phd thesis on postcolonial literature

• Oxford Thesis Collection
• CC0 version of this metadata

Ethics and recognition in postcolonial literature: reading Amitav Ghosh, Caryl Phillips, Chimamanda Adichie and Kazuo Ishiguro

This thesis undertakes a critical study of ethics in the postcolonial novel. Focusing on four authors, namely Amitav Ghosh, Chimamanda Adichie, Caryl Phillips, and Kazuo Ishiguro, I conduct a comparative analysis of the ethical engagement offered in a selection of their novels. I argue that the recognitions and related emotional responses of characters are integral to the unfolding of these novels’ ethical concerns. The ethics thus explored are often marked by the complexity and impurity char...

Email this record

Please enter the email address that the record information will be sent to.

Please add any additional information to be included within the email.

Cite this record

Chicago style, access document.

• DPhil Thesis_V van Bever Donker.pdf ( Preview , pdf, 1.2MB, Terms of use )

Why is the content I wish to access not available via ORA?

Content may be unavailable for the following four reasons.

• Version unsuitable We have not obtained a suitable full-text for a given research output. See the versions advice for more information.
• Recently completed Sometimes content is held in ORA but is unavailable for a fixed period of time to comply with the policies and wishes of rights holders.
• Permissions All content made available in ORA should comply with relevant rights, such as copyright. See the copyright guide for more information.
• Clearance Some thesis volumes scanned as part of the digitisation scheme funded by Dr Leonard Polonsky are currently unavailable due to sensitive material or uncleared third-party copyright content. We are attempting to contact authors whose theses are affected.

Alternative access to the full-text

Request a copy.

We require your email address in order to let you know the outcome of your request.

Provide a statement outlining the basis of your request for the information of the author.

Please note any files released to you as part of your request are subject to the terms and conditions of use for the Oxford University Research Archive unless explicitly stated otherwise by the author.

Contributors

Bibliographic details, item description, terms of use, views and downloads.

If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

Report an update

We require your email address in order to let you know the outcome of your enquiry.

Geoffrey R. Weller Library

View complete hours

Postcolonial Literature: Theses and Dissertations

• Starting Your Research
• Reference Materials
• Books and E-books

Theses and Dissertations

• Finding Primary Sources
• Citing Sources
• UNBC Thesis Collection The collection contains graduate (and select undergraduate) dissertations, theses, project reports and practicum papers. The collection contains most published works from 1994 to the present.

• DART European E-theses Portal DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.
• EThOS (UK) Search over 450,000 doctoral theses. Download instantly for your research, or order a scanned copy quickly and easily.
• National ETD Portal (South Africa) This site is run by the UCT-CS Digital Libraries Laboratory on behalf of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

Subject Librarian

• Frequently Asked Questions Check out our FAQs!
• In Person Drop by the Research Help Desk today!
• Email [email protected]
• Call Have a question? We are available at (250) 960-6475
• Text a Librarian Have a research questions? Text us! (250) 999-0478
• Interlibrary Loans

Can't find a book or book chapter, article, thesis or dissertation, or multimedia that you need?

If we don't have the item in our collection, you can request it through interlibrary loan at no cost for students.

• << Previous: Articles and Databases
• Next: Finding Primary Sources >>
• Last Updated: Jan 25, 2024 1:45 PM
• URL: https://libguides.unbc.ca/engl_postcol

Geoffrey R. Weller Library University of Northern British Columbia 3333 University Way Prince George, B.C. V2N 4Z9

Circulation: (250) 960-6613 Reference: (250) 960-6475 Regional Services: 1-888-440-3440 (toll free within 250 area code)

• Suggestions Form
• Planning & Policies
• Staff Directory
• Frequently Called Numbers
• Citation Management
• Course Reserves
• Faculty Services
• Open Access
• Data & Statistics
• Maps & Photos
• Research Help

Postcolonial and World Literatures

The study of postcolonial or international literatures in English has been carried out within the Faculty of English at Oxford since the early 1990s. World literature and postcolonial literary studies now forms a leading research area in the Faculty, which was consolidated in 2013 with the establishment of the MSt in World literature in English. We have a distinguished record in particular in postcolonial theory, global history at the time of empire, postcolonial book history, and in South Asian and southern African literatures in English. At any one time around 18 doctoral students on average research in the area, on topics ranging from South East Asian literature through to Caribbean aesthetics.

Started by Professor Robert J. C. Young in the 1990s, the renamed "Postcolonial Writing and Theory Seminars" take place at Wadham College. Convened by Professors Boehmer and Mukherjee, the seminar is a hub for postcolonial scholars and researchers across the Humanities, extending from MSt students through to senior researchers. The seminars have long fostered some of the objectives that faculties and divisions are now setting as targets, namely: the increased visibility of postcolonial and critical race studies scholarship; the increased visibility of Black and POC scholars, authors, teachers; ongoing critical inquiry on the role of the Western university (and our own humanities and social sciences subjects) in perpetuating or combating Eurocentrism, white supremacy and privilege; ongoing interrogation of historical and structural inequalities and the importance of literary and historical study in this inquiry; and the colonial centre-periphery divide that structures compulsory and elective work in a given discipline.

In recent years the seminar has featured papers by Emily Apter, Pheng Cheah, Anna Bernard, Ato Quayson, Abdulrazak Gurnah, David Palumbo-Liu, Tayeb Salih and Joseph Slaughter, and has also hosted a range of lectures and readings by eminent postcolonial and international writers, including J.M. Coetzee (in 2009 and 2014), Tsitsi Dangarembga, Kamila Shamsie and Hisham Matar.

