Jane Hiddleston is Fellow and Tutor in French at Exeter College, University of Oxford, UK. Her previous books include Understanding Postcolonialism (2009) and Postructuralism and Postcoloniality (2010).

• IntroductionChapter One: Postcolonialism, World Literature, and the Thousand and One NightsChapter Two: Why Write? Literature According to its AuthorsChapter Three: Writing for Others: The Public Writer and the Ghost WriterChapter Four: Rewriting the Past: Literature and HistoryChapter Five: Creating Reality: Literature and LifeChapter Six: Writing between Languages: Literature as TranslationChapter Seven: Francophone Letters: Literature as EncounterChapter Eight: The Power of Reading: Living with/through BooksConclusionBibliographyIndex

An erudite, broad-ranging and historically grounded book. Its illuminating textual analyses are interwoven with sustained theoretical reflection. Hiddleston clarifies the status and function of literature during the transitional cultural moments that can inspire creative engagements with politics. She renews our understanding of the unsettling consequences of aesthetic experimentation. The book will become an indispensable resource for the study of North African writing.