Full Description
Examining contested notions of indigeneity, and the positioning of the Indigenous subject before and beyond the law, this book focuses upon the animation of indigeneities within textual imaginaries, both literary and juridical. Engaging the philosophy of Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin, as well as other continental philosophy and critical legal theory, the book uniquely addresses the troubled juxtaposition of law and justice in the context of Indigenous legal claims and literary expressions, discourses of rights and recognition, postcolonialism and resistance in settler nation states, and the mutually constitutive relation between law and literature. Ultimately, the book suggests no less than a literary revolution, and the reassertion of Indigenous Law.
To date, the oppressive specificity with which Indigenous peoples have been defined in international and domestic law has not been subject to the scrutiny undertaken in this book. As an interdisciplinary engagement with a variety of scholarly approaches, this book will appeal to a broad variety of legal and humanist scholars concerned with the intersections between Indigenous peoples and law, including those engaged in critical legal studies and legal philosophy, sociolegal studies, human rights and native title law.
Contents
PART I: NARRATIVES
Introduction
The Question of Indigeneity
(Mis)recognising Indigeneity
The Legal Indigene
Performing Indigeneity
Unsettling Indigeneity
The Literary Indigene
A Strange Play
Puncturing the Horizon
Positioning
To Speak of the Other
Synopsis
PART II: INDIGENEITY
Introduction
An Imperial Orientation
Subjects of Empire
An Impossible Object
Return of the Native
The Proper Indigene
The Legal Archive
An Originary Indigeneity
An Essential Ghost
Indigeneity as Other
Desiring Indigeneity
Before the Law
PART III: LAW
Introduction
Juridical Violence
The Madness of the Decision
Justice as Law
An Idea of Justice
Legitimate Fictions
The Last Uncharted Continent
The Colonial Gaze
Origin and Content
Mythic Indigeneity
The Ancient Tribe
Law as Literature
PART IV: LITERATURE
Introduction
A Fictive Institution
The Postcolonial Project
Mimetic Indigeneities
Becoming Indigeneity
(Re)imagining Indigeneity
A Law of Alterity
A Subversive Juridicity
Recuperative Jurisprudences
Decolonising Country
Beyond the Law
To Conclude