The Faculty has hosted several successful research projects in the world literature area, including the Leverhulme-funded Planned Violence: Postcolonial Cities and Literature international network project (2014-16), and Postcolonial Text, World Form (Fell-funded), a research project led by Professor Elleke Boehmer which launched in December 2016, and now forms the hub of the flagship Writers Make Worlds website exploring questions of reading Black and Asian British writing today. Supported by an AHRC Leadership Fellows grant, Professor Ankhi Mukherjee's research project, The Psychic Life of the Poor (2017-2018), hosted graduate workshops titled "Humanitarian Fictions" and an international conference, "Global Hungers," keynoted by Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Professor Leela Gandhi. Professor Elleke Boehmer convenes the Southern Lives  research project (2020-21), funded by a British Academy Small Grant, which explores life-writing as a tool for understanding Global South experience. 

Oxford offers exceptional resources for anyone interested in doing substantial research into the history of colonialism and its postcolonial and global aftermaths. It is home to the second largest living archive in the United Kingdom, the Bodleian Library and its many affiliates, including the Centre for the Study of the Book. With Oxford University Press, Pearson Education, Macmillan, Wiley-Blackwell, the African Books Collective and Oneworld all based in the city, Oxford is also one of the major centres of the contemporary Anglophone publishing world.

The MSt strand World Literatures in English offers students the opportunity to investigate leading questions and debates in colonial, postcolonial, transnational and global literary studies through the medium of taught courses and a dissertation.

• Publications
• News & resources
• Research projects & centres
• Events & seminars

The Shouting in the Dark

Elleke Boehmer

What Is a Classic? Postcolonial Rewriting and Invention of the Canon

Ankhi Mukherjee

The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and Its Cultural Consequences

Peter D. McDonald

October 2010

Writers Make Worlds

Explore resources on over 40 Black and Asian British writers

Approaches to reading

Reading and reception

Identifying with literature

Performance and reading

Great writers inspire resources (essays, podcasts, videos, ebooks).

Postcolonial writing

Derek Walcott

Olive Schreiner

J.M. Coetzee

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Conrad

Other resources.

The Literature Police website

This website is a supplement to Peter D. McDonald’s book The Literature Police: Apartheid Censorship and its Cultural Consequences (Oxford, 2009). 

African Studies Centre

Accelerate Hub

Planned Violence: Postcolonial Cities and Literature

The Psychic Life of the Poor

Demons Land

DEMONS LAND is a shape-shifting, mixed media project – including film, text, sculpture, paintings, theatre, music, dance – that explores the dreams, crimes, and legacies of colonialism. 

Postcolonial Writing and Theory Research Seminar

Research seminar.

Postcolonial Writing and Theory at Oxford

Postcolonialism: Literary Applications of a Decolonizing Tool

• December 2022
• International Journal of Linguistics Literature & Translation 5(12):69-75
• 5(12):69-75

• University of Hassan II of Casablanca

• School of Humanities, Mohammedia, Hassan II University . Casablanca . Morocco

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations
• Marisa Santi Dewi
• Juliana Konning

• Zahra Hussain Hadi

• Sandra Ponzanesi
• Leela Gandhi
• Robert J. C. Young
• Peter Barry
• Stephen Slemon
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Department of English

Recent PhD Dissertations

Terekhov, Jessica (September 2022) -- "On Wit in Relation to Self-Division"

Selinger, Liora (September 2022) -- "Romanticism, Childhood, and the Poetics of Explanation"

Lockhart, Isabel (September 2022) -- "Storytelling and the Subsurface: Indigenous Fiction, Extraction, and the Energetic Present"

Ashe, Nathan (April 2022) – "Narrative Energy: Physics and the Scientific Real in Victorian Literature”

Bartley, Scott H. (April 2022) – “Watch it closely: The Poetry and Poetics of Aesthetic Focus in The New Criticism and Middle Generation”

Mctar, Ali (November 2021) – “Fallen Father: John Milton, Antinomianism, and the Case Against Adam”

Chow, Janet (September 2021) – “Securing the Crisis: Race and the Poetics of Risk”

Thorpe, Katherine (September 2021) – “Protean Figures: Personified Abstractions from Milton’s Allegory to Wordsworth’s Psychology of the Poet”

Minnen, Jennifer (September 2021) – “The Second Science: Feminist Natural Inquiry in Nineteenth-Century British Literature”

Starkowski, Kristen (September 2021) – “Doorstep Moments: Close Encounters with Minor Characters in the Victorian Novel”

Rickard, Matthew (September 2021) – “Probability: A Literary History, 1479-1700”

Crandell, Catie (September 2021) – “Inkblot Mirrors: On the Metareferential Mode and 19th Century British Literature”

Clayton, J.Thomas (September 2021) – “The Reformation of Indifference: Adiaphora, Toleration, and English Literature in the Seventeenth Century”

Goldberg, Reuven L. (May 2021) – “I Changed My Sex! Pedagogy and the Trans Narrative”

Soong, Jennifer (May 2021) – “Poetic Forgetting”

Edmonds, Brittney M. (April 2021) – “Who’s Laughing Now? Black Affective Play and Formalist Innovation in Twenty-First Century black Literary Satire”

Azariah-Kribbs, Colin (April 2021) – “Mere Curiosity: Knowledge, Desire, and Peril in the British and Irish Gothic Novel, 1796-1820”

Pope, Stephanie (January 2021) – “Rethinking Renaissance Symbolism: Material Culture, Visual Signs, and Failure in Early Modern Literature, 1587-1644”

Kumar, Matthew (September 2020) – “The Poetics of Space and Sensation in Scotland and Kenya”

Bain, Kimberly (September 2020) – “On Black Breath”

Eisenberg, Mollie (September 2020) – “The Case of the Self-Conscious Detective Novel: Modernism, Metafiction, and the Terms of Literary Value”

Hori, Julia M. (September 2020) – “Restoring Empire: British Imperial Nostalgia, Colonial Space, and Violence since WWII”

Reade, Orlando (June 2020) – “Being a Lover of the World: Lyric Poetry and Political Disaffection after the English Civil War”

Mahoney, Cate (June 2020) – “Go on Your Nerve: Confidence in American Poetry, 1860-1960”

Ritger, Matthew (April 2020) – “Objects of Correction:  Literature and the Birth of Modern Punishment”

VanSant, Cameron (April 2020) – “Novel Subjects:  Nineteenth-Century Fiction and the Transformation of British Subjecthood”

