Multiculturalism and Postcolonialism

This project examines the narrative representation of postcolonial identities and the British colonial past in postcolonial anglophone literatures. Its aim is to blend the practical textual analysis offered by narrative theory with the more theoretical concerns of multicultural and postcolonial studies by undertaking detailed textual investigation of narrative strategies in contemporary cultural contexts. The narratives under consideration are a range of texts taken from the genres of prose fiction, television, and the fiction film - from Africa (notably South Africa and Nigeria) and India as well as texts from the African and South Asian diasporas in Britain and Canada. The main aim of the investigation is to explore the innovative narrative strategies used to represent the cultural hybridities and layers of identity that have been created by colonialism and subsequent diasporic movement. A particular focus is on analyzing the cultural hierarchies constructed by colonialism and still embedded in contemporary cultural discourses.

Publications:

  • "Narrating the Postcolonial Metropolis in Anglophone African Fiction: Chris Abani's GraceLand and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow." Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 48.1 (2012). 39-50
  • “The Many Voices of Things Fall Apart.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 11.2 (2009): 176-179.
  • “Culture and Nature in The Heart of Redness.” Ways of Writing: Critical Essays on Zakes Mda. Eds. David Bell and Johan Jacobs. Scottstown: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009. 169-190.
  • “Sharing Media Spaces. The Kumars at No. 42". Ed. Stella Borg Barthet. Shared Waters: Soundings in Postcolonial Literatures. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2009. 279-288.
  • “Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup and the Desert Romance Tradition in Post/Colonial Anglophone Fiction.” Current Writing 20.1 (2008): 69-88.
  • “Crossing Borders in the Sand: The Desert and the Post/Colonial Romance in Anglophone Fiction”. Forging the Local and the Global. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University/African Sun Media, 2006. 53-61.
  • “Post/Colonial Alterities and Global Hybridities in the Contemporary South African Novel: Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness and Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome to our Hillbrow.” Postcolonialism South/Africa: AUETSA/SAVAL/SAACLALS Conference Proceedings 2004. Http://www.uwc.ac.za/arts/auetsa/proceedings2004.htm.

Conference Papers:

  • “Crossing Borders in the Sand: the Desert and the Post/Colonial Romance in Anglophone Fiction.” Forging the Local and Global, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, July 2006.
  • “Postcolonial Narrative Strategies in African and Canadian Anglophone Fiction.” Narrative: An International Conference, Ottawa, Canada, April 2006.
  • “Sharing Media Spaces: The Kumars at No 42.” Sharing Places. Triennial Conference of the European Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Malta, March 2005.
  • “Post/Colonial Alterities and Global Hybridities in the Contemporary South African Novel: Zakes Mda’s The Heart of Redness and Phaswane Mpe’s Welcome To Our Hillbrow.” Postcolonialism: South/Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. July 2004.
  • “Polyphony and Fictionality in Diasporic Narrative.” Narrative: An International Conference, Burlington, Vermont, USA, April 2004.