National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics

National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics PDF Author: Weihsin Gui
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780814271100
Category : Nationalism and literature
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Book Description


National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics

National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics PDF Author: Weihsin Gui
Publisher: Transoceanic
ISBN: 9780814212301
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics: Postcolonial Literature in a Global Moment by Weihsin Gui argues that postcolonial literature written within a framework of globalization still takes nationalism seriously rather than dismissing it as obsolete. Authors and texts often regarded as cosmopolitan, diasporic, or migrant actually challenge globalization's tendency to treat nations as absolute and homogenous sociocultural entities. While social scientific theories of globalization after 1945 represent nationalism as antithetical to transnational economic and cultural flows, National Consciousness and Literary Cosmopolitics contends that postcolonial literature represents nationalism as a form of cosmopolitical engagement with what lies beyond the nation's borders. Postcolonial literature never gave up on anticolonial nationalism but rather revised its meaning, extending the idea of the nation beyond an identity position into an interrogation of globalization and the neocolonial state through political consciousness and cultural critique. The literary cosmopolitics evident in the works of Kazuo Ishiguro, Derek Walcott, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Preeta Samarasan, and Twan Eng Tan distinguish between an instrumental national identity and a critical nationality that negates the subordination of nationalism by neocolonial regimes and global capitalism. Through their formal innovations, these writers represent nationalism not as a monolithic or essentialized identity or body of people but as a cosmopolitcal constellation of political, social, and cultural forces.

World Literature and the Geographies of Resistance

World Literature and the Geographies of Resistance PDF Author: Joel Nickels
Publisher:
ISBN: 1108428495
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
This book approaches world literature as an archive of strategies for resistance, and focuses on the nonstate organization of democratic processes. It is for readers, graduates, and scholars in the humanities interested in thinking about literature as a way of conceptualizing global forms of resistance.

Malaysian Literature in English

Malaysian Literature in English PDF Author: Mohammad A. Quayum
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527551989
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
This collection of essays brings together work by some of the most internationally acclaimed critics of Malaysian literature in English from different parts of the world, including Australia, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the US. It investigates the works of major writers of the tradition in the genres of drama, fiction and poetry, from its beginnings to the present, focusing mainly on thematic and stylistic trends. The book pays particular attention to issues such as gender, ethnicity, nationalism, multiculturalism, diaspora, hybridity and transnationalism, which are central to the creativity and imagination of these writers. The chapters collectively address the challenges and achievements of writers in the English language in a country where English, first introduced by the colonisers, has experienced a mixed fate of ups and downs in the post-independence period, due to the changing, and sometimes strikingly different, policies adopted by the government. The book will be of interest to readers and researchers of Malaysian literature, Southeast Asian studies and postcolonial literatures.

Becoming Global Asia

Becoming Global Asia PDF Author: Cheryl Narumi Naruse
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520396677
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Book Description
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Becoming Global Asia centers Singapore as a crucial site for comprehending the uneven effects of colonialism and capitalism. In the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Singapore initiated socioeconomic policies and branding campaigns to transform its reputation from a culturally sterile and punitive nation to "Global Asia"—an alluring location ideal for economic flourishing. Rather than evaluating the efficacy of state policy, Cheryl Narumi Naruse analyzes how Singapore gained cultural capital and soft power from its anglophonic legibility. By examining genres such as literary anthologies, demographic compilations, coming-of-career narratives, and princess fantasies, Naruse reveals how, as Global Asia, Singapore has emerged as simultaneously a site of imperial desire, a celebrated postcolonial model nation, and an alibi for the continued subjugation of the so-called Third World. Her readings of Global Asia as a formation of postcolonial capitalism offer new conceptual paradigms for understanding postcolonialism, neoliberalism, and empire.

The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction, 1945-2010

The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction, 1945-2010 PDF Author: David James
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110704023X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction since 1945 provides insight into the critical traditions shaping the literary landscape of modern Britain.