Lennington, David (November 2019) – “Anglo-Saxon and Arabic Identity in the Early Middle Ages”

Marraccini, Miranda (September 2019) – “Feminist Types: Reading the Victoria Press”

Harlow, Lucy (June 2019) – “The Discomposed Mind”

Williamson, Andrew (June 2019) – “Nothing to Say:  Silence in Modernist American Poetry”

Adair, Carl (April 2019) – “Faithful Readings: Religion, Hermeneutics, and the Habits of Criticism”

Rogers, Hope (April 2019) – “Good Girls: Female Agency and Convention in the Nineteenth-Century British Novel”

Green, Elspeth (January 2019) – “Popular Science and Modernist Poetry”

Braun, Daniel (January 2019) – Kinds of Wrong: The Liberalization of Modern Poetry 1910-1960”

Rosen, Rebecca (November 2018) – “Making the body Speak: Anatomy, Autopsy and Testimony in Early America, 1639-1790”

Blank, Daniel (November 2018) – Shakespeare and the Spectacle of University Drama”

Case, Sarah (September 2018) – Increase of Issue: Poetry and Succession in Elizabethan England”

Kucik, Emanuela  (June 2018) – “Black Genocides and the Visibility Paradox in Post-Holocaust African American and African Literature”

Quinn, Megan  (June 2018) – “The Sensation of Language: Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Mary Shelley”

McCarthy, Jesse D.  (June 2018) – “The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War, 1945-1965

Johnson, Colette E.  (June 2018) – “The Foibles of Play: Three Case Studies on Play in the Interwar Years”

Gingrich, Brian P.  (June 2018) – “The Pace of Modern Fiction: A History of Narrative Movement in Modernity”

Marcus, Sara R.  (June 2018) – “Political Disappointment: A Partial History of a Feeling”

Parry, Rosalind A.  (April 2018) – “Remaking Nineteenth-Century Novels for the Twentieth Century”

Gibbons, Zoe  (January 2018) – “From Time to Time:  Narratives of Temporality in Early Modern England, 1610-1670”

Padilla, Javier  (September 2017) – “Modernist Poetry and the Poetics of Temporality:  Between Modernity and Coloniality”

Alvarado, Carolina (June 2017) – "Pouring Eastward: Editing American Regionalism, 1890-1940"

Gunaratne, Anjuli (May 2017) – "Tragic Resistance: Decolonization and Disappearance in Postcolonial Literature"

Glover, Eric (May 2017) – "By and About:  An Antiracist History of the Musicals and the Antimusicals of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston"

Tuckman, Melissa (April 2017) – "Unnatural Feelings in Nineteenth-Century Poetry"

Eggan, Taylor (April 2017) – "The Ecological Uncanny: Estranging Literary Landscapes in Twentieth-Century Narrative Fiction"

Calver, Harriet (March 2017) – "Modern Fiction and Its Phantoms"

Gaubinger, Rachel (December 2016) – "Between Siblings: Form and Family in the Modern Novel"

Swartz, Kelly (December 2016) – "Maxims and the Mind: Sententiousness from Seventeenth-Century Science to the Eighteenth-Century Novel"

Robles, Francisco (June 2016) – “Migrant Modalities: Radical Democracy and Intersectional Praxis in American Literatures, 1923-1976”

Johnson, Daniel (June 2016) – “Visible Plots, Invisible Realms”

Bennett, Joshua (June 2016) – “Being Property Once Myself: In Pursuit of the Animal in 20th Century African American Literature”

Scranton, Roy (January 2016) – “The Trauma Hero and the Lost War: World War II, American Literature, and the Politics of Trauma, 1945-1975

Jacob, Priyanka (November 2015) – “Things That Linger: Secrets, Containers and Hoards in the Victorian Novel”

Evans, William (November 2015) – “The Fiction of Law in Shakespeare and Spenser”

Vasiliauskas, Emily (November 2015) – “Dead Letters: The Afterlife Before Religion”

Walker, Daniel (June 2015) – “Sociable Uncertainties: Literature and the Ethics of Indeterminacy in Eighteenth-Century Britain”

Reilly, Ariana (June 2015) – “Leave-Takings: Anti-Self-Consciousness and the Escapist Ends of the Victorian Marriage Plot”

Lerner, Ross (June 2015) – "Framing Fanaticism: Religion, Violence, and the Reformation Literature of Self-Annihilation”

Harrison, Matthew (June 2015) – "Tear Him for His Bad Verses: Poetic Value and Literary History in Early Modern England”

Krumholtz, Matthew (June 2015) – “Talking Points: American Dialogue in the Twentieth Century”

Dauber, Maayan (March 2015) – "The Pathos of Modernism: Henry James, Virginia Woolf, and Gertrude Stein (with a coda on J.M. Coetzee)”

Hostetter, Lyra (March 2015) – “Novel Errantry: An Annotated Edition of Horatio, of Holstein (1800)”

Sanford, Beatrice (January 2015) – “Love’s Perception: Nineteenth-Century Aesthetics of Attachment”

Chong, Kenneth (January 2015) – “Potential Theologies: Scholasticism and Middle English Literature”

Worsley, Amelia (September 2014) – “The Poetry of Loneliness from Romance to Romanticism”

Hurtado, Jules (June 2014) – “The Pornographer at the Crossroads: Sex, Realism and Experiment in the Contemporary English Novel”

Rutherford, James (June 2014) – "Irrational Actors: Literature and Logic in Early Modern England”

Wilde, Lisa (June 2014) – “English Numeracy and the Writing of New Worlds, 1543-1622”

Hyde, Emily (November 2013) – “A Way of Seeing: Modernism, Illustration, and Postcolonial Literature”

Ortiz, Ivan (September 2013) – “Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Modern Transport”

Aronowicz, Yaron (September 2013) – “Fascinated Moderns: The Attentions of Modern Fiction”

Wythoff, Grant (September 2013) – “Gadgetry: New Media and the Fictional Imagination”

