C—O Introduction Beginning Any new beginning poses several important questions. Exactly what am I beginning, and what am I about to encounter? How shall I best Proceed? Where might be the most appropriate Position to start from? Beginnings are exciting things, inviting us to explore that which we may not have previously visited; but they also expose us to the unfamiliarity and inevitable disorientation of doing some- thing new. Beginning Postcolonialism is an attempt to help you to make your own beginnings in one of the most exciting and challenging fields of study that has emerged in recent years. It is a book primarily con- cerned with reading practices. It aims to introduce you to the vari- ous ways that we can approach, perhaps for the first time, literatures in English produced by writers who either come from, or have an ancestral purchase upon, countries with ahistory of colonialism. In addition, we will reconsider our approaches to older, more familiar literary works that seem to have little to do with the fortunes of Empire. By the end of this book you will have encountered many new concepts which will help you build and develop your readings of the range of literatures which Preoccupy postcolonialism. ‘That said, we should also be clear what this book is not. It will not be attempting to offer a full history of the various literatures often considered ‘postcolonial’. There already exists some excellent work which narrates the emergence and fortunes of postcolonial2 Beginning postcolonialism literatures throughout the twentieth century. Neither should we presume that the literary texts we consider in this book are typical of, or adequately represent, the wide-ranging field of postcolonial writing The choice of texts in the chapters that follow is informed on the whole by my experience of teaching many of them to under- graduate students, and will inevitably reflect some of my own areas of interest, They have served in undergraduate seminars to stimu- late successfully the reading strategies which are the primary con- cern of this book. But they are not the only texts we could choose, and we should not treat them as paradigmatic of postcolonialism. Thope that this book will assist in kindling your excitement and enthusiasm for the texts and the approaches we cover, and will sta- bilise to an extent some of the disorientation that is inevisable with any new departure. Yet, disorientation is also very much a produc- tive and valuable sensation, and it is fair to say that many of the read- ing and writing practices often considered ‘postcolonial’ achieve much of their effectiveness from derailing accustomed trains of thought. For many of us, postcolonialism challenges us to think again and question some of the assumptions that underpin both what we read and how we read. So it is important that, throughout this book, some of this valuable disorientation will be maintained, Postcolonialism? Its fair to say that beginning postcolonialism is an especially chal- Ienging procedure because it is particularly difficult to answer those questions with which we started. Such is the variety of activities often called ‘postcolonial’ that it is not very easy to find an appro- priate point of departure. For example, the literatures of nations such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Jamaica and Ireland have been called ‘postcolonial’. Are they all ‘postcolonial’ in the same way? What is the best ‘way to begin reading them? Could such a ‘best way’ of reading ever exist, one that is appropriate to all these literatures (and should we be looking for it)? In addition, readings of postcolonial literatures sometimes are resourced by concepts taken from many other critical practices, such as poststructuralism, feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis and linguistics. Such variety creates both discord and conflict within theIntroduction 3 field, to the extent that thereseems no one critical procedure that we might identify as typically ‘postcolonial’. Due to the variety and wide range of our Seld, it is worth consid- ering if we can ever really talk of a ‘postcolonialism’, with all the coherency that this term implies. Rather than using an umbrella term that lets in so much, it might be better for us to begin by ques- tioning ‘postcolonialism’ as a meaningful concept and seeking better ways of accounting for its prevailing, manifold subject matter and myriad reading strategies. These arc persisting questions for postcolonial critics and writers alike, and we shall be returning to the issues they raise. But it is important that we do not become transfixed by these questions as we ‘= to make our beginnings, to the extent that we cannot proceed at all. For better or for worse, the term ‘postcolonialism’ does have a history. It has entered common parlance and is frequently used by critics, teachers and writers. It is important that we understand the variety of what the term signifies if we want to begin to use it self- consciously and productively. The range of issues covered by the term is indeed huge, as are the kinds of readings performed in its name. By using the term ‘postcolonialism’ in this book when describing such various activities, I by no means wantto suggest that either the diverse and culturally specific literatures, or our readings of them, can be readily homogenised There is no one singular post- colonialism. But one of the fundamental arguments of this book is that ‘postcolonialism’ can be articulated in different ways as an enabling concept, despite the difficulties we encounter when tying to define it. As we are about to see, ‘postcolonialism’ is not a word we can render precisely. But out of its very variety comes possibility, vitality, challenge. ‘Postcolonialism’, then, is a term we will use in this book to help us with our beginnings, a term we can begin with; but I hope by the end of reading this book you will be using it with a healthy degree of self-consciousness and suspicion. In order to bear witness to the enabling possibilities of postcolo- nialism, each chapter of the book concerns a specific issue - such as ‘colonial discourses’, ‘the nation in question’, ‘diaspora identities’, ‘They are designed to introduce the major areas of enquiry within Postcolonialism, as well as offer concrete examples of various kinds of relevant reading and writing practices. But it is also the intention