ELI PARK SORENSEN wrote his PhD in Comparative Literature at University College, London, UK, where he was also a teaching fellow. His work focuses on postcolonial studies, contemporary British fiction, international adoption literature and literary theory.  He is currently working on a book about Caryl Phillips.

'This is an engaging and truly thoughtful book. It is poised and ambitious, both in its bold and subtle handling of the literary texts on which it centres and in its overarching arguments. Sorensen's reconsideration of the place of the literary in postcolonial studies seems very timely, as regards not only the evolution of postcolonial studies but the future of literary studies more widely'. - Nicholas Harrison, Professor of Postcolonial Literature, King's College London, University of London, UK 'Park Sorensen's study provides an in-depth consideration of some current debates in postcolonial studies and also provides a rigorous overview of competing theories of the novel and the literary... This book would be suitable for postgraduate students and researchers interested in emerging trends in postcolonial literary studies and the relationship between postcolonialism and the literary as a whole.' - Routledge ABES June 2011 '...the case studies offer stimulating re-readings of three formally diverse postcolonial novels' - Valerie Kennedy, English Studies

• Acknowledgements Introduction The Melancholia of Postcolonial Studies Returning to the Literary Utopian-Interpretive Perspectives Form and Temporality in Ousmane Sembène's Xala Arcades of Foreignness: J.M. Coetzee's Foe Realism in Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index