Postcolonial Literature Reading List

The following reading list for the English and Film Studies PhD program is provided by the department and is updated yearly to reflect changes in the discipline.

For more information about reading lists, see the Comprehensive Area Exam page.

Part A: Postcolonial Literature

a. Africa (7)

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart (Nigeria)
Adichie, Chimimanda. Purple Hibiscus (Nigeria)
Coetzee, J.M. Waiting for the Barbarians or Disgrace (South Africa)
Fugard, Athol. Master Harold and the Boys (South Africa – play)
Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions (Zimbabwe)
Soyinka, Wole. The Death of the King’s Horsemen or Lion and the Jewel (Nigeria - play)
Ngugi, Wa Thiong’o. Weep Not, Child or Devil on the Cross (Kenya)

b. The Caribbean Region (7)

Danticat, Edwidge. Krik? Krak! (Haiti)
Kincaid, Jamaica. Annie John (Antigua)
Lamming, George. In the Castle of my Skin (Barbados)
Mootoo, Shani. Cereus Blooms at Night (Trinidad)
Naipaul, V.S. A House for Mr. Biswas
Rhys, Jean. Wide Sargasso Sea. (Dominica)
Walcott, Derek. Omeros (poetry)

c. South Asia (7)

Adiga, Aravind. White Tiger (India)
Kureishi, Hanif. My Beautiful Laundrette (Pakistan/UK - screenplay)
Narayan, R.K. The Guide (India)
Roy, Arundhati. The God of Small Things (India)
Rushdie, Salman. Midnight’s Children (India)
Sidwa, Bapsi. Cracking India (Pakistan)
Hamid, Mohsin. Reluctant Fundamentalist (Pakistan)

d. Australia / Oceania (4)

Grace, Patricia. Potiki (New Zealand)
Mudrooroo, Kwinkan (Australia)
Wendt, Albert. Inside Us the Dead: Poems 1961 to 1974 (1976)
White, Patrick. Voss (Australia)

e. Canada/U.S

Canada (8)

Brand, Dionne. Land to Light On (poetry)
Highway, Tomson. Dry-Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (play)
Hill, Lawrence. The Book of Negroes
King, Thomas. One Good Story, That One: Stories or Green Grass, Running Water
Mistry, Rohinton. Tales of Firoozha Baag
Ondaatje, Michael. Running in the Family or In the Skin of a Lion
Selvadurai – Funny Boy
Sky Lee. Disappearing Moon Cafe

U.S. (6)

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Speaking in Tongues”; “La Prieta” “On Writing Borderlands/La Frontera” in The Gloria Anzaldúa Reader (26-35; 38-50; 187-198)
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Toni Morrison. Beloved.
Halaby, Laila. Once in a Promised Land

f. Victorian/British Imperialism: (3)

Kipling, Rudyard. “The Man Who Would Be King” (short story)/ “White Man’s Burden” (poem)
Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness
Forster, E.M. Passage to India

B: Postcolonial Theory and Criticism

a. Books

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso, 1991.

Ashcroft, Bill et al. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. (1st or 2nd ed.). New York: Routledge, 1995/2006. (below indicated as PCSR)

Ashcroft, Bill et al. The Empire Writes Back. New York: Routledge, 1989.

Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments. Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993.

Craps, Steff. Postcolonial Witnessing: Trauma Out of Bounds. NY: Palgrave, 2013.

Fanon, Frantz. Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1964. (selections)

---. Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press, 1967. (selections)

Gilbert, Helen and Joanne Tompkins. Introduction. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics. New York: Routledge, 1996.

Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1993. (selections)

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2000. (selections)

Huggan, Graham and Helen Tiffin. Introduction. Postcolonial Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/Postcolonialism. New York: Routledge, 1996/ 2005.

Mills, Sara, ed. Postcolonial Feminism: A Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Ngugi, Wa Thiong’o. Decolonizing the Mind. London: Heinemann, 1986..

Said, Edward. Orientalism. London: Penguin, 1991. (selections)

Young, Robert. Postcolonialism: A Historical Introduction. New York: Blackwell, 2001.

b. Articles & Book Chapters

Afzal-Khan, Fawzia. Introduction. Cultural Imperialism and the Indo-English Novel: Genre and Ideology in R.K. Narayan, Anita Desai, Kamala Markandaya, and Salman Rushdie. State College: Pennsylvania State Press, 1993, 1-27.

