Empire and After: Englishness in Postcolonial Perspective

ISBN 10: 1845453204 ISBN 13: 9781845453206

Publisher: Berghahn Books, 2007

Synopsis

The growing debate over British national identity, and the place of "Englishness" within it, raises crucial questions about multiculturalism, postimperial culture and identity, and the past and future histories of globalization. However, discussions of Englishness have too often been limited by insular conceptions of national literature, culture, and history, which serve to erase or marginalize the colonial and postcolonial locations in which British national identity has been articulated. This volume breaks new ground by drawing together a range of disciplinary approaches in order to resituate the relationship between British national identity and Englishness within a global framework. Ranging from the literature and history of empire to analyses of contemporary culture, postcolonial writing, political rhetoric, and postimperial memory after 9/11, this collection demonstrates that far from being parochial or self-involved, the question of Englishness offers an important avenue for thinking about the politics of national identity in our postcolonial and globalized world.

About this title

About the Authors

Graham MacPhee has taught at universities in Britain and the US and is currently Assistant Professor of English at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Architecture of the Visible: Technology and Urban Visual Culture (Continuum, 2002).

Prem Poddar is Associate Professor of English at Aarhus University. He is the author of Violent Civilities (Aarhus UP, 2003) and the co-editor of A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Literatures in English (Edinburgh UP/ Columbia UP, 2005).

Edition details

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845453204
• ISBN 13: 9781845453206
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 218
• Editor: MacPhee Graham, Poddar Prem