The Event of Postcolonial Shame

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory
Cover of the book The Event of Postcolonial Shame by Timothy Bewes, Princeton University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Timothy Bewes ISBN: 9781400836499
Publisher: Princeton University Press Publication: November 22, 2010
Imprint: Princeton University Press Language: English
Author: Timothy Bewes
ISBN: 9781400836499
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication: November 22, 2010
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Language: English

In a postcolonial world, where structures of power, hierarchy, and domination operate on a global scale, writers face an ethical and aesthetic dilemma: How to write without contributing to the inscription of inequality? How to process the colonial past without reverting to a pathology of self-disgust? Can literature ever be free of the shame of the postcolonial epoch--ever be truly postcolonial? As disparities of power seem only to be increasing, such questions are more urgent than ever. In this book, Timothy Bewes argues that shame is a dominant temperament in twentieth-century literature, and the key to understanding the ethics and aesthetics of the contemporary world.

Drawing on thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, Theodor Adorno, and Gilles Deleuze, Bewes argues that in literature there is an "event" of shame that brings together these ethical and aesthetic tensions. Reading works by J. M. Coetzee, Joseph Conrad, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, Caryl Phillips, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Zoë Wicomb, Bewes presents a startling theory: the practices of postcolonial literature depend upon and repeat the same structures of thought and perception that made colonialism possible in the first place. As long as those structures remain in place, literature and critical thinking will remain steeped in shame.

Offering a new mode of postcolonial reading, The Event of Postcolonial Shame demands a literature and a criticism that acknowledge their own ethical deficiency without seeking absolution from it.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In a postcolonial world, where structures of power, hierarchy, and domination operate on a global scale, writers face an ethical and aesthetic dilemma: How to write without contributing to the inscription of inequality? How to process the colonial past without reverting to a pathology of self-disgust? Can literature ever be free of the shame of the postcolonial epoch--ever be truly postcolonial? As disparities of power seem only to be increasing, such questions are more urgent than ever. In this book, Timothy Bewes argues that shame is a dominant temperament in twentieth-century literature, and the key to understanding the ethics and aesthetics of the contemporary world.

Drawing on thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Frantz Fanon, Theodor Adorno, and Gilles Deleuze, Bewes argues that in literature there is an "event" of shame that brings together these ethical and aesthetic tensions. Reading works by J. M. Coetzee, Joseph Conrad, Nadine Gordimer, V. S. Naipaul, Caryl Phillips, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and Zoë Wicomb, Bewes presents a startling theory: the practices of postcolonial literature depend upon and repeat the same structures of thought and perception that made colonialism possible in the first place. As long as those structures remain in place, literature and critical thinking will remain steeped in shame.

Offering a new mode of postcolonial reading, The Event of Postcolonial Shame demands a literature and a criticism that acknowledge their own ethical deficiency without seeking absolution from it.

More books from Princeton University Press

Cover of the book Validated Numerics by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Hasidism and Modern Man by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Lincoln on Race and Slavery by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Visioneers by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Democracy and the Foreigner by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Lives of Bees by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Leviathan and the Air-Pump by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Market Threads by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Classical Economists Revisited by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Britain's Day-flying Moths by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Oxygen by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Engineers of Jihad by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Moral Background by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Strings Attached by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Getting Saved in America by Timothy Bewes
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy