Re-Orientalism and South Asian Identity Politics ─ The Oriental Other Within

Edward Said coined the term orientalism to indicate how Westerners construct The East as the alluring but dangerous Other in order to bolster colonialism. Here scholars of the humanities and social sciences explore re-orientalism--how cultural producers with eastern affiliations come to terms with an orientalized East. Among their topics are re-orientalism in contemporary Indian writing in English, contesting orientalisms in Gopal Baratham's A Candle or the Sun, re-orientalism on television from Salman Rushdie's The Aliens Show to The Kumars at No. 42, Jane Austen re-orientalizes British Bollywood, and two kinds of re-orientalism in Naseeruddin Shah's What If? Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Lisa Lau is Head of Human Geography at Keele University, UK. Her research interests include post-colonialism, literary studies, gender studies, and South Asia, encompassing the issues of power, narrative, identity construction, class chasms, social and cultural change.

Ana Cristina Mendes is a researcher at ULICES (University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies) in Portugal. Her research interests span postcolonial cultural production and its intersection with the culture industries.