Review of The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin.

Abstract

The Empire Writes Back is a catchy proposition, a pop-cult title sitting on top of a much heavier subtitle: theory and practice in post-colonial literatures. The pop-cult title isn't all that pop, however, coming as it does from Salman Rushdie's statement that, with so many excellent writers coming into English literature from the former colonies of the British Empire, the Empire is now writing back to the Centre. The book is written by three authors, all of them working in Departments of English in Australian universities. This gives to the tone of their work a distinctive coloration of belief, resentment and aspiration, one that makes it reasonable to describe them—in the Stephen Spielberg, Star Wars resonance that their title is also meant to pick up on—as a rebel alliance, putting together bits of theory, practice and insight to resist the galactic gaze of the evil Empire.