Late colonial sublime: neo-epics and the end of romanticism

295 Pages·2018·13.494 MB·English

by  Sahota, G. S

Late Colonial Sublime
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Late Colonial Sublime
Neo- Epics and the End of Romanticism
G. S. Sahota
northwestern university press ❘ evanston, illinois
this book is made possible by a collaborative grant
from the andrew w. mellon foundation.
Northwestern University Press
www.nupress.northwestern.edu
Copyright © 2018 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2018. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Sahota, G. S., author.
Title: Late colonial sublime : neo-epics and the end of Romanticism / G. S.
Sahota.
Other titles: FlashPoints (Evanston, Ill.)
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2018. |
Series: FlashPoints
Identifiers: LCCN 2017022781| ISBN 9780810136496 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780810136489 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810136502 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Hindi literature—India—19th century—History and criticism.
| Hindi literature—India—20th century—History and criticism. | Urdu
literature—India—19th century—History and criticism. | Urdu
literature—India—20th century—History and criticism. |
Romanticism—India. | Sublime, The, in literature.
Classification: LCC PK2037 .S24 2018 | DDC 891.4309—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017022781
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences— Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.4811992.
For Siddhartha S. Sahota

τὸν δ᾽ αὖτε προσέειπε συβώτης, ὄρχαμος ἀνδρῶν:
‘ξεῖν᾽, ἐπεὶ ἂρ δὴ ταῦτά μ᾽ ἀνείρεαι ἠδὲ μεταλλᾷς,
σιγῇ νῦν ξυνίει καὶ τέρπεο, πῖνέ τε οἶνον
ἥμενος. αἵδε δὲ νύκτες ἀθέσφατοι: ἔστι μὲν εὕδειν,
ἔστι δὲ τερπομένοισιν ἀκούειν: οὐδέ τί σε χρή,
πρὶν ὥρη, καταλέχθαι: ἀνίη καὶ πολὺς ὕπνος.
“My friend,” the swineherd answered, foreman of men,
“you really want my story? So many questions—well,
listen in quiet, then, and take your ease, sit back
and drink your wine. The nights are endless now.
We’ve plenty of time to sleep or savor a long tale.”
—Homer, Odyssey, 15.389–9 4 (trans. Robert Fagles
[New York: Penguin, 1999], 331–32).
The epic is not merely a genre but a way of life.
—Harry Levin, preface to The Singer of Tales
E riportiamo anche la conclusione poco confortante: noialtri europei, e
sopratutto noialtri francesi, abbiamo la tendenza all’egocentrismo. Ci
crediamo centro dell’universo e immaginiamo appena che fuori di noi, fuori
della nostra vecchia sfera continentale, vi siano dei grandi movimenti d’attività
umana, dove stanno elaborandosi già degli avvenimenti che potranno avere
delle ripercussioni decisive sui nostri destini. Alla guerra europea non potrà
molto tardare la guerra delle colonie.
And we arrive at this hardly comforting conclusion: We Europeans, and
especially we French, have a tendency toward egocentrism. We believe
ourselves the center of the universe and we can barely imagine that beyond
us, beyond our old continental sphere, there are huge upsurges of human
action such that there are events already developing which can have decisive
repercussions on our destiny. It is only a matter of time before the war in the
colonies becomes the European war.
—Antonio Gramsci, “La Guerra e Le Colonie,” in Nel mondo grande e terribile:
Antologia degli scritti 1914– 1935 (my translation)

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Aporias of Modernity 3
part i. fractured frames: imperial parallax
and disjointed time
1. Commodity and Sublimity: Mimesis of the Immaterial 29
2. Romanticism’s Horizons, or The Transmission of Critique 54
3. Atmospherics of Imperialism: Benjamin’s Sublime 96
part ii. neo- epic constellation: out of british india
4. Hali’s Transvaluation of Modernity: Allegories of Marsiya 127
5. Iqbal, or the Sturm und Drang of Late Colonial India:
Resemblances of Pure Content 143
6. Utility and Culture: Modern Subjectivity and
Neotraditional Aesthetics 172
Epilogue: Melancholic Ornament: TV Ramayana,
Nostalgia, and Kitsch as Counter- Enlightenment 209