The resurgence of "world literature" as a category of study seems to coincide with what we understand as globalization, but how does postcolonial writing fit into this picture? Beyond the content of this novel or that, what elements of postcolonial fiction might challenge the assumption that its main aim is to circulate native information globally? The Long Space provides a fresh look at the importance of postcolonial writing by examining how it articulates history and place both in content and form. Not only does it offer a new theoretical model for understanding decolonization's impact on duration in writing, but through a series of case studies of Guyanese, Somali, Indonesian, and Algerian writers, it urges a more protracted engagement with time and space in postcolonial narrative. Although each writer-Wilson Harris, Nuruddin Farah, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and Assia Djebar-explores a unique understanding of postcoloniality, each also makes a more general assertion about the difference of time and space in decolonization. Taken together, they herald a transnationalism beyond the contaminated coordinates of globalization as currently construed.
"[T]heoretically sophisticated and meticulously argued . . . [T]his is a very innovative monograph that provides the type of theoretically inspired close reading of postcolonial literature that is often lacking in the field . . . [I]t is an important work that will surely become a major point of reference for those keen to pursue the study of a postcolonial aesthetic."
Modern Language Review
"Peter Hitchcock provides a brilliant reading of the 'long space' of the postcolonial novel. He engages critically and complexly with concepts such as the chronotope and categories like world literature to make a case for the extended postcolonial novel. The book's comparative dimension, its theoretical sophistication, and the close readings of the trilogies and tetralogies of Pramodeya Ananta To
