This reader considers the body of challenging research that has been produced under the auspices of postcolonial theory. It addresses the severely critical questions about the validity and usefulness of postcolonial theory that have been raised. The book also makes available some of the "classics" of the field; engages with the issues raised by contemporary practitioners; but also offers several of the arguments that strongly challenge postcolonial theory. The book offers an inter-disciplinary mapping of its field. It is concerned with three main areas: definitional problems and contests; the "disciplining of knowledge", where the multiple resonances of the word "disciplining" are all engaged; and the location of practice where the relations between intellectual practice and historical conditions are explored.
