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America Moves In: Neo-colonialism and America’s ‘Entertainment Empire’

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Post-War British Literature and the "End of Empire"

Abstract

This chapter examines mid-century British anxieties about the supplanting of colonialism by American post-war dominance. An analysis of Graham Greene’s The Quiet American (1955), David Caute’s At Fever Pitch (1959), DJ Enright’s Academic Year (1955), and Anthony Burgess’s Malayan Trilogy (1956–1969) foregrounds the important role that popular culture plays in the move from formal colonialism to new forms of imperialism that do not rely on conquest. These texts depict post-war decolonization as involving the restructuring of imperial blocs around America, and not as a clearly defined end to imperialism.

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  1. University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Matthew Whittle

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Whittle, M. (2016). America Moves In: Neo-colonialism and America’s ‘Entertainment Empire’. In: Post-War British Literature and the "End of Empire". Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54014-0_3

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