Hilmar Farid_Rewriting The Nation: Pramoedya Ananta Toer and the Politics of Decolonization _Chapter II_Rewriting Pramoedya (original) (raw)
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Introduction: Postcolonial Reading Publics
Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, 2017
In this introduction to the special issue, "Postcolonial Reading Publics," Mukherjee charts the history of reception of two texts, one a Bengali novel published in British India, the other a Shakespeare adaptation staged in twenty-first-century Kolkata, to examine the fortuitous ways in which reading publics baffle or exceed authorial intention and the given text's addressable objects. Offering summaries of and continuities among the four essays that constitute the volume, the introduction ends with an analysis of the salience of this discursive context for postcolonial writing, theory, and critique in a world literary frame.
Resistance from within" : reading and Neocolonialism
Links Letters, 1997
Colonial discourse analysis at present seems to need to be radicalised so that it may become a more sensitive instrument to counter the ernergent colonialisms negotiated by contemporary literature. I believe this radicalisation rnight be achieved through a study of changing textual patterns and the changing societies which shape them. To support this argument-which involves an understanding of how the present adapts the past to suit its needs-1 offer a reading of the way in which Kipling's character Mowgli is reworked by two contemporav writers: Hanif Kureishi and Sara Suleri. The predicates of race, class and gender-and the causes and consequences of their fracture in societies both generated and threatened by new colonialisms-are examined.
Postcolonialism: Literary Applications of a Decolonizing Tool
nternational Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation, 2022
Postcolonialism revolves around studying the effects of colonialism on cultures and discloses how European nations controlled "Third World" cultures and how the latter resisted cunning encroachments. It endeavors to decolonize postcolonial states from the political conditions to the cultural ones, as it contests the contemporary legacies of historical colonialism so as to break the present imbalances of power. Postcolonialism also seeks to criticize contemporary colonial ways by seeking powerful substantial change in postcolonial nations while celebrating the lost history of resistance as well. The purpose of this research study is to define postcolonialism and show how postcolonial literary theory is applied to examine texts produced by both the colonized and the colonizing forces. Also, it endeavors to contribute to the body of postcolonial literature and celebrate the lost cultural heritage of the colonized. To meet this end, this research investigation adopts an exploratory research design and uses searching and screening tools to examine, analyze and synthesize relevant first and secondary sources. The findings indicated that postcolonial literary theories, in their multidimensional and multidisciplinary nature, have proven practically useful in scrutinizing western literature, celebrating literary works by the colonized subaltern through giving voice to the tamed, stifled, and disdained intellectuals whose works disclose the truth behind the civilizing mission of colonialism which was nothing but a series of ideas and practices used to legitimize the establishment of overseas colonies to subject people. The results of this research study are significant in the way that they would not only enrich and further advance the existing canon of postcolonial literature but would also raise awareness of everyone investigating the power dynamics of the colonizer and the colonized. In this respect, it is therefore hoped that our dissertation deepens greater understanding and inspires respect, honor, and rehabilitation for the colonized.
World Literature, Critical Approaches: Reading Postcolonial Environments
Course Syllabus, 2023
Course Description: In this course, we will travel through historical moments guided by the stories that map our worlds and our political imaginations. We will seek to unsettle conventional categories of “world” as we carefully reorient ourselves in relation to the texts under study—novels, stories, and poems that demand a rearticulation of the so-called “archetype.” As we travel across continents, guided by Imbolo Mbue or Helena María Viramontes, we will consider the trajectories of power that they map and the aesthetic forms that are neither universal nor derivative, but persistently and indignantly local—that is, materially and historically situated. We will begin with a consideration of the political stakes of “worlding” literature before embarking on a three-pronged journey: texts that map empire; stories that illuminate the sacrifice zones of our contemporary petrosphere; and narratives that demand a consideration of the role of energy in the construction, dissemination, and interpretation of aesthetic form. Required texts: Aimé Césaire, Discourse on Colonialism, ISBN-13: 978-1583670255 Patrick Chamoiseau, Slave Old Man, ISBN-13: 978-1-62097-588-6 Amitav Ghosh, Sea of Poppies, ISBN-13: 978-0312428594 Shailja Patel, Migritude, ISBN-13: 978-1885030054 Helena María Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus ISBN-13: 978-0452273870 *All readings appended with an asterisk (*) will be made available on Canvas.
World Literature and Postcolonial Studies, Part II
Journal of World Literature, 2020
Part two of the special issue of World Literature and Postcolonial Studies comes out during extraordinary times. The world is fighting a global pandemic. "I can't breathe" and "Black Lives Matter" are no longer expressions that are meaningful only in America. Rather, they have become calls to unite the world against bigotry, racism, and injustice. Meanwhile, Covid-19 has exposed racial, class, and economic inequalities all around the world. If in America, the global pandemic re-emphasized the failing healthcare system, in India it brought forth the biggest movement of people from urban centers to rural communities. Indeed, the migrant crisis in India could only be compared with the plight and tragedy of people during the 1947 partition, many of whom walked for thousands of miles to reach "home." Though the essays published in this special issue were selected before the global pandemic, the revisions and the preparation of the manuscript took place at a time when events were canceled, air and train travel was impossible, and countries were under lockdown. One cannot imagine bringing out this special issue, which has contributions of authors residing in different parts of the world, working on, to name a few, Korean, Australian, Maghrebi, Syrian, Welsh literatures, had the world not been connected through the circulatory network of the internet. Not surprisingly, then, the co-editors see the theme of circulation and movement running through the essays collected here. Often world literature is thought in simple terms as a literature in translation, circulating and leaping across national boundaries only in a handful of languages. Postcolonial literature, on the other hand, is usually assumed to be writing back to a colonial center and circulating in colonizer's languages. Yet both views shouldn't stray too far from actual realities on the ground. A study of literature in translation
Using Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's 'Subaltern theory' as a framework for Fadia Faqir’s Pillars of Salt and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions , I will show that in the field of literary studies, the purpose of the postcolonial novel is not to answer the question as to whether or not the subaltern can speak; rather the postcolonial novel is an attempt to get the story of the subaltern told through the birth of the fictional subaltern. The postcolonial novel is not a non-fictional text aiming to give an accurate account of historical events it depicts; rather its prime function is to grant the reader the closest access into, what has until recently been, a closed off world.