Bartholomew (Bart) Jason Kirsten Moore-Gilbert (8 December 1952 – 2 December 2015) was a Tanzanian-born, British academic, orientalist, political campaigner and writer, most widely known for his work in the field of postcolonial literary studies and theory.

Education

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Moore-Gilbert graduated from Durham University (Grey College) in 1975 with a first-class degree in English Language and Literature.[1]

Career

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His work has been translated into fifteen languages. Moore-Gilbert taught at Goldsmiths College, University of London, a position he held from 1998.[2] His final academic study, the first critical assessment of postcolonial life-writing in English, was published by Routledge in June 2009.[3]

In 2014, Verso published Moore-Gilbert's memoir, The Setting Sun: A Memoir of Empire and Family Secrets, an account of his travels in India undertaken to shed light on his father's alleged role in acts of British colonial brutality.[4] The book, which combined elements of travel writing, historical research and personal memoir, received positive reviews in The Guardian, Hürriyet Daily News, and The Times Educational Supplement and was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize.[5][6][7]

Moore-Gilbert died in Trinity Hospice on 2 December 2015 after a battle with kidney cancer. During his illness, he kept a blog tracing the development of his cancer and his treatment.[8]

Selected publications

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  • Cultural Closure? The Challenge of the Arts in the 1970s (1994), ISBN 978-0415099059
  • Cultural Revolution? The Challenge of the Arts in the 1960s (1992), ISBN 978-0415078245
  • Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics (1997), ISBN 978-1859840344
  • Post Colonial Criticism (Longman Critical Reader) (ed) (1997), ISBN 978-0-582-23798-8
  • Writing India (ed), 1757–1990: Literature of British India (1996), ISBN 978-0719042652
  • Kipling and Orientalism (1986), ISBN 978-0709935056
  • Hanif Kureishi (2001), ISBN 978-0719055355
  • Postcolonial Life-Writing: Culture, Politics, and Self-Representation (2009), ISBN 978-0415443005
  • The Setting Sun: A Memoir of Empire and Family Secrets (2014), ISBN 978-1781682685

References

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  1. ^ "Results of Final Examinations held in June 1975". Durham University Gazette. 21 (New Series): 35. 31 January 1976. Retrieved 25 December 2019.
  2. ^ "Moore-Gilbert's page at Goldsmiths College". Archived from the original on 30 June 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
  3. ^ "Lecture: Postcolonial Life Writing".
  4. ^ Reisz, Matthew (22 May 2014). "Bart Moore-Gilbert: the truth about my father". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  5. ^ O'Connor, Kieran (8 June 2015). "Bart Moore-Gilbert has been shortlisted for the 2015 PEN Ackerley Prize!". Versobooks.com. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  6. ^ Lycett, Andrew (5 July 2014). "The Setting Sun by Bart Moore-Gilbert – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  7. ^ "FOLDED CORNER - The Setting Sun: A Memoir of Empire and Family Secrets". Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  8. ^ "oftherightkidney". oftherightkidney. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
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