This volume presents a powerful selection of reprinted and new
essays by one of the most important critics in postcolonial
studies. It constitutes a trenchant critique of the textualism that
has dominated the field and proposes alternative critical and
reading practices more attentive to historical circumstances and
socio-material conditions.
In the opening chapter, Benita Parry outlines the historical and
personal contexts from which her work has emerged and points to
'directions and dead ends' in the field she has helped to shape.
This is followed by a series of essays that vigorously challenge
colonial discourse theory and postcolonialism as we have known
them. Parry then turns to literature with a series of detailed
textual and contextual readings of well-known texts. These not only
demonstrate her theoretical position at work, but also give new
dimensions to widely studied texts by Rudyard Kipling, Joseph
Conrad, H. G. Wells and E. M. Forster. While acknowledging the
significance of much work done under the emblem of postcolonial
studies, Parry argues throughout that the material impulses of
colonialism, its appropriation of physical resources, exploitation
of human labour and institutional repression have too long been
allowed to recede from view.
What then is the future of postcolonial theory? Parry concludes
with the compelling argument that theoretical work must strive to
join remembrance of the material past with a critique of the
contemporary condition, remaining unreconciled to the past and
unconsoled by the present. "Postcolonial Studies: A Materialist
Critique" offers an invaluable framework upon which to build such a
future.
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