Postcolonial Life Narrative draws together two dynamic fields of contemporary literature and criticism, postcolonialism and life narrative, to create a new assemblage: postcolonial life narrative. Focusing in particular on testimonial narrative, from slave narrative in the late eighteenth century to contemporary Anglophone life narrative from Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Palestine, North America, and India, this study follows texts on the move through adaptation, appropriation, and remediation. For postcolonial subjects life narrative offers extraordinary opportunities to present accounts of social injustice and oppression, of violence and social suffering.

This book offers a reassessment of current approaches to postwar writing in Britain in light of ongoing debates about the legacy of imperialism and decolonization, the cultural implications of globalization, and the strengthening of alternative conceptions of national identity across the UK. Graham MacPhee discusses a wide range of writers from W.H. Auden to Linto Kwsi Johnson and from Sam Selvon to Ian McEwan. He provides case studies of postwar texts, explores critical terms like 'migrancy' and 'hybridity', and ultimately shows how postwar writers infused the experimentalism of prewar modernism with other cultural traditions in order to represent both the pain and the pleasures of multiculturalism.

Australian Literature: Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism

The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English.

What kind of theoretical engagement can postcolonial theory have with psychoanalysis? Is psychoanalysis still a useful tool for understanding the cultural and psychological dimensions of colonial societies? What would it mean to truly place psychoanalysis in the service of postcolonial critique?

Homi K. Bhabha is one of the most highly renowned figures in contemporary post-colonial studies. This volume explores his writings and their influence on postcolonial theory, introducing in clear and accessible language the key concepts of his work, such as 'ambivalence', 'mimicry', 'hybridity' and 'translation'. David Huddart draws on a range of contexts, including art history, contemporary cinema and canonical texts in order to illustrate the practical application of Bhabha's theories. This introductory guidebook is ideal for all students working in the fields of literary, cultural and postcolonial theory.