Commodifying (Post)Colonialism: Othering, Reification, Commodification and the New Literatures and Cultures in English(127/16 ASNEL Papers)

Since its inception in the 1980s, postcolonial theory has greatly enriched academic perspectives on culture and literature. Yet, in the same way that colonial goods and services have long contributed to economic and political growth, postcolonial topics have also become a profit-generating commodity. This is highly apparent in the success of the postcolonial novel or in the ability of film to cross over from Asia, Africa and elsewhere to paying audiences in Europe and America. The contributions in this volume, in their various ways, take a critical look at artistic responses to the commodification of colonial and postcolonial histories, peoples, and products from the eighteenth century to the present. They explore, in particular, what literary and cultural texts have to say about commodification after the end of colonialism and how the Western culture industry continually capitalizes on representations of the postcolonial Other. Contributors: Samy Azouz, Lars Eckstein, Rainer Emig, Wolfgang Funk, Jens Martin Gurr, Birte Heidemann, Sissy Helff, Graham Huggan, Stephan Laqué, Oliver Lindner, Ana Cristina Mendes, Sabine Nunius, Carl Plasa, Katharina Rennhak, Ksenia Robbe, Cecile Sandten.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Theory Jens Martin Gurr: Bourdieu, Capital, and the Postcolonial Marketplace Fiction Oliver Lindner: ‘Savage’ Violence and the Colonial Body in Nathaniel Crouch’s The English Acquisitions in Guinea and East India (1708) and in Edward Cooke’s A Voyage to the South Sea (1712) Carl Plasa: Saccharographies Wolfgang Funk: “The dark races stand still, the fair progress”: Matthew Kneale’s English Passengers and the Intellectual Commodification of Colonial Encounter in Tasmania Sissy Helff: Alice in Oz: A Children’s Classic between Imperial Nostalgia and Transcultural Reinvention Lars Eckstein: Think Local Sell Global: Magical Realism, The Whale Rider, and the Market Ksenia Robbe: Dialogue Within Changing Power-Structures: Commodification of Black South African Women’s Narratives by White Women Writers? Cecile Sandten: Phantasmagorical Representations of Postcolonial Cityscapes in Salman Rushdie’s Fury (2002) and Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found (2004) Drama Samy Azouz: Amiri Baraka’s Revisiting of Slavery : Memory, Historical Amnesia, and Commodification Katharina Rennhak: Moving Beyond Irish (Post)Colonialism by Commodifying (Post)Colonial Stage Irishness: Martin McDonagh’s Plays as Global Commodities Film and Pop Music Stephan Laqué: The Moveable Frontier: John Ford and Howard Hawks at Home and in Africa Birte Heidemann: “We are the ones you do not see”: The Need for a Change of Focus in Filming Black Britain Sabine Nunius: Exoticism and Authenticity in Contemporary British-Asian Popular Culture : The Commodification of Difference in Bride & Prejudice and Apache Indian’s Music Ana Cristina Mendes: Salman Rushdie Superstar: The Making of Postcolonial Literary Stardom Graham Huggan: Celebrity Conservationism, Postcolonialism, and the Commodity Form Notes on Contributors

About the Author :
Rainer Emig is Chair of English Literature and Culture at Leibniz University, Hanover, Germany. Oliver Lindner teaches English Literature and Didactics at the University of Bayreuth.