Critical Analysis of the Book ‘Postcolonial Theory and Kurdology’

The present article reviews and criticizes the book ‘postcolonial theory and Kurdology’ authored by Jalil Karimi. In the introduction section, firstly, the postcolonial studies have been defined and important approaches have been introduced. Then, the book has been analyzed from both formal and content points of views. The results of this analysis show that there are some problems with regard to the formal viewpoint: it lacks introduction and general conclusion; the book has both the preface and introduction, and the English equivalence of the title of the book has not been written at the back of the book, and some of the authors’ names have not been mentioned in English in the text. From the content viewpoint, the sample size (i.e., eight books) is not enough; discourse analysis is mostly context-based, and in most of the cases, no attention has been paid to the historical and social backgrounds of the formation of Kurdish discourse. The analyses concerning issues, such as “negativism”, “nativism” and “the relationship between knowledge and power” are weak. The positive points of the book include its novel theme, fluent prose, strong theoretical framework, appropriate methodology, and accurate referencing system. The book is likely to have a significant impact on Iranian humanities studies in terms of theoretical, paradigmatic and methodological aspects; it also strengthens multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies, qualitative methods, critical approaches, indigenous knowledge and the concept of “subjectivity” in Iranian studies.