Postcolonial and Commonwealth literary scholarship has tended to emphasize the novel. Tropes and Territories is the first book to focus on modern short fiction, including Métis narratives, Maori myth, and stories by Mansfield, Frame, Munro, Rushdie, MacLeod, Gallant, Narayan, Jarman, and King. While Canadian writers and writings are central, contributors also consider South Pacific, South Asian, and Caribbean stories. Tropes and Territories demonstrates how current debates in postcolonial criticism bear on the reading, writing, and status of short fiction. These debates, which hinge on competing definitions of "trope" (motif vs rhetorical turn) and "territory" (political or aesthetic), lead to studies of space, place, influence, and writing and reading practices across cultural divides. The essays also explore the character of diasporic writing, the cultural significance of oral tale-telling, and interconnections between socio/political issues and strategies of style. Contributors include Bruce Bennett (New South Wales), Neil Besner (Winnipeg), Diana Brydon (Manitoba), Florence Cabaret (Rouen), Warren Cariou (Manitoba), Isabel Carrera Suárez (Oviedo), Gwendolyn Davies (New Brunswick), Tamas Dobozy (Wilfrid Laurier), Jean-Pierre Durix (Bourgogne), Marta Dvorák (Sorbonne Nouvelle), Chelva Kanaganayakam (Toronto), Janice Kulyk Keefer (Guelph), Christine Lorre (Sorbonne Nouvelle), Gerald Lynch (Ottawa), Laura Moss (British Columbia), W.H. New (British Columbia), Claire Omhovère (Nancy), Laurie Ricou (British Columbia), Alexis Tadié (Paris 7), Robert Thacker (St-Lawrence), Héliane Ventura (Orléans), Lydia Wevers (Wellington), and Mark Williams (Canterbury).