Postcolonial Agency

Theoretically sophisticated and meticulously situated at the fraught scene of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous peoples in contemporary Australia, Postcolonial Agency is an inspiring manifesto for non-imperial mutuality. Bignall's advocacy of an ethics of joy opens up a new direction for postcolonial studies.Professor Leela Ghandi, Department of English, University of ChicagoA sustained piece of theorisation about the postcolonial to rival Peter Hallward's 'Absolutely Postcolonial'.Simone Bignall argues that a non-imperial concept of ethical and political agency and a materialist philosophy of transformation are embedded within a minor tradition of Western philosophy. Postcolonial Agency provides a significantly new understanding of the processes of social transformation faced by many societies as they struggle with the aftermath of empire. It also offers a valuable new way of conceptualising practices of postcolonial sociability. It will be of interest to students and researchers in political and postcolonial studies, cultural studies, critical theory and Continental philosophy.

Simone Bignall is an adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of History and Philosophy at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She has published widely on issues concerning colonialism and postcolonialism. She is the author of Postcolonial Agency (2010) and the co-editor, with Paul Patton, of Deleuze and the Postcolonial (2010), both published by Edinburgh University Press.