Ebook209 pages4 hours
After Empire: Scott, Naipaul, Rushdie
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
In After Empire Michael Gorra explores how three novelists of empire—Paul Scott, V. S. Naipaul, and Salman Rushdie—have charted the perpetually drawn and perpetually blurred boundaries of identity left in the wake of British imperialism.
Arguing against a model of cultural identity based on race, Gorra begins with Scott's portrait, in The Raj Quartet, of the character Hari Kumar—a seeming oxymoron, an "English boy with a dark brown skin," whose very existence undercuts the belief in an absolute distinction between England and India. He then turns to the opposed figures of Naipaul and Rushdie, the two great novelists of the Indian diaspora. Whereas Naipaul's long and controversial career maps the "deep disorder" spread by both imperialism and its passing, Rushdie demonstrates that certain consequences of that disorder, such as migrancy and mimicry, have themselves become creative forces.
After Empire provides engaging and enlightening readings of postcolonial fiction, showing how imperialism helped shape British national identity—and how, after the end of empire, that identity must now be reconfigured.
Arguing against a model of cultural identity based on race, Gorra begins with Scott's portrait, in The Raj Quartet, of the character Hari Kumar—a seeming oxymoron, an "English boy with a dark brown skin," whose very existence undercuts the belief in an absolute distinction between England and India. He then turns to the opposed figures of Naipaul and Rushdie, the two great novelists of the Indian diaspora. Whereas Naipaul's long and controversial career maps the "deep disorder" spread by both imperialism and its passing, Rushdie demonstrates that certain consequences of that disorder, such as migrancy and mimicry, have themselves become creative forces.
After Empire provides engaging and enlightening readings of postcolonial fiction, showing how imperialism helped shape British national identity—and how, after the end of empire, that identity must now be reconfigured.
Read more from Michael Gorra
The Daily Henry James: A Year of Quotes from the Work of the Master Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Bells in Their Silence: Travels through Germany Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Related to After Empire
Related ebooks
Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsProducing India: From Colonial Economy to National Space Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Left Revisited Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNeoliberalism and Contemporary American Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModernity and Progress: Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Orwell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Happened to History? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnderstanding Gandhi: A Mahatma in Making 1869-1914 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStreet-Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the 1920s and 1930s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hartly House, Calcutta: Phebe Gibbes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire and mobility in the long nineteenth century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContested Modernity: Sectarianism, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Bahrain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFleeing Nazi Germany: Five Historians Migrate to America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEmpire, migration and identity in the British World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Stephen Crane's "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTen Days that Shook the World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913: A Critical Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Public Realm and the Public Self: The Political Theory of Hannah Arendt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Leaves of grass Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Defence of History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nationalism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHenri Barbusse: The Best Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsImperial citizenship: Empire and the question of belonging Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHannah Arendt and the Uses of History: Imperialism, Nation, Race, and Genocide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarx in Paris, 1871: Jenny's ”Blue Notebook” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Agent: A Simple Tale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of the Barricade Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil Society and Dictatorship in Modern German History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDistant Strangers: How Britain Became Modern Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for After Empire
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
After Empire - Michael Gorra
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1