"The extraordinary reach of Western imperialism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is one of the most astonishing facts in all of geopolitical history. Neither Rome, nor Byzantium, nor Spain at the height of its glory came close to the imperial scope of France, the United States, and particularly Great Britain in these years. But while the rule of these vast dominions left scarcely a corner of life untouched in either the colonies or the imperialist capitals, its profound influence upon the cultural products of the West has been largely ignored. In this dazzling work of historical inquiry, Edward Said shows how the justification for empire-building was inescapably embedded in the Western cultural imagination during the Age of Empire, and how even today the imperial legacy colors relations between the West and the formerly colonized world at every level of political, ideological, and social practice." "Probing some of the great masterpieces of the Western tradition - including Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Austen's Mansfield Park, Verdi's Aida, and Camus's L'Estranger - Said brilliantly illuminates how culture and politics cooperated, knowingly and unknowingly, to produce a system of domination that involved more than cannon and soldiers - a sovereignty that extended over forms, images, and the very imaginations of both the dominators and the dominated. The result was a "consolidated vision" that affirmed not merely the Europeans' right to rule but their obligation, and made alternative arrangements unthinkable." "Pervasive as this vision was, however, it did not go unchallenged. Said also traces the development of an "oppositional strain" in the works of native writers who participated in the perilous process of cultural decolonization. Working mainly in the languages of their colonial masters, these writers - including William Butler Yeats, Salman Rushdie, Aime Cesaire, and Chinua Achebe - identified and exposed mechanisms of control and repression. In so doing, they reclaimed for their peoples the right of self-determination in history and literature." "In today's post-colonial world, Said argues, imperialist assumptions continue to influence Western politics and culture, from the media's coverage of the Gulf War to debates over what histories and literatures are worth teaching in our schools. But his vision reveals a hopeful truth: if the West and its former subject peoples are to achieve a meaningful, harmonious coexistence, it will depend upon the development of a humanistic historical understanding that all cultures are interdependent, that they inevitably borrow from one another. Finally this passionate and immensely learned book points the way beyond divisive nationalisms toward an awareness that the true human community is global."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This second edition of Postcolonial Ecocriticism, a book foundational for its field, has been updated to consider recent developments in the area such as environmental humanities and animal studies. Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin examine transverse relations between humans, animals and the environment across a wide range of postcolonial literary texts and also address key issues such as global warming, food security, human over-population in the context of animal extinction, queer ecology, and the connections between postcolonial and disability theory. Considering the postcolonial first from an environmental and then a zoocritical perspective, the book looks at: Narratives of development in postcolonial writing Entitlement, belonging and the pastoral Colonial 'asset stripping' and the Christian mission The politics of eating and the representation of cannibalism Animality and spirituality Sentimentality and anthropomorphism The changing place of humans and animals in a 'posthuman' world. With a new preface written specifically for this edition and an annotated list of suggestions for further reading, Postcolonial Ecocriticism offers a comprehensive and fully up-to-date introduction to a rapidly expanding field.

A summary of some of the issues in which Ngugi has been passionately involved.

Colonialism/Postcolonialism is a comprehensive yet accessible guide to the historical and theoretical dimensions of colonial and postcolonial studies. Ania Loomba deftly introduces and examines: key features of the ideologies and history of colonialism the relationship of colonial discourse to literature challenges to colonialism, including anticolonial discourses recent developments in postcolonial theories and histories issues of sexuality and colonialism, and the intersection of feminist and postcolonial thought debates about globalization and postcolonialism Recommended on courses across the academic disciplines and around the world, Colonialism/Postcolonialism has for some years been accepted as the essential introduction to a vibrant and politically charged area of literary and cultural study.

