Staring directly at you on the front cover page of Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019) is the unmistakable modernist artistic impression of the African fertility doll mounted on a well-shaped cuboid, which, in my view, symbolizes a sort of asymmetrical but symbiotic relationship of African and European or global arts. This artistic impression also symbolizes some sort of collaborative futuristic endeavor, which perhaps seeks to bring together the humanities across the globe in the realization that every distinct knowledge system in the world is interconnected. I do not know why nothing is said about the front cover page in the book, but perhaps the topics that depict influence and innovation as represented in part one and part three do justice to the artwork on the front cover page. Another significant point as noticed in the way the book is organized is the way the diverse postcolonial worlds are represented in the six-part sections of the book, ranging from Africa to Asia, the Caribbean to Ireland, and finally Australia/New Zealand to Canada. This wide-ranging representation may answer the question on the issue of globalism that the book seeks to argue. The only criticism of this representation is a question as to why America (USA) is not represented as a “postcolony”?

The agenda for the book is set right from the beginning with a well-discussed position on how modernism ushered in a new kind of knowledge that was considered renegade but later accepted as revolutionary, Richard Begam and Michael Valdez Moses in the introduction of the book are able to trace and position the arguments on modernism from the works of Jameson (1992), Mao and Walkowitz (2006), through to Wollaeger (2012).

Having set this agenda of contextualizing the arguments on modernisms, the first chapter authored by Brian May delves into Things Fall Apart, No longer at Ease, A Man of the People, and Arrow of God, what I call, classic postcolonial modernist texts by Achebe. May subsequently argues that the trope of “sequentiality” that is represented in the first three novels of Achebe could be compared to the modernist works of W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, and O. G. Spengler with regard to the notions of termination and discontinuities. Wollaeger in chapter two also argues that the ideological burden of influence is always present in the works of African writers as he explores Ngugi and Conrad, and how the former has critically responded or engaged with the latter’s works within the framework of postmodernism and postcolonialism. The other two chapters in the first section (part one) of the book that focusses on postmodernism in the African postcolonial context also maintain that although evolving independent styles of their own, there is the distinct sense of the Kafka-effect in the work of J. M. Coetzee as Simon During portrays in chapter 3, while Rita Barnard, in chapter 4, also asserts that Nadine Gordimer’s works reflect her tutelage with Proust and as a result her works tend to give voice to the “unrepresented” or the silenced subaltern.

Transitioning from Africa to Asia in part two of Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019), two seminal works: The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) and The God of Small Things (1997), by two major seminal writers (Salman Rushdie and Arundhati Roy; respectively) of English postcolonial Asia are explored and analyzed by Richard Begam and Deepika Bahri. While Deepika Bahri angles her analysis of Roy’s work in a space-time continuum of temporality and rhythm and differentiating the fact that postcolonial India just as postcolonial Africa has other forms of representation in dance, movement, and costume as portrayed by Kathakali in The God of Small Things (1997), Begam juxtaposes the critical writings of Rushdie with The Moor’s Last Sigh (1995) in exploring the reality of synthesizing diverse styles in the modernist/postmodernist praxis of Rushdie, as he juggles the ideas of aesthetic autonomy.

The Caribbean section of the Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019), which comprises chapters 7 to 9, in my view, discusses and analyzes texts that are very much representative of the Caribbean literary topography. It is quite obvious from the various discussions covering works of Derrick Walcott, V. S. Naipaul, and Jean Rhys that the postcolonial enterprise in literary creativity is an endeavor typically imbued with modernist influences. Thus, Andrzej Gasiorek, Genevieve Abravanel, and Michael Valdez Moses display insightful analysis on the aforementioned texts representing the Caribbean. These three chapters are quite interesting to read and would certainly be a source of enlightenment to readers or critics who are not familiar with Anglophone Caribbean literature.

Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019), as the title of the book suggests, has as a matter of fact demonstrated its global reach with the section on Australia and New Zealand in part five, which constitutes chapters 12 and 13. From my personal viewpoint, this is the most significant part of the book because it opens up a whole new world of literary possibilities for me (not being so conversant with the literature of the Oceanic regions of the world). Brigid Rooney’s discussion of Malouf’s writings in chapter 12 is both insightful and highly adventurous, as she draws several linkages of influence and representation of Malouf’s works to Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and William Faulkner, especially in relation to the exploration and development of the idiosyncratic tendencies in the characters of Malouf’s writings. Moreover, Philip Steer in chapter 13 also opens a doorway into understanding and recognizing Maori culture in his discussion of Keri Hulme’s The Bone People (1983). Indeed, it is Steer’s argument that The Bone People is an account, which despite seeking to preserve indigenous culture, also emphasizes the likelihood of infusing modernist approaches within the larger narrative. Steer’s in his analysis also attributes the influence of Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway in Hulme’s work with regard to the use of “modernist critical realism,” a method of critical analyzing literary works that tries to differentiate between the real world and the observable world.

On a whole this book is and will be a very good resource on discussions about postcolonialism and modernism. Even though I am not able to say much on the sections that focused on Ireland and Canada, which focus on works by Seamus Heaney/Samuel Beckett and Michael Ondaatje respectively, Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019) still has a wider reach. The various authors of the diverse sections and the editors do a great job at harmonizing the ideas of their analysis and discussions. The texts that are discussed are very much representational and are texts that most critics would cite considering the area in focus; this brings to focus the contributions in the book that perhaps scholars who plied their research within the various areas represented in Modernism, Postcolonialism, and Globalism (2019) would have considered a more interesting prospect, which would have foregrounded experiences or research and pedagogy within the mentioned regions.