At no time has there been more fascination with the contrast that memories of
colonialism afford between the "elegance" of domination and the brutality of
its effects. While images of empire surface and resurface in the public domain,
colonial studies has materialized over the last decade as a force of cultural critique,
political commentary, and not least as a domain of new expert knowledge.
One could argue that the entire field has positioned itself as a counterweight
to the waves of colonial nostalgia that have emerged in the post-World
War I1 period in personal memoirs, coffee table books, tropical chic couture,
and a film industry that encourages "even politically progressive [North American]
audiences" to enjoy "the elegance of manners governing relations of dominance
and subordination between the race^."^ Still, Nietzsche's warning
against "idle cultivation of the garden of history" resonates today when it is not
always clear whether some engagements with the colonial are raking up colonial
ground, or vicariously luxuriating in it.