Colonialism Unit

Written in a style that evokes the oral tradition of storytelling, The Famished Road, by Nigerian writer Ben Okri, follows the peripatetic adventures of Azaro, a young boy who is finding his way amid the poverty and political passions of a newly independent nation. Winner of the prestigious Booker Prize in 1991, the novel presents an allegorical tale of both the pitfalls and the promise latent in the post-colonial moment. Nigeria was one of the... Read The Famished Road Summary

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Considered the most influential of Doris Lessing’s many novels, The Golden Notebook explores the development of a young writer. Anna Wulf has published one novel, Frontiers of War, to great acclaim, but she now finds herself uncomfortable with what she sees as its sentimentality and romanticization of war. Thus, she remains mired in a kind of writer’s block. She still writes in her notebooks, but she cannot bring herself to return to writing novels—especially in... Read The Golden Notebook Summary

Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter was published in 1948 and is one of his most famous Catholic-themed novels. These novels comprise the majority of his literary oeuvre and underscore a recurring theme in Greene’s works: moral crisis and true faith. Greene’s iconoclastic views of Catholicism are explored through complex protagonists like Henry Scobie, the flawed hero of The Heart of the Matter, who are torn between passion and faith.The Heart of the Matter... Read The Heart of the Matter Summary

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The Other Side of Truth is a young adult novel by South African writer Beverley Naidoo that was published in 2000. The work is set in both Nigeria and in London, and it takes place after the 1995 Nigerian execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a writer and activist who spoke out against Nigeria’s military government’s corruption. Sade is the novel’s protagonist. The story is written in the third person, and it follows the journey of Sade... Read The Other Side of Truth Summary

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The River Between is Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s second novel and was published in 1965 after his debut title, Weep Not, Child. While The River Between is widely interpreted as an anticolonial work, its denouncement of colonial institutions is subtler than that of Ngugi’s later, more critical works on colonialism. His later novels were originally written in the Gikuyu language rather than in English; discourse surrounding the modern-day role of African literature is ongoing... Read The River Between Summary

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The Setting Sun and the Rolling World is a short story collection published in 1987 by Zimbabwean author Charles Mungoshi. Across 17 stories, Mungoshi explores profound cultural divides in his native country between tradition and modernization, rural and urban life, and colonialism and African nationalism. Although the characters are different in each piece, taken together the stories comprise a coming-of-age narrative, as the protagonist of each tale is generally a little older and more experienced... Read The Setting Sun and the Rolling World Summary

An American writer and composer who lived in Morocco for most of his life, Paul Bowles was a peripheral member of the post-World War II counter-cultural group of writers known as the Beat generation. The Sheltering Sky (1949), his first novel, is his best-known work, although he wrote other novels, numerous short stories, and works of nonfiction, most notably travel narratives. He also translated several works by Moroccan writers. The Sheltering Sky was adapted into... Read The Sheltering Sky Summary

The Smell of Apples, the first novel by South African writer Mark Behr, was originally published in 1993 in Afrikaner, before being published in English translation in 1995 to international acclaim. It won numerous prestigious literary prizes, most notably the M-Net Literary Award for best South African novel; the Betty Trask Award for best first novel published in the British Commonwealth; and the Art Seidenbaum Award for best English-language first novel, presented by The Los... Read The Smell of Apples Summary

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was published in 2009. Adichie had previously published two novels, making this text her third book and her first short story anthology. Some of the stories had been published previously in publications like The New Yorker and The Iowa Review. The book received praise, situating Adichie as a rising star of Nigerian literature. These short stories deal with problems of political conflict, immigration, artistic integrity, and... Read The Thing Around Your Neck Summary

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The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good is William Easterly’s investigation and critique of international development, foreign aid, and Western intervention, including the histories and effects of colonialism and imperialism. Easterly comes with decades of experience as a development economist working with global institutions such as the World Bank and on projects across the developing world, which is reflected in his... Read The White Man’s Burden Summary

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The Wretched of the Earth (1961) is a nonfiction book by Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian psychiatrist and philosopher. Together with such texts as Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Gayatri Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” (1988), and Homi Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994), The Wretched of the Earth is a founding text of modern postcolonial studies. It is also Frantz Fanon’s most internationally acclaimed book, translated into more than 25 languages, though he is... Read The Wretched of the Earth Summary