1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910372826203321

Autore

Scott Bede <1971->

Titolo

Affective disorders : emotion in colonial and postcolonial literature / / Bede Scott [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Liverpool University Press, 2019

Liverpool : , : Liverpool University Press, , 2019

ISBN

1-78694-963-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 190 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Postcolonialism across the disciplines ; ; 21

Disciplina

809.93353

Soggetti

Emotions in literature

Imperialism in literature

Postcolonialism in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Jul 2020).

Nota di contenuto

Anger : Naguib Mahfouz's Midaq Alley -- Reticence : Vikram Seth's A suitable boy -- Jealousy : Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro -- Boredom : Upamanyu Chatterjee's English, August: an Indian story -- Fear : Michael Ondaatje's Anil's ghost -- Stuplimity : Vikram Chandra's Sacred games.

Sommario/riassunto

<p><b>An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website andthrough Knowledge Unlatched.</b></p><br>Situated at the intersection of postcolonial studies, affect studies, and narratology, <i>Affective Disorders</i> explores the significance of emotion in a range of colonial and postcolonial narratives. Through close readings of Naguib Mahfouz, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and Upamanyu Chatterjee, among others, Bede Scott argues that literary representations of emotion need not be interpreted solely at the level of character, individual psychology, or the contingencies of plotting, but could also be related to broader sociopolitical forces. We thus find episodes of anger that serve as a collective response to the 'modernity' of wartime Cairo, feelings of jealousy that are inspired by the slave economy of imperial Brazil, and an overwhelming sense of boredom that emerges, in the late eighties, out of the bureaucratic procedures of the Indian Administrative Service.



<i>Affective Disorders</i> also explores in some detail the formal consequences of these feelings - the way in which affective states such as anger or jealousy can often destabilize narratives, provoking crises of representation, generic ambivalence, and discursive rupture. By emphasizing the social origin of these emotions, and by analysing their influence on literary discourse, this study provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between various sociopolitical forces and the affective and aesthetic 'disorders' to which they give rise.