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 Analytical Psychology in Exile by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Pricing Lives by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Essential Jung by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Republics of the New World by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Black and Blue by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Raptors of Mexico and Central America by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Democracies at War by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Asset Pricing Theory by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book A Tale of Two Cultures by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Fate of Rome by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book One Nation Undecided by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book The Econometrics of Individual Risk by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Money Talks by Timothy Bewes
Cover of the book Warriors of the Cloisters 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