Postcolonial literature, which is produced by present or former colonial subjects, responds to the effects of European imperial rule. Like its philosophical cousin, postcolonialism, postcolonial literature “involves a studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects at the levels of material culture and representation” (Quayson, Ato. “Postcolonialism.” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1998). Some of the earliest postcolonial texts emerged while India was still colonized (1858-1957); examples include Raja Rao’s Kanthapura (1938) and R. K. Narayan’s Malgudi novels (1935-1990). Postcolonial novels often focus on themes of identity, otherness, and resistance to colonial rule through the creation or reclamation of a national literature and culture.

Stylistically, postcolonial literature (earlier called Commonwealth literature) can employ styles of realism, modernism, and postmodernism, including the magical realism of writers such as Salman Rushdie in Midnight’s Children (1981) and The Satanic Verses (1988). Many writers have found postmodern magical realism in particular to be effective in achieving the goals of postcolonial writing. Namely, this style reflects the fragmented or hybrid identities of characters, connects the national narrative to family or individual history in extra-realistic ways, and dismantles European linguistic and political hegemony through humor and

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