Life Writing and the End of Empire: Homecoming in Autobiographical Narratives

— —

Dr Emma Parker (Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature, Keele University, UK) Kate Douglas (Flinder's University Australia)

Life Writing and the End of Empire

Homecoming in Autobiographical Narratives

Dr Emma Parker (Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature, Keele University, UK), Kate Douglas (Flinder's University Australia), John David Zuern (University of Hawai?i at Manoa USA) , Anna Poletti (Utretch University Netherlands)

$59.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Bloomsbury Academic
30 October 2025

Prose: non-fiction; Literary studies: from c 1900 -; Literary studies: post-colonial literature; Colonialism & imperialism

Series: New Directions in Life Narrative

The dismantlement of the British Empire had a profound impact on many celebrated white Anglophone writers of the twentieth century, particularly those who were raised in former British colonial territories and returned to the metropole after the Second World War. Formal decolonisation meant that these authors were unable to ‘go home’ to their colonial childhoods, a historical juncture with profound consequences for how they wrote and recorded their own lives.

Moving beyond previous discussions of imperial and colonial nostalgia, Life Writing and the End of Empire is the first critical study of white memoirists and autobiographers who rewrote their memories of empire across numerous life narratives. By focussing on these processual homecomings, Emma Parker’s study asks what it means to be ‘at home’ in memories of empire, whether in the settler farms of Southern Rhodesia, or amidst the neon lights of Shanghai’s International Settlement. These discussions trace the legacies of empire to the habitations and detritus of everyday life, from mansions and modest railway huts, to empty swimming pools, heirlooms, and photograph albums.

Exploring works by Penelope Lively, J. G. Ballard, Doris Lessing, and Janet Frame, this study establishes new connections between authors usually discussed for their fiction, and who have been hitherto unrecognised as post-imperial life writers. Offering close, sustained analysis of autobiographies, memoirs, travel narratives, and autofictions, and identifying new subgenres such as ‘speculative life writing’, this book advances rich new readings of autobiographical narrative. By tracing the continuing importance of colonialism to white subjectivity, the role of imperial memory in Britain, and the ways that these unsettling forces move beneath the surface of modern and contemporary literature, this study offers new conceptual insights to the fields of life writing and postcolonial studies.

By: Dr Emma Parker (Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature Keele University UK)
Edited by: Kate Douglas (Flinder's University Australia), John David Zuern (University of Hawai?i at Manoa USA), Anna Poletti (Utretch University Netherlands)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 640g
ISBN: 9781350353831
ISBN 10: 1350353833
Series: New Directions in Life Narrative
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 30 October 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Emma Parker is Lecturer in Literature and Gender at the University of Bristol, UK. She is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on life writing, modern Anglophone literature, colonialism, and graphic narratives. She is the co-editor of British Culture after Empire (2023).

Reviews for Life Writing and the End of Empire: Homecoming in Autobiographical Narratives

Emma Parker presents a masterful close reading of the life-writing of Penelope Lively, J. G. Ballard, Doris Lessing, and Janet Frame … Parker’s work should appeal to all scholars interested in the wider oeuvres of these major writers and also writing teachers, especially those involved with creative non-fiction, since her study adds new dimensions to the intersectionality of usually separated genres of fiction and life-writing. * CHOICE *