Past the Last Post: Theorizing Post-Colonialism and Post-Modernism

Description

214 pages
Contains Bibliography, Index
$34.95
ISBN 0-919813-71-2
DDC 820.9'9171241

Year

1990

Contributor

Edited by Ian Adam and Helen Tiffin
Reviewed by W.J. Keith

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Review

While the title for this book, Past the Last Post, is punningly witty,
its subtitle, Theorizing Post-Colonialism and Post-Modernism, is
deadeningly portentous. The contributors, alas, opt almost invariably
for the latter tone rather than the former. (The one notable, and noble,
exception is Linda Hutcheon, who not only offers some original and
probing ideas but presents them in lucidly readable form. She is also
the only writer to give any clear indication that she enjoys the works
of art she discusses.)

Fourteen writers—mainly from Australia and Canada but also from
Belgium, India, South Africa, and the United States—consider
contemporary writing from countries that, at one time or another, were
part of the British Empire, and argue about the extent to which they can
be classified as “post-colonialist” or “post-modernist.” Since
most agree that “post-modernism” is a slippery term that can mean
just about anything, and since “post-colonialism,” called upon to
embrace figures as diverse as Margaret Atwood and Nelson Mandela, must
be similarly protean, the task will seem quixotic to many. Those whose
main interest is literary categorization may be satisfied; others,
content to read and enjoy, may be forgiven for asking “Who cares?”

One disturbing feature of the book is that, Hutcheon excepted, these
writers seem unaware that they are themselves colonized by theory. The
same authorities (authoritarians?) are quoted—and toadied to—again
and again, and the contributors dutifully dive through the requisite
theoretical hoops, some more elegantly than others. Besides, to impose
“post-colonialist” and “post-modernist” labels on contemporary
artists is surely itself a potentially imperialistic act. But these, of
course are not the issues one is supposed to raise. The debate (yawn)
continues.

Citation

“Past the Last Post: Theorizing Post-Colonialism and Post-Modernism,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 28, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/10254.