Postcolonial Poetics

Elleke Boehmer is Professor of World Literature in English at the University of Oxford, UK, and a founding figure in the field of colonial and postcolonial literary studies. She is the author, editor, or co-editor of over twenty books, including monographs and novels. Her monographs include Colonial and Postcolonial Literature (1995/2005), Stories of Women (2005), and Indian Arrivals (winner of the ESSE 2015-16 Prize). Her novels include The Shouting in the Dark (2015) and Screens against the Sky (1990).

“The book is valuable enough for reminding postcolonial literary critics not to neglect the how of writing and of reading, especially with regard to how postcolonial writing influences its readers’ social, political, and ethical sensibilities. … it is a welcome and timely reminder for postcolonial literary critics to not neglect the literary aspect of their research.” (Edward Powell, The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, Vol. 27 (1), December 23, 2019)“Boehmer’s book is, nevertheless, a vindication of postcolonial studies and of the potential of postcolonial literature to change the world. … Boehmer’s instruction to pay attention to the text’s formal and expressive meanings is a strategy to approach writings about terror or trauma without flattening them.” (Jenni Ramone, THE Times Higher Education, timeshighereducation.com, March 28, 2019)“What sets Boehmer’s work apart from many other academic writers’ is its readability. … Throughout Postcolonial poetics, Boehmer’s careful examination of “reading” practices allows for not only a deeper understanding of the formal, aesthetic dimension of postcolonial writing, but our role as readers in decoding and experiencing a text. It constitutes an invigorating relocation of attention in postcolonial studies.” (Karina Magdalena Szczurek, LitNet, litnet.co.za, November, 2018)

• 1. Postcolonial poetics—a score for reading.- 2. Questions of postcolonial poetics.- 3. Revisiting Resistance literature—writing in juxtaposition.- 4. Postcolonial writing, terror, and continuity: Okri, D’Aguiar, NourbeSe Philip, Shire.- 5. Repetitive poetics—when crisis defines a nation’s writing. Contemporary South African novels.- 6. Poetics and persistence: Chinua Achebe’s shaping influence.- 7. Concepts of exchange—poetics in postcolonial, world, and world-system literatures.- 8. The transformative force of the postcolonial line: protest poetry and the global short story.