Postcolonial Theory and Literature
Next Wave: Globalization
At the turn of the twenty-first century, postcolonial theory is merging with cultural theories of globalization, with the metropolitan emphasis coming frankly to the fore. A book riding the wave is Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's Empire (2000).
Literature: a reader's guide.
The literary production of postcoloniality has generally been in the languages of the metropole, sometimes creolized. This is such a prolific impulse that only a few names can be cited here. For purposes of efficiency, the list is confined to the areas of the world where postcolonial theory has developed and flourished. By and large, the main thematics of postcolonial literature divide themselves between the experience and legacy of colonialism and the experience of migrancy and exile.
Africa. Amos Tutuola, The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town (1953); Naguib Mahfouz, Palace Walk (1956–1957); Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart (1958); Ousmane Sembène, God's Bits of Wood (1962); Bloke Modisane, Blame Me on History (1963); Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (1969); Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman (1975); Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Petals of Blood (1977); Mariama Bâ, So Long A Letter (1980); Nadine Gordimer, July's People (1981); Buchi Emecheta, The Rape of Shavi (1983); Nuruddin Farah, Maps (1986); Assia Djebar, Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade (1989); Abdelkebir Khatibi, Love in Two Languages (1990); J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace (1999); Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nervous Conditions (1988); Zoë Wycombe, David's Story (2001); and Tahar Ben Jelloun, This Blinding Absence of Light (2002), among many others.
Latin America. Alejo Carpentier, The Lost Steps (1956); Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz (1964); Julio Cortázar, Hopscotch (1966); Mario Vargas Llosa, The Green House (1968); Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970); Manuel Puig, Betrayed by Rita Hayworth (1971); Marta Traba, Mothers and Shadows (1983); Severo Sarduy, Colibri (1984); Isabel Allende, House of the Spirits (1985); Silviano Santiago, Stella Manhattan (1985); Diamela Eltit, The Fourth World (1995); João Gilberto Noll, Hotel Atlantico (1989); César Aira, The Hare (1998); Ricardo Piglia, The Absent City (2000); and Pedro Lemebel, My Tender Matador (2003), among many others.
East and Southeast Asia. Eileen Chang, The Rouge of the North (1967); Pramoedya Ananta Toer, The Fugitive (1975); John Okada, No-No Boy (1975); Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictée (1982); Wendy Law-Yone, The Coffin Tree (1983); Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (1989); Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn, Dogeaters (1990); Pak Won-so, The Naked Tree (1995); Yu Miri, Family Cinema (1996); Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge (1997); Cho Chong-Rae, Playing with Fire (1997); Murakami Haruki, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1997); Wu Zhuoliu, The Fig Tree: Memoirs of a Taiwanese Patriot (2002); and Monique Truong, The Book of Salt (2003), among many others.
South Asia. R. K. Narayan, Swami and Friends (1944); Kamala Markandaya, Nectar in a Sieve (1954); Raja Rao, Serpent and the Rope (1960); Bharati Mukherjee, The Tiger's Daughter (1972); Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children (1981); Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia (1990); Meena Alexander, Fault Lines: A Memoir (1993); Mahasweta Devi, Imaginary Maps (1994); Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (1999); Amitav Ghosh, The Glass Palace (2001); and Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters (2001), among many others.
Caribbean. George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin (1953); V. S. Naipaul, Mystic Masseur (1959); Kamau Brathwaite, Rights of Passage (1967); Aimé Césaire, Tempest (1986); Maryse Condé, Heremakhonon (1976); Wilson Harris, Guyana Quartet (1985); Derek Walcott, Omeros (1990); Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy (1990); and Erna Brodber, Louisiana (1994), among many others.
Polynesia. Albert Wendt, Sons for the Return Home (1973); Keri Hulme, The Bone People (1985); Epeli Hau'ofa, Tales of the Tikongs (1983); Witi Tami Ihimaera, Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies (1994); Haunani-Kay Trask, Light in the Crevice Never Seen (1994); Sia Figiel, Where We Once Belonged (1996); Patricia Grace, Baby No-Eyes (1998), among many others.
United States. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987); Américo Paredes, George Washington Gomez (1990); Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead (1991); Sandra Cisneros, Caramelo, or, Puro cuento (2002), among many others.
See also Literature; Occidentalism; Orientalism; Other, The, European Views of; Postcolonial Studies.
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Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Additional topics
- Postcolonial Theory and Literature - Bibliography
- Postcolonial Theory and Literature - Second Wave: Postcolonial
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