Cultures of decolonisation combines studies of visual, literary and material cultures in order to explore the complexities of the 'end of empire' as a process. Where other accounts focus on high politics and constitutional reform, this volume reveals the diverse ways in which cultures contributed to wider political, economic and social change.

The book demonstrates the transnational character of decolonisation, thereby illustrating the value of comparison - between different cultural forms and diverse places - in understanding the nature of this wide-reaching geopolitical change. Individual chapters focus on architecture, theatre, museums, heritage sites, fine art and interior design, alongside institutions such as artists' groups, language agencies and the Royal Mint, across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Europe.

Introduction: Reframing cultures of decolonisation - Ruth Craggs and Claire Wintle
Part I: Decolonising metropolitan cultures?
1. Black America and the overthrow of the European colonial order: the tragic voice of Richard Wright - Bill Schwarz
2. Humanist modernism: Ralph Hotere and 'New Commonwealth Internationalism' - Damian Skinner
3. Henry Swanzy, Sartre's zombie? Black Power and the transformation of the Caribbean Artists Movement - Rob Waters
4. Anxiety abroad: austerity, abundance, and race in post-war visual culture - David C. Wall
Part II: Performing decolonisation
5. The peasant armed: Bengal, Vietnam and transnational solidarities in Utpal Dutt's Invincible Vietnam - Abin Chakraborty
6. Cultural heritage as performance: re-enacting Angkorian grandeur in postcolonial Cambodia (1953-70) - Michael Falser
7. 'I still don't have a country': the southern African settler diaspora after decolonisation - Jean Smith
Part III: Decolonising expertise
8. Managing the cultural past in the newly independent states of Mali and Ghana - Sophie Mew
9. More than tropical? Modern housing, expatriate practitioners and the Volta River Project in decolonising Ghana - Viviana d'Auria
10. Designing change: coins and the creation of new national identities - Catherine Eagleton
11. What colonial legacy? The Dewan Bahas dan Pustaka (House of Language) and Malaysia's cultural decolonisation - Rachel Leow
Index

Editors

Ruth Craggs is a Lecturer in Cultural and Historical Geography at King's College, London

Claire Wintle is a Senior Lecturer in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton