Synopses & Reviews
In her major new study of postcolonial fiction, Judie Newman demonstrates the subversive nature of that fiction, in its refusal to be contained within purely "literary" bounds, or even within the bounds of discourse. She investigates the ways in which major contemporary novelists from India, Africa, and the Caribbean have explored colonial and post-colonial situations, particularly by revising the classics of the past in relation to contemporary politics and popular culture.
Review
"The book succeeds because of Newman's lively and resourceful readings of a good range of texts and issues, from Rhys and Naipaul's adaptations of Jane Eyre to Bharati Mukherjee's use of chaos theory in Jasmine. Highly recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above."--Choice
Table of Contents
Introduction: The ballistic bard: Intertextuality and postcolonial fiction
I walked with a zombie: Jean Rhys, "Wide Sargasso Sea"
Retrofitting the Raj: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, "Heat and Dust"
Babytalk: Anita Desai, "Baumgartner's Bombay"
Postcolonial gothic: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and the Sobhraj case
Empire as a dirty story: J. M. Coetzee, "Waiting for the Barbarians" and "Foe"
He neo-Tarzan, she Jane?: Buchi Emecheta, "The Rape of Shavi"
Don"t cry for me Argentina - Jane Eyre as Evita Peron: V. S. Naipaul, "Guerrillas"
The madwoman in the hotel: Bharati Mukherjee, "Jasmine" and "Jasmine"
Nadine Gordimer and the naked southern ape: "Something Out There"
Conclusion
Notes
Index.