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Utopian Generations: The Political Horizon of Twentieth-Century Literature (Translation Transnation) PDF

248 Pages·2005·0.57 MB·English
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Utopian Generations T R A N S L A T I O N ⎪ T R A N S N A T I O N EDITED BY EMILY APTER WritingOutsidetheNation BYAZADESEYHAN TheLiteraryChannel:TheInter-NationalInventionoftheNovel EDITEDBYMARGARETCOHENANDCAROLYNDEVER AmbassadorsofCulture:TheTransamericanOriginsofLatinoWriting BYKIRSTENSILVAGRUESZ ExperimentalNations:Or,theInventionoftheMaghreb BYRE´DABENSMA¨IA WhatIsWorldLiterature? BYDAVIDDAMROSCH ThePortableBunyan:ATransnationalHistoryofThePilgrim’sProgress BYISABELHOFMEYR WethePeopleofEurope?ReflectionsonTransnationalCitizenship BYE´TIENNEBALIBAR Nation,Language,andtheEthicsofTranslation EDITEDBYSANDRABERMANNANDMICHAELWOOD UtopianGenerations:ThePoliticalHorizon ofTwentieth-CenturyLiterature BYNICHOLASBROWN GuruEnglish:SouthAsianReligioninCosmopolitanContexts BYSRINIVASARAVAMUDAN Utopian Generations: THE POLITICAL HORIZON OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY LITERATURE NICHOLAS BROWN P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S P R I N C E T O N A N D O X F O R D Copyright©2005byPrincetonUniversityPress RequestsforpermissiontoreproducematerialfromthisworkshouldbesenttoPermissions, PrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,3MarketPlace,Woodstock, OxfordshireOX201SY AllRightsReserved LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Brown,Nicholas,1971– Utopiangenerations:thepoliticalhorizonoftwentieth-centuryliterature/NicholasBrown. p. cm.—(Translation/transnation) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-691-12211-3(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN0-691-12212-1(pbk.:alk.paper) 1.Englishliterature—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism.2.Politicsandliterature—GreatBritain— History—20thcentury.3.Politicsandliterature—Africa—History—20thcentury.4.African literature—20thcentury—Historyandcriticism.5.Literature,Comparative—EnglishandAfrican. 6.Literature,Comparative—AfricanandEnglish.7.Modernism(Literature)—GreatBritain. 8.Modernism(Literature)—Africa.9.Politicsinliterature.10.Utopiasinliterature.I.Title.IISeries. PR478.P64B762006 820.9′358—dc22 2005043926 BritishLibraryCataloging-in-Publicationdataisavailable ThisbookhasbeencomposedinMinionandGillSans Printedonacidfreepaper∞ pup.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FORNORMA I N M E M O R I A M This page intentionally left blank C O N T E N T S ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION 1 ModernismandAfricanliterature—Indefenseoftotality—The eidaestheticitinerary—Themodernistsublime—TheAfricanprise deparole—Alltheoryispostcolonialtheory—Totality,allegory, andhistory—Utopiangenerations PARTONE:SUBJECTIVITY 35 CHAPTERTWO Ulysses:TheModernistSublime 37 Ulysses,history,andform—Ulyssesandthemodernistsublime— “Eumaeus”:thesublimityofthebanalandthebanalityofthesublime— “Ithaca”:thebecoming-meaningofinformationandthebecoming- informationofmeaning CHAPTERTHREE AmbiguousAdventure:Authenticity’sAftermath 59 AmbiguousAdventureandModernism—AmbiguousAdventure,authenti- city,anddeath—Heideggerasethnophilosopher—Tempels’sBantuand Heidegger’sGreeks—Reificationandtheworkofthecolonized—The privatizationofutopia PARTTWO:HISTORY 81 CHAPTERFOUR TheGoodSoldierandParade’sEnd:AbsoluteNostalgia 83 WhyFordMadoxFord’snovelscanonlybereadonce—Conrad,Ford, andliteraryimpressionism—TheGoodSoldier:absolutenostalgia— Parade’sEnd:absoluteandconventionalnostalgia CHAPTERFIVE ArrowofGod:TheTotalizingGaze 104 TheAchebe-event—AchebeandtheimageofAfrica—Yeats,Eliot,and Achebe:thepoeticsofdisaster—ArrowofGodasgeneralallegory—The imageofAfricarevisited—ArrowofGodastotalallegory viii CONTENTS PARTTHREE:POLITICS 125 CHAPTERSIX TheChildermass:RevolutionandReaction 127 WyndhamLewis,fascism,andthecritiqueofliberalism—The Childermassandrevolution:theembodiedcliche´—TheChildermass andreaction:imperialismandthestrongpersonality—Thereaction inrevolutionandtherevolutioninreaction CHAPTERSEVEN NgugiwaThiong’oandPepetela:RevolutionandRetrenchment 150 TheTrialofDedanKimathiandtheambivalenceofMauMau— Kamiriithu,theKenyantheaterapparatus,andtheneocolonialstate— AGera¸ca˜odaUtopia,IWillMarryWhenIWant,andnational tragedy—Anewgenerationofutopia:themultitudeandmusicalform CHAPTEREIGHT Conclusion:PostmodernismasSemiperipheralSymptom 173 Theeidaestheticitinerarycontinued—bossapo´sbossa—Theaesthetic ideologyofbossanova—Fouroptionsforculturalproductiononthe semiperiphery—1964andtheendofmodernism—Tropica´lia,orbread andcircuses? NOTES 201 INDEX 231 A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Special thanks for their more than generous guidance and support are due to MichaelHardt, FredJameson, FrankLentricchia, andValentinMudimbe; Jamie Daniel, Madhu Dubey, Judy Gardiner, John Huntington, Lansine Kaba, Walter Michaels, BethRichie, and Mary BethRose; Maria Elisa Cevasco;Ndinzi Masa- gara,MarjoriePerloff,andSylviaWynter;AlbertoMoreiras;NeilLarsenandAto Quayson;andthelatePriscillaLane.ThroughoutthewritingofthisbookIhave benefitedgreatlyfrommyconversationswithKristinBergen,TimChoy,Jeremy Hermann, and Imre Szeman. The comments of those, known to me or anony- mous, who read the manuscript and offered advice were invaluable in putting this book into its final form—which would not have been possible without the helpofKatMcLellan,MaryMurrell,LindaVavra,andHanneWinarsky.Myincal- culabledebtstoAnnaandtoLisandSteveandNoraarealmostbeyondmention; notsomydebttoEleazarDelgadoandthestaffattheJumpingBean,whonever kicked me off my table by the window. Parts of this book are printed with the permission of Research in African Literatures, the New Centennial Review, and SouthAtlanticQuarterly.ThisbookwascompletedattheInstitutefortheHuman- itiesattheUniversityofIllinoisatChicago.

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Utopian Generations develops a powerful interpretive matrix for understanding world literature--one that renders modernism and postcolonial African literature comprehensible in a single framework, within which neither will ever look the same. African literature has commonly been seen as representati
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