The Cambridge history of postcolonial literature

Abstract

The Cambridge History of Literature. Edited by Ato Quayson. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Pp. 1399. $350.Ato Quayson' s introduction to The Cambridge History of Literature stakes the claim that the collection offers an overview of the productive ways in which postcolonial literature in the field has been produced and may be discussed (p. 23). More specifically, instead of functioning as an anthology that solely consolidates the encyclopedia of themes or geographical subjects of postcoloniality into one location, the essays provide a purview of the historiographie and rhetorical questions critical to the discipline of postcolonialism.In response to antecedent work found in collections like The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, edited by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin (Routledge, 2006), and Postcolonialisms: An Anthology of Cultural Theory and Criticism, edited by Gaurav Desai and Supriya Nair (Rutgers University Press, 2005), Quayson' s edited collection presents essays that assist in defining postcolonial literature and history. Those contained in the book trace stylistic and thematic developments, while examining neglected relationships across and within local, national, and transnational communities (pp. 2526). Thus, at the forefront of the two- volume collection are the most pertinent issues circulating within the discourses surrounding the field.Each prudently selected essay addresses what Quayson insists on as the required urgency of establishing universal terms with which one can read and study postcolonial literature. Through a historiographie tracing of the legacies of colonialism (pre-, post-, and neo-), Quayson 's introduction maintains the necessity of analyzing what he defines as colonial space-making, in order to tease out the resonance of colonialism across a multitude of nations and geographic landscapes.The volumes are divided into thirty-six chapters, complete with a chronology of historical, political, literary, and cultural events relative to colonial endeavors, as well as, a substantial bibliography instructive for both the novice and the proficient postcolonial scholar. In addition, the concluding chapter outlines the Key Journals and Organizations that have shaped the contours of the field of postcolonial studies (p. 1155).The essays contained in Volume 1 are largely composed of national, hemispheric or geographically oriented chapters across genres of slave narratives, travel writing, missionary writing and auto/biography (p. 23). Essays like Carpio' s Postcolonial Fictions of Slavery, Griffiths' Postcolonialism and Travel and MudimbeBoyi's Missionary Writing and Postcolonialism, explore both colonial legacies and lineages, in addition to the meaning making of such experiences across a multitude of genres. The inclusion of selections such as Savory's Postcolonialism and Caribbean Literature, Al-Musawi's Postcolonialism and Arab Literature, and Ortega's Postcolonialism and Latin American Writing, 1492-1850, speak to the critical need to read postcolonial histories and responses through the lens of the local. Finally, Cleary's Postcolonial Writing in Ireland, McLeod's Postcolonial Writing in Britain, and Lennox's Postcolonial Writing in Germany, lend to the discussion of inclusiveness within the defining parameters of postcolonialism. …

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