Commonwealth Literature

Abstract

Originating in the late 1950s and early 1960s during a period of decolonization, the category of Commonwealth literature is inseparable from the history of the Commonwealth of Nations. Encompassing Anglophone literature from the former British colonies, it paradoxically excluded literature from Great Britain within its purview. While an emphasis was initially placed on literature from the former settler colonies, Commonwealth literature scholars soon became attentive towards literary production from the former occupied colonies as well. Often critiqued for its marginalization of the literature studied (as separate from and therefore secondary to British literature proper), its lack of interest in literatures in languages other than English, and its lack of political engagement, Commonwealth literary studies has been largely incorporated into and become inseparable from postcolonial literary studies and theory in the last two decades.