The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures

Bill Ashcroft, School of English, University of New South Wales; Gareth Griffiths, Department of English, University of Western Australia; Helen Tiffin, Department of English, University of Queensland

NOTES

1. The development of English immediately before and after the First World War was also the result of the growing commercial and imperial rivalry between the great powers with the emergence of a strong Germany under Prussian influence in the late nineteenth century. English studies were designed to meet the challenge of German philology and its claims to dominance in language studies. [back]
   
   
2. Significantly, despite America's emergence as a super-power this process of literary hegemony has not occurred there. Although many West Indian and African writers have settled in America they are not claimed as American, so much as contributors to Black writing. [back]
   
   
3. Whilst the orthography employed may seem unfortunate, suggesting by its use of the upper and lower cases respectively that the variants are lesser, this is clearly not our intention. We prefer to see the use of the lower case as a sign of the subversion of the claims to status and privilege to which English usage clings. [back]
   

• What are post-colonial literatures?
• Post-colonial literatures and English Studies
• Development of post-colonial literatures
• Hegemony
• Language
• Place and Displacement
• Post-coloniality and theory
• Notes
• Works Cited

Last Modified: 9 July, 2002