Postcolonial Poetry in English

Book excerpt: The Oxford Studies in Postcolonial Literatures series (general editor: Elleke Boehmer) offers stimulating and accessible introductions to definitive topics and key genres and regions within the rapidly diversifying field of postcolonial literary studies in English. Postcolonial Poetry in English provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of English poetry in all the regions that were once part of the British Empire. The idea of postcolonial poetry is held together by three factors: the global community constituted by English; the creative possibilities accessible through English; and patterns of literary development common to regions with a history of recent decolonization. In showing how diverse poetic traditions in English evolved from dependency to varying degrees of cultural self-confidence, the book answers two broad questions: how is postcolonial studies relevant to the interpretation of poetry, and how does poetry contribute to our idea of postcolonial writing? The book is divided into three parts: the first works out a method of analysis based on recent publications of outstanding interest; the second narrates the development of poetic traditions in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, and the settler colonies of Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; the third analyses key motifs, such as the struggle for minority self-representation; the cultural politics of gender, modernism, and postmodernity; and the experience of migration and self-exile in contemporary Anglophone societies. Postcolonial Poetry in English provides a succinct and wide-ranging introduction to some of the most exciting poetic writing of the twentieth century. It is ideally suited for readers interested in world writing in English, contemporary literature, postcolonial writing, cultural studies, and postmodern culture.