Published by Oxford University Press, 1995 (2nd edition 2005)
This title remains unparalleled for its historical breadth and the clarity of its theoretical discussion, and contributed to establishing and defining the field of postcolonial and global literary studies. Augmented by the author’s novelistic insights, the lively historical narrative explores key colonial and post-colonial developments, texts and cultural figures, from Joseph Conrad and R. L. Stevenson, through to Chinua Achebe and Manju Kapur. In a notoriously complex field, important theoretical terms and issues are illuminated by way of close readings of key texts, but without ever losing subtlety or historical insight.