Companion to Postcolonial Studies: An Historical Introduction (Blackwell Companions in Cultural Studies)

This volume examines the tumultuous changes that have occurred and are still occurring in the aftermath of European colonization of the globe from 1492 to 1947.

• Ranges widely over the major themes, regions, theories and practices of postcolonial study
• Presents original essays by the leading proponents of postcolonial study in the Americas, Europe, India, Africa, East and West Asia
• Provides clear introductions to the major social and political movements underlying colonization and decolonization, accessible histories of the literature and culture, and separate regions affected by European colonization
• Features introductory essays on the major thinkers and intellectual schools that have informed strategies of national liberation worldwide
• Offers an incisive summary of the long history and theory of modern European colonization in local detail and global scale

Henry Schwarz is Associate Professor of English at Georgetown University, He is author of Writing Cultural History in Colonial and Postcolonial India (1997) and co-editor of Reading the Shape of the World: Toward an International Cultural Studies (1996) and Contributions to Bengal Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Approach (1998). He has published in literary theory, cultural studies, Indian literature, and English imperialism. He is currently US Regional Editor of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies.

Sangeeta Ray is currently the Director of the Asian American Studies program at the University of Maryland as well as Associate Professor in the English Department. She has published extensively on feminist postcolonial issues. She is author of En-Gendering India: Woman and Nation in Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives (1999).