Southeast Asia in Postcolonial Studies: an introduction

Abstract

Southeast Asia, one of the most colonized regions in the world, is conspicuously absent in the expanding archive of Postcolonial Studies. This is partly due to the negligence of the many practicing Postcolonial Studies practitioners, including editors of anthologies. It is, however, more significantly a consequence of the preoccupation of Southeast Asian scholars who were otherwise occupied with the more imminent issues that face the Southeast Asian nations that have been caught up with the Cold War and the post independence economic developments. This introduction provides a summary of the seven essays that raise substantive and conceptual issues that bear comparison with postcolonial analyses with the rest of the postcolonial world.