In Theory

After the Second World War nationalism emerged as the principle expression of resistance to Western imperialism in a variety of regions from the Indian subcontinent to Africa to parts of Latin America and the Pacific Rim. With the Bandung Conference and the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement many of Europe's former colonies banded together to form a common bloc aligned with neither the advanced capitalist First World nor with the socialist Second World. In this historical context the category of Third World literature emerged a category that has itself spawned a whole industry of scholarly and critical studies particularly in the metropolitan West but increasingly in the homelands of the Third World itself. <p/>Setting himself against the growing tendency to homogenize Third World literature and cultures Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the major theoretical statements on colonial discourse and post-colonialism dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominate contemporary cultural criticism. With lengthy considerations of among others Fredric Jameson Edward Said and the Subaltern Studies group <i>In Theory</i> also contains brilliant analyses of the concept of Indian literature of the genealogy of the term Third World and of the conditions under which so-called colonial discourse theory emerged in metropolitan intellectual circles. <p/>Erudite and lucid Ahmad's remapping of the terrain of cultural theory is certain to provoke passionate response.