Postcolonial Con-Texts: Writing Back to the Canon (Literature Culture and Identity) - Hardcover

Thieme, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0826454658 ISBN 13: 9780826454652

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2002

Synopsis

In recent years works such as Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea, J.M. Coetzee's Foe and Peter Carey's Jack Maggs, which 'write back' to classic English texts, have attracted considerable attention as offering a paradigm for the relationship between post-colonial writing and the 'canon'. Thieme's study provides a broad overview of such writing, focusing both on responses to texts that have frequently been associated with the colonial project or the construction of 'race' (The Tempest, Robinson Crusoe, Heart of Darkness and Othello) and texts where the interaction between culture and imperialism is slightly less overt (Great Expectations, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights). The post-colonial con-texts examined are located within their particular social and cultural backgrounds with emphasis on the different forms their responses to their pre-texts take and the extent to which they create their own discursive space. Using Edward Said's models of filiative relationships and affiliative identifications, the book argues that 'writing back' is seldom adversarial, rather that it operates along a continuum between complicity and oppositionality that dismantles hierarchical positioning. It also suggests that post-colonial appropriations of canonical pre-texts frequently generate re-readings of their 'originals'. It concludes by considering the implications of this argument for discussions of identity politics and literary genealogies more generally. Authors examined include Chinua Achebe, Margaret Atwood, Kamau Brathwaite, Peter Carey, J.M. Coetzee, Robertson Davies, Wilson Harris, Elizabeth Jolley, Robert Kroetsch, George Lamming, Margaret Laurence, Pauline Melville, V.S. Naipaul, Caryl Phillips, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Jean Rhys, Salman Rushdie, Djanet Sears, Sam Selvon, Olive Senior, Jane Urquhart and Derek Walcott.

About this title

About the Author:

John Thieme is Professor of English Studies at South Bank University.

Review:

"Postcolonial Con-texts addresses one of the most relevant and exciting issues of postcolonial discourse: the relationship between postcolonial writing and the English canon, providing a broad overview of how intertextuality works between colonial and postcolonial texts...

...The whole study...carries a complicated network of cross-references between the texts, skilfully handled by the author. Despite the huge and complicated material, Thieme keeps the structure of the study transparent by constantly reinforcing his thesis and looking back to his findings and conclusions. He writes in an easily apprehensible, eloquent scholarly style. The book contains a substantial bibliography, suggesting further reading material for scholars and students.

I recommend this book to a professional readership of postcolonial scholars, critics, and students whose scope of research includes intertextuality or any of the texts (re)considered. Even those who have not immersed themselves in postcolonial studies will find it worth reading."HJEAS, 2005

"Postcolonial Con-texts addresses one of the most relevant and exciting issues of postcolonial discourse: the relationship between postcolonial writing and the English canon, providing a broad overview of how intertextuality works between colonial and postcolonial texts...

...The whole study...carries a complicated network of cross-references between the texts, skilfully handled by the author. Despite the huge and complicated material, Thieme keeps the structure of the study transparent by constantly reinforcing his thesis and looking back to his findings and conclusions. He writes in an easily apprehensible, eloquent scholarly style. The book contains a substantial bibliography, suggesting further reading material for scholars and students.

I recommend this book to a professional readership of postcolonial scholars, critics, and students whose scope of research includes intertextuality or any of the texts (re)considered. Even those who have not immersed themselves in postcolonial studies will find it worth reading."HJEAS, 2005

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0826454658
• ISBN 13: 9780826454652
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208