Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature

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.

Satya Mohanty is Professor of English and Minority Studies, Cornell University.