The Postcolonial Novel (Paperback - 2014)

'This is a learned, lucid and innovative book by one of the leading scholars in the field. At once a very useful resource for students and also a major contribution to scholarly thinking, it offers a refreshing new perpective on key postcolonial novels in English and the theoritical debates these texts have sparked. Lane's rare talent for explaining complex theoretical concepts while preserving the inherent difficulty of these ideas is fully engaged here. The Postcolonial Novel's the best study of its kind to date in postcolonial studies.'
Deborah L. Madsen, University of Geneva
In The Postcolonial Novel, Richard J. Lane offers his readers wonderfully open and fresh readings of some of the most important works in the canon such as Palace of the Peacock, Things fall Apart, Foe and Surfacing. With these readings he brings his theoritical expertise to bear in subterranean ways that illuminate the texts while foregrounding the pleasures and intricacies of their stories. Readers less experienced in postcolonial theory than Lane is will have no difficulty following his approach and they will, as I have, come away from this book convinced that, in large part, postcolonial theorists like Spivak, Bhabha, Said, Foucault and Genette developed their ideas in tandem with the creative writers or. indeed, in response to these novels.'
Sherrill Grace, University of British Coloumbia
The Postcolonial Novel provides a concise and invaluable introduction to the rise of postcolonial literatures in English through close readings of seminal novels. These novels — which continue to generate debate long after publication and have influenced the ways in which we think about literature and literary studies — provide an ideal entry point to the subject for students. Each main chapter begins with a helpful introductory overview, and then closely reads a key novel before moving on to examine the impact and significance of that particular text. The book as a whole works to introduce and explain the emergence of theoretical discourse from these close readings, drawing extensively upon leading indigenous and western critics and theorists. Students will be encouraged to use this book to debate a wide range of critical issues that have been generated by postcolonial literatures.

Richard J. Lane is Professor of English, Malaspina University College, Canada