Beginning Postcolonialism

by John McLeod

Postcolonialism has become one of the most exciting, popular and stimulating fields of literary and cultural studies in recent years. Yet the variety of approaches, the range of debate and the critical vocabularies often used may make it challenging for new students to establish a firm foothold in this area. Beginning Postcolonialism is a vital resource for those taking undergraduate courses in postcolonial studies for the first time and has become an established international best-seller in the field. In this fully revised and updated second edition, John McLeod introduces the major areas of concern in a clear, accessible and organised fashion. He provides an overview of the emergence of postcolonialism as a discipline and closely examines its many established critical approaches while also exploring important recent initiatives in the field. In particular, Beginning Postcolonialism demonstrates how many key postcolonial ideas and concepts can be effectively applied when reading texts and enables students to develop their own independent thinking about the possibilities and pitfalls of postcolonial critique.

Genres: Nonfiction, Academic

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 18, 2013

About the author

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Reviews

[armin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not really into this kind of books... beginning blah-blah, introduction to snip-snap, fundamentals of jibber-jabber, but this one was really good. It is well-written and comprehensive, historical and theoretical and it covers many different trends among poco thinkers, the criticism against those and what's more, it provides an excellent where to go from here. It also manages to unpack several really complicated notions by people such as Spivak, Guha, Bhabha, and Hall in a very straightforward way. At least in the case of Bhabha's ideas, I can say it was a very precise elaboration. Also, I tweeted about the book and mentioned the author; then he came over and thanked me for reading and asked me for feedback lol!

[joudix · Rating 4 out of 5]

im cheating parce que j’ai pas tous lu, mais i will AND i genuinely loved this introduction to (Post)colonial studies

[Halema Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

John McLeod was one of my favourite tutors at uni :) His book gives a brilliant insight into post colonialism. He provides a breakdown of several key critics within the field as well as sources for further reading. John always encourages his students to question everything and this book is no different. Even though he defines key features of feminism, colonialism and so forth - he questions how concrete those definitions can be!

Using this for an essay I’m writing about “We are all birds of Uganda” and now I know where I need to look for further information and support.