AcknowledgementsNote to the ReaderList of FiguresIntroduction: Before the LawA scandal for postcolonial studiesThe camp dispositifOverview1. Nothing Outside the LawThe colonization of the in-betweenKenomatic fetishThe heritage of colonial infrahumanityNecropolitics and national narcissism2. Horizons of PerceptionIn/visible relationsGorgoneionHorizon of perception 1: the camp in the cityHorizon of perception 2: the camp and the dispersal systemHorizon of perception 3: the camp and asylum destitution3. Be/held: Ban and IterationBe/heldBogus womenRe/producing 'home'Continua4. Allow Me My DestitutionParasitic reading and reading parasitesDead lettersKalumnia and formula'Let me become the echo of a name to you'Preference and assumption5. Terms of HospitalityThe receding refugeeAsylos/AsylaoThe transgressive stepThe necessary other6. The Politics of ProximityResponse-abilityMetaxisThe journey is the film is the journeyThe limits of dignityAfterwordBibliographyIndex

Postcolonial Asylum is concerned with asylum as a key emerging postcolonial field. In much of the discourse surrounding the issue of sanctuary, asylum seekers, via their engagement with the law and the exclusionary culture of many Western nations, are cast as contemporary incarnations of the infrahuman object of colonial sovereignty. Relations between asylum seekers and host nations are framed by a relation of 'inclusive exclusion', in which asylum claimants are deprived of political and social agency but simultaneously captured by a vested interest in (re)producing them as the citizen's 'dark other'. In Postcolonial Asylum, David Farrier contends that an understanding of this dynamic must be central to attempts within postcolonial studies to speak about new forms of political identity and belonging. The range of Postcolonial Asylum is geographically and disciplinarily extensive, taking an inter-disciplinary approach to British, EU and Australasian contexts. Farrier engages with asylum legislation, legal theory and ethics in readings of the work of asylum seeker and postcolonial authors and filmmakers, including J. M. Coetzee, Caryl Phillips, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Leila Aboulela, Stephen Frears, Pawel Pawlikowski and Michael Winterbottom. These readings are framed by the work of postcolonial theorists (Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Paul Gilroy, Achille Mbembe), as well as other influential thinkers (Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Ranciere, Emmanuel Levinas, Etienne Balibar, Zygmunt Bauman), in order to institute what Spivak calls a 'step beyond' postcolonial studies: one that carries with it the insights of the discipline as it looks to new ways for postcolonial studies to engage with the world.

A densely theoretical yet politicised and interdisciplinary book that signals an important new trajectory in postcolonial and cultural studies, towards interrogation of the plight of those looking for sanctuary in Europe, Australia and elsewhere. It is at its best in discussing asylum statistics and contexts, and analysing art, photography and literature. Recommended reading, especially for policymakers and tabloid journalists. Claire Chambers, Times Higher Education