The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures

Incredibly hard read.

Despite its "trendy" title -- very postmodern, combining Salman Rushdie with George Lucas and Star Wars -- and the multiple authorship, this survey is a very readable, clearly articulated consideration of the central problems and issues in post-colonial scholarship. The authors write seamlessly as one, not as a committee, though it is clear that they combine complementary areas of expertise. The consideration of feminist scholarship was perhaps the most disappointing: unlike the other analyses, it seemed desultory. The book is also to be commended for being not merely a conscientious account of post-colonial research, but also a thoughtful and fair-minded critique as well.