Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction

Leela Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory. A Critical Introduction (St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 1998), x + 200 pp., $24.95, ISBN 1 86448 431 4.

Quite late in her book Postcolonial Theory: a Critical Introduction, Leela Gandhi poses a question which can be paraphrased as follows: 'where might a counter-narrative of the postcolonial counternarrative begin?' It is a question which goes directly to the heart of this project. Gandhi is not interested in a mere account of the important names and ideas of postcolonial theory. This book offers far more than an up-to-date audit of postcolonial theory and theorists. It is a critical engagement with the constitutive figures and forms of postcolonial theory. It is at times fearless, at times sentimental, at times witty, and always incisive as it outlines what has gone before in postcolonial theory, as well as pointing to the scope of that 'counter-narrative' which lies beyond.

Postcolonialism as an endlessly recursive, lived event-a political struggle, a mood, a wish, an intellectual disposition-has many starting points, but it is Gayatri Spivak and her now landmark question 'can the subaltern speak?' which is nominated by Gandhi as the start of this overview of postcolonial theory. It is by no means an arbitrary choice, and it offers a refreshing change from the Fanon-Said-Bhabha trilogy (although fans will be pleased to know Gandhi has plenty to say on Fanon, as well as the 'Said phenomenon' and, yes,...