Postcolonialism offers challenging and provocative ways of thinking about colonial and neocolonial power, about self and other, and about the discourses that perpetuate postcolonial inequality and violence. Much of the seminal work in postcolonialism has been shaped by currents in philosophy, notably Marxism and ethics. "Understanding Postcolonialism" examines the philosophy of postcolonialism in order to reveal the often conflicting systems of thought which underpin it. In so doing, the book presents a reappraisal of the major postcolonial thinkers of the twentieth century.Ranging beyond the narrow selection of theorists to which the field is often restricted, the book explores the work of Fanon and Sartre, Gandhi, Nandy, and the Subaltern Studies Group, Foucault and Said, Derrida and Bhabha, Khatibi and Glissant, and Spivak, Mbembe and Mudimbe. A clear and accessible introduction to the subject, "Understanding Postcolonialism" reveals how, almost half a century after decolonisation, the complex relation between politics and ethics continues to shape postcolonial thought.

This book explores the impossible dilemma facing Francophone intellectuals writing in the lead-up to decolonisation: How could they redefine their culture, and the 'humanity' they felt had been denied by the colonial project, in terms that did not replicate the French thinking by which they were formed?

This book explores the relation between poststructuralist thought and postcoloniality, and identifies in that interaction the expression of a particular anxiety concerning the form of theoretical writing.Many so-called poststructuralist thinkers, such as Derrida, Cixous, Lyotard, Barthes, Kristeva and Spivak, have turned their attention at some point in their career towards questions either of postcolonialism, or of cultural domination and difference. For all these thinkers, however, a reflection on such questions has generated a sense of unease concerning the assumed neutrality of theoretical discourse, and the inevitable subjective or autobiographical investments of the writing self.The book argues that this anxiety betrays an unprecedented lucidity concerning the particular challenges of writing about ourselves and others at a time of postcolonial upheaval.

Aimé Césaire is arguably the greatest Caribbean literary writer in history. Best known for his incendiary epic poem Notebook of a Return to My Native Land, Césaire reinvented black culture by conceiving ‘négritude’ as a dynamic and continuous process of self-creation. In this essential new account of his life and work, Jane Hiddleston introduces readers to Césaire’s unique poetic voice and to his role as a figurehead for intellectuals pursuing freedom and equality for black people. Césaire was deeply immersed in the political life of his native Martinique for over fifty years: as Mayor of Fort-de-France and Deputy at the French National Assembly, he called for the liberation of oppressed people at home and abroad, while celebrating black creativity and self-invention to resist a history of racism. Césaire’s extraordinary life reminds us that the much-needed revolt against oppression and subjugation can—and should—come from within the establishment, as well as without.

A cultural study of identity and difference in contemporary French writing.

For more than fifty years, Assia Djebar, former Silver Chair of French at New York University and winner of the Neustadt Prize for Contribution to World Literature, used the tools of poetry, fiction, drama and film to vividly portray the world of Muslim women in all its complexity. In the process, she became one of the most important figures in North African literature. In Assia Djebar, Jane Hiddleston traces Djebar’s development as a writer against the backdrop of North Africa’s tumultuous history. Whereas Djebar’s early writings were largely an attempt to delineate clearly the experience of being a woman, an intellectual, and an Algerian embedded in that often violent history, she had in her more recent work evinced a growing sense that the influence of French culture on Algerian letters may make such a project impossible. The first book-length study of this significant writer, Assia Djebar will be of tremendous interest to anyone studying post-colonial literature, women’s studies or Francophone culture in general.

"This study of Victor Hugo's work aims to uncover the diversity, the thematic and narrative singularity, and the shifting ironies and resistance to interpretative closure of his writing. Novels examined include: ""Notre-Dame de Paris"", ""Les Miserables"", ""Les Travailleurs de la Mer"", ""Quatre vingt-treize"", and ""L'Homme qui Rit"". The 11 essays in the volume bring together various critical approaches from French, British and American scholars, in an attempt to provide a new point of departure and to provoke discussion of Victor Hugo's novels. This publication marks the bicentenary of Hugo's birth in 1802."

'Focusing on francophone writing from North Africa as it has developed since the 1980s, Writing After Postcolonialism explores the extent to which the notion of 'postcolonialism' is still resonant for literary writers a generation or more after independence, and examines the troubled status of literature in society and politics during this period. Whilst analysing the ways in which writers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have reacted to political unrest and social dissatisfaction, Jane Hiddleston offers a compelling reflection on literature's ability to interrogate the postcolonial nation as well as on its own uncertain role in the current context. The book sets out both to situate the recent generation of francophone writers in North Africa in relation to contemporary politics, to postcolonial theory, and evolving notions of 'world literature, and to probe the ways in which a new and highly sophisticated set of writers reflect on the very notion of 'the literary' during this period of transition.'

"This book discusses George Sand's autobiography ""Histoire de ma Vie"" from a variety of perspectives - thematic, structural and stylistic - and examines the often contradictory images of the author/narrator that emerge, in particular, from Sand's confused and ambivalent attitude to her gender. At each point, Sand's intriguing work is placed in the context of modern autobiographical and feminist theory, and measured against the conventions of traditional male autobiography. What emerges is a hybrid, androgynous text that combines different modes and voices, giving a unique access to the person of the author herself, both as she wished to appear and as she appears in spite of herself."

This study of Baudelaire's art criticism and its relationship with his writing seeks to cover all aspects of the subject, including the key aesthetic ideas, the essays on laughter and caricature, and the idea that all art springs from memory.