This book provides an academic study of postcolonial literature, interested not only in familiar authors and works, but more generally in defining approaches and strategies to engage all texts written in or about countries previously under colonial rule. In her introductory discussion, Susan VanZanten Gallagher, the editor, differentiates among postcolonialism, postmodernism, and poststructuralism. Literally referring to fiction, poetry, and other genres written after the departure of colonial powers--especially in Africa, Asia, and South America, postcolonial literature opens debates regarding positive and negative influences upon indigenous cultures. Gallagher acknowledges the nostaligia involved in attempting to restore cultures to their identity and practices before being ruled by colonial powers. On the other hand, she sees a mandate in the "biblical call for justice" to evaluate the economic, political, and personal effects colonial powers have had upon contemporary culture. In extreme cases, original cultures were actually obliterated, or driven to the extreme margins. More typically, postcolonial literature exposes and critiques the "two-tiered" societies which resulted as settler societies took over power positions, reducing original cultures to a laboring class. These power structures persisted into the infrastures of finance, government, education, industry, and public service. Another reading of postcolonial literature acknowledges cultural and psychological domination. Literary works often reveal damanging effects upon personal identity and autonomy, or mass effects upon current societies. Characters struggle to find who they were, are, and can be. Following a thirty-page informed discussion of postcolonial theory as it is located in its literary, political, and theological contexts, this text then presents twelve essays which blend theory with discussions of particular authors and works, including Chinua Achebe, Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Andre Brink, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Nicholas Black Elk. The only limitation of the volume is whether it discusses the particular authors and literary works with which the reader is familiar.