Calibrations: Reading for the Social

221 Pages·2003·0.84 MB·English

by  Ato Quayson

C a l i b r a t i o n s
PUBLIC WORLDS
Dilip Gaonkar and Benjamin Lee, Series Editors
VOLUME 12
Ato Quayson, Calibrations: Reading for the Social
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A Q
T O U A Y S O N
C a l i b r a t i o n s
R e a d i n g f o r t h e S o c i a l
PUBLIC WORLDS, VOLUME 12
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS LONDON
Copyright 2003 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
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copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
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Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Quayson, Ato.
Calibrations : reading for the social / Ato Quayson.
p. cm. — (Public worlds ; v. 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8166-3839-X (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8166-3840-3 (PB : alk. paper)
1. African literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2.Marxist criticism.
3.Mimesis in literature. 4.Postcolonialism in literature. I.Title. II.Series.
PN849.A35 Q38 2003
809'.896—dc21
2003002161
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
≈
For Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo
two exemplary African literary critics
and
for Kamau
in the hope that he may grow to understand
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Mimesis, Dialectics,
and the Bounding of Analytic Fields xi
1 Literature, Anthropology, and History
in Ghosh’s In an Antique Land 1
2 Social Imaginaries in Transition:
Culture Heroism and the Genres of Everyday Life 30
3 African Postcolonial Relations through a Prism of Tragedy 56
4 Symbolization Compulsions: Freud, African Literature,
and South Africa’s Process of Truth and Reconciliation 76
5 Disability and Contingency 99
6 Literature and the Parables of Time 125
Notes 153
Bibliography 165
Index 175
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Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the following people for their comments on various drafts
of different chapters: Anjali Prabhu, Richard Feldstein, Barbara Bodenhorn,
Sinead Garrigan-Mattar, Mark Wormald, Tejumola Olaniyan, Priya Gopal,
and Achille Mbembe. I also thank Mary Jacobus for critical feedback on a
talk I gave to her Psychoanalysis and Humanities Seminar in Cambridge,
which became the material for chapter 4.
A very special thanks to Valentina for her forbearance in the onrush of
frenzy that accompanied the finishing of this book, and to Jijo and Abena
for their constant reminder that laughter is indeed the best medicine.
≈ ix ≈