Ramachandran, Anitha (September 2013) – "Recovering Global Women’s Travel Writings from the Modern Period: An Inquiry Into Genre and Narrative Agency”

Reuland, John (April 2013) – “The Self Unenclosed: A New Literary History of Pragmatism, 1890-1940”

Wasserman, Sarah (January 2013) – “Material Losses: Urban Ephemera in Contemporary American Literature and Culture”

Kastner, Tal (November 2012) – "The Boilerplate of Everything and the Ideal of Agreement in American Law and Literature"

Labella, John (October 2012) – "Lyric Hemisphere: Latin America in United States Poetry, 1927-1981"

Kindley, Evan (September 2012) – "Critics and Connoisseurs: Poet-Critics and the Administration of Modernism"

Smith, Ellen (September 2012) – "Writing Native: The Aboriginal in Australian Cultural Nationalism 1927-1945"

Werlin, Julianne (September 2012) – "The Impossible Probable: Modeling Utopia in Early Modern England"

Posmentier, Sonya (May 2012) – "Cultivation and Catastrophe:  Forms of Nature in Twentieth-Century Poetry of the Black Diaspora"

Alfano, Veronica (September 2011) – “The Lyric in Victorian Memory”

Foltz, Jonathan (September 2011) – “Modernism and the Narrative Cultures of Film”

Coghlan, J. Michelle (September 2011) – “Revolution’s Afterlife; The Paris Commune in American Cultural Memory, 1871-1933”

Christoff, Alicia (September 2011) – “Novel Feeling”

Shin, Jacqueline (August 2011) – “Picturing Repose: Between the Acts of British Modernism”

Ebrahim, Parween (August 2011) – “Outcasts and Inheritors: The Ishmael Ethos in American Culture, 1776-1917”

Reckson, Lindsay (August 2011) – “Realist Ecstasy: Enthusiasm in American Literature 1886 - 1938"

Londe, Gregory (June 2011) – “Enduring Modernism: Forms of Surviving Location in the 20th Century Long Poem”

Brown, Adrienne (June 2011) – “Reading Between the Skylines: The Skyscraper in American Modernism”

Russell, David (June 2011) – “A Literary History of Tact: Sociability, Aesthetic Liberalism and the Essay Form in Nineteenth-Century Britain”

Hostetter, Aaron (December 2010) – "The Politics of Eating and Cooking in Medieval English Romance"

Moshenska, Joseph (November 2010) – " 'Feeling Pleasures': The Sense of Touch in Renaissance England"

Walker, Casey (September 2010) – "The City Inside: Intimacy and Urbanity in Henry James, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf"

Rackin, Ethel (August 2010) – "Ornamentation and Essence in Modernist Poetry"

Noble, Mary (August 2010) – "Primitive Marriage: Anthropology and Nineteenth-Century Fiction"

Fox, Renee (August 2010) – "Necromantic Victorians: Reanimation, History and the Politics of Literary Innovation, 1868-1903"

Hopper, Briallen (June 2010) – “Feeling Right in American Reform Culture”

Lee, Wendy (June 2010) -- "Failures of Feeling in the British Novel from Richardson to Eliot"

Moyer, James (March 2010) – "The Passion of Abolitionism: How Slave Martyrdom Obscures Slave Labor”

Forbes, Erin (September 2009) – “Genius of Deep Crime:  Literature, Enslavement and the American Criminal”

Crawforth, Hannah (September 2009) – “The Politics and Poetics of Etymology in Early Modern Literature”

Elliott, Danielle (April 2009) – "Sea of Bones: The Middle Passage in Contemporary Poetry of the Black Atlantic”

Yu, Wesley (April 2009) – “Romance Logic: The Argument of Vernacular Verse in the Scholastic Middle Ages”

Cervantes, Gabriel (April 2009) – "Genres of Correction: Anglophone Literature and the Colonial Turn in Penal Law 1722-1804”

Rosinberg, Erwin (January 2009) – "A Further Conjunction: The Couple and Its Worlds in Modern British Fiction”

Walsh, Keri (January 2009) – "Antigone in Modernism: Classicism, Feminism, and Theatres of Protest”

Heald, Abigail (January 2009) – “Tears for Dido: A Renaissance Poetics of Feeling”

Bellin, Roger (January 2009) – "Argument: The American Transcendentalists and Disputatious Reason”

Ellis, Nadia (November 2008) – "Colonial Affections: Formulations of Intimacy Between England and the Caribbean, 1930-1963”

Baskin, Jason (November 2008) – “Embodying Experience: Romanticism and Social Life in the Twentieth Century”

Barrett, Jennifer-Kate (September 2008) – “ ‘So Written to Aftertimes’: Renaissance England’s Poetics of Futurity”

Moss, Daniel (September 2008) – “Renaissance Ovids: The Metamorphosis of Allusion in Late Elizabethan England”

Rainof, Rebecca (September 2008) – “Purgatory and Fictions of Maturity: From Newman to Woolf”

Darznik, Jasmin (November 2007) – “Writing Outside the Veil: Literature by Women of the Iranian Diaspora”

Bugg, John (September 2007) – “Gagging Acts: The Trials of British Romanticism”

Matson, John (September 2007) – “Marking Twain: Mechanized Composition and Medial Subjectivity in the Twain Era”

Neel, Alexandra (September 2007) – “The Writing of Ice: The Literature and Photography of Polar Regions”

Smith-Browne, Stephanie (September 2007) – “Gothic and the Pacific Voyage: Patriotism, Romance and Savagery in South Seas Travels and the Utopia of the Terra Australis”

Bystrom, Kerry (June 2007) – “Orphans and Origins: Family, Memory, and Nation in Argentina and South Africa”

Ards, Angela (June 2007) – “Affirmative Acts: Political Piety in African American Women’s Contemporary Autobiography”

Cragwall, Jasper (June 2007) – “Lake Methodism”

Ball, David (June 2007) – “False Starts: The Rhetoric of Failure and the Making of American Modernism, 1850-1950”

