Review essay: Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital

Thye article is a review essay of Vivek Chibber's recent book, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital. The publication of this book has raised lively and highly polemical debates, which are also reviewed in the artifcle. More generally, the essay discusses at length the development and the achievements of subaltern studies, testing Chibber's critique and dismissal of this important strand of critical theory. At the center of the discussion is the relation between subaltern (and more generally postcolonial) studies and historical as well as contemporary capitalism. The author discusses this question as well as the related problem of the relation between capital and universalism, proposing ananalytical framework which radically differes from the one elaborated by Chibber.