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Title: Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics by B. J. Moore-Gilbert ISBN: 1-85984-909-1 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: June, 1997 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: postcolonial theory in readable prose, a perfect study
Comment: The first section of this five part book outlines the short history of the discipline as it evolved from commonwealth literature into what we now know as postcolonial studies. And an important history to tell it is as the field has been marked by controversy from its very inception and continues to search for a definition of itself in an atmosphere of almost constant dissension from outsiders and from within its own ranks. The middle three essays are each summaries and critiques of the works of the main three practitioners of postcolonial theory. The last essay an examination of the fields current status(c.1997). The inidividual assessment of Said is particularly satisfying as it collects together the many criticisms of Orientalism in one place and addresses them all. Moore-Gilbert, though one assumes not a disinterested member of the postcolonial studies community himself, nonetheless gives a sound and fair assessment of Said finding many methodological inconsistencies in Orientalism most of which remain only partially resolved in the later work Culture and Imperialism. In the final paragraph of the essay he concludes,"Saids influence has been evident in a number of disciplinary fields, to an extent matched only by a handful(at most)of other contemporary cultural critics. In comparative literature,anthropology, sociology,area studies and political science, as well as English literature, Said's ideas have aroused widespread interest and excitement and have enabled a very considerable amount of subsequent work." And this glowing assessment is then qualified a bit with a quote from Michael Sprinker."Specialists in these fields have often been critical of his interventions, but they have on the whole not been able to ignore or dismiss him out of hand."
Bart Moore-Gilbert's treatment of Gayatri Spivak, a figure that also does not fit easily into any one discipline but in addition practices a kind of work which defies any easy summarization, is nonetheless dealt with admirably and is given praise albeit of a tentative sort as she seeks in her work a form of discourse whereby the Other can speak. She chooses for the most part not to answer her famous question in essay form,"Can the subaltern speak?" but continues to try and make it possible for others to answer it for her. Moore-Gilbert concludes, "Perhaps the most enabling element in all of Spivak's work is the emphasis on the importance of trying to recognize and hear the Other woman in her terms(even if this involves, quite literally, learning her language)and not simply assimilating her unproblematically to Western values, histories and regimes of knowledge..."
In his 1996 book Writing India Bart Moore-Gilbert presented an essay: 'The Bhabhal of Tongues,' reading Kipling, reading Bhabha. In that essay he analyzes both the short story, "On the City Wall" and the novel Kim using theories initiated by Bhabha, an impressive combination of criticism and applied theory. As a way out of the traditional mode of interpreting Kim as torn between being English and being Indian, Moore-Gilbert uses Bhabhas theory of 'the in-between' to offer a third possibility or 'third space'. In this study that 'third space' is gone into in much greater depth.
The final essay is a summing up and offers speculation as to what the future of postcolonial studies will look like. One certaintly is that no one approach will suffice nor satisfy such a restlessly creative field which will no doubt remain so for some time to come.
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Title: Culture and Imperialism by Edward W. Said ISBN: 0679750541 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 31 May, 1994 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction by Robert J. C. Young ISBN: 0631200711 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century by Paul Krugman ISBN: 0393058506 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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