Post Colonial Literatures In English

" ... Documents the history and development of [Post-colonial literatures in English, together with English and American literature] and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.

In this original and accessible introduction to post-colonial literatures in English, Dennis Walder guides the reader through the historical, linguistic, and theoretical issues that inform post-colonial literary study.

The term ‘postcolonial literatures in English’ designates English-language literatures from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Oceania, as well as the literatures of diasporic communities who have moved from those regions to the global north. This volume introduces the central themes of postcolonial literary studies and delineates how these themes are reflected and elaborated in exemplary literary works by postcolonial authors from around the world. It also offers succinct definitions of key terms like Orientalism, hybridity, Indigeneity or writing back.

The past century has witnessed the extraordinary flowering of fiction, poetry and drama from countries previously colonised by Britain, an output which has changed the map of English literature. This introduction, from a leading figure in the field, explores a wide range of Anglophone post-colonial writing from Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, India, Ireland and Britain. Lyn Innes compares the ways in which authors shape communal identities and interrogate the values and representations of peoples in newly independent nations. Placing its emphasis on literary rather than theoretical texts, this book offers detailed discussion of many internationally renowned authors, including James Joyce, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie, Les Murray and Derek Walcott. It also includes historical surveys of the main countries discussed, a glossary, and biographical notes on major authors. Lyn Innes provides a rich and subtle guide to a vast array of authors and texts from a wide range of sites.

Includes critical essays on William Shakespeare's The Tempest; Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre; Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Rudyard Kipling's Kim; James Joyce's Ulysses; E.M. Forster's A passage to India; and, Salman Rushdie's The satanic verses.

In Shakespeare’s Tempest, Caliban says to Miranda and Prospero: "...you taught me language, and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse. " With this statement, he gives voice to an issue that lies at the centre of post-colonial studies. Can Caliban own Prospero’s language? Can he use it to do more than curse? Caliban’s Voice examines the ways in which post-colonial literatures have transformed English to redefine what we understand to be ‘English Literature’. It investigates the importance of language learning in the imperial mission, the function of language in ideas of race and place, the link between language and identity, the move from orature to literature and the significance of translation. By demonstrating the dialogue that occurs between writers and readers in literature, Bill Ashcroft argues that cultural identity is not locked up in language, but that language, even a dominant colonial language, can be transformed to convey the realities of many different cultures. Using the figure of Caliban, Ashcroft weaves a consistent and resonant thread through his discussion of the post-colonial experience of life in the English language, and the power of its transformation into new and creative forms.

In this original and accessible introduction to post-colonial literatures in English, Dennis Walder guides the reader through the historical, linguistic, and theoretical issues that inform post-colonial literary study. He then goes on to provide three detailed case studies, focusing upon Indian fiction in English, Caribbean and Black British poetry, and contemporary South African literature. In a searching final chapter he considers, through a focus upon work by Ariel Dorfman, V. S. Naipaul and Michael Ondaatje, the questions of what might follow 'After Post-Colonialism'. Among the writers and theorists discussed are: Achebe, Brathwaite, Bhaba, Gordimer, Fanon, Freud, Henry Louis Gates Jr, C. L. R. James,Marx, Mhlophe, Miller, Narayan, Ngugi, Nichols, Said, Sahgal, Sartre, Spivak, Trivedi, and Walcott. The book provides a clear and provocative path through the texts and debates of a major and exciting new area of literary studies.

Exploring literatures from a range of countries this book provides a comprehensive introduction to some of the central features of language in a wide variety of postcolonial texts.