Postcolonial Theory and Avatar

Adopting a fresh perspective as well as inviting a sharp critical stance, the book is a pleasurable and excellent read. * Postcolonial Studies *
What makes this book particularly compelling is the author's strong voice. Basu Thakur dismantles and revamps postcolonial scholarship with firm conviction, and his film analysis is driven by a desire to uncover what he sees as the truth behind Avatar's beguiling surface. * CINEJ Cinema Journal *
This erudite and brilliantly provocative book takes us on a familiar journey through the history of post-colonial theory in order to end up in a new place: a critique not of colonialism but instead of the new Eurocentric neo-liberal, globalized subject. Basu Thakur teases us by juxtaposing James Cameron's Avatar with Michael Haneke's Cache. Of these two, it is Cache that surprisingly ends up with the post-colonial laurels for expressing what it is to be 'truly imagined by other worlds,' whereas Avatar is dismissed for re-presenting the fantasy of otherness that supplements the West's on-going performance of its own politically correct, neo-liberal subjectivity. This book will outrage even as it informs, adding new fire to the criticism of what Basu Thakur calls 'the West's unending imaginative vacuity about otherness.' * Henry Krips, Professor of Cultural Studies and Andrew W. Mellon All-Claremont Chair of Humanities, Claremont Graduate University, USA *
Straightforwardly written, yet sufficiently critical, Basu Thakur stakes a claim for the resurrection of postcolonial theory as a critical praxis, one that can help us examine the veiled strategies of othering that lay not so much at the margins, but at the very heart of our global Western imagination. * Pepita Hesselberth, Assistant Professor of Film, Leiden University, The Netherlands, and author of Cinematic Chronotopes: Here, Now, Me *
Cogent and lucid, this book is an original contribution to postcolonial theory, and the reading of Avatar follows unexpected avenues toward a new understanding of one of the most popular films of recent decades. * James Morrison, author of Passport to Hollywood and Roman Polanski *