1. Lecture Code: PS_L.15
ENGL 559: Postcolonial Studies UNIT 2: Multi-Disciplinarity “Publishing Histories” by Gail Low
Min Pun, PhD, Associate Professor
Dept of English, PN Campus
Pokhara
9 December 2018

2. What Is Publishing History?
Publishing history (history of publishing or publication) is an account of the production, distribution and consumption of printed matter from its origins in the past to the present. Here, the printed matter can be books, magazines, newspapers, or any other types of publication.
So publishing history is about the publication of books, magazines, newspapers, and so on.
And in the discussion of publishing history, we also discuss about publishing companies (such as Oxford University Press, Penguin Books, etc.), printing presses, publishers, editors, publishing historians and authors.

3. Introduction
In this essay, Gail Low discusses the interconnections between publishing history (history of books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) and postocolonial studies.
During both colonial and postcolonial periods, scholars also studied about production, emergence and dissemination of books, magazines and newspapers.
These scholars especially dealt with the questions such as what did people read in different countries, what kinds of books were available, how and why did people choose certain kinds of books, etc.

4. Contd ….
Specifically, in this chapter, Gail Low has explored the ways in which books are produced and disseminated in the anglophone West Africa and anglophone Caribbean countries from the periods of decolonization and independence.
In order to discuss the publishing history of West Africa and Caribbean countries, Gail Low has tried to answer the following questions:
Who were the local and international publishers of English language writing from West Africa and the Caribbean before and after political independence?
Were there significant networks of social, cultural, and literary relationships that helped to disseminate the work of now established West African and Caribbean writers?
What were the terms of metropolitan support for such writing?

5. Publishing History of West Africa
During the colonial period and early post- independence period in West African and the Caribbean countries, publishing was not free of metropolitan control and market forces.
For instance, in West African countries such as Nigeria, journals associated with the newly emerging university colleges provided publishing opportunities for John Pepper Clark, Wole Soyinka, and Christopher Okigbo.
Similarly, the publication of Oxford University Press such as Three Crowns series published the plays by Soyinka and Clark and the poems of Indian poets such as A.K. Ramanujan and Nissim Ezekiel.

6. Publishing History of the Caribbean
In the Caribbean countries, the magazines such as Bim, Kyk-over-al, and Focus encouraged local writing that broke with the English tradition and was faithful to the local cultures.
By publishing their works in these magazines, the Caribbean writers like Derek Walcott, George Lamming, Sam Selvon, Wilson Harris and Martin Carter became famous writers now.
Similarly, the African Writers series started publishing the novels of Chinua Achebe and many others, and other new works by new writers such as Ngûgí wa Thiong’o.

7. Conclusion
To sum up, the publishing history discussed above certainly inspired the postcolonial literature today although it was short-lived during the 1970s (it was more active during the colonial period starting 1859 until 1940s).
Similarly, publishing was also compromised by commercial considerations of lucrative markets to the newly independent countries around the world.
Not only in West African and the Caribbean countries, publishing history can also be studied in once colonized countries like India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

8. Associate Professor, Dept of English Tribhuvan University
Min Pun, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept of English
Tribhuvan University
Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara
Website: