The Colonial Doubling, or the Challenge for Colonial Authority

Abstract

This essay discusses R.M. Minke’s (partial) presence in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Buru Quartet. The quartet starts with signs exhibiting the triumph of Western colonialism in the Dutch East Indies. The Western-educated Minke acknowledges the superiority of Western science and technology. He writes in Dutch, the signifier of the colonial authority. This essay examines Minke’s adoption of Western culture and the colonial representation where his (partial) presence challenges the authority of colonial discourse. Framed within Bhabha’s theory of hybridity, this essay will find out how the colonial discourse is always in the state of splitting which menaces the colonial authority.