Colonial traces: between amnesia and new social narratives

Theories of postcoloniality were developed during the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century, finding widespread diffusion amongst scholars from different socio-cultural and disciplinary contexts. Postcolonial studies have marked a critical analysis of the way the West thinks of itself in relation to "others”. On the one hand, postcoloniality marks the mutation of a “dream” linked to the centrality and supremacy of Western culture that should have marked the progressive "development" of other countries and contexts as well. Being and feeling "modern”, in fact, was not only a temporal condition that marks a departure from the past, but also a utopian horizon towards which to strive that had Western modernity as a reference. This modernity is characterized by the emergence of scientific, industrial and political revolutions over the centuries in some Western countries, which have brought prosperity and freedom but which have also not been free from internal contradictions and differences. For a long time, the West believed that this trajectory of modernization of society was not only a specific historical product, but also had a normative value, considering it a point of reference with respect to what is right to do and the direction in which to move, to be used as a yardstick also for other contexts outside those in which this modernity was born and developed. From this point of view, colonizations have not only been a way to conquer peoples and plunder resources, but have often also been legitimized by narratives that see the modernizing West committed to advancing - in a more or less forced way - “backward societies”. The years in which the debate on postcoloniality developed were accompanied by disillusionment in relation to the effects of decolonization that had left wounds and contradictions in the colonized countries often without bringing peace and prosperity. Alongside this bitter reflection, however, there has also been a renewed civil commitment for a change in societies that overcomes the dichotomous vision between advanced and backward countries, as well as that between modern and antiquated cultures (Ashcroft et al. 1995; Williams and Chrisman 1994) .