The Long Space: Transnationalism and Postcolonial Form

The resurgence of world literature as a category of study seems to coincide with what we understand as globalization, but how does postcolonial writing fit into this picture? Beyond the content of this novel or that, what elements of postcolonial fiction might challenge the assumption that its main aim is to circulate native information globally? The Long Space provides a fresh look at the importance of postcolonial writing by examining how it articulates history and place both in content and form. Not only does it offer a new theoretical model for understanding decolonization's impact on duration in writing, but through a series of case studies of Guyanese, Somali, Indonesian, and Algerian writers, it urges a more protracted engagement with time and space in postcolonial narrative. Although each writer--Wilson Harris, Nuruddin Farah, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and Assia Djebar--explores a unique understanding of postcoloniality, each also makes a more general assertion about the difference of time and space in decolonization. Taken together, they herald a transnationalism beyond the contaminated coordinates of globalization as currently construed.

Author: Peter Hitchcock
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 12/01/2009
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780804762366

Review Citation(s):
Chronicle of Higher Education 01/15/2010 pg. 20
Choice 11/01/2010

About the Author
Peter Hitchcock is Professor of English, Film Studies, and Women's Studies at the Graduate Center and Baruch College of the City University of New York. His books include Imaginary States (2003), Oscillate Wildly (1999), and Dialogics of the Oppressed (1993).