Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness

Tabish Khair is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. A novelist, poet, journalist and scholar, he was born and educated in India. His novels and poems have won various awards, and his critical studies have marked crucial interventions in Indian English literature, postcolonialism, Gothic fiction, and the study of xenophobia.

"This is a very important book. But, before I attempt to describe some of this importance, I should also register that it is a joy to read: it is eloquent in ways which constantly surprise, yet should not, since its author is, as well as a critic, a poet and writer of fiction. The writing here is adventurous yet lucid, full of critical detail yet admirably concise...In conclusion: I found this a brilliant and most exciting book. In the subtitle, 'Ghosts from Elsewhere', I have no idea where this particular 'elsewhere' might be but perhaps that is the point." - David Punter, Gothic Studies "This is a fascinating, diverse and rich book which combines across the Gothic and the postcolonial in its concern with varieties of colonial and imperial Gothic 'Other', at different times, introducing a focus on the "war on terror" as a topical "hook." Khair places the foreign Other as a central function in the Gothic in texts set both in Britain and the ex-colonies, particularly in the Caribbean, where British influence is revealed as frequently demonic." - Gina Wisker, Head of the Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Brighton, UK

• Acknowledgements Introduction: The Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness PART I: THE GOTHIC AND OTHERNESS Ghosts from the Colonies The Devil and the Racial Other Heathcliff as Terrorist Smoke and Darkness: The Heart of Conrad Emotions and the Gothic PART II: POSTCOLONIALISM AND OTHERNESS Can the Other Speak? Negotiating Vodou: Some Caribbean Narratives of Otherness Can the 'Other half' be told?: Brodber's Myal The Option of Magical Realism Narration, Literary Language and the Post/Colonial Conclusion: Summing Up Notes Index