Search Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »
My library | Help | Advanced Book Search | Web History | Sign in

Books

Postcolonial Melancholia

Front Cover
4 Reviews
Columbia University Press, 2005 - Philosophy - 170 pages

In an effort to deny the ongoing effect of colonialism and imperialism on contemporary political life, the death knell for a multicultural society has been sounded from all sides. That's the provocative argument Paul Gilroy makes in this unorthodox defense of the multiculture. Gilroy's searing analyses of race, politics, and culture have always remained attentive to the material conditions of black people and the ways in which blacks have defaced the "clean edifice of white supremacy." In Postcolonial Melancholia, he continues the conversation he began in the landmark study of race and nation 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack' by once again departing from conventional wisdom to examine -- and defend -- multiculturalism within the context of the post-9/11 "politics of security."

This book adapts the concept of melancholia from its Freudian origins and applies it not to individual grief but to the social pathology of neoimperialist politics. The melancholic reactions that have obstructed the process of working through the legacy of colonialism are implicated not only in hostility and violence directed at blacks, immigrants, and aliens but in an inability to value the ordinary, unruly multiculture that has evolved organically and unnoticed in urban centers. Drawing on the seminal discussions of race begun by Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. DuBois, and George Orwell, Gilroy crafts a nuanced argument with far-reaching implications. Ultimately, Postcolonial Melancholia goes beyond the idea of mere tolerance to propose that it is possible to celebrate the multiculture and live with otherness without becoming anxious, fearful, or violent.

What people are saying - Write a review

Review: Postcolonial Melancholia (Wellek Library Lectures in Critical Theory)

User Review  - Matt - Goodreads

what a great writer (and smart dude.) but, in the end, his critique was kind of underwhelming in light of the fact that it was kind of a convoluted read. i agree with the stuff he says about ... Read full review

Review: Postcolonial Melancholia (Wellek Library Lectures in Critical Theory)

User Review  - Phil - Goodreads

A very readable work by Gilroy, this theoretical text examines Britain as a post-colonial site. Gilroy looks at race relations in post-imperial Britain, and examines struggles to redefine 'Britishness' after disappearance of empire and ethnic homogeneity in England. Read full review

Related books

Against race: imagining political culture beyond the color line
Against race: imagining political culture beyond the color line
Paul Gilroy
Limited preview - 2000
The black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness
The black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness
Paul Gilroy
Limited preview - 1993
Darker than blue
Darker than blue
Paul Gilroy
Limited preview - 2010
All related books »

Other editions - View all

Postcolonial Melancholia
Postcolonial Melancholia
Paul Gilroy
No preview available - 2005
Postcolonial Melancholia
Postcolonial Melancholia
Paul Gilroy
No preview available - 2006

References to this book

From other books

Creating Citizen-Consumers: Changing Publics and Changing Public Services
Creating Citizen-Consumers: Changing Publics and Changing Public Services
John Clarke
No preview available - 2007
Stormy weather: Katrina and the politics of disposability
Stormy weather: Katrina and the politics of disposability
Henry A. Giroux
Snippet view - 2006
All Book Search results »

From Google Scholar

New Labour’s citizens: activated, empowered, responsibilized ...
Critical Social Policy
Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class, and the Biopolitics of ...
Henry A Giroux
Book Review: Colonial precedents and sovereign powers: a response
Derek Gregory - Progress in Human Geography
Invisible Empire: Visual Culture, Embodied Spectacle, and Abu Ghraib
Nicholas Mirzoeff - 2006 - Radical History Review
All Scholar search results »

References from web pages

Posthegemony: unruliness (Gilroy I)
unruliness (Gilroy I). I'm over a third of the way through Gilroy's book. And to follow up on my last entry, I do find what he has to say about unruliness ...
posthegemony.blogspot.com/ 2005/ 07/ unruliness-gilroy-i.html

Joined-up Politics and Postcolonial Melancholia -- Gilroy 18 (23 ...
Joined-up Politics and Postcolonial Melancholia. Paul Gilroy. References. Cathcart, Brian (1999) The Case of Stephen Lawrence. London: Viking. ...
tcs.sagepub.com/ cgi/ content/ refs/ 18/ 2-3/ 151

Joined-up Politics and Postcolonial Melancholia
In one decisive step. Gilroy – Postcolonial Melancholia 159 .... formation postcolonial melancholia. It bears repetition that it is not some- ...
www.ingentaconnect.com/ content/ sage/ tcs/ 2001/ 00000018/ F0020002/ art00005

Risky Business: Imagining Cultures of Conviviality
These reflections were composed during a raw New England winter’s immersion in Paul Gilroy’s recent book, Postcolonial Melancholia (2004), ...
www.surrey.ac.uk/ Arts/ CRONEM/ cronem-conference-june2006/ D-Weber.doc

Boston Review — A World without Race
Paul Gilroy’s Postcolonial Melancholia is a deeply engaging exploration of this question. ... Postcolonial Melancholia is an important but perplexing book; ...
bostonreview.net/ BR31.1/ roberts.php

Charlie Samuya Veric - On the Potential of Failure - American ...
Paul Gilroy's Postcolonial Melancholia and Michelle Ann Stephens's Black Empire are two ... Divided into two parts, Postcolonial Melancholia brings together ...
muse.jhu.edu/ journals/ american_quarterly/ v058/ 58.1veric.html

Postcolonial Melancholia (Wellek Libr - Gilroy, P (aukcja ...
Kup Postcolonial Melancholia (Wellek Libr - Gilroy, P w kategorii Books, Comics Magazines. Tanie Non-Fiction Books ogłoszenia i aukcje ebay.pl.
cgi.ebay.pl/ Postcolonial-Melancholia-Wellek-Libr-Gilroy-P_W0QQitemZ270194497388QQihZ017QQcategoryZ274QQcmdZViewItem

Postcolonial Melancholia
Postcolonial Melancholia. Paul Gilroy. October, 2006 Paper, 192 pages, ISBN: 978-0-231-13455-2 $19.95 / £13.95. Cloth, 192 pages, ISBN: 978-0-231-13454-5 ...
cup.columbia.edu/ book/ 978-0-231-13455-2/ postcolonial-melancholia/ tableOfContents

melancholia - Encyclopedia.com
Postcolonial Melancholia Black Issues Book Review; 5/1/2005; Williams, R Owen; 331 words; ... Neo-tribalism and postcolonial melancholia.(Debate)(Essay) ...
www.encyclopedia.com/ doc/ 1O999-melancholia.html

Paul Gilroy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
... and "After Empire" (2004) (published as Postcolonial Melancholia in the ... (2004) After Empire: Multiculture or Postcolonial Melancholia, Routledge ...
en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Paul_Gilroy

About the author (2005)

Paul Gilroy is the Anthony Giddens Professor of Social Theory at the London School of Economics.

Bibliographic information

QR code for Postcolonial Melancholia
TitlePostcolonial Melancholia
The Wellek lectures
The Wellek library lecture series at the University of California, Irvine
Wellek Library lectures
AuthorPaul Gilroy
PublisherColumbia University Press, 2005
ISBN0231134541, 9780231134545
Length170 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Philosophy / Political
Political Science / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
Social Science / Minority Studies
Social Science / Sociology / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan