Author Description

Main blurb (for internal use only - CHECK BEFORE USING IN PRINTEDPUBLICITY): This is potentially a classic account of its subject, as Chew'sdensely packed proposal (and sample material not included here,though sent to reviewers) abundantly shows. Informed by andengaging with existing scholarship and critical discourse, thisvolume aims to be a comprehensive and detailed History ofPostcolonial Commonwealth English Literature, one which will conveyto interested general readers as well as teachers and students inthe field the beginnings of the subject, its richness anddiversity, and its significant lines of growth. It will alsoprovide a sense of critical perspective and direction. By'postcolonial literature' is meant the literature in English whichhas emerged from Commonwealth countries since the mid-20th century.1947, the year the first chunk of the British empire broke free tobecome independent India and Pakistan, will be adopted as aconvenient beginning date. The subject is a challenging one, given the size of the modernCommonwealth, the many and diverse cultural contexts it embraces,and the rapid flowering of Commonwealth / Postcolonial literaturefrom 1947 to the present. Even with the tripartite model common tothe Blackwell series, a main problem in preparing this proposal hasbeen the structure of this History. Conventionally, academicapproaches to the literary field divide the Commonwealth into fivebroad regions: South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), sub-SaharanAfrica, Canada, the Caribbean, and Australasia (Australia, NewZealand and South Pacific islands). How then to present an overview-- 'Postcolonial literature' -- without eroding a sense of thedistinctive literary traditions it brings together (e.g., Indianliterature and Nigerian literature)? How to establish similaritieswithout losing sight of difference? How to allow for divergencesand unlikeness without too much rambling? With these considerationsin mind, I have adopted a structural pr