Shows how Renaissance writers and artists struggled to reconcile past traditions with experiences of 'discovery.' In what ways have colonial and postcolonial studies transformed our perceptions of early modern European texts and images? How have those perceptions enriched our broader understanding of the colonial and the postcolonial? Focusing on English, Portuguese, Spanish and French colonial projects, Shankar Raman explains how encounters with new worlds and peoples irrevocably shaped both Europeans and their 'others'. There are in-depth case studies on: the Portuguese drama and epic of...

Places literary developments within an expanded conception of the legacy of imperialism and decolonisationThis radical reassessment shows how, after the Second World War, British national identity and culture was shaped in ways that still operate today. As empires declined, globalisation spread, and literature responded to these influences.As Graham MacPhee explains, postwar writers blended the experimentalism of prewar modernism with other cultural traditions. In this way, they reveal both the pain and the pleasures of multiculturalism, as they seek to cope with the shock of post-imperial...