Colonial Discourse and Post-colonial Theory: A Reader

by Patrick Williams (Editor), Laura Chrisman (Editor)

Equally suitable for undergraduates and specialists in the humanities, this collection provides an in-depth introduction to debates within post-colonial theory and criticism. The readings are drawn from a diverse selection of Third World and Western thinkers, both historical and contemporary. "Post-colonialism" is taken by the editors to include Third World and diasporic experience; like "colonialism," it is understood to contain a complex set of cultural, ethnographic, political, and economic processes and conflicts.

This volume explores such issues as the nature of colonized cultures and anti-colonial resistance; subaltern historiography; constructions of Western subjectivity, knowledge, and gender; the formation of post-colonial intellectuals; the metropolitan institutionalization of post-colonialism; neo-colonialism; and the nature of minority and post-colonial identity and discourse. One section is devoted to the application of theoretical formulations to cultural criticism, and contains a number of textual analyses. A general introduction to the volume as well as introductions to each section provide historical, theoretical, and poltical contexts for the readings. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography.

Genres: History, Theory, Essays, Nonfiction, Reference, Philosophy, Textbooks

570 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

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Reviews

[Amy]

Bought for class I ended up dropping, but read some of it.

[Stephanie Allen]

Blah. I don't even remember HALF of the words that were on the pages.

[June]

a representative reader of highly selected writings on postcolonial theory