Ahmad, Aijaz. "Jameson's Rhetoric of Otherness and the 'National Allegory'." Social Text 17 (1987): 3-25. (part also in PCSR)

Ahmed, Sarah. Introduction. Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Postcoloniality. NY: Routledge, 2000.

Appadurai, Arjun. “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy.” The Cultural Studies Reader. Ed. During. New York: Routledge, 1993. 220-230.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "Is the Post- in Postmodernism the Post- in Postcolonial." Critical Inquiry 17.2 (1991): 336-57. (part also in PCSR, Olaniyan)

---- “Cosmopolitan Patriots.” Critical Inquiry 23.3 (Spring 1997).

Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.
ch. 4 “Of mimicry and man…”
ch. 6. “Signs taken for wonders…” (part also in PCSR)
ch. 8. “Dissemination: time, narrative and the margins…” ; (part also in PCSR)
ch. 11. “How newness enters the world….”

Brah, Avtar. “Introduction.” Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities. New York: Routledge, 1996, 1-17. (Part in PSCR 2nd ed.)

Brantlinger, Patrick. Introduction. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830-1914. New York: Cornell University Press, 1988. (selections)

Braziel, Jana and Anita Mannur, eds. “Introduction.” Theorizing Diaspora. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003, 1-18.

Brennan, Timothy. “The National Longing for Form” Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi Bhabha. New York: Routledge, 1995. 44-70. (Part in PSCR)

Briggs, Laura. “Transnationalism: A Category of Analysis. American Quarterly 60:3, 625-48.

de Certeau, Michel. “’Making Do’: Uses and Tactics.” The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1984. 29-42.

Cheng, Anne Anlin. “The Melancholy of Race.” The Melancholy of Race. Oxford UP, 2000.

Clifford, James. “Diasporas.” Cultural Anthropology 9:3 (1994): 302-38.

Deleuze & Guattari, “Towards a Minor Literature” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W W Norton, 2001, 1598-1601. (3 pp)

Deloughery, Elizabeth, and George B. Handley. Introduction. Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011.

Dirlik, Arif. “The Postcolonial Aura: Third World Literature in the Age of Global Capitalism.” Contemporary Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. Ed. Padmini. New York: St Martin's Press, 1996. 294- 319.

---. “Literature and Identity: Transnationalism, Narrative and Representation.” The Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies 24 (2002): 209-234.

Donnell, Allison, and Welsh, Sarah Lawson, eds. Introduction. The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature. New York: Routledge, 2007.

Gates Jr., Henry Louis., “Writing Race and the Difference it Makes” "Race," Writing, and Difference. Ed. Gates Jr. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1986. 1-20.

Gibson-Graham, J.K. “Queerying Globalization.” Postcolonial, Queer: Theoretical Intersections. Ed. Hawley. Albany: SUNY Press, 2001. 239-275.

Gikandi, Simon. “Globalization and the Claims of Postcoloniality.” South Atlantic Quarterly 100:3 (Summer 2001): 627-658.

Goldberg, David Theo. “Heterogeneity and Hybridity: Colonial Legacy, Postcolonial Heresy.” A Companion to Postcolonial Studies. Eds. Schwarz & Ray, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2000. 410-427.

Gopinath, Gayatri. “Nostalgia, Desire, Diaspora.” Queer Diaporas and South Asian Public Cultures. Duke UP, 2005.

Jay, Paul. “Beyond Discipline? Globalization and the Future of English.” PMLA 116.1 (2001). 32-47.

Kamboureli, Smaro. Introduction. Making a Difference: Canadian Multicultural Literature. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1996.

King, C. Richard ed. Postcolonial America. Urbana: U of Illinois Press, 2000.

King, Thomas. "Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial." New Contexts of Canadian Criticism. Ed. Heble. New York: Broadview Press, 1997. 241-265. (also in Sugars)

Hall, Stuart. "Cultural Identity and Diaspora." 1990. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: a Reader. Ed. Williams and Chrisman. Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993. 392-401.

---. “The Work of Representation.” Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1997. 13-75.

