The Mythology of Imperialism

by Raskin, Jonah

• ISBN13: 9781583671863
• ISBN10: 1583671862
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-08-01
• Publisher: Monthly Review Pr

Summary

"We, the readers and students of literature, have been hijacked. The literary critics, our teachers, those assassins of culture, have put us up against the wall and held us captive." So begins Jonah Raskin’s The Mythology of Imperialism. When first published in 1971, this book was nothing short of a call to arms, an open revolt against the literary establishment. In his critique of five well-known British writersJoseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, and Joyce CaryRaskin not only developed the model for a revolutionary anti-imperialist criticism, but, through this book’s influence on Edward Said, helped usher in the field of postcolonial studies.Nearly four decades later, The Mythology of Imperialism is all the more relevant. Its readings of British literature still offer bold and original insight into the relationship between text, artist, and historical context. But, perhaps more crucially, this book sends a revolutionary message to all readers and students of literature. Against much of today’s postcolonialismdiluted by postmodern obfuscation and largely detached from its historical rootsRaskin locates the center of his anti-imperialist criticism in the anti-imperialist struggle itself and takes his cues not from "the assassins of culture" in the academy but from the national liberation movements of his time.Written with absorbing passion and machete-sharp analysis, this new edition of The Mythology of Imperialism includes the original text, a new introduction and afterword by the author, and a preface by Bruce Robbins.

Author Biography

Jonah Raskin teaches First Amendment law and journalism at Sonoma State University in Northern California. He is the author of The Radical Jack London and Out of the Whale, as well as biographies of Abbie Hoffman and Allen Ginsberg. Bruce Robbins is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and author of The Servant's Hand.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the new Edition	p. 7
Introduction: The Mythology of Imperialism Redux	p. 17
A Voice from the Third World	p. 31
Introduction to the First Edition: Bombard the Critics	p. 35
Chaos: The Culture of Imperialism	p. 43
Kipling's Contrasts	p. 61
Portrait of the Artist as Imperialist	p. 69
Terror	p. 89
Imperia Romana	p. 103
Kim: The Middle Way	p. 111
Conrad's Contradictions	p. 131
Season in Hell	p. 149
Lord Jim: White Skins	p. 159
The Darkness of the Gulf	p. 165
Russians and Revolutions	p. 193
Forster and Cary: Old and New	p. 205
Disconnections	p. 221
Trips East	p. 233
School Lessons: History and Geometry	p. 255
Mister Johnson: On the Road	p. 261
The End: Neocolonialism	p. 275
Works of Passion and Imagination	p. 283
Afterword: Edward Said, Colonialism, and Global Reversibility	p. 295
Selected Bibliography	p. 307
Index	p. 311
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