Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature: Texts, Territories, Globalizations

198 Pages·2018·1.522 MB·English

by  Baidik Bhattacharya

POSTCOLONIAL WRITING IN THE
ERA OF WORLD LITERATURE
This book explores the debates surrounding two dynamic fields –
postcolonial studies and world literature. Contrary to many dominant
narratives in critical theory, it asserts that as an analytical framework
the idea of world literature is dead: the nineteenth-century ideal of
world literature had always and already been embedded in colonial
histories; and also because whatever promise that ideal held out has
been exhausted by postcolonial Anglophone literature. Through fresh
and incisive readings of the postcolonial canon and some of its most
prominent authors like Rudyard Kipling, V.S. Naipaul, J.M. Coetzee,
and Salman Rushdie, the volume discusses how these Anglophone
writings have used the banal and ordinary ideal of world literature to
fashion out their own trajectories.
A mbitious in scope, this book challenges many of the existing
theoretical and literary frameworks and offers a radical reimagination of
the fields. The volume, written in an accessible and lively prose, will be
indispensable for scholars and researchers of literature, critical theory,
postcolonial studies, cultural studies, and comparative literature.
Baidik Bhattacharya is Assistant Professor at the Department of
English, University of Delhi, India. He was previously a Lecturer of
English Literature at the University of Newcastle, UK (2006–10). He
is the co-editor of T he Postcolonial Gramsci (Routledge, 2012). His essays
have appeared in Critical Inquiry , New Literary History , Boundary 2 , Novel:
A Forum on Fiction , Interventions, and Postcolonial Studies among other
places. He also serves on the editorial board of the journal P ostcolonial
Studies .
“ This deeply absorbing, brilliantly argued and theoretically complex
study is a provocative contribution to the ‘world literature’ debate.
Bhattacharya’s persuasive reading of the aesthetic legacies of empire
suggests that world literature today is postcolonial Anglophone writing.
This book should be required reading for scholars of modern global
literatures.”
– Supriya Chaudhuri , Professor Emerita, Department
of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
“In Postcolonial Writing in the Era of World Literature, Baidik Bhattacharya
challenges those who consider that World Literature has rendered the
postcolonial outmoded: he resituates the debate to show that it is not
a question of the one following the other or of simply being able to
choose one over the other, showing that World Literature is itself an
Orientalist construction. Its Western adherents remain blithely oblivious
to its postcolonial condition, determined by the very problem that they
imagine World Literature has allowed them to ignore. A powerful and
persuasive intervention, a game-changer.”
– Robert J.C. Young , Julius Silver Professor of English
and Comparative Literature, New York University, USA
POSTCOLONIAL
WRITING IN THE
ERA OF WORLD
LITERATURE
Texts, Territories, Globalizations
Baidik Bhattacharya
First published 2018
by Routledge
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© 2018 Baidik Bhattacharya
The right of Baidik Bhattacharya to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-1-138-55995-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-46772-1 (ebk)
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FOR MY PARENTS
SWAPNA AND BANABIR BHATTACHARYA

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction: Poetics of Anglophone territories 1
1 Cunning of empire 35
2 Belated territories 67
3 Provincial aesthetics 97
4 Minority report 126
5 A short history of death 155
Index 183
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Every book owes its existence to a group of interlocutors and well-
wishers, and for a book that has been in gestation for long this list only
increases in length. So is the case with this book. Over the years, I have
been discussing parts of it with a broad range of friends, colleagues,
and students, and, in hindsight, I can see how much I have benefitted
from these conversations. My greatest intellectual debt is to my mentor
Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. Her unassuming style, incisive scholarship, and
personal generosity set the bar very high from the beginning; and this
book, quite literally, would have been impossible without her contin-
ued support and inspiration. I have been extremely lucky to have some
exceptional teachers and their mark, I hope, would be evident enough
in the following pages – Rajeev Bhargava, Neeladri Bhattacharya,
Bholanath Dasgupta, Ania Loomba, Franson D. Manjali, and Robert
J.C. Young. I have also benefitted from my discussions over the years
with a group of scholars who are not my teachers formally, but who
have taught me a lot through their conversations and writings: Sibaji
Bandyopadhay, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Par-
tha Chatterjee, Sukanta Chaudhuri, Supriya Chaudhuri, Tapati Guha-
Thakurta, Sudipta Kaviraj, and Udaya Kumar.
I would like to thank the following for their careful reading and use-
ful feedback on various parts of the book – G. Arunima, Sayandeb
Chowdhury, Patricia Hayes, Aamir R. Mufti, Sambudha Sen, Bodhisat-
tva Kar, Udaya Kumar, Rajeswari Sunder Rajan, Mallarika Sinha Roy,
and Sanil V. I have benefitted immensely from their scholarship and
generosity. All shortcomings, needless to say, are mine alone.
The research for this book has been done at various libraries of the
Universities of Oxford, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Delhi. My sincere
thanks to all the brilliant library staff of these institutions.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I t has been my good fortune to have wonderful colleagues all along
my professional life, with whom I could share not only my ideas but
also my excitement about the academic life. At the University of New-
castle upon Tyne, I was particularly fortunate to have Linda Anderson,
Michael Pincombe, James Procter, Jennifer Richards, Neelam Srivas-
tava, and Terry Wright as colleagues. At the University of Delhi, I am
particularly indebted to Udaya Kumar and Sambudha Sen – they wel-
comed me in the intellectual life of Delhi and also provided the vital
support system during difficult times. I also feel lucky to have the intel-
lectual friendship of the following colleagues at Delhi: Tapan Basu,
Rimli Bhattacharya, Shirshendu Chakrabarty, Nandini Chandra, Sub-
arno Chattarji, Priya Kumar, Raj Kumar, Rochelle Pinto, and Ira Raja.
It is almost impossible to sustain an academic life without friends, and
I want to take this opportunity to thank them all – at Oxford: Prathim-
Maya Dora-Laskey, Stuti Khanna, Rayhan Rashid, Manav Ratti, Swagato
Sarkar, Neelam Srivastava, Nowrin Tamanna, Joy Wang, and Manmay
Zafar. And, in keeping with the international community of friends: P.K.
Yasser Arafat, Prathama Banerjee, Anna Bernard, Sayandeb Chowdhury,
Rajarshi Dasgupta, Veena Hariharan, Bodhisattva Kar, Aishwary Kumar,
Premesh Lalu, Aditya Nigam, and Nivedita Sen.
I was lucky enough to have Nitasha Devasar and Shoma Choudhury
as my editors at Routledge. Their professional care and interest in the
book has been exemplary. I would also like to thank all the support
staff at Taylor and Francis for their help and support. I would also
like to take this opportunity to thank the two anonymous reviewers
for Routledge, whose encouraging words and good-natured criticism
of the manuscript have been extremely helpful in preparing the final
version.
T he bedrock of my life has been my parents, Swapna and Banabir
Bhattacharya. Their support has seen through not only this book but
also much else in my life – this book is for them. The wider support
network also includes my parents-in-law, Prabir Sinha Roy and the late
Suhita Sinha Roy, and also my extended family in both Jalpaiguri and
Kolkata.
And finally, my partner in crime, Mallarika Sinha Roy, who is as much
responsible for this book as I am.
S ections from C hapter 2 were published in an earlier version in Novel:
A Forum on Fiction (© Duke University Press).
ix