28 South Asia
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Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan
Abstract
This chapter asks what it means to read South Asian Anglophone literatures as ‘world literatures.’ It begins from the premise that there is a gap between the geographical quantity to which ‘South Asia’ refers and the national literatures which circulate in its name. Attempts to read South Asian Anglophone literatures as ‘world literatures’ must therefore first reckon with the instability of the regional formation itself. Where earlier scholarship has been concerned with negotiating the universalist aspirations of the ‘world’ in world literatures, this chapter puts pressure on the social and cultural complex of the ‘Anglophone,’ which can be understood as both a conditional renomination of the Postcolonial and a critical renewal of English Studies’ commitment to Anglophone literatures beyond British and American canons. The chapter closes with readings of three South Asian literary fictions that use the Anglophone not simply as a linguistic medium, but rather as a rubric through which to query the worlding capacities of human and nonhuman agents, and which can consequently be read under the signs of both the Postcolonial and the World.
Abstract
This chapter asks what it means to read South Asian Anglophone literatures as ‘world literatures.’ It begins from the premise that there is a gap between the geographical quantity to which ‘South Asia’ refers and the national literatures which circulate in its name. Attempts to read South Asian Anglophone literatures as ‘world literatures’ must therefore first reckon with the instability of the regional formation itself. Where earlier scholarship has been concerned with negotiating the universalist aspirations of the ‘world’ in world literatures, this chapter puts pressure on the social and cultural complex of the ‘Anglophone,’ which can be understood as both a conditional renomination of the Postcolonial and a critical renewal of English Studies’ commitment to Anglophone literatures beyond British and American canons. The chapter closes with readings of three South Asian literary fictions that use the Anglophone not simply as a linguistic medium, but rather as a rubric through which to query the worlding capacities of human and nonhuman agents, and which can consequently be read under the signs of both the Postcolonial and the World.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0 Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Approaches – Genealogies of World Literatures
- 1 The Beginnings of the Concept (Goethe, Marx, Said) – Readings from a Postcolonial Perspective 15
- 2 Re-Reading Classical Approaches from a Postcolonial Perspective: Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, David Damrosch 31
- 3 Macaulay’s Magic Hat: The Colonial Education System and the Canon of World Literature 41
- 4 The King’s English and the Mother Tongue 53
- 5 Rethinking English Studies 67
-
Part II: Concepts and Methods of Anglophone World Literatures
- 6 Global Literature, World Literature and Worlding Literature: Some Conceptual Differences 85
- 7 Barbarians: Cosmopolitanism Beyond the Center-Periphery Model 103
- 8 Anglophone World Literatures and World Ecologies (Environmental Humanities) 119
- 9 Anglophone World Literatures and Transcultural Memory 133
- 10 Anglophone World Literatures and Translation 149
- 11 Comparative Literature 161
- 12 Genres of Anglophone World Literatures 175
- 13 Decolonizing World Literature through Orality 193
- 14 Intermediality and Remediation 209
-
Part III: Sociological Approaches – Distribution, Reception and Translation of Anglophone World Literature
- 15 Marketing Anglophone World Literatures 229
- 16 Canons and Canonicity in Anglophone Literature 245
- 17 Teaching Anglophone World Literature 263
- 18 Anglophone World Literatures, the Internet and the Digital Humanities 275
-
Part IV: Literary Worlds – Locations and Orientations
- 19 Britain 291
- 20 Ireland 313
- 21 USA 333
- 22 Canada 355
- 23 The Oceans 375
- 24 The Caribbean 395
- 25 Southern Africa 415
- 26 West Africa 433
- 27 East Africa 451
- 28 South Asia 471
- 29 Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) 489
- 30 Australia 511
- 31 New Zealand Literature and the World 531
- Name Index 549
- Subject Index 567
- List of Contributors 579
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Editors’ Preface V
- Contents VII
- 0 Introduction 1
-
Part I: Historical Approaches – Genealogies of World Literatures
- 1 The Beginnings of the Concept (Goethe, Marx, Said) – Readings from a Postcolonial Perspective 15
- 2 Re-Reading Classical Approaches from a Postcolonial Perspective: Pascale Casanova, Franco Moretti, David Damrosch 31
- 3 Macaulay’s Magic Hat: The Colonial Education System and the Canon of World Literature 41
- 4 The King’s English and the Mother Tongue 53
- 5 Rethinking English Studies 67
-
Part II: Concepts and Methods of Anglophone World Literatures
- 6 Global Literature, World Literature and Worlding Literature: Some Conceptual Differences 85
- 7 Barbarians: Cosmopolitanism Beyond the Center-Periphery Model 103
- 8 Anglophone World Literatures and World Ecologies (Environmental Humanities) 119
- 9 Anglophone World Literatures and Transcultural Memory 133
- 10 Anglophone World Literatures and Translation 149
- 11 Comparative Literature 161
- 12 Genres of Anglophone World Literatures 175
- 13 Decolonizing World Literature through Orality 193
- 14 Intermediality and Remediation 209
-
Part III: Sociological Approaches – Distribution, Reception and Translation of Anglophone World Literature
- 15 Marketing Anglophone World Literatures 229
- 16 Canons and Canonicity in Anglophone Literature 245
- 17 Teaching Anglophone World Literature 263
- 18 Anglophone World Literatures, the Internet and the Digital Humanities 275
-
Part IV: Literary Worlds – Locations and Orientations
- 19 Britain 291
- 20 Ireland 313
- 21 USA 333
- 22 Canada 355
- 23 The Oceans 375
- 24 The Caribbean 395
- 25 Southern Africa 415
- 26 West Africa 433
- 27 East Africa 451
- 28 South Asia 471
- 29 Southeast Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) 489
- 30 Australia 511
- 31 New Zealand Literature and the World 531
- Name Index 549
- Subject Index 567
- List of Contributors 579
