XVIII New Literatures MARGARET DAYMOND, ROANNA GONSALVES, WEISHIN GUI, MICHAEL GRIFFITHS, MADHU KRISHNAN, CHRISTINE LORRE-JOHNSTON, DOUGAL MCNEILL, IRA RAJA, GISELLE RAMPAUL, PAUL SHARRAD, GERALDINE SKEETE, LYNDA GICHANDA SPENCER, TINA STEINER, AND MARK WILLIAMS This chapter has seven sections: 1. Africa; 2. Australia; 3. Canada; 4. The Caribbean; 5. South Asia; 6. New Zealand and Pacific; 7. Southeast Asia. Section 1 is by Margaret Daymond, Madhu Krishna, Lynda Gichanda Spencer, and Tina Steiner; section 2 is by Paul Sharrad and Michael Griffiths; section 3 is by Christine Lorre-Johnston and Mark Williams; section 4 is by Giselle Rampaul and Geraldine Skeete; section 5 is by Ira Raja and Roanna Gonsalves; section 6 is by Dougal McNeill; section 7 is by Weishin Gui. 1. Africa (a) Southern Africa Apart from Antjie Krog’s having had two studies of her work in English published in the past two years (essays reviewed in 2016 and monograph below), the big names in South African writing, past and present, are not the subject of single-focus studies in this year’s production of books and journal articles. Attention remains on the struggle to live with cruel histories of colonialism and other forms of oppressive power, but the focus of study is now more comparative and is turning to new or less well-known writers as well as to thematic matters. Embarking on her wide-ranging and original conception of ‘comparative research [into women’s writing], while combin[ing] historical and cross-cultural perspectives’ (p. 3), Ksenia Robbe, in Conversations of Motherhood: South African Women’s Writing Across Traditions, points to both the particular need for such inclusive work ‘in the wake of the political transformation following the first democratic elections of 1994’ and the problems still attendant on a The Year’s Work in English Studies (2017) ß The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the English Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journal- s.permissions@oup.com doi:10.1093/ywes/max022