Consisting of more than 30 original essays by leading scholars in the field, this Companion provides a broad introduction to Colonial American literatures. The volume situates texts in their various historical and cultural contexts, including colonialism, imperialism, diaspora, and nation formation. In particular, it brings out the comparative, hemispheric and transatlantic nature of the writing of this period, and highlights the interactions between non-scribal native groups and Europeans that helped to shape early American writing.
Breaking ground in post-colonial studies, Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues explores the west's relationship to the history of British colonialism within the context of cultural studies. Jyotsna Singh highlights the interconnections between early modern colonial encounters, later manifestations in the Raj and their lingering influence in the postcolonial Indian state. She examines the assumptions implicit in representations of colonialism and questions the validity of eyewitness accounts and unmediated experiences.
Singh combines official, formal narratives used in India and the unofficial, informal accounts of dissonant voices. Among the texts considered here are reviews of Shakespearean productions in colonial Calcutta and postcolonial, Indo-Anglian novels; seventeenth century travel narratives about India; eighteenth century "nabob" texts; letters of Sir William Jones, the Orientalist; and East India Company petitions.
The African-American literary tradition arose in part from a desire to challenge the assumptions of race and culture that have dominated American society from the colonial era to modern times.
Location of Culture examines the displacement of the colonist's ligitimizing cultural authority; the margins of Western "civility" put under colonial stress; the complex cultural and political boundaries which exist between the spheres of gender, race, class, and sexuality; the place of language, psychic affect, and narrative discourse in the construction of social authority and cultural identity. Bhabha investigates a diverse range of texts in a bold attempt to specify the moment and the place of both colonial and post-colonial perspectives.
Drawing on both original texts and critical literature, Linguistics in a Colonial World surveys the methods, meanings, and uses of early linguistic projects around the world.
Explores how early endeavours in linguistics were used to aid in overcoming practical and ideological difficulties of colonial rule
Traces the uses and effects of colonial linguistic projects in the shaping of identities and communities that were under, or in opposition to, imperial regimes
Examines enduring influences of colonial linguistics in contemporary thinking about language and cultural difference
Brings new insight into post-colonial controversies including endangered languages and language rights in the globalized twenty-first century
