Introduction: Trying Freedom

This introduction situates the debate on postcolonial freedom within selected philosophical and theoretical frameworks. Freedom is one of the central narratives of our late modern societies, and yet it continues to escape us – the world is not free. This book opens up a free space of meaning and interaction for internationally acclaimed writers and a wide range of postcolonial critics to come together and ‘try freedom’ in the double sense of making efforts to achieve freedom and of putting freedom itself on trial. Dealing with a variety of genres and discourses (fiction, poetry, performance, music, art, film, religion, politics), Experiences of Freedom extends the familiar archive of postcolonial writing to include new voices and lesser-researched traditions while also touching on canonical authors and themes. The collection moves across five continents and two centuries of history, down to the contemporary geo-political scenario, to explore the experiences of minorities, colonized and neo-colonized people, children, women, migrants, asylum seekers, and the disposable workers of globalized economies, and to celebrate the aesthetic commitment to their representation in the arts and in writing. Resisting, moving, belonging, believing, having a future, exerting responsibility, making choices and being freely and actively involved in the world—as human beings and as artists—are the ‘rights’ on which the collection focuses and the fragile freedoms they entail and promote.