Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature A View from India

by Mohanty, Satya P.

• ISBN13: 9780230619081
• ISBN10: 0230619088
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-03
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Colonialism, Modernity, and the Study of Literature: A View From India [CMSL] is an innovative volume of essays situated at the intersection of at least three multi-disciplinary fields: (1) postcolonial and subaltern theory; (2) comparative literary analysis, especially with a South Asian and transnational focus; and (3) the study of 'alternative' and 'indigenous' modernities. Its central themes include: the strategies of resistance that are encoded in third world literary texts; comparative literary analysis, across cultures and regions - both within the 'Global South' and beyond; the forms of indigenous modernity that preceded the colonial encounter, and thus provide alternatives to the modernity that was imposed through the colonial encounter with Europe; feminist perspectives in traditional and contemporary literature; 'realist' theoretical analyses of the epistemic implications of literary forms. The distinctive features of this book are the cross-national focus with a simultaneous emphasis on the close reading of texts and contexts. It grounds the political insights of postcolonial and subaltern theory in close textual analysis, and rather than make general pronouncements about 'alternative modernities,' it looks at their specifically textual (literary and cultural) manifestations.

Author Biography

Satya P. Mohanty is a professor of English at Cornell University. His book, Literary Theory and the Claims of History, argues for a "post-positivist realist" theory of culture and literature, and introduces a new theory of social identity, especially minority identity. He has co-edited Identity Politics Reconsidered and The Future of Diversity, both also from Palgrave Macmillan.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Viewing Colonialism and Modernity through Indian Literature	p. 1
Views from Below: Comparing Literary Perspectives
Critical Realisms in the Global South: Narrative Transculturation in Senapari's Six Acres and a Third and García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude	p. 25
Views from Above and Below: George Eliot and Fakir Mohan Senapati	p. 55
Two Classic Tales of Village India: The Realist Epistemology of Chha Mana Atha Guntha	p. 91
The Emergence of the Modern Subject in Oriya and Assamese Literatures: Fakir Mohan Senapati and Hemchandra Barua	p. 113
The Indigenous Modernity of Gurajada Apparao and Fakir Mohan Senapati	p. 135
"Why Don't You Speak?": The Narrative Politics of Silence in Senapati, Premchand, and Monica Ali	p. 153
The Many Contexts of Six Acres and a Third
The Representation of Women and Gender Relations in Six Acres and a Third	p. 173
Rediscovering Ramachandra Mangaraj and Historicizing Senapati's Critique of Colonialism	p. 187
The Tradition-Modernity Dialectic in Six Acres and a Third	p. 207
Appendix: Fair Without, Foul Within: Bahire Rongsong Bhitare Kowabhaturi	p. 229
List of Contributors	p. 257
Index	p. 259
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