The Empire Writes Back

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113446505X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
The experience of colonization and the challenges of a 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 post-colonial writing in cultures as various as India, Australia, the West Indies and Canada, and has challenged both the traditional canon and dominant ideas of literature and culture. The Empire Writes Back was the first major theoretical account of a wide range of post-colonial texts and their relation to the larger issues of post-colonial culture, and remains one of the most significant works published in this field. The authors, three leading figures in post-colonial studies, open up debates about the interrelationships of post-colonial literatures, investigate the powerful forces acting on language in the post-colonial text, and show how these texts constitute a radical critique of Eurocentric notions of literature and language. This book is brilliant not only for its incisive analysis, but for its accessibility for readers new to the field. Now with an additional chapter and an updated bibliography, The Empire Writes Back is essential for contemporary post-colonial studies.

The Empire Writes Back

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415280204
Category : Colonies in literature
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
This was the first major theoretical account of a wide range of post-colonial texts and their relation to the larger issues of post-colonial culture, and remains one of the most significant works published in this field.

On Post-Colonial Futures

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826452264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Book Description
Proposes a radical view of the influence that colonised societies have had on their former colonisers. In this work, Ashcroft extends the arguments posed in The Empire Writes Back to investigate the transformative effects of post-colonial resistance and the continuing relevance of colonial struggle. Author from UNSW.

Caliban's Voice

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134030061
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
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.

Utopianism in Postcolonial Literatures

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317284445
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
Postcolonial Studies is more often found looking back at the past, but in this brand new book, Bill Ashcroft looks to the future and the irrepressible demands of utopia. The concept of utopia – whether playful satire or a serious proposal for an ideal community – is examined in relation to the postcolonial and the communities with which it engages. Studying a very broad range of literature, poetry and art, with chapters focussing on specific regions – Africa, India, Chicano, Caribbean and Pacific – this book is written in a clear and engaging prose which make it accessible to undergraduates as well as academics. This important book speaks to the past and future of postcolonial scholarship.

Discourse

Author: Sara Mills
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113483604X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Sara Mills offers an accessible and comprehensive analysis of the term 'discourse' and explores the theoretical assumptions underlying it. This handy, easy to follow pocket guidebook for students provides: straightforward working definitions historical developments of the term studied analysis of Michel Foucault discussion of the appropriation of the term 'discourse' by feminist, colonial and post-colonial discourse theorists examples of literary and non-literary texts to illustrate the use of 'discourse'.

The Problematics of Writing Back to the Imperial Centre

Author: Nabil Baazizi
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
ISBN: 9781433182372
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
In the wake of decolonization, colonialist narratives have systematically been rewritten from indigenous perspectives. This phenomenon is referred to as "the Empire writes back to the centre"--a trend that asserted itself in late twentieth-century postcolonial criticism. The aim of such acts of writing back is to read colonialist texts in a Barthesian way inside-out or à l'envers, to deconstruct the Orientalist and colonialist dogmas, and eventually create a dialogue where there was only a monologue. Turning the colonial text inside-out and rereading it through the lens of a later code allows the postcolonial text to unlock the closures of its colonial precursor and change it from the inside. Under this critical scholarship, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899) has been a particularly influential text for Chinua Achebe and V. S. Naipaul. Their novels Things Fall Apart (1958) and A Bend in the River (1979) can be seen as a rewriting of Conrad's novella. However, before examining their different rewriting strategies, it would be fruitful to locate them within the postcolonial tradition of rewriting. While Achebe clearly stands as the leading figure of the movement, the Trinidadian novelist is, in fact, difficult to pigeonhole. Does Naipaul write back to, that is criticize, or does he rewrite, and in a way adopt and justify, imperial ideology? Since not all rewriting involves writing back in terms of anti-colonial critique, Naipaul's position continues to be explored as the enigmatic in-betweenness and double-edgedness of an "insider" turned "outsider." Taking cognizance of these different critical perceptions can become a way to effectively highlight Achebe's "(mis)-reading" and Naipaul's "(mis)-appropriation" of Conrad, a way to set the framework for the simulated conversation this book seeks to create between the three novelists.

The Post-colonial Studies Reader

Author: Bill Ashcroft
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415096225
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 548

Book Description
The Post-Colonial Studies Readeris the most comprehensive selection of key texts in post-colonial theory and criticism yet compiled. This collection covers a huge range of topics, featuring nearly ninety of the discipline's most widely read works. TheReader's90 extracts are designed to introduce the major issues and debates in the field of post-colonial literary studies. This field itself, however, has become so varied that no collection of readings could encompass every voice which is now giving itself the name "post-colonial." The editors, in order to avoid a volume which is simply a critical canon, have selected works representing arguments with which they do not necessarily agree, but rather which above all stimulate discussion, thought and further exploration. Post-colonial "theory" has occurred in all societies into which the imperial force of Europe has intruded, though not always in the official form oftheoretical text. Like the description of any other field the term has come to mean many things, but this volume hinges on one incontestable phenomenon: the "historical fact"of colonialism, and the palpable consequences to which this phenomenon gave rise. The topic involves talk about experience of various kinds: migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place, and reaction to the European influence, and about the fundamental experiences of speaking and writing by which all these come into being. In compiling this reader, the editors have sought to stimulate people to ask: "How might a genuinely post-colonial literary enterprise proceed?" The fourteen sections include: Issues and Debates; Universality and Difference; Textual Representation and Resistance; Postmodernism and Post-Colonialism; Nationalism; Hybridity; Ethnicity and Indigenity; Feminism and Post-Colonialism; Language; The Body and Performance; History; Place; Education; and Production andConsumption. Contributors include many of the leading post-colonial theorists and critics--such as Franz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Homi Bhabba, Derek Walcott, Edward Said, and Trinh T. Minh-ha--in addition to a number of the discourse's newer voices.The Post-Colonial Studies Readerwill prove an authoritative compilation, representing an invaluable contribution to the study of post-colonial theory and criticism.

On Histories and Stories

Author: A. S. Byatt
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674004511
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Book Description
The interplay between fiction and history forms the core of Byatt's essays as she explores historical storytelling and the translation of historical fact into fiction.

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: So You Want to Be a Jedi?

Author: Adam Gidwitz
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1484712110
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
Acclaimed, New York Times best-selling author Adam Gidwitz delivers a captivating retelling of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back like you've never experienced before, infusing the iconic, classic tale of good versus evil with a unique perspective and narrative style that will speak directly to today's young readers while enhancing the Star Wars experience for core fans of the saga.