Acknowledgments

Without the suggestions and critical insights of well-wishers, this book would have been written in half the time. But it would not have been half as satisfying to write. Among those who infused it with their thoughtful input are the University of Minnesota Press’s anonymous reviewers of an early draft of this manuscript; my intellectual colleagues Chris Lane at Northwestern University and Sangeeta Ray at the University of Maryland; my inimitable editor at the University of Minnesota Press, Richard Morrison; and my worst critic and best friend, my husband Joseph. I gratefully acknowledge the support of Gary Wihl and the Graduate School. Though words are but meager thanks, thanks also to the following individuals: my friend and colleague Geraldine Higgins at Emory University, for indescribable (and unfailing) support; Eavan Boland, who engaged me in a vigorous debate about subaltern studies and South Asian postcolonial feminism; Edna Longley, whose passion and clarity reinforced my interest in pursuing a comparative study; Karen Steele at Texas Christian University, whose patient and thoughtful criticism of the chapter on Ireland and postcolonialism led me to painstaking revision; my mentors, Margot Finn at the University of Warwick and Ivan Karp, Cory Kratz, and Laurie Patton at Emory University, for coaching and guidance; my surrogate parents, Charles and Patricia Rossi, for their unquestioning faith in my abilities; and my mother, Sudarshan Bahri, who always hoped I would write a “real” book some day. I’m not sure if this is it. There are others, dead and alive, whose names may not appear here, but to whom I remain deeply grateful for myriad sorts of intellectual inspiration. For them I can say—in borrowed and therefore better words than my own—relata refero. I tell what I have been told.