Postcolonial Studies and the Literary: Theory, Interpretation and the Novel PDF
Preview Postcolonial Studies and the Literary: Theory, Interpretation and the Novel
Postcolonial Studies and the Literary This page intentionally left blank Postcolonial Studies and the Literary Theory, Interpretation and the Novel Eli Park Sorensen © Eli Park Sorensen 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-25262-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-32224-4 ISBN 978-0-230-27759-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230277595 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sorensen, Eli Park, 1979– Postcolonial studies and the literary : theory, interpretation and the novel / Eli Park Sorensen. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-349-32224-4 1. Commonwealth fiction (English)—History and criticism. 2. Postcolonialism in literature. 3. Literature—Philosophy. 4. Criticism. 5. Sembène, Ousmane, 1923–2007. 6. Coetzee, J. M., 1940– 7. Mistry, Rohinton, 1952– I. Title. PR9084.S65 2010 820.9'358—dc22 2010007411 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 For H ee- Sook and Saerom This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Introduction x Part I 1 The Melancholia of Postcolonial Studies 3 Literary form and postcolonial studies 3 The modernist ethos 8 The postcolonial perspective 12 Melancholic self-reflections 16 Postcolonial studies and literature 18 The melancholia of postcolonial studies 22 2 Returning to the Literary 26 Can the literary speak? 26 Literature at the threshold 31 Literary otherness 33 The politics of form 35 The monopolisation of the literary 38 Realism as straw man 41 Critical fictions 46 3 Utopian-I nterpretive Trajectories 52 Utopian trajectories 52 The secret of the form 55 Lukács’s theory of the novel I: The Theory of the Novel 58 Lukács’s theory of the novel II: realism 66 History, postcoloniality and literary form 71 Part II 4 Form and Temporality in Ousmane Sembène’s Xala 75 The problematic of imitativeness 75 Intermediary dreams 77 Incomplete fusions 80 History as still life 84 The return of the repressed 90 Negative realism 94 vii viii Contents 5 Arcades of Foreignness: J. M. Coetzee’s Foe 96 Writing back to the centre and the question of canonicity 96 Literalness and irony 99 Narrative silences and mysteries 100 Authorial struggles 102 Cannibalism and otherness 104 Thresholds of translation 106 Arcades of foreignness 109 Worldliness, criticism and literature 110 The beginning is a ruin 116 6 Realism in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance 121 Lukácsian overtures 121 Accidents and history 123 Superfluity, interpretation, causes 126 Antibodies and blood 129 Games and laws 131 Stitching, narrating, describing 134 Conclusion: Realism, Form and Balance 138 Notes 143 Works Cited 173 Index 184 Acknowledgements The research for this book began in 2004, and I am grateful for the invaluable help I received from Professor Celia Britton, FBA, whose sharp intellect and vast experience I benefited from immensely. My gratitude goes to Professor Nicholas Harrison for thorough and elaborate com- ments on my manuscript. I would also like to thank Professor Derek Attridge, FBA, Dr Pamela Thurschwell and Professor Timothy Mathews who commented on earlier drafts. A shorter version of Chapter 1 of this book was published as ‘Postcolonial Melancholia’ in Paragraph 30:2 (2007); an edited version of Chapter 3 was published as ‘Novelistic Interpretation: The Travelling Theory of Georg Lukács’s Theory of the Novel’ in Journal of Narrative Theory 39:1 (2009); a shorter version of Chapter 4 was published as ‘Form and Temporality in Ousmane Sembène’s Xala’ in Research in African Literatures 41:2 (2006); parts of Chapter 5 were published as ‘Arcades of Foreignness: J. M. Coetzee’s Foe’ in Peer English 2 (2007); and finally a portion of Chapter 6 was published as ‘Excess and Design in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance’ in NOVEL 41:2–3 (2008). I am grateful to the editors for permission to republish the aforementioned parts. ix
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