Saffron shadows and salvaged scripts : literary life in Myanmar under censorship and in transition / / Ellen Wiles

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910812861703321
• Autore: Wiles Ellen
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2015; ©2015
• ISBN: 0-231-53929-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (289 p.)
• Disciplina: 895/.809
• Soggetti: Literature and society - Burma; Politics and literature - Burma; Censorship - Burma; Burmese literature - Social aspects; Burmese literature - Political aspects; Authors, Burmese - 20th century; Authors, Burmese - 21st century; Social change - Burma; Burma Intellectual life; Burma Social conditions
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Prologue -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Literary Life Under the Censorship Regime -- 2. Writers: The Older Generation -- 3. Writers: The Middle Generation -- 4. Writers: The Younger Generation -- 5. Conclusion: Literary Life in Transition -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: This book tells an ethnographic story of a secret literary culture that has recently emerged from its cocoon. Until 2012, Myanmar (also known as Burma) was ruled for fifty years by one of the most paranoid and repressive censorship regimes in history. The military junta enforced strict reading and writing restrictions in line with their ideology, feared writers' potential to trigger change, and did their best ; to keep Western books and influences out of the country. As part of an unexpected move toward democracy, the government has recently lifted the worst restrictions on reading and writing, giving rise to a new era in the country's literature and literary culture. While living in Myanmar in 2013, Ellen Wiles sought out the best of its contemporary writers and writing to begin uncovering the country's remarkable literary life and history. This book contains the experiences and recent output of nine Myanmar writers spanning three generations, featuring interviews and English-language translations of their work, along with political, legal, and artistic explorations. It includes men and women, fiction and poetry, reflecting the ripples of political and cultural change as they have moved across different groups and genres. A rare portrait of a people and place in transition, Wiles's work contributes both to the study of literature and culture in Myanmar and to the general study of art under censorship.