What we’re about
We are decolonising our shelves!
The world is growing smaller every day. In today’s increasingly global culture, we all need to become familiar with other traditions, and literature provides an exciting and enjoyable mode of entry into the variety of the world’s cultures. A group for bibliophiles that seeks to go beyond the Western literary canon, but also with an interest in eclectic non-fiction.
We are temporarily interrupting reading world fiction in alphabetical order.
As a reader, you may be familiar with your own historical context, but does that mean you have a clear understanding of the literature of your own culture? Read, for instance, Middlemarch by George Eliot, without understanding Victorian reform politics, class rigidity, and the slow transition from old to modern England, and it risks being misread as a purely psychological or moral novel.
This is where colonialism, postcolonialism, and neocolonialism come into play when reading the world. Without a basic grasp of how the world has been shaped over the last hundred years, world literature cannot be adequately framed in its broader historical context.
It is for this reason, and because I am preparing to enter SOAS University, that the theme of 2026 will focus on these areas. The alphabetical order will be interrupted, but as soon as I finish my MA, we will get back to Barbados.
We left it off at Bahrain before we jumped to India, so from Bahrain I will be proposing the following reading list. I hope I can keep up with all this reading as I have to prepare for my course and the Spanish and French reading clubs, so just in case I cannot keep up, I would like to warn you beforehand that I am not promising anything.
2026 Colonialism/Postcolonialism/Neocolonialism
To develop a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected themes of colonialism, neocolonialism, development, justice, and economics worldwide, I suggest the following sequence:
1-Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction by Robert J.C. Young
2-Contested Modernity: Sectarianism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Bahrain by Omar H. AlShehabi
3-Sultana’s Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain—Bangladesh
4-The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell
5-Rickshaw Boy by Lao She—China
6-The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara
7-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez—Colombia
8-How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
9-Heart of Darkness by Polish author Joseph Conrad—Congo
10-The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
11-Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi—Ghana
12-Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Some texts such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Sultana’s Dream exceed colonial explanation and draw heavily on local myth, narrative experimentation and internal class and gender dynamics. Acemoglu’s institutionalist economics often clashes with dependency theory and postcolonial critiques. This is to say that colonialism will not be the only lens through which we will discuss these readings.
We will continue with these themes in 2027 and cover the Indian subcontinent, North America, Orientalism, and other areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Gaia Books multilingual website and Youtube channel about everything bookish will be announced in the coming months.
Do you speak French and would like to be part of a reading group and other events in French? Join us here:
https://www.meetup.com/gaia-livres/
Do you speak Spanish and would like to be part of a reading group
and other events in Spanish?
https://www.meetup.com/gaia-libros/
While we have real debates over books, the environment of this group is intended as friendly, tolerant and informal. Diversity is welcomed.
Looking forward to connecting with you,
Mónica
Upcoming events
2
Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction
Burdock The Montcalm Royal London House Hotel, 22-25 Finsbury Square, Greater London, GBAs a reader, you may be familiar with your own historical context, but does that mean you have a clear understanding of the literature of your own culture? Read, for instance, Middlemarch by George Eliot, without understanding Victorian reform politics, class rigidity, and the slow transition from old to modern England, and it risks being misread as a purely psychological or moral novel.
This is where colonialism, postcolonialism, and neocolonialism come into play when reading the world. Without a basic grasp of how the world has been shaped over the last hundred years, world literature cannot be adequately framed in its broader historical context.
It is for this reason, and because I am preparing to enter SOAS University, that the theme of 2026 will focus on these areas. The alphabetical order will be interrupted, but as soon as I finish my MA, we will get back to Barbados.
We left it off at Bahrain before we jumped to India, so from Bahrain I will be proposing the following reading list. I hope I can keep up with all this reading as I have to prepare for my course and the Spanish and French reading clubs, so just in case I cannot keep up, I would like to warn you beforehand that I am not promising anything.
2026 Colonialism/Postcolonialism/Neocolonialism
To develop a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected themes of colonialism, neocolonialism, development, justice, and economics worldwide, I suggest the following sequence:
1-Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction by Robert J.C. Young
2-Contested Modernity: Sectarianism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Bahrain by Omar H. AlShehabi
3-Sultana’s Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain—Bangladesh
4-The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams and the Making of China by Julia Lovell
5-Rickshaw Boy by Lao She—China
6-The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara
7-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez—Colombia
8-How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
9-Heart of Darkness by Polish author Joseph Conrad—Congo
10-The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
11-Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi—Ghana
12-Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Some texts such as One Hundred Years of Solitude and Sultana’s Dream exceed colonial explanation and draw heavily on local myth, narrative experimentation and internal class and gender dynamics. Acemoglu’s institutionalist economics often clashes with dependency theory and postcolonial critiques. This is to say that colonialism will not be the only lens through which we will discuss these readings.
We will continue with these themes in 2027 and cover the Indian subcontinent, North America, Orientalism, and other areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Spanish reading club: www.meetup.com/gaia-libros
French reading club: www.meetup.com/gaia-livres4 attendees
Past events
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