Hammad, Lamia Khalil

English

Scholarworks@UTRGV Univ. of Texas RioGrande Valley

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley ScholarWorks @ UTRGV Journal of South Texas English Studies Summer 2013 Review of A Sea for Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth by Stella Borg Barthet Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2009. $125.16 ISBN: 9789042027640 Lamia Khalil Hammad Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/jostes  Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Hammad, L. K. (2013). Review of A Sea for Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth by Stella Borg Barthet. Jostes: The Journal of South Texas English Studies, 4(2), 136-138. This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of South Texas English Studies by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UTRGV. For more information, please contact justin.white@utrgv.edu, william.flores01@utrgv.edu. Journal of South Texas English Studies 4.2 (2013)  136 Review of A Sea for Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth by Stella Borg Barthet Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2009.  $125.16 ISBN: 978­9042027640  Lamia Khalil Hammad Since the 1990s, a number of UK academic institutions have acknowledged that profound and subtle questions raised by multiculturalism need to be addressed systematically within a broader range of courses offered. A rethinking of the mission, structure, and methodology in academe support and expand their English programs, in particular by introducing and/or strengthening other areas of study such as African, Caribbean, and south Asian literatures. Literature courses that challenge students' preconceived notions of the world are crucial for their political potential to cultivate awareness of and sensitivity towards difference in social life.  The book addresses themes of globalization, migration, neocolonialism, and trans­nationalization, which produce a multiplicity of cultural interconnections, which cannot be reconciled with the traditional notion of cultures seen in national or ethnic terms. The essays examine works dealing with border crossing as an act of geographical, cultural and social displacement, and how the shared sense of feeling 'unhoused' destabilizes the notion of border crossing and questions the inclination to privilege geographical over social displacement, and to explore the space of borderless solidarity that this debate has created.  Concepts of 'transculturality' offer a possibility of deeper understanding of complex processes, which draw on questions of identity in a multicultural Journal of South Texas English Studies 4.2 (2013)  137 context inscribed in a transcultural paradigm. A key to a better understanding of the situation of contemporary black British and postcolonial writers is fighting racism and prejudices. The connotations of 'mixing races' perpetuate apartheid logic. The meaning of 'coloured' 'white' and 'black' construct shared places by demarcating borders which determine 'us' and 'them'; this reveals the limitations of the notion of a shared place. Justifications for migration and the consequences of the perceptions people have of each other, race and class relations lead to question issues of integration and/or exclusion as a subtext through a narrative expressing the need for human beings to migrate, to look for an elsewhere in order to discover other horizons.  Some essays examine postcolonial fiction writers who deal with British occupation of the Nile Valley, consisting of present­day Egypt and the Sudan. The points of contact illustrate dominant attitudes like suspicion, hostility, or violence, along with flashes of human empathy. Novelists highlight the brutality of colonial experiences; while foregrounding distinct differences between the cultures of Africa and Europe, Islam and the West, they nevertheless open up the possibility of genuine human rapport.  The book develops the descriptive rendering of places into a very fine mannered art, giving the concept of 'shared places' a special prominence and a complex and idiosyncratic meaning. Having 'shared places' continue to imprison the world emanating first and foremost from the psychological/spiritual realm which determine the physicality of our existence as human beings. One of the shortcomings is the author's failure to describe Journal of South Texas English Studies 4.2 (2013)  138 unifying thematic classifications of the essays, and provide useful introductory notes to bring the reader to a primary organized focus. The book is in need of finer editorship as it lacks clear organization, and needs clearance from typos.                               

Review of A Sea for Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth by Stella Borg Barthet Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2009. $125.16 ISBN: 9789042027640

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=jostes

Review of A Sea for Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth by Stella Borg Barthet Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2009. $125.16 ISBN: 9789042027640

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