The Postcolonial Novel

Front Cover
Polity, Jul 21, 2006 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 146 pages
The Postcolonial Novel provides a concise and invaluable introduction to the rise of postcolonial literatures in English through close readings of seminal novels. These novels which continue to generate debate long after publication and have influenced the ways in which we think about literature and literary studies provide an ideal entry point to the subject for students. Each main chapter begins with a helpful introductory overview, and then closely reads a key novel before moving on to examine the impact and significance of that particular text. The book as a whole works to introduce and explain the emergence of theoretical discourse from these close readings, drawing extensively upon leading indigenous and western critics and theorists. Students will be encouraged to use this book to debate a wide range of critical issues that have been generated by postcolonial literatures.

Richard J. Lane is Professor of English, Malaspina University-College, Canada

From inside the book

Contents

1 Introducing the Postcolonial Novel in English
1
2 The CounterCanonical Novel
18
3 Alternative Historiographies
32
4 National Consciousness
47
5 Interrogating Subjectivity
59
6 Recoding Narrative
71
7 The Rushdie Affair
83
8 The Optical Unconscious
97
Conclusion
109
Notes
115
Bibliography
133
Index
144
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About the author (2006)

Richard Lane, Malaspina University-College