Postcolonial Spaces : The Politics of Place in Contemporary Culture

With essays from a range of geographies and bringing together influential scholars across a range of disciplines, this book focuses on the role of space in the study of the politics of contemporary postcolonial experience, engaging with the spectrum of postcolonial spatialities which play a significant role in defining global postcolonial culture. With essays from a range of geographies and bringing together influential scholars across a range of disciplines, this book focuses on the role of space in the study of the politics of contemporary postcolonial experience, engaging with the spectrum of postcolonial spatialities which play a significant role in defining global postcolonial culture. Postcolonial Spaces is the first collection of interdisciplinary essays to focus on the crucial role of space in the study of the politics of contemporary postcolonial experience. It brings together influential scholars from the fields of media, film, literature, and geography, embodying the centrality of interdisciplinary thinking to recent postcolonial scholarship. The book includes essays from a wide range of geographies, encompassing Europe, South America, South Asian, Australasia, and the Caribbean. As well as a comprehensive introduction, essays engage with a broad spectrum of postcolonial spatialities, including: Caryl Phillips's Northern landscapes; the role of clothing in Islam and the fiction of Monica Ali; the domestic spaces of South Asian women writers; Peter Carey's representation of territory; South Asian children's literature; map-making in Equador, Michel Foucault's territorial thinking; Jamaica Kincaid's use of the garden-space; migrant spaces in Stephen Frears's Dirty Pretty Things; Bombay in contemporary Indian film; and the spatial politics of theory in the western academy. Featuring a Foreword from Edward Soja, the volume offers a wealth of material for postcolonial students and scholars Foreword / Edward Soja -- Introduction / Andrew Teverson and Sara Upstone -- English Somewheres: Caryl Phillips and the English North / John McLeod -- A Few Words About the Role of the Cartographers: Mapping and Postcolonial Resistance in Peter Carey's 'Do You Love Me?' / Nicholas Dunlop -- 'How does your garden grow?' or Jamaica Kincaid's Spatial Praxis in My Garden (book): and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya / Wendy Knepper -- Gender and Space in Postcolonial Fiction: South Asian Novelists Re-imagining Women's Spatial Boundaries / Elizabeth Jackson -- From Hijab to Sweatshops: Segregated Bodies and Contested Space in Monica Ali's Brick Lane / Monica Germana -- Overlapping Space and the Negotiation of Cultural Identity: Children's Literature from the South Asian Diaspora / Shehrazade Emmambokus -- Owning the City: Screening Postcolonial Bombay in Milan Luthria's Taxi 9 2 11: Nau Do Gyarah / Caroline Herbert -- Postcolonial Purgatory: The Space of Migrancy in Dirty Pretty Things / James Graham -- Third Space, Abstract Space and Coloniality: National and Subaltern Cartography in Ecuador / Sarah A. Radcliffe -- Security, Territory, and Colonial Populations: Town and Empire in Foucault's 1978 Lecture Course / Stephen Legg -- The Geography of Theory: Knowledge, Politics and the Postcolonial Present / Tariq Jazeel. Front Matter....Pages i-xvii Introduction....Pages 1-13 English somewheres Caryl Phillips and the English North....Pages 14-27 A few words about the role of the Cartographers....Pages 28-39 ‘How does your garden grow?’ or Jamaica Kincaid’s spatial praxis in My Garden (Book): and Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya....Pages 40-56 Gender and space in postcolonial fiction....Pages 57-66 From hijab to sweatshops....Pages 67-82 Overlapping space and the negotiation of cultural identity....Pages 83-96 Owning the city....Pages 97-111 Postcolonial purgatory....Pages 112-128 Third space, abstract space and coloniality....Pages 129-145 Security, territory, and colonial populations....Pages 146-163 The geography of theory....Pages 164-184 Back Matter....Pages 185-208 "This is an important and timely publication which makes a persuasive case for a more sustained engagement with the politics of space in postcolonial studies. Its interdisciplinary range of reference makes for a rich and multifaceted approach to its subject."--Michelle Keown, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Edinburgh, UK