Literary Research and Postcolonial Literatures in English
Strategies and Sources
By (author) H. Faye Christenberry, Angela Courtney, Liorah Golomb, Melissa S. Van Vuuren
Publication date:
08 August 2012Length of book:
278 pagesPublisher
Scarecrow PressDimensions:
228x151mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9780810883833
Postcolonial literatures can be defined as the body of creative work written by authors whose lands were formerly subjugated to colonial rule. In previous volumes of this series, the research literature of former British colonies Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand have been addressed. This volume offers guidance for those researching the postcolonial literature of the former British colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia. Among the forty nations represented in this volume are South Africa, India, Pakistan, Ghana, Jamaica, Swaziland, Belize, and Namibia.
With the exception of South Africa (which formed the Union of South Africa in 1910), this guide picks up its coverage in 1947, when both India and Pakistan gained their independence. The literature created by writers from these nations represents the diverse experiences in the postcolonial condition and are the subject of this book. The volume provides best-practice suggestions for the research process and discusses how to take advantage of primary text resources in a variety of formats, both digital and paper based: bibliographies, indexes, research guides, archives, special collections, and microforms.
The authors of this title have put together a wonderful tool for researchers into the post-Colonial literatures in English with their book....Broken down into easy-to-understand and use chapters, the authors not only discuss the resources available to researchers but give examples on how to use them. This is neatly organized, beginning with the basics of online searching and going so far as to encourage the researcher to formulate his or her question into a statement to find keywords and concepts that can be used in the search. Truly, this book would be useful for even the novice researcher at the college level. Other guides, books, and resources are pointed out along the way through this enjoyable-to-read book. The authors do not shy away from mentioning the most basic resources such as the database JSTOR, which some larger research books tend to do because they believe that the reader knows about them. No resource is left unturned. This volume focuses on the post colonial literatures of the former British colonies of Africa, the Caribbean, and South Africa, including India, Pakistan, Ghana, Jamaica, Swaziland, and Belize. Because so many countries are represented there is a vast array of experiences and social conditions shared within the literature explored. This title is highly recommended for beginning researchers as well as those more advanced in this field.