Ramdass, Harold (June 2007) – “Miswriting Tragedy: Genealogy, History and Orthography in the Canterbury Tales, Fragment I”

Lilley, James (June 2007) – “Common Things: Transatlantic Romance and the Aesthetics of Belonging, 1764-1840”

Noble, Mary (March 2007) – “Primitive Marriage: Anthropology and Nineteenth-Century Fiction”

Passannante, Gerard (January 2007) – “The Lucretian Renaissance: Ancient Poetry and Humanism in an Age of Science”

Tessone, Natasha (November 2006) – “The Fiction of Inheritance: Familial, Cultural, and National Legacies in the Irish and Scottish Novel”

Horrocks, Ingrid (September 2006) – “Reluctant Wanderers, Mobile Feelings: Moving Figures in Eighteenth-Century Literature”

Bender, Abby (June 2006) – “Out of Egypt and into bondage: Exodus in the Irish National Imagination”

Johnson, Hannah (June 2006) – “The Medieval Limit: Historiography, Ethics, Culture”

Horowitz, Evan (January 2006) – “The Writing of Modern Life”

White, Gillian (November 2005) – “ ‘We Do Not Say Ourselves Like That in Poems’: The Poetics of Contingency in Wallace Stevens and Elizabeth Bishop

Baudot, Laura (September 2005) – “Looking at Nothing: Literary Vacuity in the Long Eighteenth Century”

Hicks, Kevin (September 2005) – “Acts of Recovery: American Antebellum Fictions”

Stern, Kimberly (September 2005) – “The Victorian Sibyl: Women Reviewers and the Reinvention of Critical Tradition”

Nardi, Steven (May 2005) – “Automatic Aesthetics: Race, Technology, and Poetics in the Harlem Renaissance and American New Poetry”

Sayeau, Michael (May 2005) – “Everyday: Literature, Modernity, and Time”

Cooper, Lawrence (April 2005) – “Gothic Realities: The Emergence of Cultural Forms Through Representations of the Unreal”

Betjemann, Peter (November 2004) – “Talking Shop: Craft and Design in Hawthorne, James, and Wharton”

Forbes, Aileen (November 2004) – “Passion Play: Theaters of Romantic Emotion”

Keeley, Howard (November 2004) – “Beyond Big House and Cabin: Dwelling Politically in Modern Irish Literature”

Machlan, Elizabeth (November 2004) – “Panic Rooms: Architecture and Anxiety in New York Stories from 1900 to 9/11”

McDowell, Demetrius (November 2004) – “Hawthorne, James, and the Pressures of the Literary Marketplace”

Waldron, Jennifer (November 2004) – “Eloquence of the Body: Aesthetics, Theology, and English Renaissance Theater”

Edinburgh Research Archive

•   ERA Home
• Literatures, Languages, and Cultures, School of

Literatures, Languages, and Cultures PhD thesis collection

By Issue Date Authors Titles Subjects Publication Type Sponsor Supervisors

Search within this Collection:

Recent Submissions

Trauma of loss & 'the sum of misfortunes' , cultural entrepreneurship and border-crossing practices: the multi-faceted career of ouyang yuqian , unravelling webs of affinity: science, narrative, and society in the victorian realist novel , gendered turkishness in everyday istanbul through elif shafak's and orhan pamuk's literature from an aesthetic, feminist, and sociocultural perspective , t.s. eliot and otherness: affects, history and embodiment , local migration: local-based lived experiences and enhancements in welfare provision in jinzhou, china , a land long forgotten: a novel; and, a balancing act: accuracy and authenticity in historical fiction , exploring (un)translatability: a practice-based care study on translation of norwegian poetry , rewriting cultural hybridity: postcolonial mirror images in somerset maugham and eileen chang , 'truer than anything alive': elements of style and reader engagement in the early works of ernest hemingway, joan didion and richard brautigan , whose anthropocene is this women's nature writing in a time of planetary emergency , secrecy, surveillance and counterintelligence in the prose fiction of walter scott and robert louis stevenson , plurilingüismo, intercomprensión y transferencia positiva: adquisición del modo y el aspecto en español como l2 y l3 , time travel (chuanyue) romances in chinese cyberspace , reshaping narratives: women artists from west asia and north africa in western museums , old town tales: an exploration in film portraying the transition of place from community to commodity , doubling, subjectivity and the role of ideology in the novels of thomas pynchon , dickens and temporality: reading dickens's fiction through the lens of bergson's philosophy , “i’m talking but no-one is listening”: how sound in british experiential realist cinema captures class dynamics from tony blair to brexit , faith, frolics, and femininity: re-evaluating irene dunne's hollywood stardom .

• Library Home
• Research Guides

ENGL 695 - Topics in Literature

Post-colonial literature, library research guide, cultural context, call numbers to browse.

Browse these call numbers for resources related to post-colonial literatures.

Browsing the shelves can help you identify existing research and relevant resources.

PK - Indo-Iranian philology and literature

• PK 2901 - PK 5474 Indo-Aryan literature
• PK 5401 - PK 5471 Modern Indo-Aryan literature

PL - Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania

• PL 8009.5 - PL 8014 African languages and literature

PR - English Literature

• PR 8309 - PR 9680 English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
• PR 9080  Commonwealth literature (English) - History and criticism
• PR 9440 Sri Lankan literature (English)

Subject Headings

Subject headings are "controlled vocabulary" used to organize books and journal articles into pre-defined themes or subjects. They provide an alternative to keyword searching.

Find a book's subject headings by clicking on the Details tab in Search It.

Relevant subject headings in Search It:

• Commonwealth literature (English) History and crticism Works that discuss materials written in countries that were formerly territories of the British Empires.
• Imperialism in literature Works that discuss or exhibit imperialism in literature.
• Postcolonialism in literature Works that discuss or exhibit postcolonialism in literature

This page provides guidance specifically related to post-colonial literature. Visit the English research guide , also linked from this guide's home page, for additional resources.