Huggan, Graham. Introduction. Australian Literature: Postcolonialism, Racism, Transnationalism. Oxford UP, 2007.

---. “Introduction.” The Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. New York: Routledge, 2001, 1-34.

Hutcheon, Linda. "Circling the Downspout of Empire: Post-Colonialism and Postmodernism." Ariel 20.1 (Jan. 1989): 149-175. (also in Sugars, part in PCSR)

Jameson, Fredric. “Third World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism” Social Text 15 (Fall 1986): 65-88.

JanMohamed, Abdul. “The Economy of the Manichean Allegory: The Function of Racial Difference in Colonialist Literature” "Race," Writing, and Difference. Ed. Gates Jr. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1986. 78-106. (part also in PCSR)

Keown, Michelle. Introduction. Pacific Islands Writing: The Postcolonial Literatures of Aotearoa/New Zealand and Oceania. Oxford UP, 2007

Lazarus, Neil. “The Fetish of “the West” in Postcolonial Theory.” Marxism, Modernity and Postcolonial Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. 43-64.

Lionnet, Françoise, and Shumei Shih, eds. “Intro: Thinking through the Minor, Transnationally.” Minor Transnationalism. Durham: Duke UP, 2005. 1-27.

Lowe, Lisa. "Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Asian American Differences." Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics. Durham: Duke UP, 1996. 60-83.

Minh-ha, Trinh T. Introduction. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Indiana University Press, 1989.

Mohanty, Chandra. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Eds. Mohanty et al. Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1991. 172-197. (also in Mills, part in PCSR)

Mukherjee, Arun. "Whose Post-Colonialism and Whose Post-Modernism?" World Literature Written in English 30.2 (1990): 1-9.

Olaniyan, Tejumola , and Ato Quayson, eds. Introduction. African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Oxford, 2007.

Parry, Benita. “Resistance Theory/Theorizing Resistance, or Two Cheers for Nativism.” Colonial Discourse/Postcolonial Theory. Eds. Francis Barker et al. Manchester UP, 1994. 172-96. (part also in PCSR, Olaniyan)

Pratt, Mary Loiuise. Introduction. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. London: Routledge, 1992

Prentice, Chris. "Some Problems of Response to Empire in Settler Post-Colonial Societies." DeScribing Empire: Post-Colonialism and Textuality. Eds. Tiffin and Lawson. New York: Routledge, 1994. 45-58.

Quayson, Ato "Looking Awry: Tropes of Disability in Postcolonial Writing" Relocating Postcolonialism. Eds. Goldberg and Quayson. Malden MA: Blackwell, 2002. 218-231.

Robbins, Bruce. “Comparative Cosmopolitanisms.” Cosmopolitics: Thinking and Feeling Beyond the Nation. Pheng Cheah, Bruce Robbins, ed. U of Minnesota, 1998.

Rushdie, Salman. “Imaginary Homelands” and “Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist.” Imaginary Homelands. New York: Penguin, 9-20; 61-70.

Said, Edward. Introduction. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993.

Slemon, Steven. “Unsettling the Empire: Resistance Theory for the Second World” World Literature Written in English. 30.2: 30-41. (also in Sugars, PCSR)

Spivak, Gayatri. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Eds. Nelson and Grossberg. Chicago: U of Illinois Press, 1988. 271-313. (part also in PCSR)

Sugars, Cynthia. Introduction. Unhomely States. New York: Broadview Press, 2004.

Suleri, Sara. "Woman Skin Deep: Feminism and the Postcolonial Condition." Critical Inquiry 18 (1992): 756-769. (part also in PCSR)

Szeman, Imre and Susie O’ Brien, “The Globalization of Fiction/The Fiction of Globalization.” South Atlantic Quarterly. 100.3 (Summer 2001): 603-626.

Taylor, Charles. “The Politics of Recognition” Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader. Ed. Goldberg. Malden, MA.: Blackwell, 1994, 75-106.

Todorov, Tzvetan, “’Race’, Writing and Culture” "Race," Writing, and Difference. Ed. Gates Jr. Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1986. 78-106.

Young, Robert. “Cultural Politics of Hybridity; Culture and the Politics of Difference.” Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. London: Routledge, 1995. 22-55. (also in PCSR 2nd ed.).