxist postcolonial feminism that goes beyond the liberal notions of rights. The article focuses on the South African context but does not limit itself to that.

Duke Scholars

Author Ranjana Khanna English