This guide, and many of the resources described within, presents three spellings for the course topic:

• post-colonialism
• postcolonialism
• post colonialism

Keep these spelling variations in mind when searching for materials.

Other language variations to learn are the colonial and postcolonial names for the countries or cities that are featured in the work being studied. (Yes, Wikipedia can help with that.)

Want to even more information about research materials for post-colonial literature?

These journals are a sampling of those that focus on post-colonial literatures. Follow the links to browse issues. If the full text of an article is not available online or on the shelf, request a copy through Interlibrary Loan .

The guide provided above, Literary Research and Postcolonial Literatures in English , includes information about additional journals.

Because the full text of all of these journals is not available online, use databases like MLA and Google Scholar to conduct a more thorough search (see the Databases box below.)

• Journal of Commonwealth literature "The Journal of Commonwealth Literature is internationally recognized as the leading critical and bibliographic forum in the field of Commonwealth and postcolonial literatures."
• Callaloo Focuses on literatures and cultures of the African diaspora.
• Postcolonial Studies An interdisciplinary journal of postcolonial studies, including literature, politics, and economics.
• Postcolonial Text Official publication of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies.
• The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory Published annually, the journal "provides a narrative bibliography of published work, recording significant debates and issues of interest across a broad range of research in the humanities and social sciences." Every year includes an article reviewing works in postcolonial theory.

Databases such as MLA and Google Scholar will allow you to search and find at least the citations of articles. Note that these databases tend to focus on journals typically read and cited in European and North American scholarly venues.

• MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography Publication Dates Covered: 1926 - present Paid for by K-State Libraries This is the largest and most comprehensive database for literary criticism in all languages. Also covers folklore, linguistics, and film studies. Includes journal and book articles, books, and dissertations. Does not index book reviews in literary journals.
• Literature Resource Center Paid for by K-State Libraries Provides researchers with unbounding literary resources to support their literary responses, literary analysis, and thesis statements through a diversity of scholars and critics that ensure all views and interpretations are represented through up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras. Use this resource to analyze authors and works throughout time.
• Google Scholar Free Resource Google Scholar is a useful tool for searching through a very broad scope of articles; however, be aware that they aren’t actually all “scholarly.” Look for the text “Get It @ KSU” instead of the usual “Get It” button to search for the full text of articles that don’t have an included PDF. It is sometimes found under the “more” link below the record.

Scholars in Africa and India are working to increase access to their scholarship through websites such as the ones listed below.

(If you are aware of similar sites in other former Commonwealth countries, please let me know.)

• African Journals Online (AJOL) AJOL's goal is, "that African-origin research output is available to Africans and to the rest of the world." Registration is free, but does not guarantee access to full text of articles. Use Interlibrary Loan.
• National Digital Library of India - Literature and Rhetoric According to the site, a pilot project to develop a framework of virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. While we may not be able to access the full text in the U.S., it's informative to see what research is being done in India.
• Shodhganga A repository of Indian electronic theses and dissertations.
• AfricaBib "AfricaBib is a collection of Africana social science titles, presented in one easily accessible location on the internet. It is the culmination of over forty years of Africana research. "

Understand more about cultural and historical events framing the work you are studying.

Secondary Sources

These databases provide academic articles that will primarily serve as secondary sources.

• America: History & Life Publication Dates Covered: 1964 - present Simultaneous users: 6 Paid for by K-State Libraries Indexes and abstracts for approximately 1,800 journals in the field of United States and Canadian history. Full-text coverage for more than 280 journals and more than 80 books. Contains citations and links to book and media reviews. Can search by time period.

Paid for by K-State Libraries A full-text collection of more than 550 core journals ranging from history to business to literature to science and mathematics. Coverage begins with the first issue of a title, but the most recent three to five years of each title are usually not available. The full article text is searchable.

Primary Sources - Databases

These databases will provide primary sources (voices). Be sure to consider what perspective or bias may be present.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) supports original research and inspired teaching by preserving and making available a wealth of rare and uncommon primary source materials from all world regions. CRL works with specialists and experts at major research universities to identify and preserve unique and uncommon documentation and evidence.

• U.K. Parliamentary Papers Publication Dates Covered: 1688-2014 Paid for by K-State Libraries The House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (HCCP) includes over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the present, with supplementary material back to 1688. HCPP delivers page images and searchable full text for each paper, along with detailed indexing. K-State provides access to the following modules: 18th century, 19th century, 20th century, 21st century (2000-2014), and the Hansard (1803-2005).
• Internet Archive: eBooks and Texts Publication Dates Covered: mostly pre-1923 Free Resource Browse an international collection of books, articles, pamphlets, and other documents contributed by governments, libraries, and other organizations. It includes many of the most popular works of literature and scholarship as well as a host of lesser-known gems. Each of its items can be viewed, downloaded, and printed for free.
• Times Digital Archive Publication Dates Covered: 1785-2019 Paid for by K-State Libraries The complete issues of more than two hundred years of The Times of London are available for keyword searching by users, including articles, advertisements, and illustrations. Coverage of specific events and trends can be reviewed, providing a contemporary view to modern researchers.

Primary Sources - Archives and Collections

Search for archives, papers, photographs, film, and other primary sources that will provide the voice of someone who witnessed or experienced an event related to your work. These collections may be freely available on the internet.

Below are samples of the types of primary sources you might find.

• British Pathe Newsreel footage from British Pathe, dating between 1896 to 1976.
• The Dawn English language newspaper for Pakistan.
• Indian Memory Project Indian Memory Project is "an online, curated, visual and narrative based archive that traces a history and identities of the Indian Subcontinent, via photographs and letters found in personal archives. " This link opens to the timeline, which can be scanned for photos and posts.
• << Previous: Home
• Next: Hamilton >>
• Last Updated: May 23, 2024 12:07 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.k-state.edu/engl695

K-State Libraries

1117 Mid-Campus Drive North, Manhattan, KS 66506

785-532-3014 | [email protected]

• Statements and Disclosures
• Accessibility
• © Kansas State University

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Automated transliteration
• Relevant bibliographies by topics
• Referencing guides

Main navigation

Research degrees (mphil/phd) cultural, literary and postcolonial studies.

