Postcolonial Theory

Abstract The following is a four-part article. The first part contains reviews of selected shortform works published in relation to postcolonial theory across various leading journals. Academic work on Palestine, best exemplified by Rabea Eghbariah’s ‘Towards Nakba as a Legal Concept’, is a notable feature. In the second part, I focus on evolving methods in postcolonial critique, consulting both substantial review essays as well as new work that grapples with the controversy surrounding colonial monuments. The latter, I argue, reflects an emergent intersection between postcolonialism and affect studies. In the third part, I look at a critical transitional issue of the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, which this year changed its name to Literature, Critique, and Empire Today. I reflect on former editors’ Claire Chambers and Rachael Gilmour’s article, and that of their successors, Rehana Ahmed and Shital Pravinchandra, alongside a selection from the rest. In the fourth and final part I survey work from The Routledge Companion to Postcolonial and Decolonial Literature, edited by Praseeda Gopinath and Laura Brueck, in which many influential voices on the subject of postcolonial theory have reprised their commentaries.