Overview

Writers who came to the Third World during the wave of British colonialism, such as H. Rider Haggard in South Africa, Rudyard Kipling in India, and Joyce Cary in Nigeria, describe the colonized country, culture, and people from a detached outsider's perspective. But recent indigenous, post-independence fiction, conceived as a response to the British portrayal, offers a contrasting, insider's view. Outsiders and Insiders pairs a British and an indigenous writer describing a particular region to examine the differing perspectives of the colonial outsider and the native insider. This study concentrates on five disparate regions - India, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and the West Indies - to see whether the colonial experience is one that has meaning globally or is country-specific.

Full Product Details

9780820416687

Table of Contents

Reviews

Michael Harris' study is especially valuable because he attends to formal excellences as well as to the political and social complexities of the novelists he writes about. He therefore honors the achievements of some very good novelists, especially Salman Rushdie and George Laming. (Donald Gray, Indiana University) Michael Harris' 'Outsiders and Insiders' offers a series of incisive and original comparative analyses of writers in colonial contexts - colonizers matched against colonists. In one chapter he compares Rudyard Kipling with Salman Rushdie, and in another, Joyce Cary with Chinua Achebe. The writing and conceptual clarity are outstanding. (Patrick Brantlinger, Indiana University) Michael Harris' study departs from the usual paths to look at the literature set in India, Africa and West Indies in a new way. He sees with great perception that for British writers the natural and human landscapes of India, Africa and the West Indies gave free rein to their romantic imaginations and their dreams of high adventure in exotic places. Clearly, Dr. Harris' study will be essential for anyone who reads the 'other' English literature or who is concerned with the ways in which colonialism affected both the colonizer and the colonized. (Albert Wertheim, Indiana University) The first in the series 'Studies of World Literature in English', this work stes an impressive standard. It is, in fact, one of the very best studies of postcolonial fiction. Highly recommended for all libraries. (J.B. Beston, Choice)

Author Information

The Author: Michael Harris is an assistant professor of English at Central College in Pella, Iowa. He received his B.A. from Tulane University and his Ph.D. from Indiana University. From 1979 to 1982 he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal and traveled extensively throughout India.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available