Chapter 8: Decolonising American Literature: Reflections on Readings, Postgraduate Research and Praxis

The field of Literature has an important role to play in the decolonisation of national identities and cultural discourses. The author’s own postgraduate research interrogates whether decolonising American literature, by centring Indigenous and Chinese/American migrant/diaspora voices, can contribute to a broader cultural decolonisation. In this chapter, the author extrapolates how particular reading approaches and analytical frameworks of the author’s research can be implemented as tools to decolonise the American literary canon, which can serve as a contributing factor to decolonising the national identity. The American literary canon is reflective of the contemporary political and social settings that have informed the national identity and associated ‘myths of nation’. Here, a disruption of this canonical writing is discussed in terms of postcolonial literary theory and the author’s analysis of journey and historical narratives within the texts Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Homebase by Shawn Wong. This chapter also explores the personal development that coincides with engaging in postcolonial research practices. This individual reflection is a necessary component of moving beyond ‘post’ in praxis, enabling researchers to create tangible decolonial outcomes and futures.