Description:
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.
Review Quotes: "The Long Space constitutes a vital intervention in the field of postcolonial studies, both in the literary texts it discusses and in its theoretical inventiveness. The ingenious and theoretically productive combination of writers from four different national traditions (Guyana, Somalia, Indonesia, and Algeria) and the unique focus on their trilogies and tetralogies make this book an indispensable contribution to the field of comparative literary studies."--Esther Peeren, University of Amsterdam