Nationalism and the postcolonial

Abstract

This thoughtful, well researched and carefully edited volume explores nationalism across the former British empire. Based on a 2018 conference in Mainz, Germany, the collection provides a thematically coherent discussion on social practices and cultural representations of postco-lonial nationalism. The book sets out to intervene in theories of nationalism from an explicitly postcolonial perspective with a focus on language, literature, and popular culture, and the authors – most of whom are based in German universities – o ff er careful studies of nationalism as experienced, critiqued, and reproduced by ordinary people, writers, musicians, fi lmmakers and game designers. Through discussions of language use in Nairobi, calypso contests in newly independent Trinidad and Tobago, or story arcs and characters in a popular videogame, the collection gives a rich and nuanced view of how nationalism is lived and shaped in post-colonial societies. This close attention to lived experiences, social practices, everyday acts and representations – postcolonial nationalism ‘ from below ’ , so to speak – is a major contribution and merit of the book.