Gender and colonial space /

The slimness of this book is a deceit; in less than 200 pages, the author manages to introduce several important issues dealing with the legacy of colonialism, and she presents her intertextual discussions at a highly theoretical level. Mills (linguistics, Sheffield Hallam Univ.) argues that current criticisms of postcolonial theory have caused "its demise." Thus, there is a need to analyze the spatial arrangement of former European colonies in India, Australia, and Africa from the "materialist feminist" perspective. The main object of the study is travel writings of European women in those colonies, though Mills also discusses designs of architecture and landscape. While spatial settings reflect social relations in any given society, the reflection, she contends, varied noticeably in these colonies and was complicated and enriched by the writings of female travelers. From this observation, the author points out that due to its intrinsic alliance with psychoanalytical theory, postcolonialism has resulted in a fixation with stereotypes and fantasies, hence failing to notice the specificity of colonial practices. Taking a gendered approach to analyzing colonial space can aid in revealing this specificity. Although a cogent argument, additional concrete research seems to be needed for substantiation. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. Q. E. Wang Rowan University