ABSTRACT
For centuries, the imperial expansion of Europe affected not only global power structures, but also individual subject positions of colonisers and colonised alike. With the changed world order of decolonisation came significant shifts in cultural assumptions and individual identities. Just as many new nations embarked upon rewriting their collective national histories, so too did individuals. The upheavals of decolonisation challenged people to make sense of their past from the perspective of the present, sometimes struggling to impose coherence upon disparate experiences and identities. While the end of empire has often been studied at the level of politics, economics and cultural movements, we have perhaps neglected to consider how individuals have responded to and navigated within a changing world order. Life writing provides us with a lens through which to consider the end of empire anew and in the process learn more about what life writing is and does in a post-imperial world.
