Beginning Postcolonialism

Wonderful, comprehensive overview of postcolonial discourse - breaks down the complicated studies into more manageable, less slippery, pieces.

I was so happy to find this book. Even though there is a strong emphasis on literary theory, this book was so helpful in giving an overview of the main thinkers, main issues, key historical points, and key tensions in postcolonial theory. I found it much more helpful than A Very Short Introduction to Postcolonialism. The writing is very accessible. An annotated bibliography is included at the end of each chapter. I think this book would be most helpful to read front to back if you are interested in postcolonial theory from a literary studies perspective. If you are in another field, you may want to skip around. You can find selections from this book (including searching keywords) at google books, which I found helpful in identifying the areas I wanted to read and those I wanted to skip.

McLeod's text is a fantastic theoretical introduction for undergraduates coming into contact with postcolonial theory for the first time. Accessibly written and usefully organized, the book moves through many of the main tropes of postcolonial criticism--from reading colonial discourse critically, to approaches to nationalism, to the idea of the Empire writing back, to exploring diaspora and globalism, to critiques of postcolonial criticism. My 300-level students are processing the book meaningfully, and I'm finding that it pairs nicely with the primary texts I'm teaching. It's a winner.

A great book! It gave me everything I needed to know quickly and clearly, and had loads of great suggestions for extra reading. I left this book feeling really informed about the different ways people view postcolonialism, and able to talk about them (at last!).

Beginning Postcolonialism provides a basic introduction to the nebulous (and sometimes seemingly-inpenetrable) world of post-colonial theory. If you're encountering post-colonial theory for the first time, or you've already been baffled by Bhabha and scared by Spivak, then this is the book for you! Unlike many post-colonialism readers on the market, Beginning Postcolonialism assumes no prior knowledge of the subject. It provides the reader with a basic understanding of the major themes of post-colonial theory and explains in simple terms the main ideas of pre-eminent post-colonial critics. It's well-written, coherently laid-out and is by far the most encouraging and reader-friendly book on the subject I've come across. The extensive bibliography will be of interest to graduate students, but they may otherwise find that this book is not meaty enough to suit their advanced level of study. For the beginner or the confused, however, it's a great resource!