Description

In interviews with five academics and writers – Amin Maalouf, Thierry Hentsch, Sara Suleri, Marlene Nourbese Philip and Ackbar Abbas – history is discussed from a non-European perspective.

The interviews examine such issues as Islamic fundamentalism and Occidental modernism, the Partition of India in 1947, the future of Hong Kong, and questions of identity in a postcolonial era. This book presents Eurocentrism of western history as an aberration that is not only scandalous, but dangerous.

In addition to the transcript of the video version of The Raft of the Medusa, this book also includes an interview with Marwan Hassan by Will Straw, providing a dialogue around the issues raised in the video, and an essay by Charles Acland examining colonial discourse as discussed in The Raft and how these themes are expressed in Bram Stokers’ Dracula.

What’s remarkable is the scope Samuel allows his interview subjects. –Now

There is no shortage of thought-provoking material here. –Books in Canada

Jocelyne Doray–editor, video consultant and translator–is currently at work on L’âge de l’innocence, a book on child criminals.

Julian Samuel is a Montreal film and video maker and writer. He has made Resisting the Pharaohs, a film about Montreal’s arms industry and weapons’ sales to areas of conflict, including Isreal, south Africa and Indonesia. He is the author of Lone Ranger in Pakistan.