• Jump to: Key information
• Jump to: Course overview
• Jump to: Structure
• Jump to: Teaching and learning
• Jump to: Fees and funding
• Jump to: Employment

Key information

Home student fees (full-time) : £4,860 per year Home student fees (part-time) : £2,430 per year Overseas student fees (full-time) : £22,490 per year Overseas student fees (part-time) : £11,245 per year

Please note that fees go up each year.   See  research fees  for further details.

We normally require a 2.1 bachelor's degree (or its equivalent) plus a Masters degree in appropriate subject area plus one reference. In exceptional cases we may accept applicants who do not meet these criteria if they show evidence of a strong Masters degree and/or appropriate level of relevant work experience. International applicants should also see  Doctoral School English language requirements

Course overview

The SOAS Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) welcomes applications from MPhil/PhD students wishing to undertake research in the disciplines of Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies.

The Centre has developed its own MPhil training programme which will enable research students to be registered in the Centre rather than in specific regional Departments or those of other disciplines. The Centre places its emphasis on the acquisition of critical theoretical skills and in-depth regional, linguistic and cultural knowledge with specific reference to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, but also to literatures written in European languages.

Prospective research students will have the unique opportunity to work on an exceptionally wide range of topics, theoretical and critical, supervised according to the expertise of a wide range of academic staff across the Faculty and SOAS.

A research degree in Comparative Literature (Asia/Africa/the Near and Middle East), Cultural Studies (Asia/Africa/The Middle East) or Postcolonial Studies (Asia/Africa/The Near and Middle East) normally takes three years, or up to a maximum of four years should periods of fieldwork/research and material collection be required. Part-time registration is also possible.

Why Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies at SOAS?

• SOAS is specialist in the studies of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South East Asia
• SOAS is ranked 1st in London in the Complete University Guide 2021 for Middle Eastern and African Studies, and 6th in the UK
• Ranked 8th in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2021 for South Asian Studies

In the first year, students prepare for research by following an MPhil training programme convened by the Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies. Students will also be strongly encouraged to attend the core theory courses in the three disciplines, the other elements being agreed between the student, the Research Tutor (a member of the CCLPS Steering Committee) and the supervisor(s). Optional elements may consist of specialist disciplinary, language or regional culture courses, attendance of which can be agreed between the student and the supervisory committee.

MPhil students are required to attend the CCLPS Weekly Research Training Seminar and a generic research methods course offered within the Faculty of Languages and Cultures, convened by the Associate Dean for Research. The generic research methods training includes courses offered by the Academic Development Directorate (ADD) and the SOAS Library .

Doctoral School website also offers information on research training across London higher education institutions.

MPhil/PhD students are in addition expected to attend regularly the Centre’s seminar series, lectures, conferences and the CCLPS Postgraduate Annual Conference which started in June 2012 and is annually organised by the CCLPS PhD community. All details of CCLPS events will be available on the CCLPS pages . Third and Final Year CCLPS PhD students are asked to present their research projects in the CCLPS seminars and lecture series as that constitute an important element of their professional training.

Upgrade procedure

MPhil students submit an upgrade chapter (of about 10,000-12,000 words excluding bibliography), typically including the following elements:

• research rationale and context of proposed research
• literature review
• main research questions
• theoretical and methodological framework & considerations
• proposed research methods
• rthical issues (where applicable)
• outlining structure of PhD dissertation
• schedule of research and writing
• bibliography

Adjustments to one or more of these sections, including additions or deletions where appropriate, are possible by prior arrangement between the students and lead supervisors.

This upgrade proposal is assessed by the student’s research committee, based on a 20-30 minute oral presentation, followed by a discussion, also open to other staff and student members of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies. On successful completion of the upgrade chapter, students are formally upgraded to PhD and proceed to the second year. (If the assessors consider there to be shortcomings in the upgrade proposal, students will be asked to revise it to their satisfaction before the upgrade to PhD status can be confirmed.) Students are not normally permitted to proceed to the second year until the upgrade process has been completed.

Students studying part-time take the MPhil training seminar in the first year and write the upgrade paper in the second year. The length of time for field or research and material collection, and writing up, is adjusted accordingly.

Degrees are awarded by SOAS University of London and are subject to SOAS University of London regulations.

CCLPS weekly research training seminar

In addition to generic methods training, MPhil/PhD students in the CCLPS are required to attend a weekly Research Training Seminar in the disciplines of Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies as well as in interdisciplinary methods and methodologies in term one and two. The aim of the training programme is to provide a thorough grounding in theory, methods, regional, cultural, linguistic and any special disciplinary expertise that may be required for the research.

The focus of the CCLPS MPhil/PhD Research Training Seminar will be on the disciplines of Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies and Postcolonial Studies, and in relation to the literary, critical and cultural practices of Asian and African traditions. The programme of training will also be supported by regular CCLPS Lecture and seminar series, conferences and workshops and the CCLPS Annual Postgraduate Conference.

CCLPS training sessions

The CCLPS training sessions are designed to offer:

• analysis of and a grounding in theoretical premises and critical paradigms underlying the three disciplines and their intertwined trajectories and interdisciplinarity
• a critical exploration of European and non-European critical traditions
• a critical grounding in the crossing of Humanities and Social Sciences critical methods and methodologies
• practical analytic exercises and selective in-depth analysis of certain texts as well as cultural phenomena and institutions, particularly in relation to the field of Cultural Studies
• modes of engagement with critical scholarship and ways of constructing theoretical frames
• a critical grounding in the new theories on ‘World Literature'
• critical contexts in which students are able to identify and pursue figures, schools, theories they deem relevant to their work - the training sessions are not designed to offer general surveys
• exercises in the application of certain analytic tools and critical methods, particularly in relation to adopting a comparative method of study, a postcolonial approach to research and cultural studies strategic interdisciplinarity
• training in fieldwork and collection and analysis of data
• training in methods used for media and film studies
• training in practices of reading the corpus of the thesis or its primary material
• training in presentation, dissemination, communication of research and ways of using feedback on one’s project as students are asked to present on their 'literature review' in term 1 and on 'ways of reading their corpus' in terms 2
• the CCLPS Research Training Seminar also offers the opportunity for first year students to meet and greet their senior CCLPS PhD students and exchange views and  experiences of the CCLPS postgraduate community.

The CCLPS weekly Research Training Seminar aims at grounding our new MPhil/PhD students in various theory and practice based methodology so that the agency of non-European traditions may be identified and exercised, strengthened by the unique range of research activities and regional expertise offered at SOAS. This is also the envisioned path through which students may be able not only to place their work in a discipline, but also to plan future contributions in this discipline, while expanding the spheres of their respective fields.

Important notice

The information on the website reflects the intended programme structure against the given academic session. The modules are indicative options of the content students can expect and are/have been previously taught as part of these programmes. However, this information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability is subject to change.

Teaching and learning

Research will be guided throughout by a research committee of three core CCLPS members, consisting of one primary supervisor (core CCLPS Faculty of Languages and Cultures member) and two supporting supervisors in an advisory capacity (CCLPS core or SOAS members). Depending on the nature of the research joint supervision is sometimes recommended, under the direction of two supervisors.

SOAS Library

SOAS Library is one of the world's most important academic libraries for the study of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, attracting scholars from all over the world. The Library houses over 1.2 million volumes, together with significant archival holdings, special collections and a growing network of electronic resources.

Scholarships

Fees and funding

Fees for 2023/24 entrants per academic year.

Please note that fees go up each year.

• See  research fees  for further details.

Graduates of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics leave SOAS not only with linguistic and cultural expertise, but also with skills in written and oral communication, analysis and problem solving.

Recent graduates have been hired by:

• Africa Matters
• Amnesty International
• Arab British Chamber of Commerce
• BBC World Service
• British High Commission
• Council for British Research in the Levant
• Department for International Development
• Embassy of Jordan
• Ernst & Young
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office
• Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies
• Middle East Eye
• Saïd Foundation
• TalkAbout Speech Therapy
• The Black Curriculum
• The Telegraph
• United Nations Development Programme
• UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
• Wall Street Journal

Find out about our  Careers Service

Dr Yair Wallach

Social and cultural history of modern Palestine/Israel; material, visual and urban culture; history of textuality; race and antisemitism; migration and settler colonialism in Jewish history

SOAS Voices

Decolonising Bloomsbury: A guided walking tour through London’s colonial legacy

Dr Alia Amir, Research Associate at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, takes us on a 'decolonising walk' through Bloomsbury, London and reflects on some of the historical landmarks while challenging us to confront colonial histories and envision a more just future.

I’m a full-time SOAS student in my fifties. Here’s why I came back to university

Sian shares her motivations for returning to university full-time to learn Persian and her experiences of settling in so far.

How to learn a language effectively: Advice from SOAS teachers

Teachers from the SOAS Language Centre share their favourite tips for learning a language and sticking to it, from building confidence and setting goals to getting creative in your everyday practice.

Why Studio Ghibli is so popular and how it exports Japanese culture

Masami, a BA East Asian Studies student, delves into factors contributing to Studio Ghibli's international success and how the films may influence global perceptions of Japan.

World Kiswahili Day: Here is how we celebrate Swahili every day at SOAS

For World Kiswahili Day, Dr Ida Hadjivayanis shares some of the Swahili activities at SOAS in the past year.

Why I chose to study a language while working full-time

Language Centre student Bianca Belli discusses how she balances learning Japanese while working full-time, her plans for her newfound skills and shares the Japanese word she would teach a friend.

Leverhulme Research Leadership Award: Mapping Sumatra’s manuscript cultures

This project’s interdisciplinary team investigates manuscript libraries from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the first landing point, geographically and historically, of Islam in South East Asia, to better understand the intellectual and writing traditions of the region.

British Academy writing workshop: Amplifying women's voices in Hausa cultural studies

This 4-day British Academy Writing Workshop and 6-months of mentorship sought to amplify the voices of academic women writing about Hausa cultural studies in Northern Nigeria by providing support in revising research in preparation for publication.

British Academy Writing Workshop ‘De-centering knowledge and training opportunities: Supporting the development of the next generation of researchers in African linguistics’

As part of this project we will run two writing workshops in Kenya for Early Career Researchers in linguistics to work with experienced editors, improve writing skills and strengthen scholarly networks.

Variation in Swahili: contact, change and identity

Variation in Swahili: contact, change and identity investigates different ways in which Swahili is spoken, how its varieties are influenced by other languages, and what this means for speakers and their identities.

RISE UP: Revitalising Languages and Safeguarding Cultural Diversity

Transnational practices: film culture and politics in china (1949–1989).

Examining transnational film practices in China against the backdrop of the shifting global order from 1949 to 1989.

Chemical Capital: The life and times of a North Korean industrial town from colonial fiefdom to socialist icon

A biography a town and the diverse people that made it, from Korean workers to Russian engineers and Japanese scientists.

Re/presenting Islam on Campus

Exploring how Islam and Muslims are represented and perceived on UK university campuses.

Creative Multilingualism in World Literatures

Exploring multilingualism’s revolutionary potential and creative force in language, literature, thought and the visual arts.

Multilingual Locals and Significant Geographies

Countering the identification of world literature with English by highlighting the multilingualism and the many factors that contribute to regional and transnational literary fields.

The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Literature

A far-reaching and sustained study of key authors, texts, and topics from around the world and throughout history.

Prominent Possessors

Investigating the phenomenon of "prominent internal possessors" from a theoretical and cross-linguistic perspective.

Related content

MA Postcolonial Studies

MA Postcolonial Studies at SOAS University of London

MA South Asian Area Studies

MA South Asian Area Studies at SOAS University of London

BA Japanese

BA Japanese at SOAS University of London