Includes bibliographical references and index

After colonialism -- Thinking otherwise: a brief intellectual history -- Postcolonialism and the new humanities -- Edward Said and his critics -- Postcolonialism and feminism -- Immagining community: the question of nationalism -- One world: the vision of postnationalism -- Postcolonial literatures -- The limits of postcolonial theory.

Postcolonial Theory is a critical introduction to the burgeoning field of postcolonial studies. Leela Gandhi is the first to clearly map out this field in terms of its wider philosophical and intellectual context, drawing important connections between postcolonial theory and poststructuralism, postmodernism, marxism and feminism. She assesses the contribution of major theorists such as Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha, and also points to postcolonialism's relationship to earlier thinkers such as Frantz Fanon and Mahatma Gandhi.