As the British empire expanded throughout the world, the English language played an important role in power relations between Britain and its colonies. English was used as a colonizing agent to suppress the indigenous cultures of various peoples and to make them subject to British rule. With the end of World War II, many countries became gradually decolonized, and their indigenous cultures experienced a renaissance. Colonial mores and power systems clashed and combined with indigenous traditions to create postcolonial texts.

This volume treats postcoloniality as a process of...

Postcolonial discourse is fast becoming an area of rich academic debate. At the heart of coloniality and postcoloniality is the contested authority of empire and its impact upon previously colonized peoples and their indigenous cultures.

This book examines various theories of colonization and decolonization, and how the ideas of a British empire create networks of discourses in contemporary postcolonial cultures. The various essays in this book address the question of empire by exploring such constructs as nation and modernity, third-world feminisms, identity politics, the...

Radhika Mohanram shows not just how British imperial culture shaped the colonies, but how the imperial rule of colonies shifted--and gave new meanings to--what it meant to be British.

Imperial White looks at literary, social, and cultural texts on the racialization of the British body and investigates British whiteness in the colonies to address such questions as: How was the whiteness in Britishness constructed by the presence of Empire? How was whiteness incorporated into the idea of masculinity? Does heterosexuality have a color? And does domestic race differ from...

Radhika Mohanram shows not just how British imperial culture shaped the colonies, but how the imperial rule of colonies shifted--and gave new meanings to--what it meant to be British.

Imperial White looks at literary, social, and cultural texts on the racialization of the British body and investigates British whiteness in the colonies to address such questions as: How was the whiteness in Britishness constructed by the presence of Empire? How was whiteness incorporated into the idea of masculinity? Does heterosexuality have a color? And does domestic race differ from...