Postcolonial poetry in English / Rajeev S. Patke.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patke, Rajeev S. (Rajeev Shridhar)

Series:

Oxford studies in postcolonial literatures in English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Commonwealth poetry (English)--History and criticism.

Commonwealth poetry (English).

English poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Postcolonialism--English-speaking countries.

Postcolonialism.

English-speaking countries.

Postcolonialism--Commonwealth countries.

Commonwealth countries.

Postcolonialism in literature.

Physical Description:

xii, 267 pages ; 21 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

Postcolonial Poetry in English provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of English poetry in all the regions that were once part of the British Empire. In showing how diverse poetic traditions in English evolved from dependency to varying degrees of cultural self-confidence, the book answers two broad questions: How is postcolonial studies relevant to the interpretation of poetry? How does poetry contribute to our idea of postcolonial writing?

The book is divided into three parts: the first works out a method of analysis based on recent publications of outstanding interest by Nourbese Philip, Jackie Kay, and Ingrid de Kok; the second narrates the development of poetic traditions in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and the settler colonies of Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; the third analyses key motifs, such as the struggle for minority self-representation; the cultural politics of gender, modernism, and postmodernity; and the experience of migration and self-exile in contemporary Anglophone societies. Key motifs are addressed through close readings of representative poets from all parts of the Anglophone world, including West Africa, the Caribbean, and selected texts from Derek Walcott, Kamau Brathwaite, Arun Kolatkar, Ee Tiang Hong, A. K. Ramanujan, and Agha Shahid Ali.

Postcolonial Poetry in English is a succinct introduction to some of the most exciting poetry of the twentieth century. It is ideally suited for readers interested in world writing in English, contemporary literature, postcolonial writing, cultural studies, and postmodern culture.

Contents:

1 Poetry and postcoloniality 3

1.1 Terms, contexts, and perspectives 3

1.2 English in Britain: assimilation and resistance 14

1.3 Local themes, global applications 23

2 Back to the future 29

2.1 English as a 'foreign anguish': Nourbese Philip 29

2.2 'no darkie baby in this house': Jackie Kay 37

2.3 'the invisible mending of the heart': Ingrid de Kok 44

Part II The Development of Local Traditions

3 South Asia and Southeast Asia 55

3.1 Macaulay's minutemen 55

3.2 The Indian subcontinent 58

3.3 Southeast Asia 73

4 The Caribbean 80

4.1 Colonization and hybridity 80

4.2 Poetry and place 89

4.3 Poetry as performance: Caribbean orality 95

5 Black Africa 105

5.1 From colony to nation in Africa 105

5.2 The cost of protest 111

5.3 The ambivalence of cultural nationalism 123

6 The settler countries 130

6.1 Writing region and nation 130

6.2 Breaking with the past 139

6.3 Becoming modern 152

Part III Case Studies: Voice and Technique

7 Minoritarian sensibilities 159

7.1 Oceania 160

7.2 'Indigenes' and settler minorities 162

7.3 Black Britain and the Caribbean diaspora 172

8 Techniques of self-representation 180

8.1 Modernism and hybridity: black Africa 180

8.2 Gender and poetry: the Caribbean 186

8.3 Postmodern practice: South Asia 195

9 Recurrent motifs: voyage and translation 207

9.1 The voyage home: Walcott and Brathwaite 207

9.2 Postcolonial exile: Ee Tiang Hong 223

9.3 Postcolonial translation: A. K. Ramanujan and Agha Shahid Ali 228

10 After the 'post-' 237.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [240]-258) and index.

ISBN:

0199298882

0199275645

OCLC:

64208536

Publisher Number:

9780199298884 (acid-free paper)

9780199275649 (pbk. acid-free paper)