Introduction

This final section explores the multiple ramifications of the disjunction between the aesthetic of the literary and the ethical-political drives of postcolonial studies, addressing the question posed by Elleke Boehmer’s opening essay: In what sense can postcolonial writing be political and aesthetic, both at once? Boehmer suggests that, although there can be no clearly defined postcolonial aesthetic, postcolonial texts should be approached in aesthetic as well as politically-engaged terms, if only to highlight the ethical impact that appropriately used forms (modes, stances, sets of motifs) can generate.