Epilogue: the pterodactyl of history?

Abstract
I begin this commentary by considering Walter Benjamin's idea of history alongside that of Mahasweta Devi, in her long story, ‘Pterodactyl, Puran Sahay, and Pirtha’. The goal is to bring various ideas of temporality and historical periodisation into relief, ranging from the narrowly conjunctural, to ‘capitalism’ and ‘modernity’, and on to the notion of ‘universal history’. I then attempt to periodise postcolonial studies as a form of ‘third worldism’, and conclude by examining some of the claims being advanced today that enjoin us to think about ‘post-Soviet’ in relation to ‘postcolonial’ studies.