The Oppressive Present

Literature and Social Consciousness in Colonial India
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-138-66017-5
Verlag: Routledge India

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 308 g

Marking a departure from studies on history and literature in colonial India, The Oppressive Present explores the emergence of social consciousness as a result of and in response to the colonial mediation in the late nineteenth century. In focusing on contemporary literature in Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, and Marathi, it charts an epochal change in the gradual loss of the old pre-colonial self and the configuration of a new, colonized self. It reveals that the ‘oppressive present’ of generations of subjugated Indians remains so for their freed descendants: the consciousness of those colonized generations continues to characterize the ‘modern educated Indian’. The book proposes ambivalence rather than binary categories — such as communalism and nationalism, communalism and secularism, modernity and tradition — as key to understanding the making of this consciousness.

This cross-disciplinary volume will prove essential to scholars and students of modern and contemporary Indian history and society, comparative literature and post-colonial studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chandra, Sudhir

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Prologue to this Edition. Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Crushed by English Poetry 2. Tradition: Orthodox and Heretical 3. Defining the Nation. Conclusion. Notes. About the Author. Index

Über Autor(innen)

Sudhir Chandra is currently Associate Fellow, Nantes Institute of Advanced Studies, France.