Postcolonial Theory Texts - The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literature by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin (1989)

Postcolonial theory isn't just for dispossessed people of color anymore (say these guys). It's for anyone who was once, or still is, a subject of some type of colonial power. That means you can be black, yellow, brown, even white, and still count yourself as part of the coolest gang of underdogs around—that is, as long as you're into resisting colonial/neo-colonial forces.

By the by, if you haven't figured it out by now, these writers are kind of like the super-nice, accepting kids of the poco crowd. They speak and write in heavy academic jargon-ese, but they're way friendlier than the likes of Fanon and Spivak.

Chew on this: this group is all about thinking of the ways postcolonial theory is "'deployed,"' like a weapon or a soldier, to benefit the good fight. In fact, they use that word a lot (check out the chapter "'Who's a post-colonial?"'). What do you think about all this war-like language, considering these scholars aren't actually fighting in a literal war?

Race and race theory are a big deal to this group; in fact, they consider race studies to be a larger field than postcolonial studies. What is the relationship between these two fields exactly? How do they borrow from and mimic each other?