The word "postcolonialism" consists of fifteen little letters, which give way to one big word that causes a lot of confusion and even a little bit of fear. Unless they're historians or academics, most people don't know what postcolonialism is, and they're afraid to ask.

But such fear is unnecessary-and, right now, you need not ask. Put simply, postcolonialism is a deeply penetrating academic discipline that brings new meaning to our history and reinvents cultural perceptions held around the world; it does so by studying mankind in light of the heritage and legacies of colonial times....