The Quest for Postcolonial Utopia: A Comparative Introduction to the Utopian Novel in the New English Literatures by Ralph Pordzik (review)

humanities 477 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 dogmatic B a way of reading that reveals the critic=s personal investments without self-flagellation or self-promotion. She moves confidently through a mass of difficult texts and difficult issues articulating the sorts of problems that have trapped other readers in this field, showing where the tripwires are. (MARGERY FEE) Ralph Pordzik. The Quest for Postcolonial Utopia: A Comparative Introduction to the Utopian Novel in the New English Literatures Peter Lang. vii, 200. US $53.95 Ralph Pordzik bases his study on the premise that >the utopian novel has a particular interest in coming to terms with the problems created by the disenchantment with cultural nationalism and decolonization on the one hand and the disillusionment with Marxism and utopian idealism that followed the end of the socialist world on the other.= Arguing that the utopian novel has been >considerably neglected,= Pordzik sets out to remedy that lack in a carefully researched and wide-ranging survey that places the interpretations it offers >within the wider framework of postcolonial writing.= Pordzik finds the postcolonial useful as a concept for defining historical criteria that might enable cross-cultural comparisons founded primarily on the experience of colonizing forces, however different those experiences may be, but his focus falls on literature rather than theory. Without wishing >to simplify complex circumstances for a facile coherence,= he does wish to find a place for a generic approach to literature within the postcolonial dynamic and a place for postcolonial texts within the study of future-oriented fictions that engage with utopic, dystopic, or heterotopic imaginings. On the whole, he is successful in achieving this goal, introducing a field of investigation, and beginning to map its topography. As an introduction to postcolonial utopia, Pordzik=s study canvasses a wide range of texts and raises important questions for future study. After establishing the parameters of the field and his methodology, he devotes individual chapters to >Changing Patterns of Future Projection,= >Decolonizing Utopia,= >Women of the Future,= >Magical Realism,= and >Hybridity.= Although he makes reference to the history of the utopian genre throughout English literature and to the full geographical range within which it has been practiced, including texts from India and West Africa, Pordzik focuses on fiction of the last thirty years and privileges writing from the settler colonial societies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. While each chapter treats three or four novels in some detail, the strength of the book lies in its integrating sweep rather than in close readings of individual texts. But this exhaustive coverage is also its drawback. The desire to mention dozens of texts, the comparative focus on similarities, and the need to incorporate plot summaries create an overall effect of blandness. 478 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 Pordzik is aware that his comparisons may appear homogenizing and contends that >important similarities can be registered that indicate the tendency within a Aglobal culture@ of postcolonial writings to create Atransnational@ fictions.= These fictions, although they draw on diversity, often work to consolidate difference and create coherence. It is an interesting argument but insufficiently developed here. I am not convinced, for example, by the comparisons he draws between Indian Suniti Namjoshi =s The Mothers of Maya Diip and New Zealander Rachel McAlpine=s The Limits of Green because for me the differences between the two remain much more striking. To a large extent, such quibbles come with the territory. The book is a valuable introduction to a wide range of literature. It conscientiously bridges the politics/aesthetics divide in a carefully theorized, solidly researched, and accessible style and contains a useful index and an excellent Works Cited list. Any student wishing to work in this field will need to consult this pioneering study. (DIANA BRYDON) Sherry Simon and Paul St-Pierre, editors. Changing the Terms: Translating in the Postcolonial Era University of Ottawa Press. 308. $29.95 As the title suggests, this collection of fifteen essays proposes a different and innovative approach to the study of translation and postcolonial studies. Traditional notions of both terms are challenged in this fine...