Maps of Englishness: Writing Identity in the Culture of Colonialism

by Simon Gikandi

Gikandi explores the politics of identity to analyze how the colonial experience inspired narrative forms that changed the nature of the English identity by surveying the British imperial tradition since the nineteenth century. He provides detailed readings of the works of Trollope, Carlyle, and others; through the narratives of imperial women travelers such as Mary Kingsley and Mary Seacole; and through Africanist texts by Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and postcolonialists such as Salman Rushdie and Joan Riley.

Genres: Theory, Post Colonial, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

Paperback

First published December 30, 1996

About the author

Simon E. Gikandi is a Kenyan Literature Professor and Postcolonial scholar. He is the Robert Schirmer Professor of English at Princeton University. He is perhaps best known for his co-editorship (with Abiola Irele) of The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature. He has also done important work on the modern African novel, and two distinguished African novelists: Chinua Achebe and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o. In 2019 he became the president of the Modern Language Association.

Gikandi was born to a Presbyterian family. He graduated with a B.A [First Class Honors] in Literature from the University of Nairobi. He was a British Council Scholar at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland from which he graduated with a M.Litt. in English Studies. He has a Ph.D in English from Northwestern University. His major Fields of Research and Teaching are the Anglophone Literatures and Cultures of Africa, India, the Caribbean, and Postcolonial Britain, the "Black" Atlantic and the African Diaspora. He is also interested in the encounter between European and African languages in the modern period, literature and human rights, and writing and cultural politics.

Reviews

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

really well written and thoughtful scholarship on english identity in colonial and post-colonial contexts. gikandi is extremely good at separating some of the identity markers that tend to get muddled, and at allowing for muddled identities to be acknowledged. highly recommended reading if this touches on your field(s) of interest.

good discussions of identity, nationality, colonialism.