New Directions in Postcolonial Studies: a review of Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific 5

Abstract

Peter Hallward’s aggressively theoretical book, Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific, offers a focused reconceptualisation of some of the critical terms in contemporary postcolonial discourse. Accordingly, Hallward’s book marks a new direction for postcolonial literary studies since in contrast to much postcolonial theory, which has often privileged poststructuralist notions of hybridity, heterogeneity, and contingency, Hallward argues that the postcolonial is singular, subjective, and non-relational and can be best understood in tension with the specific.