
Postcolonial Pacific Writing
Representations of the Body
Michelle Keown(Author)
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 17. December 2004
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-415-29957-2 (ISBN)
Description
This major new interdisciplinary study focuses on the representation of the body in the work of eight of Polynesia's most significant contemporary writers. Drawing on anthropology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, history and medicine, Postcolonial Pacific Writing develops an innovative postcolonial framework specific to the literatures and cultures of this region.
Reviews / Votes
"The greatest strength of this book lies in its individual readings, and the elaboration of specific moments within the texts that open on to questions of embodiment and the politics of language. Similarly, the interdisciplinarity and the range of international and local theories offers a multi-perspectival approach which avoids totalising the diversity of geo-political, cultural, linguistic and literary representations... It is a rich and yet accessible book, a valuable study and scholarly resource" -- Chris Prentice, Journal of New Zealand"I found Keown's study impressively grounded in postcolonial "new literatures"; wide-ranging in its references to New Zealand secondary scholarship while steeped in postcolonial theory; and responsive to indigenous sociopoetics, history, and narrative modes. Given that the texts she selects are among those most readily available from US and New Zealand publishers, this canon-solidifying book-with its extensive bibliography-seems primed to be a useful supplement to Pacific literature syllabi." --Paul Lyons, The Contemporary Pacific
"Keown's book is, among other things, a much needed corrective to the limited views of tricontinentalism. ...lucid and engaging... thoroughly researched and well-aruged." --Justin D. Edwards, Wasafiri "The greatest strength of this book lies in its individual readings, and the elaboration of specific moments within the texts that open on to questions of embodiment and the politics of language. Similarly, the interdisciplinarity and the range of international and local theories offers a multi-perspectival approach which avoids totalising the diversity of geo-political, cultural, linguistic and literary representations... It is a rich and yet accessible book, a valuable study and scholarly resource" -- Chris Prentice, Journal of New Zealand
"I found Keown's study impressively grounded in postcolonial "new literatures"; wide-ranging in its references to New Zealand secondary scholarship while steeped in postcolonial theory; and responsive to indigenous sociopoetics, history, and narrative modes. Given that the texts she selects are among those most readily available from US and New Zealand publishers, this canon-solidifying book-with its extensive bibliography-seems primed to be a useful supplement to Pacific literature syllabi." --Paul Lyons, The Contemporary Pacific
"Keown's book is, among other things, a much needed corrective to the limited views of tricontinentalism. ...lucid and engaging... thoroughly researched and well-aruged." --Justin D. Edwards, Wasafiri
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate
Illustrations
4 s/w Abbildungen, 1 s/w Zeichnung
1 Line drawings, black and white; 4 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
552 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-415-29957-2 (9780415299572)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
04/2009
1st Edition
Routledge
€83.60
Shipment within 15-20 days

E-Book
12/2004
Routledge
€77.99
Available for download

E-Book
12/2004
Routledge
€77.99
Available for download
Person
Michelle Keown is Lecturer in Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures at the University of Stirling. She has published widely on Maori and Pacific writing.
Content
1. Introduction 2. Postcolonial dystopias: race, allegory and the Polynesian body in the writing of Albert Wendt 3. 'Gauguin is dead': Sia Figiel and the Polynesian female body 4. Purifying the abject body: satire and scatology in Epeli Hau'ofa's Kisses in the Nederends 5. Alistair Te Ariki Campbell: mental illness and postcoloniality 6. Remoulding the body politic: Keri Hulme's The Bone People 7. Disease, colonialism and the national 'body': Witi Ihimaera's The Dream Swimmer 8. Language and the corporeal: Patricia Grace's Baby No-Eyes 9. The narcissistic body: Alan Duff's Once Were Warriors 10. Conclusion: reinscribing the Polynesian body