This volume provides an introduction to the historical dimensions and theoretical concepts associated with colonial and post-colonial discourses. It examines: the ideologies and history of colonialism; the relationship of colonial discourse to literature; challenges to colonialism, surveying anticolonial discourses and recent developments in post-colonial theories and histories; and how sexuality is figured in the texts of colonialism and how contemporary feminist ideas and concepts intersect with those of post-colonialist thought. It includes writings of post-colonial theorists such as Edward Said, Abdul JanMohamed, Homi Bhabha and Gayatri Spivak.