'The experience of colonization and the challenges of the post-colonial world have produced an explosion of new writing in English. This diverse and powerful body of literature has established a specific practice of colonial writing in cultures as diverse as India, Australia, the West Indies, Africa and Canada. This comprehensive study opens debates about the interrelationships of these literatures, investigates the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial text and shows how these texts constitute a radical critique of the assumptions underlying Eurocentric notions of literature and language.' (Publication summary)
'Looking back to the past this paper discusses why Pacific studies and in particular Australasian studies became an area of interest in tertiary education in Europe. What subject areas initiated these studies, and how do past legacies shape the present? With cutbacks in higher education over the past two decades the future of interdisciplinary studies and the humanities looks bleak. At the same time due to global business and increased political communication across borders there is a vibrant interest in and need for such studies among businesses and students. For most Europeans the literature of settler countries, with their European legacy, makes access to ways of thought and culture easier than studies of countries with other mythological backgrounds. In today’s multicultural environment such studies can provide knowledge for an understanding of other cultures and increase tolerance of the ‘other’. Area studies have relevance to our situation in Europe with increased migrancy, not least as a result of Schengen and EU regulations. ' (Author's abstract)
Critics and Writers Speak : Revisioning Post-Colonial Studies
Igor Maver
(editor),
Lanham
:
Lexington Books
,
2006
Z1362652
2006
anthology
criticism
'This book of new critical essays and interviews [...] provides a forum for discussion, revision and interrogation of the current practice of post-colonial studies, intervening in the current debates on post-colonialim by looking at a number of literary case studies within the context of the former British Empire' (2). The three interviews are with Peter Carey, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Opal Palmer Adisa.