In recent years, postcolonialism and postcolonial theory have provided a countermovement for debates over such issues as imperialism and nationalism and the culture and canon wars. But what does postcolonial theory mean? This is the first book of its kind to clearly map out this field in its own terms. The first part of the book provides an overview of postcolonialism's pervasiveness in the academy and lucidly illustrates the debates about the often conflicting consensus regarding the proper content, scope, and relevance of its concerns. Leela Gandhi moves luridly through the debates, from Gayatri Spivak's now paradigmatic postcolonial plea, "Can the Subaltern Speak?", to Albert Memmi's controversial claim that the end of colonialism did not mean the end of oppression. The second part of the book elaborates the themes and issues that have engaged the attention of postcolonial critics. From its influence in Marxism and poststructuralism, from the work of Edward Said to Salman Rushdie, from feminist imperialism to globalization and hybridity, Gandhi demonstrates the ethical concern that postcolonial theory can offer: how to take into account diversity without erasing distinct diasporas of difference. For both readers beginning to learn about postcolonialism and those familiar with its concerns, no other introduction exemplifies more clearly or energetically this current mode of theoretical inquiry.

Unlike other readers, this book takes eight important literary texts and provides some of the most significant post-colonial readings of them published in the last fifteen years. Topics include cannibalism, slavery, the harem, missionary work, gender, nationalism and the Rushdie affair. The book offers practical examples of applying theoretical arguments to specific texts.Key features:* Provides three or four cutting edge essays on each of the following texts: Shakespeare's The Tempest; Defoe's Robinson Crusoe; Bronte's Jane Eyre; Kipling's Kim, Conrad's Heart of Darkness; Joyce's Ulysses; Forster's A Passage to India; Rushdie's The Satanic Verses

This work takes eight important texts and gives students some of the most significant post-colonial readings of them published since the mid-1980s. Topics include cannibalism, slavery, the harem, missionary work, gender, nationalism and the Rushdie affair. The book offers practical examples of applying theoretical arguments to specific texts."

This book challenges the boundaries of postcolonial theory. Focusing on American literature, it examines how America's own imperial history has shaped the literature that has emerged from America, from Native American, Latino, Black and Asian-American writers. They contrast this with postcolonial literature from countries whose history has been shaped by American colonialism, from Canada, Central America and the Caribbean to Hawaii, Indonesia and Vietnam.It explores questions about national identity and multiculturalism: why, for instance, is a Native writer categorised within 'American literature' if writing on one side of the border, but as 'Canadian' and 'postcolonial' if writing on the other?This is a challenging collection that raises questions not only about the boundaries of postcolonial theory, but also about ethnicity and multiculturalism, and the impact of immigration and assimilation.

Post-Colonial Drama is the first full-length study to address the ways in which performance has been instrumental in resisting the continuing effects of imperialism. It brings to bear the latest theoretical approaches from post-colonial and performance studies to a range of plays from Australia, Africa, Canada, New Zealand, the Caribbean and other former colonial regions. Some of the major topics discussed in Post-Colonial Drama include: * the interactions of post-colonial and performance theories * the post-colonial re-stagings of language and history * the specific enactments of ritual and carnival * the theatrical citations of the post-colonial body Post-Colonial Drama combines a rich intersection of theoretical approaches with close attention to a wide range of performance texts.

Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.

Rethinking questions of identity, social agency and national affiliation, Bhabha provides a working, if controversial, theory of cultural hybridity - one that goes far beyond previous attempts by others. In The Location of Culture, he uses concepts such as mimicry, interstice, hybridity, and liminality to argue that cultural production is always most productive where it is most ambivalent. Speaking in a voice that combines intellectual ease with the belief that theory itself can contribute to practical political change, Bhabha has become one of the leading post-colonial theorists of this era.

Bhabha, in his preface, writes 'Nations, like narratives, lose their origins in the myths of time and only fully encounter their horizons in the mind's eye'. From this seemingly impossibly metaphorical beginning, this volume confronts the realities of the concept of nationhood as it is lived and the profound ambivalence of language as it is written. From Gillian Beer's reading of Virginia Woolf, Rachel Bowlby's cultural history of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Francis Mulhern's study of Leaviste's 'English ethics'; to Doris Sommer's study of the 'magical realism' of Latin American fiction and Sneja Gunew's analysis of Australian writing, Nation and Narration is a celebration of the fact that English is no longer an English national consciousness, which is not nationalist, but is the only thing that will give us an international dimension.

This edition, containing an extensive introduction, notes, the French original, and a new translation of C#65533;saire's poetry--the complex and challenging later works as well as the famous Notebook--will remain the definitive C#65533;saire in English.

Streaming Video