Laura Chrisman – författare

This book examines literary romance as a vehicle for the ideological contradictions of British imperialism in South Africa. Chrisman draws upon postcolonial theory and cultural materialism to discuss the imperialist Rider Haggard's fictional accounts of mining in King Solomon's Mines, and Zulu history in Nada the Lily, examining these novels as fraught responses to the introduction of capitalist modernity. She goes on to analyse the counter-narratives of metropolitan and African resistance of feminist Olive Schreiner and black nationalist Sol Plaatje. Exploring Schreiner's much-neglected Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland, Chrisman situates this book in relation to the violent creation of 'Rhodesia', the 1896-7 Shona uprisings, and contemporary criticism of Cecil Rhodes. In doing so, she shows how Schreiner's is a much more challenging example of anti-imperialist fiction than Conrad's Heart of Darkness, published two years later. Chrisman's discussion of Plaatje's Mhudi–the first black African novel in English–considers the book as a direct response to Haggard's imperialism and Schreiner's feminist theory. Locating the book through the politics and epistemology of the early ANC, she reveals how Plaatje challenges Haggard's misogyny and fatalistic historiography. Mhudi, she argues, is a novel whose nationalist and sexual politics are considerably more complex than has been recognized. Plaatje uses his narrative form to articulate both radical and liberal alternatives to white South African rule. Chrisman's book demonstrates how South Africa played an important if now overlooked role in British imperial culture, and shows the impact of capitalism itself in the making of racial, gender and national identities. This book makes an original contribution to studies of Victorian literature of empire; South African literary history; African studies; black nationalism; and the literature of resistance.

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.

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.

This popular text provides an in-depth introduction to debates within post-colonial theory and criticism. The readings are drawn from a diverse selection of thinkers both historical and contemporary.

Articles on the historical, social and political realities of postcolonialism as expressed in contemporary writing.Contemporary postcolonial studies represent a controversial area of debate. This collection seeks a more pragmatic approach to the subject, taking into account its historical, social and political realities, rather than ignoring aconsideration of material conditions. The contributors look at the oppositional power held and exercised by anti-colonial movements, a neglected topic; address the literary strategies devised by metropolitan writers to contain the insecurities of empire, given that unrest and opposition were integral to British imperialism; contest the charges of nativism and essentialism made by postcolonial critics against liberation writings; and investigate the voicesof both inhabitants of post-independence nation states, and those scattered by colonialism itself. Dr LAURA CHRISMAN teaches at Sussex University; BENITA PARRY is Honorary Professor at Warwick University.Contributors: Vilashini Cooppan, Fernando Coronil, Gautam Premnath, Ato Quayson, Tim Watson, Lawrence Phillips, Sukhdev Sandhu