In Theory

In this historicalcontext, the category of Third World literature emerged, a categorythat has itself spawned a whole industry of scholarly and criticalstudies, particularly in the metropolitan West, but increasingly in thehomelands of the Third World itself.Setting himselfagainst the growing tendency to homogenize Third World literature andcultures, Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the majortheoretical statements on colonial discourse and post-colonialism, dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominatecontemporary cultural criticism. With lengthy considerations of, amongothers, Fredric Jameson, Edward Said, and the Subaltern Studies group, In Theoryalso contains brilliant analyses of the concept of Indian literature, of the genealogy of the term Third World, and of the conditions underwhich so-called colonial discourse theory emerged in metropolitanintellectual circles.Erudite and lucid, Ahmad's remapping of the terrain of cultural theory is certain to provioke passionate response.