Singapore Literature and Culture

Singapore Literature and Culture PDF Author: Angelia Mui Cheng Poon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315307731
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 302

Book Description
Since the nation-state sprang into being in 1965, Singapore literature in English has blossomed energetically, and yet there have been few books focusing on contextualizing and analyzing Singapore literature despite the increasing international attention garnered by Singaporean writers. This volume brings Anglophone Singapore literature to a wider global audience for the first time, embedding it more closely within literary developments worldwide. Drawing upon postcolonial studies, Singapore studies, and critical discussions in transnationalism and globalization, essays unearth and introduce neglected writers, cast new light on established writers, and examine texts in relation to their specific Singaporean local-historical contexts while also engaging with contemporary issues in Singapore society. Singaporean writers are producing work informed by debates and trends in queer studies, feminism, multiculturalism and social justice -- work which urgently calls for scholarly engagement. This groundbreaking collection of essays aims to set new directions for further scholarship in this exciting and various body of writing from a place that, despite being just a small ‘red dot’ on the global map, has much to say to scholars and students worldwide interested in issues of nationalism, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, neoliberalism, immigration, urban space, as well as literary form and content. This book brings Singapore literature and literary criticism into greater global legibility and charts pathways for future developments.

The Postcolonial Millennium

The Postcolonial Millennium PDF Author: Mohammad A. Quayum
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040012140
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

Book Description
This book comprises a collection of essays that address a significant gap in the study of Malaysian Literature in English by exploring selected local and diasporic writings produced in the new postcolonial millennium, including works by established, emerging, and new writers. The literary developments in this new millennium have been substantial and are reflected in the production of new voices, viewpoints, themes, trends, styles, and forms. By articulating these changing postcolonial perspectives and conditions, the chapters in this volume can inform and enrich the study of nation, society, and culture in a globalized and hyperreal age. Tapping into the difference, diversity, and hybridity of 21st-century historicized and glocalized multicultural Malaysia, the millennium writings explore the changing identities and relations and their social, cultural, and political dimensions through the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class. By examining new, different, or changing ideas, forms, themes, and representations, this book considers the vital ways the millennium voices and viewpoints can potentially help us critically rethink and resituate postcolonial studies on Malaysia as they spotlight challenges and new directions in the field. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, and scholars in the field of Malaysian writing in English, Southeast Asian literature, Asian literature, diaspora, and literary studies. The chapters in the book were originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Postcolonial Writing.

Common Lines and City Spaces

Common Lines and City Spaces PDF Author: Gui Weihsin
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
ISBN: 9814379905
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
This collection of essays on the Singaporean writer and artist Arthur Yap is dedicated to his multifaceted creative work and makes it accessible to both general and academic readers. It features new and innovative essays on Yap’s prose, poetry and paintings by an international group of scholars and critics. The essays approach Yap’s work through literary and analytical methods drawn from postcolonial criticism, ecocriticism, studies of urban spaces, visual art and sexuality, with particular consideration for how his work contributes to a specifically Singaporean form of postcolonial critique.

Cosmopolitics

Cosmopolitics PDF Author: Pheng Cheah
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816630684
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 398

Book Description
Eminent contributors look at the present and future of cosmopolitanism and its relationship to nationalism. Nationalism and the nation-state have recently come under siege, their political dominance gradually eroding under the strain of such forces as ethnic strife, religious fundamentalism, homogenizing global capitalism, and the unprecedented movements of people and populations across cultures, countries, even cyberspace. A resurgent cosmopolitanism has emerged as a viable and alternative political project. In Cosmopolitics, a renowned group of scholars and political theorists offers the first sustained examination of that project, its inclusive and often universalist claims, and its tangled and sometimes volatile relationship to nationalism. Understood generally as a fundamental commitment to the interests of humanity, traditional cosmopolitanism has been criticized as a privileged position, an aloof detachment from the obligations and affiliations that constrain nation-bound lives and move people to political action. Yet, as these essays make clear, contemporary cosmopolitanism arises not from a disengagement, but rather from well-defined cultural, historical, and political contexts. The contributors explore a feasible cosmopolitanism now beginning to emerge, and consider the question of whether it can or will displace nationalism, which needs to be rethought rather than dismissed as obsolete. Intellectually provocative and erudite, this interdisciplinary volume presents a diverse array of critical perspectives, assessing both the ideal enterprise and the current realities of the rapidly developing cosmopolitical movement.