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Postcolonial Singularity and a World Literature Yet-to-Come.
- Source :
-
Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities . Dec2015, Vol. 20 Issue 4, p243-259. 17p. 1 Illustration. - Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- This article considers the challenge posed by Gayatri Spivak to rethink world literature along postcolonial lines as an ethical encounter with alterity. Read in this way, Spivak participates in a reframing of world literature that retains the critical gains made by postcolonial theory and suggests that the work of world literary analysis ought not necessarily be de/prescriptive (classifying and ordering) but might involve a contestation of the power relations that structure the world. In developing this argument, I draw on four further perspectives: Pascale Casanova's problematic assertion of literary singularity inThe World Republic of Letters; Fredric Jameson's theorization of “third world literature” as counterpoint to Casanova's limiting understanding of national literature; Gilles Deleuze, who offers a way to rethink world literature in a process of becoming; and Édouard Glissant, whose work proposes a “relational” vision of difference that, like that of Spivak, demands an ethical, imaginative response to literature as literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *POSTCOLONIALISM
*POSTCOLONIAL analysis
*LITERATURE
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0969725X
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 110568107
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2015.1096650