Postwar British literature and postcolonial studies / Graham MacPhee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacPhee, Graham, 1968-

Series:

Postcolonial literary studies

Postcolonial literary studies.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

English literature.

Imperialism in literature.

Postcolonialism.

Physical Description:

xviii, 180 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2011]

Summary:

This series examines how Postcolonial studies reconfigures the major periods and areas of literature. The books relate key literacy and cultural texts. Both to their historical and geographical contexts, and to contemporary issues of neo-colonialism and global equality. Each volume not only provides a comprehensive over on the exiting field of scholarship and debate but is also an original intervention its own right.

Each book includes: a timeline; an introductory literature survey; discussion of critical, theoretical, historical and political debates; exemplary critical readings of literary texts; and further reading.

Re-assesses current approaches to postwar British writing in light of ongoing debates within postcolonial and globalisation studies

Graham MacPhee argues that the process of decolonisation was far more uneven and contradictory than is often assumed, and needs to be understood as reinforcing the transition to a new structure of global hegemony as well as marking the end of formal European colonialism. This study examines poetry, drama and fiction as well as cultural criticism, theory and political discourse, and discusses a wide range of writers from George Orwell, Graham Greene, T. S. Eliot and Philip Larkin to Sam Selvon, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Tony Harrison, Kazuo Ishiguro, Andrea Levy, Ian McEwan and Leila Aboulela. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Rethinking the End of Empire 6

Beyond Bloomsbury 9

Little England and Global Englishes 15

Decolonisation and the Cold War: Auden's 'Fleet Visit' 18

From British to US Hegemony: Greene's The Quiet American 23

From 'Civilisation' to 'Culture': Churchill and Orwell 30

Reinventing the West: T.S. Eliot 37

The Disappearance of Colonial Labour: Lamming, Selvon and Bennett 40

Decolonisation in Reverse: From Larkin to Powell 51

After Empire 64

2 Decolonising the Discipline 70

Postcolonial Studies as Insurgent Field and Contested Concept 71

What's Wrong with 'National Culture'? Williams and British Cultural Studies 80

Dislocating Identity: Fanon and Hall 88

The New Circuits of Imperialism: Sivanandan 95

The Politics of Migrancy: Bhabha 100

Frameworks: National, Transnational and Global 106

3 Rewriting the Nation 116

Late Colonial Parallax: Samuel Selvon's The Lonely Londoners 118

Bringing the War Back Home? John Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance 127

The Fire Next Time: Linton Kwesi Johnson's Dread Beat and Blood 133

Enemies Within: Tony Harrison's V 139

In Memoriam: Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day 142

Through Whose Eyes? Leila Aboulela's Minaret 149

Histories of the Present: Ian McEwan's Saturday and Andrea Levy's Small Island 158.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [164]-173) and index.

ISBN:

0748639012

9780748639014

0748639004

9780748639007

OCLC:

639461712