Dialogue of cultures: Explanatory possibilities of postcolonial optics in the philosophy of culture

Postcolonial studies transform the theory of the dialogue of cultures in the philosophy of culture. The key concepts formulated by Mikhail Bakhtin and Vladimir Bibler (understanding the Other, being on the border of culture, polyphony, ambivalence) acquire a new reading. The understanding of the dialogue of cultures as the interaction of equivalent cultures is rejected. The emergence of postcolonial discourse in social and humanitarian sciences is associated with the fixation of the illusion of an equal dialogue. In postcolonial studies, the emphasis is shifted to peripheral practices of upholding the independence and identity of oppressed cultures; the existence of dominance and subordination in the communication is emphasized. Bakhtin and Bibler formulated a thesis that, in the dialogue, the logic of culture is formed and the culture realizes its own uniqueness. In postcolonial studies, this thesis is strengthened. It is recognized that culture needs to defend the right to its discourse. In postcolonial studies, the border of cultures as a space of cultural creativity is interpreted as a borderland where hybrid cultures are formed. To analyze the simultaneous existence of multiple discourses in the narrative of a hybrid culture, the author uses the concept of a polyphonic culture proposed by Bakhtin. The border of cultures is not only their division, but also the space of their intersection. A hybrid culture bears the imprint of cultures on the edges of which it was formed. A hybrid culture is a symbiosis of other people's meanings. The concept of hybrid culture allows not only to describe the special status of a culture that arose in the situation of a dialogue, but also to fix its ambivalent and polydiscursive character. The narration of a hybrid culture about one's self demonstrates the ambivalent mutual negation and mutual conditioning of a minimum of two discourses. The popularity of postcolonial discourse in social and humanitarian sciences leads to an extensive application of postcolonial methodology. Traces of imperial discourse, domination and subordination begins are searched for beyond colonial practices.

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