The Fiction of Imperialism attempts to promote dialogue between international relations and postcolonialism It addresses the value of fiction to an inderstanding of the imperial relationship between the West and Asia and Africa A wide range of fiction and crisicism is examined as it pertains to colonialism the North/South engagement and contemporary Third World politics The book begins by contrasting the treatment of cross cultural relations in political studies and literary texts It then examines the personal as a metaphor for the political in fiction depicting the imperial connection between Britain and India This is paired with an analysis of African literary texts which takes as its theme the relationship between culture and politics The concluding chapters approach literature from the outside considering its apparent silence on economics and realpolitik and assessing the utility of postcolonial reconceptualisations Phillip Darby is Reader in International Relations University of Melbourne and Co Director of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies Melbourne Australia