Metaphors are ubiquitously used in the humanities to bring the tangibility of the concrete world to the elaboration of abstract thought. Drawing on this cognitive function of metaphors, this collection of essays focuses on the evocative figures of the ‘gateway’ and the ‘wall’ to reflect on the state of postcolonial studies. Some chapters – on such topics as maze-making in Canada and the Berlin Wall in the writings of New Zealand authors – foreground the modes of articulation between literal borders and emotional (dis)connections, while others examine how artefacts ranging from personal letters to clothes may be conceptualized as metaphorical ‘gateways’ and ‘walls’ that lead or, conversely, regulate access, to specific forms of cultural expression and knowledge.

Following this line of metaphorical thought, postcolonial studies itself may be said to function as either barrier or pathway to further modes of enquiry. This much is suggested by two complementary sets of contributions: on the one hand, those that contend that the canonical centre-periphery paradigm and the related ‘writing back’ model have prevented scholars from recognizing the depth and magnitude of cross-cultural influences between civilizations; on the other, those that argue that the scope of traditional postcolonial models may be fruitfully widened to include territories such as post-imperial Turkey, a geographical and cultural gateway between East and West that features in several of the essays included in this collection.

Ultimately, all of the contributions testify to the fact that postcolonial studies is a field whose borders must be constantly redrawn, and whose paradigms need to be continually reshaped and rebuilt to remain relevant in the contemporary world – in other words, the collection’s varied approaches suggest that the discipline itself is permanently ‘under construction’. Readers are, therefore, invited to perform a critical inspection of the postcolonial construction site.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Gateways and Walls, or the Power and Pitfalls of Postcolonial Metaphors
Daria Tunca & Janet Wilson

I. Gateways and Walls: Between East and West

“Clothing the Borders: Dress as a Signifier in Colonial and Post-Colonial Space
Gareth Griffiths

“As Rare as Rubies”: Did Salman Rushdie Invent Turkish American Literature?
Elena Furlanetto

The Bosphorus Syndrome
Gerhard Stilz

Geography Fabulous: Conrad and Ghosh
Padmini Mongia

The Concomitant Spaces of Territory and Writing: Crossing Cultural Divides
Marta Dvorak

II. Under Construction: Nations and Cultures

Towards an Australian Philosophy: Constructive Appropriation of Enlightenment Thinking in Murray Bail’s The Pages
Marie Herbillon

Image-i-nation: Africa/nation, Identity, and the Nation(s) Within
Bronwyn Mills

Refugees and Three Short Stories from Sri Lanka
Simran Chadha

Gateway to the Unknowable: The Kala Pani in Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies and Barlen Pyamootoo’s Bénarès
John C. Hawley

Postcolonial Literature in the Time of World Literature
Deepika Marya

III. The Border: Wall or Gateway?

“Die Mauer is no joke!”: The Berlin Wall in Cilla McQueen’s Berlin Diary and in the Works of Kapka Kassabova
Claudia Duppé

The Wall as Signifier in Ivan Vladislavić’s Works
Carmen Concilio

Enclosed: Nature. Carol Shields’ Textual Mazes
Vera Alexander

An Ethics of Mourning: Loss and Transnational Dynamics in The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
Golnar Nabizadeh

IV. Gendered Gateways and Walls

The Mirage of Europe in Caryl Phillips’s A Distant Shore and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street
Elisabeth Bekers

Desexing the Crone: Intentional Invisibility as Postcolonial Retaliation in Ravinder Randhawa’s A Wicked Old Woman and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices
Devon Campbell--Hall

The Burden of Possessions: A Postcolonial Reading of Letters from Bessie Head, Dora Taylor and Lilian Ngoyi
Margaret Daymond

Gendered Gateways: Australian Surfing and the Construction of Masculinities in Tim Winton’s Breath
Sissy Helff

Notes on Contributors

Index