Satire and the Postcolonial Novel: V.S. Naipaul, Chinua Achebe, Salman Rushdie

by Ball,John Clement

• ISBN13: 9780415965934
• ISBN10: 0415965934
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781135451554
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-06-12
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details

Summary

Satire plays a prominent and often controversial role in postcolonial fiction.Satire and the Postcolonial Noveloffers the first study of this topic, employing the insights of postcolonial comparative theories to revisit Western formulations of "satire" and the "satiric." Through the varying leses provided by satire's relation to irony, allegory, narrative, and the grotesque, this book offers new readings of important novels by V.S. Naipaul (Trinidad), Chinua Achebe (Nigeria) and Salman Rushdie (India. It presents a detailed study of the complex and multidirectional ways satire has engaged with the hisotry and messy aftermath of empire.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
Theories of Satire and Postcolonialism	9	(32)
``The Old Enemy. And Also the New'': V. S. Naipaul's Multidirectional Satire	41	(38)
``In All Fairness'': Satire and Narrative in the Novels of Chinua Achebe	79	(36)
``Pessoptimism'': Satire and the Menippean Grotesque in Salman Rushdie's Novels	115	(50)
Conclusion	165	(4)
Afterword (2002)	169	(6)
Notes	175	(10)
Works Cited	185	(18)
Index	203