In Theory - Classes, Nations, Literatures

Author: Aijaz Ahmed
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2012
Language: English
Pages: 358
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195635760

Description

Through detailed considerations of the work of Fredric Jameson, Edward Said and Salman Rushdie, and of migrant intellectuals generally, In Theory provides incisive analyses of the principal developments in literary theory since the 1960s, of the concept of Indian literature, of the genealogy of the term Third World, and of the conditions under which so-called colonial discourse theory emerged in metropolitan intellectual circles.

Setting himself against the growing tendency to homogenize Third World literatures and cultures, Aijaz Ahmad has produced a spirited critique of the major theoretical statements on colonial discourse and post-colonialism, dismantling many of the commonplaces and conceits that dominate contemporary cultural criticism.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION:
Literature among the Signs of Our Time

LITERARY THEORY AND THIRD WORLD LITERATUE:
Some Contexts

Languages of Class, Ideologies of Immigration

Jameson’s Rhetoric of Otherness and the National Allegory

Salman Rushdie’s Shame: Postmodern Migrancy and the Representation of Women

Orientalism and after: Ambivalence and Metropolitan Location in the Work of Edward Said

Marx on India: A Clarification

Indian Literature: Notes towards the Definition of a Category

Three Worlds Theory: End of a Debate

Notes

Index