An essential addition to the postcolonial debate which offers a challenging mode of reading resistance' which destroys the stereotyped and sensationalised humanist image of the third world woman' as victim.

Rajeswari Sunder Rajan lectures in English at the University of Delhi. She has edited a collection of essays entitled The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India and her work on feminist theory and politics has appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society and The Yale Journal of Criticism.

Introduction; Chapter 1 THE SUBJECT OF SATI; Chapter 2 REPRESENTING SATI; Chapter 3 LIFE AFTER RAPE; Chapter 4 THE NAME OF THE HUSBAND; Chapter 5 GENDER, LEADERSHIP AND REPRESENTATION; Chapter 6 REAL AND IMAGINED WOMEN; INDEX;