Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues: 'Discoveries' of India in the Language of Colonialism

by Singh,Jyotsna

• ISBN13: 9780415085182
• ISBN10: 0415085187
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-11-19
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues demonstrates the continuing validity of the colonial paradigm as it maps the geographical, political, and imaginative space of 'India/Indies' from the seventeenth century to the present. Breaking new ground in postcolonial studies, Jyotsna Singh highlights the interconnections among early modern colonial encounters, later manifestations in the Raj and their lingering influence in the postcolonial Indian nationalist state.Singh challenges the assumption of eye-witness accounts and unmeditated experiences implcit in colonial representational practices, and often left unchallenged in the postcolonial era.Essential introductory reading for students and academics, Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues re-evaluates the following texts:* seventeenth century travel narratives about India* eighteenth century 'nabob' texts* letters of the Orientalist, Sir William Jones* reviews of Shakespearean productions in Calcutta and postcolonial Indo-Anglian novels

Author Biography

Jyotsna G. Singh is an Associate Professor of English at Southern Methodist University, Texas.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Discoveries, Encounters, Spectacles: Colonial Beginnings

English Nabobs: Eighteenth Century Orientalism

The Gendering of Empire

Shakespeare and the 'Civilizing Mission'

'The Blind Age': Discovering the Postcolonial Nation

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